Canadian Olympic Medalist Taylor Ruck Dealing With Broken Hand, No Timeline For Return

Four-time Canadian Olympic medalist Taylor Ruck is currently recovering from a broken hand and there’s no timeline for her return to competition.

Ruck broke her hand in a skateboarding accident in April, according to CBC’s Devin Heroux, and will be taking a break from the pool to hit the reset button.

Ruck, coming off her senior year at Stanford that included winning a repeat NCAA title in the women’s 200 freestyle, opted out of the Canadian Swimming Trials in late March/early April.

“I need to put myself in the best position to perform to my goals at the Olympics next year,” Ruck said at the time of her withdrawal.

“Right now that means I need to unplug for a little while, so I can come back refreshed and ready to be at my best in the pool.”

Despite that statement, Ruck was still among 31 swimmers named to the Canadian team for the 2023 World Championships.

Penny Oleksiak, who missed the Trials due to a knee injury, was also named to the team.

Oleksiak returned to competition on Wednesday at the Barcelona leg of the Mare Nostrum Tour, where a large group of Canadians are in attendance. Ruck is noticeably absent as she recovers from injury.

Her return to racing will depend on her recovery, CBC reports, and there is no timeline for her return at this point. That could potentially make the Canadian women shorthanded at the World Championships this summer if Ruck isn’t ready in time.

Although she didn’t race at Trials, Ruck would certainly be relied upon to contribute to the Canadian women’s freestyle relays, especially with Kayla Sanchez, who has been a key cog on relay teams for the past six years alongside Oleksiak and Ruck, having changed her sporting citizenship to the Philippines last year.

The Canadian women won silver at the 2022 World Championships in the 400 free relay, but with three-quarters of their finals team in Budapest (Oleksiak, Ruck and Sanchez) absent at the 2023 Trials, Maggie MacNeil was the only swimmer to break 55 seconds in the 100 free final.

Ruck is a four-time Olympic medalist, having claimed a pair of bronze medals at the 2016 Games in Rio in the women’s 400 and 800 free relay at the age of 16. Five years later in Tokyo, she won two more Olympic medals, earning silver in the women’s 400 free relay and bronze in the 400 medley relay.

The 22-year-old has also won six relay medals over the last two Long Course World Championships in 2019 and 2022, and she is also a two-time SC world champion and the 2018 Commonwealth champion in the women’s 200 free.