RIO DE JANEIRO -- Penny Oleksiak may be an Olympic gold medallist, but the Canadian swimmer is also a teenager who runs up her cellphone data bills and eats doughnuts all the time.

Her family says it's important to let her be a 16-year-old and enjoy everything that goes along with that, even though Oleksiak's life is changing dramatically.

Her Twitter account has exploded from 763 followers to almost 40,000. Canadian rapper Drake is one of her followers.

Because of the media demands now on the Oleksiaks, the Canadian Olympic Committee arranged a news conference with the family on Saturday before Penny swam for a fifth medal in Rio.

She won freestyle gold on Thursday after collecting butterfly silver and a pair of relay bronzes.

Her father Richard did not attend, but mother Alison, sister Hayley and brother Jamie were asked about how to manage Penny the person before Penny the swimmer.

"Giving her that normality that a lot of people won't," said Hayley, who is a rower for Northeastern University.

"Not blowing smoke up her butt, I guess, and kind of keeping her humble and being the same way we were before.

"Our job isn't to tell her what to do or force her into one decision or another or to give her advice. She's shown that's she's coming into her own, we should respect that for her and allow her to become who she is."

Her brother Jamie, a six-foot-seven defenceman with the Dallas Stars, brings experience in the high-stakes world of pro sport.

"All the attention Penny's been getting is a lot for anybody let alone a 16-year-old," he said. "We've always kind of done a good job once we're in the household, we're just a regular family and she's still our sister, just our sister with some Olympic medals."

Alison's advice to any parent of children in sports is don't limit them to one early. She said her children didn't pick one sport until they were 14.

"The girls did dance. All of them played musical instruments. All of them did a team sport as well as an individual sport," the mom said. "We learned pretty quickly with kids is you've got to recognize they're kids. You can't treat them as though they are pros at 10 or 11 years old."

Penny has to have a life outside of the pool or she won't be in it for long, Alison warned.

"We've been very up front with any of the coaches she's had over the past couple of years that she is a teenager," she said. "There's going to be points throughout the year where she's going to want to go to prom, she wants to hang out with her friends and she's going to want to eat a lot of doughnuts because she loves doughnuts.

"For her to be able to do this sport for a long time, the reality is she's got to have that balance."

Penny's parents let her go to downtown Toronto during the Raptors' run in the NBA playoffs, even though she was training for the Olympics.

Whether she attends a Drake concert this fall is still to be determined, Alison said.

"Penny is well aware of the fact that a conversation will happen in terms of what she will or will not be attending and who will be attending with her," she said.

"She's a teenager. I don't know what to tell you.

"She blew her data when she came down here. I got a bill right before she left I was not very happy with. She's under strict instructions to keep her data plan down."

Alison is leaning towards her daughter coming home with her and Richard before the closing ceremonies. Her teammates may want to go out on the town when swimming is over.

"We weren't quite sure because she's a minor," she said. "She's got a great team around her but they're older.

"The girls were saying 'We'll look after her.' I don't want to curtail their experience by being her babysitter."