Olympian Alysha Newman’s now-viral twerk became one of the breakout moments of the Paris Games, in which the Canadian pole vaulter captured a bronze medal and made history.
Although the masses presumed Newman, 30, broke out the move in response to her medal moment, the star OnlyFans creator told The Post that’s not exactly the case.
“A lot of people think I broke out in the dance because of the bronze medal, but again, I didn’t know I had bronze, Angelica [Moser] from Switzerland still had another attempt, she could have easily taken my spot,” said Newman, who ultimately shared the podium with Australia’s Nina Kennedy (gold) and Team USA’s Katie Moon (silver).
“If you know me for these many years, I’ve always celebrated after a Canadian record. So I had just jumped with the 4.85 [meter] jump, I jumped a Canadian record, and in the past, at every single competition I’ve ever jumped, I’ve backflipped, I’ve danced, I’ve done any sort of thing that comes out naturally.”
Upon smashing her previous record of 4.83 meters en route to winning Canada’s first Olympic medal in the women’s pole vault, Newman appeared to fake an injury as she jogged onto the purple track at Stade de France, a nod to an “ongoing joke in the track community.”
“[It’s] if Alysha can stay healthy, then she can win a medal,” said Newman, who has grappled with knee and ankle injuries throughout her career, as well as a concussion.
“I think for me to have faked an injury and then danced after, obviously everyone called it a twerk, but I’m laughing cause I probably didn’t do a great twerking compared to some of the women and men that can do it better than me, but it just came out with more of the faking of the injury was more of the plan, rather than the actual twerking, so I laugh because, obviously, it got out there and I’m more than fortunate that people got to see another side of me.”
A London, Ontario, native, Newman long harbored Olympic dreams as a gymnast but eventually changed course to the pole vault, as she grew taller and believed she couldn’t execute the “intense” skills gymnastics often entails.
“My whole world redirected into track and field, and as soon as I started pole vault, it kind of chose me, I broke a meet record the very first competition I ever did, so I kinda was like, ‘Oh, this is really cool having my name on a board and owning a record,’ I just kind of rolled with it from there,” she said.
The hardware started to pile up for Newman, who won gold in the pole vault at the Junior Pan American Championships in 2013 and bronze a year later at the Commonwealth Games.
She then punched her ticket to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where she placed 17th in the pole vault.
Newman later qualified for the Tokyo Games, which were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was inspired to offer a unique Olympics experience to her supporters.
Enter OnlyFans, the ever-growing subscription platform enabling creators to share content and connect with fans.
“The whole reason I started it was financial reason in 2021, but the idea came from it being a COVID Olympics and no one could come. So I said how can I get all my fans with me to the Olympics without physically being there? So originally, I was just going to do it for an Olympics and do a 16-day, behind-the-scenes at the Olympic Village,” Newman said.
“… It just blew up so I just kept with it, kept going with it through the years, and just doing what I felt comfortable with: going live at my practices, showing workout routines, my abs — a lot of people want ab workouts — the nutrition programs… People were just so invested in how I went from not even being able to clear a bar to winning an Olympic medal this year, so we kept it cause we wanted people who believed in me to be part of that whole journey, cause I felt deep down that I was going to get out on the other side of it, and I’m so happy I did, it’s been the most amazing experience for me.”
Newman, who has partnered with the platform for a new sponsorship and creates content for the streaming OFTV, offers subscription bundles on her OnlyFans page (three months for $29.23, six months for $46.76 and 12 months for $77.94), along with a 31-day subscription as part of an Olympics flash sale at $7.79.
And while the first-time Olympic medalist recognizes the chatter surrounding the platform, she’s paying critics no mind.
“I’ve always been one to be raised on never judge a book by its cover. People do what they do because they have to live, we have to pay bills and we have to do what we have to do, and so, I’m very, very thankful that I have pretty strong mental and pretty thick skin to let the noise that’s negative stay in its bubble,” she said.
“… I have to be unique, I have to be different, and I’m really enjoying the community I’ve built that love track and field and want to see me pole vault, so it’s been fun for me.”
With the countdown to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles officially on, Newman said she can envision herself “being out there.”
“It’d be so close to Canada for me, for my family to travel over there so I think I can see myself pushing for L.A.,” she said.
In the meantime, Newman is savoring this Olympic victory lap while laughing with loved ones over her viral moment.
“I was telling my mom, she was like, ‘You would have done that in front of four people at home or a hundred thousand people, that is just you,’ so we were laughing pretty hard that it blew out of proportion into what was actually the key moment, [which] was bringing home a medal for my country,” she said.
