Canadian athlete Alysha Newman has gone viral for her twerking celebration.© AFP
The women's pole vault event at the Paris Olympics 2024 saw some commendable performances. The gold went to Australia as Nina Kennedy cleared a best of 4.90m. Kennedy bagged a first-ever women's pole vault gold for her country. American Katie Moon, the defending champion with whom Kennedy had shared world gold in Budapest last year at the World Championships, claimed silver on countback from Canada's Alysha Newman after they both managed 4.85m.
Newman, however, went viral for her twerking celebration after faking an injury during the Paris Olympics 2024 pole vault competition. She later said that she wanted to prank her coaches and hence did that celebration. “I'm always injured, and I'm always getting back on the horse so I said I'm gonna scare my coaches because I want them to lighten up.” Newman was quoted as saying by usmagazine.com. “There's photos of them being really serious and I could feel them [being] really intense. I mean, they've built me into becoming an Olympic medalist and not a lot of coaches can say that.
“So I said I'm gonna fake an injury and dance after. But it just happened very fluid. I didn't honestly think, ‘I'm going to twerk.' But just from grabbing that and getting to the knee with the twerk, it just all worked out in one.”
— Jordan Roca (@JRoc23) August 7, 2024
She added that she was not bothered about the criticism that she was receiving for her twerking celebration.
“My friends, my family, my coaches, my agents – if they said something mean, I would take it more [personally],” she said. “But people that I don't know, I have a very good mind, I'm very strong mentally, that it just kind of rolls off my shoulders and no one understands what it's like to be in my shoes.”
Apart from being a superb athlete, Newman is a popular model on OnlyFans too. According to the website's Instagram bio "it is a subscription social platform revolutionising creator and fan connections."
The athlete said that she earns a lot of money from OnlyFans but she told German publication BILD that she does not post adult content in it, though the general perception is that.
"I earn money with what I post - you have to log in to find out. It makes me confident and I feel good about it. Of course, many people have a certain cliché when they think of OnlyFans. I can't change many people's minds," explains Newman. "But this website has connected me with many fans, more than any other pole vaulter before. What others think about it doesn't bother me. I am who I am and I do it well."