“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,” she added.
Here’s everything we know about Alysha Newman.
Alysha Newman was a gymnast before an injury derailed her career
Newman, 30, had dreams of representing Canada as a young gymnast, per the Olympics website, but a lower back injury forced her to give up the sport at age 13.
After her recuperation, Newman’s mother enrolled her in track and field to keep her active. Because of her background in gymnastics, a coach guided Newman to transition to vaulting.
She’s broken pole vault records
Newman graduated from the University of Miami in 2016 with a major in exercise physiology and a minor in nutrition. As a collegiate athlete for the university, not only did she break school records but, in 2016, she set the Canadian record in the women’s pole vault.
She presently holds the Canadian youth (3.91 metres), junior (4.40 metres) and senior female (4.82 metres) pole vault records, according to Athletics Canada.
“It was a really surreal moment, and it was awesome,” she told Sport Bible about her Olympic win. “I just feel like I’m very emotionally stable right now, and [I’m] so honoured to be the first (women’s) pole vaulter to bring home an Olympic medal for Canada.”
She suffered a career-halting brain injury in 2021
In April 2021, three months before the Tokyo Olympics, Newman suffered from an injury that threatened to halt her career. During the annual Drake Relays, an outdoor track and field event in the United States, Newman slipped and hit her head on the porcelain bathtub of her hotel room in Iowa. Paramedics on site told Newman she had a concussion. In a 2022 interview with The Athletic, Newman said that instead of being taken to a hospital for a proper check-up, she was told to return to training.
“They just assumed I was, like, good. They stopped treating me. They were like, the Olympics are coming up and we have 80 other athletes to monitor and be ready for,” she said.
The head injury was actually so bad that Newman had difficulty walking up or down the stairs. The Athletic reports, “She’d lost the ability to look at a picture of a dog and a cat and articulate which animal was which. She knew the answer, but couldn’t say the word.”
She’s spoken out about healing from anxiety
Despite knowing she wasn’t fit for the Olympics, Newman went on to compete in the Tokyo Games – and suffered a terrible defeat.
She was also suffering from crippling anxiety. “I had crazy emotions like, ‘We’re f***ed,’” she said. “There were days that I woke up crying and felt completely depressed and didn’t want to live.”
She also revealed that she resorted to alcohol to cope with anxiety. With proper care from doctors and learning breathing exercises to calm her anxiety though, Newman has slowly returned to her former glory, per The New York Times.
In Hong Kong, you can dial 18111 for the government-run Mental Health Support Hotline. You can also call +852 2896 0000 for The Samaritans or +852 2382 0000 for Suicide Prevention Services.
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