SIMMONS: Twerking medal winner Alysha Newman wants wins on track and OnlyFans

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PARIS — Alysha Newman wasn’t offered $250,000 from an adult film site to show her stuff the way enhanced male pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati apparently was.

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But if she was, she would have had a hard time saying no.

“I hope he took that,” Newman said in a 1-on-1 interview with Postmedia after becoming the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic medal in pole vault. “I would take that. Why not? It’s a moment in time.

“People have different views on sexuality and what you believe in. It’s important to be what you’re comfortable being.”

Right now, with her mind racing, with her celebration just beginning, with the Olympic medal she predicted for herself six months ago arriving, with the momentary twerking behind her, she can’t wait to finish the track season and then find out where life eventually takes her.

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“What’s cool is that I’m monetizing myself as an athlete and I think a lot of athletes in amateur sport don’t get that opportunity. To be more than just an athlete. I kind of got the monetization part first and became a bronze medalist after that.

“I knew if I wanted to stay in amateur sport, even though there is nothing amateur about what we do, I do believe I needed an income to do that. I have a hyperbaric chamber at home. I have a cold plunge at home. I see a massage therapist and chiropractor once a week. It’s expensive to take care of your body.”

Her body has been available for viewing to those on OnlyFans, the Internet content subscriber service, since 2012.

On there she posts photos of herself, many a combination of athleticism and sexuality, and has a subscriber base on 25,000. The photos blur the line between good taste and softcore pornography, depending on who is making the assessment.

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“I only see the positive comments,” said Newman, who lives just outside Toronto in Caledon. “That’s the strength I’ve developed on being on social media and I do such a good job of it. I’m authentically myself. If you don’t like me, don’t follow me.

“But if you love it and it motivates you, I hope I can inspire people.”

Newman grew up in a home where economics always mattered. She was taught from an early age that she needed several forms of income to be successful.

She makes money from pole vaulting, from her OnlyFans subscribers, from the commercials lined up by her agent Brian Levine, from the major sponsorship from Nike and possibly from a planned book and a possible Netflix series.

When told she was trending on social media after winning the medal, she was excited by the concept.

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“Maybe I’ll get more subscribers,” she said.

Three days after Canadian hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg won gold, his Instagram account doubled.

“People,” she said, “love winners.”

And winning is her goal on the track and off.

“My brother and my family are so financially educated,” said Newman, who turned 30 in June. “I’ve always tried to have seven revenues of income. I knew if I had that, I’d be fine. If you have multiple sources of income, you can benefit from that. If one thing doesn’t go, then you have something else to fall back on.”

After winning the medal Wednesday night, Newman was more visible than usual. Some of her photos were being circulated on social media.

She’s proud of the photos — and proud to be in a sport where the woman are exceedingly attractive — but all that comes with some concern as well.

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How far to go. How not to cross her own lines. How to determine what’s good taste and what isn’t.

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“The older I’m getting the more I think about this,” she said. “I have two nieces at home. I think ‘if my nieces were to see this, would they be proud or would they shy away from it?’

“Being a future mom, I ask those questions. How would I tell them what being a bronze medalist was and doing what I’ve been doing to make money. I’m so open about everything … I always say we’re all going to die one day. If I don’t do exactly what I want to do, then I’m going to regret it when I’m older.”

What keeps Newman balanced is a combination of family, goal setting and her unusual control of ego.

“A lot of people think the world’s about them,” she said. “I’ve learned from a very young age that nobody gives a f*** about you.

“If nobody cares about you, you don’t have to worry when people are bored, go online and have a negative opinion. I’m definitely going to stay on social media until I’m done with athletics. I haven’t decided how I’m going to take all that on afterwards, whether it be TikTok or Instagram, it’s how can you create profit from posting for sponsors.

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“I like to be unique. I want people to be able to look at (my posts) and for it to be an eye-catching thing … I knew in February I was going to win a medal. I didn’t tell anyone except by neurologist. I just knew because I felt different and looked different.

“I started writing things down and I kept coming back to the same word ‘courage.’ I kept writing it down, again and again.”

Courage to perform in sport and in life. Courage to be different.

“That’s me,” she said. “I’m going to bank on that.”

ssimmons@postmedia.com

twitter.com/simmonssteve

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