Alysha Newman

Biography

Alysha Newman made history in her third Olympic appearance when she won the bronze medal in women’s pole vault at Paris 2024. It was Canada’s first ever Olympic medal in women’s pole vault and the country’s first Olympic pole vault medal since Stockholm 1912. Newman set a Canadian record of 4.85m to reach the podium.

As a young gymnast, Newman aspired to represent Canada, however an injury forced her to take a year away from sport and retire from gymnastics. To remain active after her recovery, Newman’s mother signed her up for track and field. After breaking records in her first few pole vault meets, her dream to represent Canada returned. Newman became the first Canadian high school girl to vault over four metres and went on to set national youth and junior records.

In 2014, Newman represented Canada at the Commonwealth Games, earning a bronze medal. Four years later, Newman set the Commonwealth pole vault record en route to winning the gold medal in Gold Coast, but her 2018 season would be cut short by a knee injury. When she returned in 2019, she broke her own Canadian record twice, hitting the 4.77m mark in July 2019 at a meet in Germany.

Newman made her Olympic debut at Rio 2016. She competed at her first World Athletics Championships in 2017 where she advanced to the final and finished seventh. She followed that up with a sixth-place finish at the 2018 World Indoor Championships and a fifth-place finish at the 2019 World Athletics Championships. At the latter she was just two centimetres short of the national record 4.82m she had set a month earlier at the Diamond League meet in Paris. Four days after that outdoor national record, she matched it indoors in Zurich. Newman won the bronze medal at the 2019 Pan Am Games in Lima.

After only competing four times in early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all competitions, Newman was back competing around the world in 2021. She made her second Olympic appearance at the delayed Tokyo 2020, but did not record a height in the qualification round.

After a couple of seasons disrupted by injury, Newman started 2023 very strongly, winning two stops on the World Athletics Indoor Tour to take the series title in pole vault. But she came up short of advancing to the final at the 2023 World Athletics Championships. In February 2024, she broke the Canadian record by clearing 4.83m at the All Star Perche indoor meet. She was named co-captain of the Canadian team for the 2024 World Athletics Indoor Championships but had to withdraw from the final after suffering an ankle sprain. She returned to competition 12 weeks later.

While competing for the University of Miami, Newman earned six First Team All-American citations and holds the school record, which she broke on her first ever vault at the university.

A Little More About Alysha

Getting into the Sport: Initially a gymnast, she transitioned to track and field, first as a distance hurdler and then the 100m hurdles… Joe Ryder of the London Legion Track Club introduced her to pole vaulting at age 16 upon hearing about her gymnastics background… Outside Interests: Enjoys movie nights, fashion events, modelling, hot yoga, water sports… Graduated from the University of Miami in 2016 with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology … Odds and Ends: Competes with an angel token in her spikes that her mom gave her when she went away to university, reminding her of her mom’s strong, positive presence… Favourite quotes: “Raise the bar, wherever you go” / “Anything is possible for those who believe” / “Expect the unexpected”…