PARIS — Alysha Newman vaulted herself onto the Olympic podium at Stade de France on Wednesday with an impressive bronze medal performance that included a national record in the event she has dominated for a decade at home.
On Monday, the newly re-invigorated 30-year-old pole vaulter from London, Ont. was competing in the first final she has made since 2019, and was determined to deliver. She cleared a top height of 4.85 metres in a pitched battle with eventual gold medalist Nina Kennedy of Australia and silver medal winner Katie Moon of the U.S.
Newman had set the national record at 4.83 metres earlier this season.
“Alysha is the consummate performer,” Athletics Canada’s head coach Glenroy Gilbert said before the Olympics began. “If Alysha is healthy, anything is possible. That’s the thing. And I think at the end of the day, I would never bet against her. What you see sometimes from her seems disjointed in some ways, but she is extremely talented, extremely determined.”
Newman was determined to bounce back from the devastation of no-heighting at the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, where she was competing just three months after suffering a concussion. She had fallen in a bathtub shower in Des Moines, Iowa, striking her face on the faucet. Lingering effects of the concussion and the subsequent devastation of Tokyo sent her reeling. She told a reporter for The Athletic in 2022 that she began drinking to excess before and after those Games to deal with crippling anxiety she believes was brought on by the concussion.
She is clearly back on track, realizing the potential she has shown in fits and starts throughout her career, and she credits her coaches and the help of Dr. Daniel Amen, a California-based neurologist who has given her rare insight into brain health that she uses as a competitive edge.
“A lot of people don’t know I haven’t made a final since 2019, and it’s been eating away at me for five years and it’s emotional and it’s hard, because it’s not like someone wakes up and says I want to pole vault every day,” she said Monday. “There has to be some fire and there has to be some passion behind it. And my environment, that’s who makes me keep coming back. My coaches. They see me more than I have ever seen myself and without them I definitely would not have kept pushing. I laughed. I said this might be my last (Olympics) but I don’t know. I’m having fun and I just turned 30, so maybe I’m entering a prime when I thought I was in my prime before. It might be a new type of prime.”
Her previous best at an Olympics was 17th at Rio 2016, so yes indeed, it would appear that she is reaching a new peak. She said her professional and personal happiness has clearly been a benefit to her performance this season.
“I don’t get upset anymore. I used to base a lot of my vaulting off of emotion and I think that’s where I have grown so much with my neurologist this year. It’s been incredible to work with someone who is so in-depth, not with mental health, but brain health. It’s a different thing. It’s taking care of the brain. … It’s a different way that I’ve looked at the vault and my athletic career and I’m pretty stoked on having that edge because I know a bit more about the brain and how my brain works on the runway.”
She had on occasion proven an ability to rise up on the big stage, having won Commonwealth Games gold and bronze, as well as Pan Am Games bronze. She has also finished fifth and seventh at world championships. She said she was ready to do something special here.
“I’m ready to go out and show everybody my actual, real technique, and I know I’m one of the best technicians in the world, and I’m ready to show that on Wednesday.”