Alysha Newman finally gets her Olympic pole vault medal — and it's a bronze

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PARIS — Alysha Newman didn’t know whether to cry, kiss everybody in Stade de France, or just sit there and think about the Olympic bronze medal she had just won, the first by a Canadian pole vaulter in 112 years.

That’s the sport, in a nutshell. And it can certainly drive you there.

But Newman, who seems to be a new woman at age 30, turned increased mental toughness into a national record at 4.85 metres, then ran out of jumps when the bar went up to 4.90m and she couldn’t quite get over it. All the while, Australia’s Nina Kennedy and Katie Moon of the U.S. were dueling for gold and silver, and the competition dragged on into the night.

“I laugh because you know, getting third is, I mean, I’ve never gotten third, but it’s funny because you have to still wait and sit there and wait till the other girls are done,” said Newman. “And so I’m like, so awkwardly standing there. What do I do? Do I celebrate? Do I kiss everyone? Do I cry? So, it was a really surreal moment.”

Newman has dominated the event in Canada for a decade, but was competing in the first big Games final she has made since 2019, and the London, Ont. native was determined to deliver.

In so doing, she could outlive 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, personally and professionally. But she is back to realize the elite potential that has been part of her DNA for a decade.

“I don’t know where to start, but I retired like 20 times in my head,” she said of the desperation she felt after Tokyo. “So I’ve come back from retirement many times. And honestly, I think one thing I’ve always said to myself was like, I never felt done. I never felt like I was done giving back to the sport. I feel like this medal is only going to give me more of a voice. I feel like I want to build a track facility in Canada. I want to do some more stuff in the sport. And this bronze medal is going to help. And I think my dreams are bigger than medals. Maybe that sounds horrible, but it’s such a moment and I’m going to live in it.

“I felt like I was stronger than ever mentally. I was like I never gave up on myself this year. And when things went bad, I still smiled. And that’s huge. Like I’m happy still when I lose. And I don’t think a lot of athletes feel that way. And so I’m honored that I can step off the track with a bad day and still go home and feel accomplished. Because I’ve done so much in this sport and this just keeps adding to my resume.”

That CV in PV as it were, was pretty good even before Wednesday’s medal. She won Commonwealth Games gold and bronze, as well as Pan Am Games bronze. She finished fifth and seventh at world championships too. But she needed to make her bones at the Olympics. And now she has done it. The sport she loves now officially loves her back.

“There’s nothing quite like pole vault. It’s the craziest sport. It brings you through so much roller coaster. You know, you’re never satisfied. A lot of us end on failure, unless you decide to retire from the competition. So you’re constantly hungry. You never feel like you’re at your full potential. And I think it’s like a hard thing to deal with. It’s like, wait, I just got a bronze medal, but I can’t wait for my next meet already because now I want to jump 4.90. So you’re constantly being fueled by this sport. And I think that’s why it never let me go when I was bad or wasn’t doing good. I just wanted to stay around as long as I possibly could or until my body was going to let me stay.”

She has had her problems with injury, and the concussion was clearly the most impactful. It nearly ended her career, but it also led her to the door of American neurologist Dr. Daniel Amen, who has given her rare insight into brain health, and she has turned that into a competitive edge. She is healthier and happier now than ever before, and that translates into great performances.

This season, for instance, had been a success even before the bronze. She jumped 4.75 metres five times and increased her PB to 4.83 metres. She was confident and competent and ready to do something special at these Games. But first she had to make a final. She did that on Monday, and felt light as a feather. The weight was gone from her shoulders.

“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 had 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 really, really wanted that 4.90 bar to be in the 4.90 club,” she said. “But I guess I still have six weeks left. I’m going to do the Diamond Leagues and I’m going to head over there. So I’m pretty stoked about that.

“I mean, at the same time, I know I laugh because I’m like, dang it, you’re so close. And you just smile and you laugh because the next jump you’re a better jumper. And no one looks at it that way. It’s like I hit it, okay, I failed technically. But my next jump I’m going to clear it and I’m a better jumper now. So it’s cool when you fail, you learn. And this whole year was never lose. It was learn or win.

“That was all I thought about all year.”

dbarnes@postmedia.com