Alysha Newman has made history by becoming the first Canadian medallist in the Olympic pole vault for more than 100 years.
Newman won bronze at the Stade de France on Wednesday night by impressively clearing 4.85m, a national record for Canada.
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The 30-year-old's Olympic medal is the first for her country in the pole vault since William Halpenny won bronze at Stockholm 1912.
After successfully clearing the 4.85m mark on her second attempt, she pulled off a unique celebration that has since gone viral.
Newman ran off the crash mat and began to limp whilst holding the back of her leg to make it look like she pulled her hamstring.
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However, she then hilariously signalled it was fake by twerking and later posted it her Instagram story, with fans heard laughing in the background having filmed the 'best angle' live in Paris.
She then later joked that she may have to get the iconic photo of the celebration framed.
The proud Canadian wrote in a separate post, clearly still buzzing from her success: "Hi, my name is Alysha Newman and I am a freaking Olympic medallist forever and ever."
Newman, who also models on OnlyFans and took aim at critics of this extra income, first took to gymnastics but unfortunately had to quit at 13 due to a lower back vertebra injury.
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However, she switched to the pole vault due to her gymnast history and joined Eastern Michigan University with coach Jerel Langley.
A year later, Newman won bronze at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland by clearing 4.60m, ranking her fourth in the world for the women's pole vault.
She followed Langley to the University of Miami and cleared 4.60m at the university's Hurricane Alumni Invitational in 2016 - this broke the school's, the Atlantic Coast Conference's and Canada's national record.
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Newman was then named in Canada's Olympic team for the games in Rio de Janeiro but missed the finals after only clearing 4.45m in qualifying.
Despite this, she went on to break her own Canadian women's record twice in quick succession - first with 4.61m at street event 'Vault the Park' and then 4.71m at another Hurricane Alumni Invitational in 2017.
Newman won gold at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games the following year with an excellent height of 4.75m, which still stands as the competition record.
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She then took bronze at the Pan American Games in 2019 by clearing 4.55m but suffered a setback at the 2021 Drake Relays by suffering a concussion after falling in the shower.
Although she still competed at the Tokyo 2020 games [which took place in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic], Newman did not progress from qualifying.
Newman underwent a new recovery regime due to continued symptoms of her concussion but endured a difficult period.
She missed the finals of the 2022 and 2023 World Championships and withdrew from the 2022 Commonwealth Games amid a heel injury.
However, she won the World Athletics Indoor Tour last year by clearing 4.78m and then cleared 4.76m on the Diamond League circuit at the London Athletics Meet in July.
Newman is now a bronze medallist, finishing behind Australia's Nina Kennedy, who won with 4.90m, and the USA's Katie Moon.
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“It was a surreal moment. It was awesome. I feel very emotionally stable right now,” she told Canada's Olympic site. “Everyone was saying if someone was going to do it it would be me and I’m so happy I lived up to that expectation.”
For Canada, it was well worth the 112-year wait.
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