The Paris Olympics may be over for another four years, but the memes and viral moments truly live on.
I mean, I don’t think I’m ever going to forget Snoop Dogg in his dressage get up or Raygun’s rather, well, unique, breakdance routine.
And of course, the athlete who celebrated her bronze medal with a slightly X-rated gesture.
Advert
I mean, that’s dependent on exactly what you define as X-rated and just a bit of fun dancing.
When OnlyFans star Alysha Newman cleared 4.85 metres at the pole vault in the Olympics earlier this month, she pulled out a celebratory move.
And now, the 30-year-old has explained what her controversial ‘twerking’ celebration was actually about.
Advert
When Newman cleared the pole and picked up Canada’s first medal in the pole vault in over a century, she jumped straight off the mat and ran in front of the crowd.
Going viral, the athlete then pretended to have injured her hamstring before pulling off a ‘twerk’. Kind of iconic, to be honest. And BBC commentators said in the moment: “I’m not sure about that celebration.”
Many people assumed she’d done it to celebrate the medal but she revealed that wasn’t quite the case.
Instead, she was simply celebrating breaking a Canadian record.
Advert
“A lot of people think I broke out in the dance because of the bronze medal, but again, I didn’t know I had bronze, Angelica [Moser] from Switzerland still had another attempt, she could have easily taken my spot,” Newman told the New York Post.
"If you know me for these many years, I’ve always celebrated after a Canadian record.
.jpg)
"So, I had just jumped with the 4.85 [m] jump, I jumped a Canadian record, and in the past, at every single competition I’ve ever jumped, I’ve backflipped, I’ve danced, I’ve done any sort of thing that comes out naturally.”
Advert
She also explained how the pretence of hurting her hamstring was a little dig at critics who slam her for her history of injuries.
"[It’s] If Alysha can stay healthy, then she can win a medal,” she explained.
“I think for me to have faked an injury and then danced after, obviously everyone called it a twerk, but I’m laughing cause I probably didn’t do a great twerking compared to some of the women and men that can do it better than me.
"But it just came out with more of the faking of the injury was more of the plan, rather than the actual twerking, so I laugh because, obviously, it got out there and I’m more than fortunate that people got to see another side of me.”
Advert
Well fair enough, wouldn’t you want to pull out a celebration if you broke a record?
Jess Battison