Rusty Weiss
Banned Olympic pole vaulter Alysha Newman is turning heads once again—this time off the track. The 31-year-old Canadian bronze medalist posted a striking Instagram photo of herself in a pink bikini.
But it was what she teased in the caption that made people take notice.
“See you soon!” she wrote, tagging Victoria’s Secret in the process.
From Olympic Bronze to Victoria’s Secret Runway: Newman’s Bold Career Pivot
The post comes just days after she received an official invitation to an in-person casting call for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2026, set for this fall in Los Angeles.
The 31-year-old Canadian, who recently uprooted her life and moved to LA, shared additional Instagram Story videos of herself practicing runway walks and performing back-flip tumbles at an indoor gym.
The star athlete declared she is “prepping for [Victoria’s Secret] like how I would prep for the Olympics.”
The timing is no coincidence. Newman’s suspension from competition was announced by the Athletics Integrity Unit on April 29 after she missed three drug tests in 2025, triggering a 20-month ban under whereabouts-failure rules.
She did not contest the violation. Instead, she attributed the misses to a turbulent period of “significant personal and professional change,” including her prior decision to walk away from athletics entirely.
The casting call offers a potential path forward: selected models will sign an exclusive contract with IMG Models and get the chance to strut the runway in the marquee lingerie show.
Newman has been hinting at a career pivot for a while. In a recent TikTok, she described the upheaval of relocating to Los Angeles as the next chapter after years of elite competition, including appearances at the World Athletics Championships.
The VS opportunity, she suggests, is the fresh start she’s been training for—complete with weekly challenges that “scare” her, much like the pressure of Olympic qualifying.
Newman first captured global attention at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she claimed bronze in the pole vault—the first Canadian medal in the event since 1912—and celebrated by twerking on live television.
The cheeky move drew online criticism from trolls, but she shrugged it off, telling fans she was simply having fun after a year of total focus.
Good For Business – Alysha Newman Apparently Made Over $150,000 On OnlyFans After Going Viral For Winning Bronze, Twerking At The Olympics https://t.co/hGO3fYSXxW pic.twitter.com/YYTP1DGNRM
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) August 15, 2024
Or perhaps she was looking for some exposure in a sport that doesn’t always get much of it.
Newman has long maintained an OnlyFans account with tens of thousands of subscribers, and has spoken openly about past battles with mental health. For Newman, the bikini post and runway dreams appear to be the latest expression of her usual boundary-pushing personality.
