Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newman explains why she twerked after winning Olympic bronze

Alysha Newman made headlines on Thursday for doing the iconic “I’m injured, ow! No, SYKE! I’m twerking” celebration that we’ve seen before, in the midst of her winning a bronze medal in pole vault for her native Canada a the 2024 Paris Olympics.

But there was a story behind it.

As she told CBC Sports, she’s always injured, so she decided to scare her very serious coaches so they’d lighten up.

“So I said, I’m gonna fake an injury and then I’m gonna dance after,” she said. “But it just happened very fluid.”

Here’s that answer around the 5-minute mark: