Jul. 20—Anicka Newell bears on her left hip a tattoo of the Olympic rings, with the Canadian maple leaf above them.
Though it might be considered overkill, she’s clearly entitled to a couple more of those. When she thunders down the pole vault runway at Paris’ Stade de France on Aug. 5 — coincidentally, her 31st birthday — she’ll be competing in her third Olympic Games.
Newell will represent Canada in Paris, as she did in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in the COVID-delayed games of 2021. Canada is her mother’s birth country, according her dual citizenship.
But Newell also is a 2011 graduate of Albuquerque’s Highland High School, where she competed with distinction for the Hornets. Is she to be the first New Mexico high school product to compete in three Olympics?
“I wouldn’t know the answer to that,” she said with a laugh during a recent phone interview.
Answer: No. Distance runner George Young (Silver City) actually performed in four Olympics (1960, 1964, ’68, ’72), winning a 3,000-meter steeplechase bronze medal in Mexico City in 1968.
Even so, three Olympics surely are more than worth a tattoo or two. Or three.
“I feel like it’s an honor and a blessing to get to go to one Olympics, and here I am on my third,” Newell said. “It just seems completely crazy to even say out loud.”
What makes it crazier still is this: She left the halls of HHS 13 years ago not really wanting to be a pole vaulter.
Though Newell was a three-time New Mexico Class 5A champion in that event starting in 2009, she also won the rarely contested girls decathlon at the Great Southwest meet in 2010 and 2011. In choosing Texas State University in San Marcos as her college destination, the pole vault was an afterthought.
“I got recruited by multiple schools as a multi and a pentathlete,” she said. “I enjoyed pole vault, but I much preferred all the other events.
“The Texas State coaches at the time said I could do both, pole vault and the multis.”
Then, the Texas State coaching staff got a makeover. So did Newell.
“They said, ‘No, we just want you for pole vault.’ I was really upset my first year.”
Is she still upset? No.
“That turned out to be absolutely the right decision,” she said, “and set me on the right path, for sure.”
Newell’s athletic path already had taken one sharp turn. She’d been a gymnast until, at age 14, a back injury ended her dreams of following the likes of Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, et al, to the Olympics. It was only then that she took up track and field.
Newell, nine years later, still shares the top spot on the Texas State women’s pole vault performance list with a vault of 13 feet, 1 1/2 inches. But the best thing that happened to her as a Bobcat was meeting Brookelyn Dixon, her primary coach for the entirety of her college career and beyond.
Under Dixon’s tutelage, Newell blossomed into a world-class vaulter. In 2021 at an indoor meet in Belton, Texas, she set a career best with a vault of 4.70 meters (15-5).
Her outdoor best is 4.65 (15-3), which she nearly equaled on Feb. 2 in winning her event at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic at the Albuquerque Convention Center. She’s come home to compete in Albuquerque several times.
In Olympic competition, Newell has yet to achieve her goals.
At Rio, she finished 15th with a vault of 4.15 (13-7 1/4 ).
“Rio was completely unreal for me,” she said. “That was my first international competition as a pro, ever, and I was completely inexperienced.
“I was completely overwhelmed, way in over my head. … Absolutely, the nerves got the best of me.”
In Tokyo, competing in an empty stadium because of COVID restrictions, Newell qualified for the finals with a vault of 4.55 (14-11) but didn’t clear a height in the finals.
“It’s not like I need a crowd to compete,” she said, “because I train by myself and I’m completely capable of competing without people watching me.”
But … at the Olympics?
“When you walk into such a ginormous arena and see the seats completely empty,” she said, “and the only sound is from the announcements and the music, I don’t know how to describe that feeling.
“It doesn’t feel like the Olympics.”
Her excitement for Paris, in sharp contrast, knows no bounds.
“My goodness, I could not have picked a better place,” she said. “I’m excited that it’s Paris. The frickin’ Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower are already iconic. I’m so excited to see that.
“I know in Europe, they’re huge track fans. They’re talking about the stadiums being sold out, the arenas being sold out. So I’m frickin’ thrilled. I’m so excited.”
Regarding the competition, Newell has two goals.
Goal No. 1: “Ultimately, a medal. My gosh, it’s been my goal my whole life, to go to the Olympics and win a medal.
“Even before track and field, I thought I was gonna go to the Olympics for gymnastics. So that’s my number one goal, to be on the podium.”
Goal No. 2: Savor every moment.
“I’ve struggled with some mental and physical aspects this year,” she said, “and I just want to go and enjoy the experience and know that I’m doing it for me and feel like I gave my all and left everything on the track so I can walk away, no matter what, with my head held high.”
Beyond Paris, Newell already is putting to use her degree in exercise sports science at her home in San Marcos, coaching and working as a personal trainer.
Is there any chance we’ll see her in Los Angeles in 2028, matching Young’s Olympic grand slam of 13 Olympiads ago?
“No, no, no, no,” she said. “This is the third and the last for me.”
That being the case, hers will be an Olympic legacy few New Mexicans can match.
