Sasha Zhoya was born on 25 June 2002 in Subiaco, locality of the southern suburbs of Perth in Australia, from a French mother Catherine Larbiose-Zhoya and a Zimbabwean father, Yonah Zhoya, so that he has the triple nationality Franco-Australian-Zimbabwean. Raised in Australia, he began athletics at the age of 8 at Melville Little Athletics, where his mother was a coach, and joined the Australian Institute of Sport at age 14. He is trained by Lindsay Bunn for sprinting events, and by Paul Burgess and Alex Parnov for the pole vault. He started training in France in 2017, at Clermont Athlétisme Auvergne, club of his mother's city of origin, where he is coached by Philippe d'Encausse for the pole vault. Holder of three passports and competing in both Australian and French youth championships, Sasha Zhoya had to decide which country he will represent in competition. In 2020, he decided to compete for France. He joined the sprint-hurdles group of the French Athletics Federation at INSEP, supervised by Ladji Doucouré for the hurdles and Dimitri Demonière for the sprint events.
Under-18
In 2018, at the French Junior Outdoor Championships in Bondoufle, Sasha won the silver medal on the 100 metres and the gold medal on the 200 metres. In February 2019, at the French Junior Indoor Championships in Liévin, he won two gold medals with two French National Youth Records, for pole vault with a 5.32 m vault and for the 60 metres hurdles with 7.48 seconds. It was his first competitive outing at the hurdles distance and equalled the youth record owned with Ladji Doucouré. In April 2019, at the Australian Junior Championships, he broke the world under-18 record in pole vault with 5.56 m, one centimetre more than the Greek Emmanouíl Karalís in 2016. In June 2019 at La Chaux-de-Fonds, he broke the French National Youth Record of the 100 m with 10.41s. In July 2019, at the semi-final of French Junior Outdoor Championships in Angers, he broke the world under-18 record for the 110 meters hurdles in 12.87 s, improving by 9 hundredths, the previous record of the Jamaican Jaheel Hyde of 2014. He later won the final with 12.96 s. The next day, he won the 200 m final and descended for the first time below 21 seconds, with 20.81 s but with wind assistance. A few days later, he broke the French National Youth Record of the 200 m in a meeting at Sotteville-lès-Rouen with 20.91 s.
