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Tia-Clair Toomey

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Tia-Clair Toomey
Personal information
Born (1993-07-22) 22 July 1993 (age 31)
Nambour, Queensland, Australia
Height163 cm (5 ft 4 in)[1]
Weight58 kg (128 lb)[1]
SpouseShane Orr[2]
Sport
SportCrossFit, weightlifting
ClubCrossFit Gladstone
Coached byShane Orr
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals2016 Summer Olympics
Medal record
CrossFit
CrossFit Games
Gold medal – first place 2017 Women
Gold medal – first place 2018 Women
Gold medal – first place 2019 Women
Gold medal – first place 2020 Women
Gold medal – first place 2021 Women
Gold medal – first place 2022 Women
Gold medal – first place 2024 Women
Silver medal – second place 2015 Women
Silver medal – second place 2016 Women
Wodapalooza CrossFit Festival
Gold medal – first place 2019 Women
Gold medal – first place 2020 Women
Rogue Invitational
Gold medal – first place 2019 Women
Gold medal – first place 2020 Women
Gold medal – first place 2021 Women
Gold medal – first place 2024 Women
Silver medal – second place 2023 Women
Women's weightlifting
Representing  Australia
Commonwealth Games
Gold medal – first place 2018 Gold Coast 58 kg
Pacific Games
Silver medal – second place 2015 Port Moresby 58 kg
Oceania Championships
Silver medal – second place 2015 Port Moresby 58 kg
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Suva 58 kg

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (born 22 July 1993)[3] is an Australian weightlifter and CrossFit Games athlete. After winning her seventh title at the 2024 CrossFit Games, Toomey has more title wins than any other athlete in the history of the sport.[4] She also won the gold medal in the women's 58 kg (128 lb) Weightlifting event at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast.

Toomey also competed in the women's 58 kg (128 lb) event at the 2016 Summer Olympics and came in 14th.[5] At the CrossFit Games, Toomey was runner-up in 2015 and 2016, before becoming winner of the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024 CrossFit Games.

Early life

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Tia-Clair Toomey was born on 22 July 1993 to Debbi and Brendon Toomey in Nambour, Queensland, Australia, the eldest of three girls.[6][7] She grew up in Dunethin Rock along the Maroochy River on the Sunshine Coast, where her parents worked on a cane farm.[7] She attended a primary school in North Arm, Queensland. When she was 12, the family moved to Weipa after the sugarcane mill closed. She studied at Western Cape College in Weipa, and then boarded at the Townsville Grammar School in Townsville in 2009.[8] After finishing school in 2011, she went to study nursing at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. However, she left after six months and moved to Gladstone to be with her future husband Shane Orr.[6] There she worked for a time as a dental assistant, and then as a lab technician at a Rio Tinto facility.[9][10]

Toomey competed in athletics as a runner while she was at school.[9] When she was in Gladstone, she focused on 400m hurdling, and was introduced to CrossFit by Shane Orr who had used it to supplement his training while he was playing for Gladstone Rugby Union.[11] She joined a CrossFit gym and became involved in the sport; soon after she started participating in CrossFit competitions in 2013.[9][12] She learned the basics of weightlifting through her CrossFit classes.[13]

Competitions

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CrossFit Games

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Toomey first competed in the CrossFit Open less than a month after learning CrossFit in 2013.[9] The following year she qualified for the Regionals, but was only ranked 18th in the Australian Regional.[14] Toomey first qualified for the CrossFit Games in 2015 after two years of CrossFit competitions. She finished runner-up to Katrín Davíðsdóttir in her debut year, and was named Rookie of the Year.[15]

At the 2016 CrossFit Games, the women's competition was tightly fought between Davíðsdóttir and Toomey, but Toomey was again placed second after Davíðsdóttir managed to hold off a strong challenge from Toomey to win a second time.[16]

The 2017 CrossFit Games was again a close-fought competition, this time between Toomey and fellow Australian Kara Webb. Significantly, Webb was penalized after a judging error which resulted in dropped points for Webb in the penultimate event. Toomey won her first Games in a tight finish, beating Webb by only two points.[17]

At the 2018 Games, Toomey won convincingly with a 64-point lead over second-place Laura Horvath.[18] The following year in the 2019 Games, she won with a large margin of 195 points over Kristin Holte, and became the first woman to win three CrossFit Games.[19][20]

In 2020, Toomey extended her record to four consecutive wins. Her performance in 2020 was the most dominant display ever by a female CrossFit athlete at the Games, winning nine of the 12 events in the final stage at the Games, with a margin of victory of 360 points over Katrín Davíðsdóttir.[21]

Toomey further extended the number of titles won to five at the 2021 CrossFit Games with another dominant display, winning nine of 15 events at the Games and setting a record score of 1,435. The five wins equalled the record set by Mat Fraser, and she also broke Fraser's record of 29 total event wins by setting a new record of 33 event wins.[22]

Toomey won her sixth title, and $310,000 prize money, at the 2022 CrossFit Games. Her win made her the only person to win six individual CrossFit Games title. She placed first in two of 13 events at the competition.[23]

Prior to the 2023 CrossFit Games, Toomey indicated that she would not compete that year due to her pregnancy; nevertheless, she took part in the Open that season while pregnant.[24]

Toomey returned next year at the 2024 CrossFit Games and won her seventh title, extending her record of the most number of title wins among both males and females.

Olympics

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Toomey lifted her then-best 85 kg (187 lb) clean and jerk at a CrossFit competition in September 2013 after training for only 6 months,[9] and her performance caught the attention of the weightlifting coach Miles Wydall. He later offered to coach Toomey on weightlifting and encouraged Toomey to try to get to the Rio Olympics representing Australia. After just 18 months of serious weightlifting training, she qualified for the Olympics when she finished third at the 2016 Oceania Weightlifting Championships with a combined lift of 194 kg (428 lb).[25] In the Olympic weightlifting competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics, she competed in the Women's 58 kg division, but missed her personal best by 5 kg (11 lb) and finished 14th.[26][27]

In December 2020, Toomey announced her plan to train with the Australian bobsleigh team and try to qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympics in China.[28] In her first bobsled competition in South Korea in February 2021, she won two races as brakewoman in a two-woman bobsled team.[29] Her team qualified for the Winter Olympic in January 2022,[30] however, they were not selected for the Australian team due to regulations that the new event monobob and the two-woman team must have the same driver, and the monobob driver Bree Walker was favoured and chosen.[31][32]

Commonwealth Games

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Toomey also competed in weightlifting at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. She won gold in the 58 kg (128 lb) event with a combined total of 201 kg (443 lb).[33]

Personal life

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Toomey met her husband and coach, Shane Orr, while she was still in high school and they were both participating in a local triathlon event in Weipa,[34][35] later introduced to each other at a fishing competition.[8] They married in 2017.[2] Toomey announced her pregnancy in December 2022, and that she would not compete in the 2023 Games.[36] Her daughter Willow was born on 9 May 2023.[37]

Toomey and Orr owned a gym in Gladstone,[12] which they sold in early 2019 after they moved to Cookeville, Tennessee in early October 2018 to train at Rich Froning's gym CrossFit Mayhem.[38] Multiple CrossFit Games male champion, Mat Fraser, then trained with them in Cookeville and Shane coached both of them in preparation for the 2019 and 2020 CrossFit Games.[39][40][41] She moved in 2021 to East Nashville, Tennessee used as a base for PRVN Fitness training camp where her husband is head coach.[42][43]

She appeared in a Super Bowl LV commercial along with fellow CrossFitter Josh Bridges.[44]

CrossFit Games results

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Year Games[45] Regionals[45] Open (Worldwide)[45]
2013 — — 5954th
2014 — 18th (Australia) 241st
2015 2nd 3rd (Pacific) 63rd
2016 2nd 2nd (Pacific) 82nd
2017 1st 2nd (Pacific) 18th
2018 1st 1st (Pacific) 12th
Year Games Qualifier Open
2019 1st 1st (WZA)[46]
1st (Rogue)[47] 		6th (world)
1st (Australia)
2020 1st 1st (Mayhem)[48]
1st (WZA)[49] 		4th (world)
1st (Australia)
Year Games Semifinals Quarterfinals Open
2021 1st 1st (Mid-Atlantic) 1st (Oceania) 1st (world)
1st (Oceania)
2022 1st 1st (Torian Pro) 1st (Worldwide)
1st (Oceania) 		2nd (Worldwide)
1st (Oceania)
2023 Did not compete (pregnancy) 2831st (Worldwide)
213rd (Oceania)
2024 1st 1st 28th (Worldwide)
7th (North America East) 		2610th (Worldwide)
656th (North America East)

Weightlifting Achievements

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Year Venue Weight Snatch (kg) Clean & Jerk (kg) Total Rank
1 2 3 Rank 1 2 3 Rank
Summer Olympics
2016 Brazil Rio, Brazil 57.70kg 78 82 82 — 103 107 112 — 189 14
World Championships
2015 United States Houston, United States 55.80 kg 78 82 85 29 98 105 112 24 187 26

Honours and awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Tia-Clair Toomey". games.crossfit.com. CrossFit. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  2. ^ a b Pyfferoen, Brian (2 October 2017). "Tia-Clair Toomey Had Surprise Wedding". The Barbell Spin. Archived from the original on 5 May 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
  3. ^ "Tia-Clair Toomey". Rogue Fitness. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  4. ^ LLC, CrossFit. "FINDING THE FITTEST ON EARTH". games.crossfit.com. Retrieved 8 February 2023.
  5. ^ "Tia-Clair Toomey". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 6 August 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  6. ^ a b Taylor, Steele (10 June 2016). "Rio-bound Toomey had time to give pop the good news". Sunshine Coast Daily.
  7. ^ a b Toomey 2018, Chapter 1: Farm Kid.
  8. ^ a b Toomey 2018, Chapter 4: Big Changes.
  9. ^ a b c d e Saline, Brittney (27 March 2016). "Tia-Clair Toomey's Second Chance". CrossFit Games.
  10. ^ Toomey 2018, Chapter 5: No Direction.
  11. ^ "CrossFit Games Athlete Interview: Tia-Clair Toomey". The Wod Life. 8 July 2015.
  12. ^ a b Lewis, Aimee (8 April 2018). "'Fittest woman on earth' wins gold medal after family tragedy". CNN. Archived from the original on 11 April 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  13. ^ "Tia Clair Inspires". Brisbane Times. Archived from the original on 16 August 2016. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
  14. ^ "Athlete profile: Tia-Clair Toomey". BoxLife Magazine. January 2017.
  15. ^ Casey, Harriette (28 July 2015). "2015 Reebok Crossfit Games: The Best Bits". Women's Health Magazine.
  16. ^ Wild Hudson, Robbie (25 July 2016). "Katrin Davidsdottir and Mat Fraser are the 2016 CrossFit Games Champions".
  17. ^ Pyfferoen, Brian (6 August 2017). "Tia-Clair Toomey Edges Out Fellow Australian Kara Webb for Fittest on Earth Title". The Barbell Spin.
  18. ^ Edmonds, Will (6 August 2018). "Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey repeat as CrossFit Games Champions". CNN.
  19. ^ Blennerhassett, Patrick; Agnew, Mark (2 August 2019). "CrossFit Games 2019: Tia-Clair Toomey wins record third 'Fittest on Earth' title". South China Morning Post.
  20. ^ Demeyer, Tess (4 August 2019). "'Fittest on Earth' remain undefeated: Fraser, Froning and Toomey defend CrossFit titles". USA Today.
  21. ^ Marquez, Tommy (1 November 2020). "Among the All-Time Greats, Where Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey Measure Up". Morning Chalk Up.
  22. ^ Mestel, Spenser (2 August 2021). "Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Justin Medeiros Win the 2021 CrossFit Games". Men's Health.
  23. ^ "Toomey and Medeiros win CrossFit Games again". South China Morning Post. 8 August 2022. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  24. ^ Blechman, Phil (10 March 2023). "Stellar Results — How Tia-Clair Toomey Competed In The 2023 CrossFit Open While Pregnant". BarBend.
  25. ^ Hendry, Megan (8 July 2016). "Rio 2016: Crossfit competitor Olympics-bound after taking up weightlifting". ABC News.
  26. ^ "Olympics-Weightlifting-World's 'Second Fittest Woman' ready for Rio". Yahoo Sports. 1 August 2016. Archived from the original on 3 October 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  27. ^ Masters, Roy (9 August 2016). "World CrossFit Games runner-up Tia Toomey finds Rio 2016 a different beast". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 21 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  28. ^ Beers, Emily (10 December 2020). "Toomey Takes on Bobsledding, Plans to Train with Australian Team". Morning Chalk Up.
  29. ^ Blechman, Phil (8 February 2021). "Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr Wins Her First Bobsled Race". BarBend.
  30. ^ Agnew, Mark (18 January 2022). "CrossFit's Tia-Clair Toomey qualifies for Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics bobsleigh – 'we did it!'".
  31. ^ "Beijing Winter Olympics: Stroke survivor and rising teenage star added to Aussie team". Daily Telegraph. 23 January 2022.
  32. ^ "Snowboard, bobsleigh and ski athletes selected for Australian Olympic team for Beijing 2022". Xinhua. 23 January 202.
  33. ^ "Tia-Clair Toomey wins gold in the weightlifting just days after she was hit by personal tragedy". News.com.au. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  34. ^ Saline, Brittney (19 November 2020). "Tia-Clair Toomey's Secret Weapon". CrossFit Games.
  35. ^ Edmonds, Will (30 May 2019). "Tia-Clair Toomey: How CrossFit's power couple met". CNN.
  36. ^ Genetin-Pilawa, Joe; Finn, Teaganne (24 December 2022). "Tia-Clair Toomey Announces Pregnancy and "Change of Events" for 2023 Games Season". Morning Chalk Up.
  37. ^ Spin, Brian (12 May 2023). "Tia-Clair Toomey Gives Birth to Baby Girl". Barbell Spin.
  38. ^ LoFranco, Justin (13 September 2018). "Tia-Clair Toomey Moves to Cookeville". Morning Chalk Up.
  39. ^ Kyllmann, Caro (26 September 2019). "Shane Orr Moves into Coaching Role with Mat Fraser". BoxRox.
  40. ^ Rory McKernan (6 August 2019). The 4x Champ Mat Fraser on the 2019 CrossFit Games. YouTube. Event occurs at 19:39–22:40.
  41. ^ Gutman, Andrew (15 December 2020). "CrossFit Duo Tia-Clair Toomey And Shane Orr Announce A Big Move". BarBend.
  42. ^ Beswick, Christine (10 March 2021). "Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr To Experience Travel Challenges During 2021 CrossFit Games Season". Fitness Volt.
  43. ^ Newby, John (9 March 2021). "PRVN Fitness is Stacked and Ready to Take the CrossFit Season by Storm".
  44. ^ Blechman, Phil (9 February 2021). "Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr And Josh Bridges Appear In Super Bowl LV Commercial". BarBend.
  45. ^ a b c "Tia-Clair Toomey". CrossFit Games. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  46. ^ "Leaderboard > Wodapalooza". CrossFit Games CrossFit Festival.
  47. ^ Hudson, Robin Wild (20 May 2019). "Mat Fraser and Tia-Clair Toomey Win The Rogue Invitational". BoxRox.
  48. ^ "Mayhem Classic Leaderboard". Throwdowns. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  49. ^ "Wodapalooza Leaderboard". Competition Corner. Retrieved 24 February 2020.
  50. ^ "Sports Illustrated's Fittest 50 2022". Sports Illustrated. 17 January 2022. Retrieved 9 February 2022.

Bibliography

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