Tia-Clair Toomey is CrossFit’s superstar, operating at a level that leaves the rest of the field fighting for second. Her sporting prowess extends beyond CrossFit to the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, and her day-to-day life with her trainer and husband is followed by thousands of fans on their popular YouTube channel.
The CrossFit Games, the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games
Toomey is the most successful woman of all time at the CrossFit Games. She has four consecutive wins from 2017 to 2020. Annie Thorisdottir and Katrin Davidsdottir have two each, the next most. Only Mat Fraser has won more, taking five consecutive titles.
Toomey, from Australia, came second in 2015 and 2016, receiving the Rookie of the Year award at the 2015 Games. She was touted as having a lot of potential in CrossFit, but critics accused her of spreading herself too thin between CrossFit and Olympic weightlifting.
She competed in the Rio Olympics in weightlifting and finished 14th. One review of her performance in The Sydney Morning Herald read: “clearly all that exercise … does not prepare a woman for the snatch and the clean and jerk of Olympic weightlifting”.
Fans rallied around Toomey saying she was doing enough in both sports. The best retort was from Toomey herself, who went on to win the next four Games and a gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in weightlifting.
Toomey has gone from strength to strength. Her first Games victory in 2017 was a hard-fought, narrow win over fellow Australian Kara Webb. Over the next two wins, the victories were by wider margins. In 2020, she won nine out of 12 possible events and was out of sight with a day to spare.
She might be about to reappear in the Olympics. She announced she is moving to Korea to train with the Australian Bobsleigh team in hope of qualifying for the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Prize Money
The CrossFit Games has a lucrative prize purse. First prize has grown from US$500 in the first year to US$300,000 in 2020.
Toomey won US$250,000 in 2017 and 2018, then the purse jumped to US$300,00 for her latter two victories.
Toomey also won the Rogue Invitational two years running, 2019 and 2020, earning US$50,000 per win. There is also US$5,000 up for grabs after each round. She won three rounds in her most recent victory.
A Dubai CrossFit Championship victory in 2020 earned her US$10,000.
Husband trainer and Mat Fraser
Whenever Toomey is on a podium, her husband is not far away. Shane Orr has been ever-present for years.
The pair met as teenagers when they were both competing in a triathlon. Orr saw her coming out of the water in a “Baywatch moment”, according to CNN. The pair connected and began going out. Orr started helping Toomey train in sprinting, holding the stopwatch while her father coached her.
It set the foundation for their dynamics, and to this day he is still her trainer.
In 2018, Toomey started training with the only athlete as dominant as her – Mat Fraser. Toomey and Orr moved to Tennessee, and Orr took over as coach for Fraser as well.
The “fittest pair on Earth”, armed with Orr’s experience, were a force to be reckoned with, taking both of them to the next level.
By the final event of the 2020 Games, when both Fraser and Toomey had already won the overall titles, they demonstrated their friendship by completing the workout together, sacrificing a chance to push for one more event win.
Fraser has retired and Toomey and Orr are moving back to Australia after her stopover to train in Korea.
