When we catch up with Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr – six-time Fittest Woman on Earth – it’d been a month since she last did a workout. “It’s definitely hard,” she says of her enforced break but it’s been a much-needed one. Little did the world know, two weeks out from solidifying her status in CrossFit history as the most dominant athlete in the sport, Tia could barely walk. “I couldn’t even get out of bed. It was a pretty bad [back injury],” she confesses. “It’s not something I’ve spoken or been open about, just because I never want to create excuses or anything like that.”
For the 29-year-old, originally from Nambour, a rural town in the Sunshine Coast region, excuses just aren’t an option. No matter what life throws at her. Like the time she had to dig deep to win a gold medal in weightlifting at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, a week after her cousin died suddenly in a car accident. Or earlier this year, when she qualified for the Winter Olympics in bobsleigh, only to then miss out on selection by the Australian team. So when Tia injured her back, she cast out any excuses and zoned in on what she needed to do – not just to get her body well enough to compete in the five-day 2022 CrossFit Games in August, over 13 events, but to stand on top of the podium. And she did it, winning the title of Fittest on Earth for the sixth year in a row. It’s a feat no other athlete has achieved.
“Now, it’s about recovering my back,” she tells WH from her home in Nashville, Tennessee. “Normally, I’d do the Rogue Invitational in October, but I’m taking this off season as a complete off season. I’m very unfit!” Here, Tia (who, even in this “unfit” phase is probably still fitter than the majority of the planet) shares how she went after her dream life, the way she deals with setbacks and whether she’ll be going after her seventh CrossFit Games title … all in her own words.
Listen to Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr on our podcast Uninterrupted by Women’s Health Australia on Apple and Spotify. Post continues below.
Tia on… The life-changing effect of trying new things
“Growing up, I loved doing different sports and constantly getting better. From playing tennis and netball to running and swimming, and dabbling in gymnastics and touch football. In my eyes, it was all about being the best all-round athlete versus being really good at one particular sport.
The inspiration, and where I got that drive, was my parents. They showed me the importance of always trying something different. The way they would explain it was that it’s so important to widen your horizons, and not be narrow-minded, so that you could really understand who you are as a person and what you really enjoy.
I grew up on a cane farm on the Sunshine Coast [in Queensland]. Every day, Mum and Dad were up early working the land, growing sugarcane. They weren’t necessarily into sports per se but I heard stories about how my mum could run circles around Dad, and my dad was such a great swimmer and a great surfer. Hearing those cool stories about my parents allowed me to really aspire to do stuff like that. It made me realise the importance of finding what made me really happy, and then running with it and seeing what was out there.”
Tia on… Taking a big chance
“I know no matter what happens, I’m never going to allow myself to fail. That doesn’t mean I don’t fall short of my goals. But when I do fall short of a goal, I know that I’m able to still keep pushing. I’m still going to keep chipping away and still pursue it until I achieve it.
An example? Back in 2014, [husband and coach] Shane and I moved to a place called Gladstone [in Queensland]. That’s where we discovered CrossFit. At the time, I’d been in this job for about two years as a lab technician. It wasn’t my dream job at all, but it was a very comfortable, very secure job. It allowed me to work half a year doing shift work. It was the dream situation for retirement.
“I want to be the most dominant CrossFit athlete of all time. That is from past time to current time to the future”
I started CrossFit and I had this chance to qualify for the Olympics [for weightlifting]. The coach was trying to help Shane and I take that next step in our training and I was really progressing. I was quite determined, but I remember this coach saying, ‘If you want to go all in, you need to leave your shift work, because the night shifts are not helping with your recovery. If you really want to go all in, you need to make that sacrifice.’ I was like, ‘Well, that’s a bit crazy to turn away a job that I’ve only been in for two years and is so secure.’
I was on very good pay for someone who hadn’t finished a uni degree. I probably sat on this for eight months; It wasn’t an overnight decision for sure. But at that eight-month mark, I was like, ‘You know what? I’m making this change. I’m doing it, because everyone around me is putting in the effort that they need to, so I need to meet them plus more.’ I handed in my resignation letter and I made sure that if it didn’t work out well, I could try to get my job back.
When your back is up against the wall and you need to figure something out, your instincts kick in. You’re going to do what you need to in order to make it work, so that you still have a roof over your head. You still can feed yourself. And that’s essentially what happened. I said, ‘I’m going to work so hard at this and I’m going to do absolutely everything that I have to, so that I do not have to ask for my job back.’ And before I knew it, oh my God, I didn’t just qualify for the Rio Olympics but I came second at the CrossFit Games. And at the CrossFit Games, they pay you money. And so, I was starting to find other ways to generate revenue.
I feel like it’s a very similar situation when it comes to achieving something that people have told you isn’t possible or you’re doing something that’s out of the ordinary. It could be a uni degree that you are trying to achieve. It could be something like I did, embarking on a sporting adventure. It doesn’t matter what you do, there’s always going to be a moment where it’s going to challenge you and you’re going to face adversity, and you’re going to be asked, ‘How badly do you want this?’ And when you find that passion, when you find that determination and that desire, and you know, ‘Hey, this is going to be it. I want to achieve this and I will do absolutely everything I can in my power to do so’, you will do it.
It’s a matter of when. It may not happen in a year. It may not happen in two years, but it will happen, because you are so hungry to achieve it.”
Tia on… What’s next
“For me, I couldn’t be more supportive and appreciative of my competitors. And I mean this with a lot of respect, but I also want to be the most dominant CrossFit athlete of all time. That is from past time to current time to the future. I don’t want that to come across as cocky or confronting, or in a bad way. It’s just I’ve worked so hard that I want my legacy to live on long after I have actively competed in the space. If I can get one more championship or one more notch to my belt, essentially, I feel like it just makes it that much harder for people to chase.
I know that there’s a bit of speculation and there’s a lot of conversation about how this was my last year in CrossFit. And truthfully, I definitely thought that throughout the season; after such an emotional rollercoaster with bobsled and how the criteria and the selection process went down for the Olympics this year, going straight into CrossFit and trying to get through the season, it was a very tiring and emotional season. I definitely felt like this could be it, so I wanted to make sure that every time I stepped on the floor, I competed like it was my last. So when I crossed the line, I was like, ‘You know what? Just embrace it, because you don’t know what the future holds.’
I will admit there’s a part of me that thinks, ‘Why not do another year?’ Throughout my career, I’ve always been very conscious of setting myself up so that I could retire whenever I wanted. That doesn’t mean just financially. I’m turning 30 next year; I can’t just physically retire and not do anything for the rest of my life. I don’t think I’d live a fulfilling life if that were the case. So it’s like, ‘OK, what am I going to do after competition that I’m going to feel that joy?’ There are so many things that I could fall back on but I have to tell you, I don’t know if I want to do that yet.
So that question makes me think, ‘Well, maybe I still have a little bit more in me. Maybe I have another year.’ I just need to make sure that when I sign up to the season, that I have that fire and that desire, because I know regardless of what I’m going to do, I’m going to put the work in and I’m going to make sure I stand up on top of that podium at the end of the season.”
Photography: David Higgs. Styling: Leigh Taylor Richardson for The Only Agency. Hair & Make-up: Christin Cook Zito using Charlotte Tilbury Make-up, T3 hair tools and Oribe hair products for The Only Agency. Producer: Matt Bauer. Location: The Dive Motel (@thedivemotel)1414 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN. Part of Urban Cowboy Hotels, urbancowboy.com
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