Tia-Clair Toomey Not Chosen to Compete at 2022 Winter Olympic Games
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games are scheduled for Feb. 4-20, 2022. Team Australia will send 44 athletes to compete across 10 sports (21 men and 23 women) — the highest female representation for an Australia Winter Olympics Team ever. However, the five-time Fittest Woman on Earth® Tia-Clair Toomey was not selected for the team.
Toomey participated in five two-woman bobsleigh races in the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) as a brakewoman alongside pilot Ashleigh Werner. Their finishes contributed to the 730 points that helped qualify Australia for the two-woman bobsleigh and monopod disciplines at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
According to the Australian Olympic Committee, the highest-ranking Australian pilot, 29-year-old Bree Walker, and brakewoman Kiara Reddingius received the nod and will be the only Australian bobsledders in Beijing. Walker will also compete in the monopod, which will make its Olympic debut as a discipline in 2022.
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Australia did not rank within the top six nations, who will send a second two-woman bobsleigh team to Beijing. The pilot of the two-woman bobsled is also the athlete to compete in the monopod. Walker’s fifth-place ISBF World Series monopod ranking in ISBF 2021/2022 season is 12 ranks above Werner, ranked 17th.
Tia-Clair Toomey’s Bobsleigh Career
According to the ISBF, Toomey has competed in the following five bobsleigh races as a brakewoman alongside Werner as the pilot:
- North American Cup — Dec. 18, 2021 | Second place
- North American Cup — Dec. 19, 2021 | Second place
- North American Cup — Dec. 20, 2021 | Second place
- BMW IBSF World Cup — Jan. 2, 2022 | 12th place
- Europe Cup — Jan. 8, 2022 | Fourth place
- Training WC Bobsleigh & Skeleton — did not start
At the time of this article’s publication, Toomey has not made a public statement regarding her view on the decision to send Walker and Reddingius to the Winter Games. Had Toomey been selected, she would have been the first CrossFit athlete to appear in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games — she competed at the 2016 Rio Games as a weightlifter.
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2022 CrossFit Open
Although Toomey will not compete in Beijing on the ice, she will attempt to defend her CrossFit Games crown starting with the Open, which kicks off on Feb. 24, 2022. Toomey ranked first worldwide in the 2021 Open before winning the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge SemiFinal and her fifth consecutive Games trophy. If she repeats for a sixth-straight year in 2022, she will become the all-time winningest Individual CrossFit Games competitor as the lone athlete with six titles. She is currently tied with Mat Fraser with five titles, Rich Froning has four Games wins, and Annie Thorisdottir and Katrin Davíðsdóttir each have two.
Featured image: @tiaclair1 on Instagram