Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr Wins Her First Bobsled Race
The reigning four-time Fittest Woman on Earth®, 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and former Olympic weightlifter Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr completed her first two official races as a bobsledder. Alongside pilot Ashleigh Werner, Toomey-Orr scored two wins at the New Horizon races in South Korea.
At the end of 2020, Toomey-Orr went to train with the Australian bobsled team and their coach Heath Spence. She is a brakewoman in a two-woman bobsled. As the brakewoman, Toomey-Orr’s job is to properly push-start a bobsled on the ice in 14-degree Fahrenheit temperatures and then hang in the back as the pilot steers them down the ice. Check out Toomey-Orr’s running start in the video from her Instagram page below, posted on Feb. 4, 2021:
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There is still a lot to learn and fine-tune, but I can officially say I have done my very first Bobsled race.
Back in May 2019, the Australian bobsled team reached out to Toomey-Orr in hopes of recruiting her for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games — which is to take place from Feb. 4 through Feb. 20, 2022. They were successful, and Toomey-Orr has disclosed her hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Games on the Big Idea Big Moves podcast with Jamie Allison.
Toomey-Orr’s training has been primarily on the ice since she finished up her dominant performance at the 2020 CrossFit Games, where she won nine out of a possible 12 events in the Finals. If Toomey-Orr does qualify for the 2022 Olympic Games, she would be the first CrossFit athlete to compete in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Bobsled and CrossFit
Toomey-Orr is one of several elite CrossFitters who has recently taken up speeding through ice shoots in a bobsled. Fellow Australian James Newbury competes with the men’s Australian bobsled team also as a brakeman. He has already posted results in the International Bobsled & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) European Cup, with his best finish being 13th in Innsbruck, Austria, on Jan. 15, 2021.
Two-time CrossFit Games competitor Colleen Fotsch has also transitioned to bobsled as a member of Team USA. Although three-time CrossFit Games team athlete Kelsey Kiel didn’t make the cut for Team USA, she has also made her way into the sport. Former CrossFit Games team competitor Blaine McConnell currently competes in bobsled for Team USA.
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[Related: Watch Tia-Clair Toomey And Brooke Wells’ First CrossFit Workout As Teammates]
Fittest on Earth
Toomey-Orr may be participating in the upcoming 2021 CrossFit Open en route to claiming a potential fifth consecutive CrossFit Games title. CrossFit’s off-season takes place during the bobsled season, so, with the pace she’s currently on, don’t be surprised if you see the Fittest Woman on Earth competing on the world stage in multiple sports year-round.
Feature image: @tiaclair1 on Instagram