Tia-Clair Toomey Helps Australia Qualify for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games
On Jan. 18, 2022, the five-time Fittest Woman on Earth® Tia-Clair Toomey took to her Instagram page to announce that she and her bobsleigh teammate, Ashleigh Werner, helped qualify Australia for the 2022 Winter Olympics to be held in Beijing, China from Feb. 4-20, 2022.
WE DID IT!
Australia earned a total of 730 points across seven races on the International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation (IBSF) two-woman bobsleigh Olympic Winter Games qualification system. Toomey competed in five of them, according to the IBSF. Per the caption on Toomey’s Instagram post:
Now we wait for the team to officially be announced.
Qualifying for the 2022 Beijing Olympics was a two-year process of training and competing for Toomey. It will be her Winter Olympic Games debut. She previously made her Summer Olympic Games as a weightlifter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016 as a 58-kilogram weightlifter to a 14-place overall finish. If Toomey is named on the Australian Olympic team, she will be the first CrossFit athlete to compete at both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.
Editor’s note: Toomey is not confirmed to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games until the official team announcement is made.
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[Related: Emma McQuaid Wins, Pat Vellner Three-Peats — 2022 Wodapalooza Results]
Tia-Clair Toomey’s Professional Bobsleigh Career
According to the IBSF, Toomey made her IBSF debut on Dec. 18, 2021, in the North American Cup to a runner-up finish. Check out the races she’s competed in thus far below:
- 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
Toomey and Werner’s most recent race before securing Australia a spot at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games was the Europe Cup in Innsbruck, Austria. They ranked fourth out of 12 teams (two Russian teams did not start).
2022 Europe Cup
Toomey was the brakewoman, and Werner was the pilot for both runs:
- Run One — 53.95 seconds
- Run Two — 54.01 seconds
- Total — 1:47.96
Team Australia’s time was 0.49 seconds behind the first-place time of 1:47.47, scored by Maureen Zimmer and Neele Schuten of Germany.
Olympic Games, CrossFit Open, Oh My
Toomey trained with the Australian Bobsleigh Team for the past two years during the CrossFit® off-season. During that time, she won two of her five CrossFit Games titles and claimed gold at the Rogue Invitational twice — she’s the only female winner of the Rogue Invitational with three titles to her name.
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games will conclude just four days before the first workout of the 2022 CrossFit Open is released on Feb. 24, 2022. Toomey will compete in the Open and seek her sixth CrossFit Games title, which would be the most of any individual athlete in the sport’s history (she’s currently tied for the most all-time with Mat Fraser).
Featured image: @tiaclair1 on Instagram