Tia-Clair Toomey Announces Pregnancy, Will Not Compete in the 2023 CrossFit Season
Christmas came early for six-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey and her husband and coach Share Orr. On Dec. 24, 2022, Toomey posted on her Instagram page, “There has been a slight change of events for this 2023 season. From our growing family to yours, we are extremely excited to share — WE’RE PREGNANT.”
Later the same day, Shane Orr posted on his Instagram that “2023 may look different, but this will be our best achievement yet.”
[Related: Austin Malleolo to Replace Gary Gaines as CrossFit’s General Manager of Affiliates]
Additionally, on Toomey and Orr’s YouTube channel, the couple released a video titled “I will not be competing at the 2023 CrossFit Games.” In the nearly 10-minute back and forth between Toomey and Orr, there is humor, sincerity, and nervousness, but amidst all the emotion, Toomey mentions that “my seventh title is going to be put on hold, for the time being.”
[Related: 2023 CrossFit Season Equipment List Announced]
Toomey’s Competitive History
2023 will be the first time Toomey hasn’t competed at the CrossFit Games since 2015. After taking second place at the Games in 2015 and 2016, she broke through and won her first CrossFit Games by two points over fellow Australian Kara Saunders in 2017.
Toomey maintained that momentum and launched the most dominant streak any Individual CrossFitter has strung together in the sport’s history. It’s one more than five-time Fittest Man on Earth® and former training partner Mat Fraser, and four more than the next closest female competitors — Annie Thorisdottir and Katrin Davíðsdóttir each have two CrossFit Games titles.
[Related: CrossFit Announces Semifinal Locations and Dates for 2023 Season]
2023 Individual Women’s Division Landscape
With Toomey out of the 2023 elite female Individual field, the Games podium’s top spot is open for the first time in over half a decade. Several women will be on the hunt to be Toomey’s successor as Fittest Woman on Earth®.
Leading the way amongst them are the Games podium finishers from 2022: 18-year-old Mallory O’Brien, who placed second at the Games in her sophomore season as an Individual, and the 25-year-old Hungarian Laura Horvath who was third at the Games in 2022, and has two second-place finishes to Toomey in her career at the Games in 2018 and 2021.
While there was uncertainty since the final event of the 2022 Games, followed by confirmation that she would compete for a seventh consecutive Games title, there is now no doubt that a new Fittest Woman on Earth® will be crowned in 2023.
Featured image: @tiaclair1 on Instagram