Is She or Isn’t She? Has Tia-Clair Toomey Decided to Retire From CrossFit Competition?
“For the sixth time and for the final time, Tia Toomey is the Fittest Woman on Earth!” When Sean Woodland announced her plans to retire during the live broadcast on the final day of competition at the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games it signaled the end of an era of dominance by Toomey.
Or did it?
Woodland’s statement was unequivocal, but in multiple follow-ups, Toomey’s responses have left a lot of room for doubt as to whether she’s retiring.
What’s been said so far: Is Toomey going for a seventh title or is she just building suspense for an autumn announcement?
- Sean Woodland on the live broadcast of the final event of the CrossFit Games: “If you’re wondering why Tia Toomey took her time and soaked it in, this is it. She’s planning to retire after the CrossFit Games.”
- Toomey on the floor after winning the 2022 CrossFit Games responding to Niki Brazier’s question: “Do you come back one more time or is this the end?” The six-time champion responded with a smile, “That’s the question. We’ll see.”
- Woodland in a tweet after the Games explaining why he said that on the live broadcast: “I had confirmation and permission from her camp to do it and that’s the only way I would have even thought about mentioning it.”
- Toomey in tears behind the scenes after walking off the floor: “The last five bar muscle-ups will be remembered forever.”
- Toomey at the press conference immediately following the Games: “Well technically I didn’t announce my retirement.” She then added, “we’ll see. There’s a bit of a trend going around, announcing retirement and then coming back. I’ll just keep you guys guessing.”
- Toomey in an Instagram post on August 11: “Seven sounds better, don’t you think?”
- Toomey in a VLOG on August 16 in response to Shane Orr’s question: “What does 2023 look like,” to which she responded: “To be continued.”
Shane Orr, Toomey’s husband, coach and manager, had no comment regarding Toomey’s plans when the Morning Chalk Up reached out to him for a comment.
The big picture: It’s no secret that she and her husband are very guarded and protective of the decisions they make. Everything they do is calculated and has a particular end state in mind. The decision of whether she’s stepping away from competition or not is one no doubt she has decided on but wants to do it on her own accord and platform.
We do know that her camp gave Woodland and the CrossFit team their blessings to announce that this would be her final Games. However, she is reluctant to say it herself at the time and has remained noncommittal since, carefully choosing her words and avoiding saying that she is done, even on her own social media platforms.
Whether Toomey decides to retire or not will have a serious impact on the female side of competition where she’s dominated the last six seasons.
- We know that she’s been invited to compete at the Rogue Invitational at the end of October and it stands to reason she’ll return to compete for a shot at what could be upwards of a $250,000 first-place prize purse.
- Delaying an announcement after Rogue would also give CrossFit’s media team more time to prepare a proper tribute to the queen of CrossFit.
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