Tia-Clair Toomey Announces Pregnancy and “Change of Events” for 2023 Games Season
T’was the night before Christmas and all through the house…well, you know how it’s supposed to go.
But then Tia-Clair Toomey, 29, announced she’s pregnant and will be sitting out of the 2023 CrossFit Games season.
- “There has been a slight change of events for the 2023 season,” Toomey said in an Instagram post.
- “We are extremely excited to share, WE’RE PREGNANT.”
The six-time CrossFit Games champion shared the news on Christmas Eve. The post was accompanied by a series of pictures with Toomey and her husband Shane Orr holding a pair of baby shoes.
Toomey called it “the greatest surprise & significantly special to share with family and friends while being home in Australia for Christmas.”
One big thing: Actually this is a huge thing. As Toomey and Orr devote themselves to starting their family this season, the door is now wide open for a new Games champion on the women’s side.
- During the 2022 campaign, Mal O’Brien, Haley Adams, Laura Horvath, Emma Lawson, and Danielle Brandon, among many others, all made a case for their own position in the sport and on the leaderboard.
- With this announcement, they will all be chomping at the bit to earn the white leader’s jersey at the Games and become the first new athlete to stand atop the podium since 2017.
Remind me: Following the 2022 Games, Toomey was quite cagey about whether or not she was retiring from the sport.
- Sean Woodland announced that Toomey was taking the title for the “sixth and final time” at the conclusion of the Games, but Toomey backtracked.
- That started a back-and-forth of “will she or won’t she” retire for several weeks, culminating in Toomey ending the rumors in a TV interview in September with Newschannel5 in Nashville, TN.
Now what?: Toomey told Insider she is due in early May and the pregnancy was a surprise shortly after she won the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games.
- “Starting a family with Shane has always been something we’ve wanted to do, but my competitive career just took over,” she told Insider.
The bottom line: This is huge news for the women’s side of the sport and we here at the Morning Chalk Up offer our heartfelt congratulations to Tia-Clair and Shane.
- Toomey didn’t share her competition plans after pregnancy: “I definitely don’t know what the future holds,” she told Insider.
- She added, her baby and her family will come first and what comes after “we’ll see.”
We can’t help but speculate though–will Toomey take the Games by storm in 2024, like Annie Thorisdottir did in 2021?
- Toomey: “My seventh title is going to be put on hold for the time being.”
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