Tia Opens Up – Motherhood, PRVN Culture, and a Big Prediction
On Wednesday, eight-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr appeared as a guest on the Sport of Fitness podcast to give a lengthy interview and to announce that the 2026 CrossFit Games will return to California, this time at the SAP Center in San Jose.
- Podcast host Chase Ingraham dug into her career and how she has managed to find the right balance in her life to stay at the top of her sport for more than a decade.
Tia Opens Up
The Power of Becoming a Mother
Toomey-Orr admitted there was a time when she lost some of her love for the sport because she was “so focused and tunnel-visioned on the one goal of standing on top of the podium.”
Becoming a mother in 2023, however, helped ground her and remind her of why she “fell in love with CrossFit in the first place, [which] was the community,” she said, all the while providing her with the perspective that “there’s more to life than just competing.”
- “We pinch ourselves every single day being able to do what we love to do on a daily basis with our daughter,” she added.
The Culture at PRVN Fitness
Beyond just Toomey-Orr, PRVN Fitness’s success is on the rise in a big way.
- Last summer, PRVN had three athletes on the podium at the Games – Toomey-Orr, Olivia Kerstetter, and Ricky Garard – while Jay Crouch finished sixth.
Toomey-Orr credits the community she and her husband, coach Shane Orr, have built in Nashville, TN, as another key to her success in the sport – not just the community of elite CrossFit athletes in the gym, but the entire community.
- “Our community understands the intensity of our training, and they respect that space. But then there is this ability to walk through the doors and interact, and have those conversations, and have those laughs,” she said, which helps “mellow out” the intense, high-pressure environment and reminds her to “stop and smell the roses.”
Toomey-Orr explained that the same is true of how the athletes at PRVN interact with one another.
- “When we’re in training, four weeks out of competition, it’s not fun. But when we walk outside the gym and we’re having our coffee and we’re sitting down and we’re laughing, we’re having just such a fun time together…And then we walk through those doors and we know it’s business time,” Toomey-Orr said.
She added: “We have that balance, and we have the ability to really work together and get the best out of each other.”
A Prediction
For two years now, Toomey-Orr has been publicly contemplating retirement.
We thought it might happen after she won her seventh title in 2024.
- And then it sounded like it was happening again after the Torian Pro In-Person Qualifying-Event last May, when Toomey-Orr said, “It’s my moment to say goodbye to this chapter.”
But then, she qualified for the Games, eventually accepted her invitation, and went on to win her eighth title.
So where does that leave her today?
Toomey-Orr didn’t say anything either way on the podcast on Wednesday. That said, she seemed pretty stoked about the Games moving to the SAP Center.
- “From an athlete’s point of view, it’s going to be so electric. We always thought the crowd in Madison was just crazy. But here it’s going to be amplified,” she said.
Our prediction: We will see Toomey-Orr go for her ninth title at the 20th CrossFit Games next July.
The Big Picture
In 2015, Toomey-Orr made her debut at the CrossFit Games as an unknown rookie from Australia. She finished second overall.
- Some wondered if it was a fluke, but she returned the following year and finished second again. It wasn’t a fluke.
Since then, Toomey-Orr has only grown stronger each year, cementing her status as the undeniable G.O.A.T. of our sport.
How many more years she has left in her is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to believe she won’t be in San Jose next summer.
