- CrossFit champion Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr is pregnant with her first child, she told Insider.
- The pregnancy was a surprise to the six-time Fittest Woman on Earth, but she's "so excited."
Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr, widely considered the greatest CrossFit athlete of all time, is pregnant with her first child with coach and husband Shane Orr.
Toomey-Orr, 29, is the only athlete to win the CrossFit Games six times in a row, having beaten Mat Fraser's five-year record in August 2022.
In an exclusive interview with Insider, the six-time Fittest Woman on Earth said she's due in early May so will not be competing at the 2023 Games in August.
Getting pregnant was the 'best kind' of surprise, Toomey-Orr said
She also said that the pregnancy was a surprise.
"Starting a family with Shane has always been something we've wanted to do, but my competitive career just took over," the Australian athlete said.
However, discovering she was pregnant was the "best kind" of surprise, Toomey-Orr said.
"I'm so excited, I can't wait," Toomey-Orr said. "You should have seen Shane's face when I told him, I've never seen him so happy."
After competing at the Games in August 2022, Toomey-Orr entered the off-season. She said she found herself feeling "all over the place," emotional, and her hormones went "through the roof."
Toomey-Orr thought she might have adrenal fatigue, so had some medical tests. The doctor soon told Toomey-Orr what was actually happening: she was pregnant.
Toomey-Orr said she hadn't suspected anything because she always gains a little weight in the off-season.
Toomey doesn't know if she'll return to competitive CrossFit as a mom
After Toomey-Orr's record-breaking sixth consecutive CrossFit Games win, many people wondered whether she would retire or try for number seven.
Before her pregnancy, the plan was very much to keep going, Toomey-Orr said. But now, the athlete's priorities have shifted and she can't yet say whether she'll go back to competing.
"I definitely don't know what the future holds," she said.
Her current priority is to be the best mom she can be and take things one step at a time. "Our baby and our family will come first," she said.
What comes after that? "We'll see," Toomey-Orr said.
Toomey-Orr loves how her body is changing
When Toomey-Orr first got into CrossFit, she struggled for a while with her increasingly muscular body, she previously told Insider. But a few months into pregnancy, Toomey-Orr says she "actually loves" her growing body.
"My boobs are bigger, my belly is bigger, my hips are wider," she said. "But this is one of the most incredible and most special times of my life, I'm so fortunate to be able to experience this."
If keeping her baby as healthy as possible requires putting on some extra body fat, she said she has no qualms about it and will feel proud of her body.
"There are some people in the world that may never have the opportunity to do this," Toomey-Orr said. "So I'm just trying to embrace every single minute of it, I'm actually embracing the extra or excess weight that I'm putting on."
Toomey-Orr believes her success as an athlete comes down to determination and the time and effort she's put in over the years. Keeping active, fit, and healthy is still important to her, both for her own health and that of the baby, she said.
But with Toomey-Orr staying on the sidelines for the 2023 CrossFit Games, there will be plenty of athletes hungry to take her crown — or borrow it, at least.