Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr joined Chris Irwin on the Navy SEAL Foundation podcast recently. In the 73-minute interview that was published yesterday, Tia and Chris cover a wide range of topics from how she began CrossFit, her early years competing and then to last year’s Games and finally her plans for 2025.
Throughout the interview Tia opened up and gave some insights into her thoughts surrounding the circumstances around Lazar Đukić’s death at the 2024 CrossFit Games and how the CrossFit Games could potentially be run in the future.
At 15:42, Tia talks about how training for HYROX is at odds with training for CrossFit, especially when it comes down to running speed versus overall strength.
“Right now I’m also trying to do HYROX. So the CrossFit and the HYROX right now is the exact same thing. I’m really trying to work on bringing my speed up in my running but I’m losing a lot of strength by doing that because, you know, the more weight that you’re lifting the slower you’re going to pull down on your speed. So it’s really like a fascinating experience.” Tia added, “Something we’re trying to finesse and wee at what point can I still do both.”
Later on, at the 50:35 mark, Tia speaks about training for the CrossFit Games and her mindset following Lazar’s death.
“I’m not training my ass off day after day, sacrificing time with my loved ones, with my daughter, to just participate at the CrossFit Games. I’m training, and you know, hitting the gym so damn hard everyday to win because that is the only option,” said Toomey-Orr.
“So, like, especially last year when Lazar had passed away, obviously it was so tragic, but I couldn’t bring myself to think, okay, like no, I’m gonna quit. One, I know Lazar wouldn’t freaking quit and two, I’m going to show up and I’m going to keep competing and finish off the goal because the job is winning and standing on top of the podium and there was nothing else that I was prepared to do.”
The topic then moves onto the CrossFit methodology versus the sport side and the CrossFit Games. Here, at 1:03:13, Tia appears to disagree with Greg Glassman’s approach to the Games in 2018 when he changed the direction of the company.
“I definitely think there is a really nice, um, like it does compliment each other in a way because, like past leadership or ownership haven’t enjoyed the CrossFit Games because it’s taken away from the training methodology of CrossFit. Where I actually would disagree with that because all over the world having athletes, it draws attention to the sport and to CrossFit itself. So having the CrossFit Games has been so great for CrossFit and the training methodology because people are like, ‘oh what is this’ and ‘holy, look at these incredible athletes and what they’re capable of’.”
Shortly after that, at 1:05:20, Tia voices her opinions about the structure and operations behind running the CrossFit Games. Tia mentions the idea of a third-party group to run the Games, but that Dave Castro should continue to program. Tia doesn’t provide insight into who that third-party organization might be, and admits that she doesn’t fully understand all that goes on to run a competition as large as the Games.
“Do I think CrossFit should be running the CrossFit Games? Maybe not. And I mean that with full respect and I’ve actually, you know, been quite vocal about this to Don [Faul] and some of the team, people at CrossFit. I think the CrossFit Games has become very big, so big that they almost need a third-party to run the event and them help finesse it and keep it CrossFit-related because they’re the ones that know what the affiliates and the athletes love.
“I definitely think Dave Castro should be programming for the CrossFit Games because I personally have really appreciated what Dave has done for CrossFit and for us as athletes. What happened last year was a freak accident, you know, but I definitely believe that Dave has always had his best interest at heart and I’m upsetting a lot of people by saying this, but I’m also standing true to how I feel because I think that Dave really cares about us athletes and I think that Dave really cares about how the CrossFit Games runs and he looks at all the tiny little pieces that not everyone looks at.
“We’ve had different programmers in the past and I do believe that there were a lot of things missed. These are just my opinions whether they’re right or wrong, this is just how I have felt and I feel like I can say this type of stuff because I’ve experienced so many different competitions. I’ve experienced so many different programs throughout my career as a competitor. Dave runs the best event in my opinion, programs the best event in my opinion.”
And then before the podcast wraps up, Chris asks one of the questions many have been wondering, “Will Tia go for an 8th CrossFit Games title?”
“I’m not too sure. I’m, right now, I’m actually just focusing on some HYROX. I was just partnering up with James Newbury in Melbourne in December last year and we actually qualified for the World Championships in Chicago in June. Yeah, alright, let’s start training for this.”
“I still have to make some big decisions, like I said, the training for HYROX and CrossFit are very different. They can be quite complimentary but not if you want to win the CrossFit Games or if you want to win HYROX so I’m trying to navigate that and I’m trying to figure out. It’s getting pretty close to the Open so I’ve got to make some hard decisions, but we’ll see. I’m definitely be supportive and a part of it to an extent no matter what it looks like.”
Andrew Hiller also watched the interview and spent 15 minutes analyzing Tia’s comments regarding Dave’s programming and her comments around a third-party being involved with the operations.
