Tia-Clair Toomey is the fittest woman in the world. She struggled to embrace her muscles.

Tia-Clair Toomey is the fittest woman in the world. 

It's a title she's held for the past six years.

The 29-year-old Aussie most recently defended it when she won the 2022 CrossFit Games earlier this year in August.

"I dedicate so much of my time to this sport," she told the ABC. 

"[It's great] to be able to showcase the hard work, what my team and I have been able to do all season long, even years before."

At the time, Toomey dominated the competition - which tests athletes across 13 events including weightlifting, sprint and swimming - to become the most decorated athlete in CrossFit history. 

And in true Aussie style, she celebrated her win with a shoey on the world stage. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NOBULL+ (@nobullplus)

Here's everything we know about Toomey's road to becoming the fittest woman in the world. 

Her early life growing up in rural Queensland. 

Before she made a name for herself around the world, Toomey grew up on a cane farm in Nambour, a rural town on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. 

It was here where she found an early love of sports.

She played everything under the sun, from "tennis and netball to running and swimming, and dabbling in gymnastics and touch football".

"In my eyes, it was all about being the best all-round athlete versus being really good at one particular sport," she told Women's Health. 

Her love of sports was inspired by her parents.

"They weren’t necessarily into sports per se but I heard stories about how my mum could run circles around dad, and my dad was such a great swimmer and a great surfer. Hearing those cool stories about my parents allowed me to really aspire to do stuff like that. It made me realise the importance of finding what made me really happy, and then running with it and seeing what was out there."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (@tiaclair1)

From a lab technician to a CrossFitter. 

Toomey first discovered CrossFit with her then-boyfriend and now-husband and coach Shane Orr back in 2014, when they moved to Gladstone in Queensland. 

Speaking to Insider, Toomey said she considered herself to be "running fit" at the time rather than CrossFit fit.

"My arms were little twigs!" she told the publication. "I never used my arms. I was always using my legs because I was just doing track."

But she quickly got hooked. 

"I wasn't focusing on developing muscle, but I got hooked on trying to lift more," she said. "I just wanted to nail those weights, and once I hit each one, I wanted to do more."

At the time, Toomey was working as a lab technician. And while it wasn't her "dream job" it was "a very comfortable, very secure job," she told Women's Health.

As she continued to get into CrossFit, she was given the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics for weightlifting. That's when her coach turned to her with some advice.

"The coach was trying to help Shane and I take that next step in our training and I was really progressing. I was quite determined, but I remember this coach saying, 'If you want to go all in, you need to leave your shift work, because the night shifts are not helping with your recovery. If you really want to go all in, you need to make that sacrifice'."

"I was like, 'Well, that’s a bit crazy to turn away a job that I’ve only been in for two years and is so secure'."

Toomey spent the next eight months contemplating if she should hand in her resignation letter.

"It wasn’t an overnight decision," explained. 

But she eventually thought, "‘You know what? I’m making this change. I’m doing it, because everyone around me is putting in the effort that they need to, so I need to meet them plus more.'"

Her struggles with embracing her body.

After Toomey started getting into CrossFit, she started to struggle "embracing" her new body as she put on more muscle. 

"I didn't look like I'd gotten any bigger, but I'd definitely toned up a lot more," she told Insider. "My traps and my shoulders were looking a lot bigger."

According to the publication, she started getting upset when clothes she loved didn't fit her like they used to, and she eventually broke down in front of Orr one day. 

"He said to me, 'I've watched you over the last year coming home excited about what you've accomplished in the gym and you've put in so much hard work. Why are you getting down on yourself when these are just extra benefits?"

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (@tiaclair1)

It wasn't until Toomey decided she wanted to try out for the CrossFit Games that her mindset changed. 

"I started becoming a lot more confident in my body, started accepting it for what it was, and started appreciating the hard work behind my definition," she said. 

Since then, she went to compete at the 2015 CrossFit Games, coming in second and earning the distinction of Rookie of the Year. 

The following year, she racked up another second-place finish before she finally took out the top spot in 2017 and earned herself the title of the fittest woman in the world at 24.

And she hasn't looked back since. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr (@tiaclair1)

But holding onto a six year winning streak hasn't been easy. 

When training for the games, Toomey works out for around 10 hours a day, according to Insider. 

It's a step up from her usual five to six hours of training she does outside of competition. 

"It definitely takes a lot of hard work to do that. It doesn't just happen overnight and people need to realise that it's a long process to get to where I am today. Not just in terms of my accolades, but in terms of what my body looks like," she told the publication. 

"I am so proud of the way my body looks and I could not care less if someone doesn't agree with me, because I know what's been done in order to get to where I am."

Competing in the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. 

In 2016, Toomey represented Australia in weightlifting at the Rio Olympics, where she placed 14th. 

For Toomey, competing at the Olympics was something she always wanted to do as a kid. 

"I just felt like that was what I was meant to do," she told Insider. 

"Constantly putting the work in, working really hard to achieve a goal — I had no idea what I wanted to do because I never really wanted to put limitations on myself."

Two years later, she took home gold in the 2018 Commonwealth Games after she pulled off a 114kg clean and jerk. 

"I didn’t know exactly how much was on the bar, the crowd was so electric, I was really in the zone," she later told Channel Seven. 

At the time, she dedicated her win to her 17-year-old cousin, Jade, who passed away the week earlier after a car accident. 

"Last Tuesday my little cousin passed away, so this is for her," she told Channel Seven. 

"This is a special moment and something I kind of feel will bring some light into the family."

Tia-Clair Toomey wins gold at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. Image: Robert Cianflone/Getty. 

Earlier this year, Toomey, who has gone on to release an autobiography, qualified for the Winter Olympics in bobsleigh.

However, she later missed out on selection by the Australian team. 

As she looks to the future, it seems she's considering if she will compete in another CrossFit games and try to take out the win for a seventh year in the row, after the 2022 games were suspected to be her last. 

"I know that there’s a bit of speculation and there’s a lot of conversation about how this was my last year in CrossFit. And truthfully, I definitely thought that throughout the season; after such an emotional rollercoaster with bobsled and how the criteria and the selection process went down for the Olympics this year, going straight into CrossFit and trying to get through the season, it was a very tiring and emotional season," she told Women's Health.

However, the 29-year-old said there is a part of her that thinks "Why not do another year?"

"I just need to make sure that when I sign up to the season, that I have that fire and that desire, because I know regardless of what I’m going to do, I’m going to put the work in and I’m going to make sure I stand up on top of that podium at the end of the season."

Feature Image: Getty/Instagram@tiaclair1

TAKE SURVEY ➤