Australian Tia Clair Toomey is truly extraordinary athlete. For the second year in a row she was named the Second Fittest Woman on the planet, by her placement in the Crossfit Games, a grueling five-day, 17-event test across numerous fitness domains. Then, a couple of weeks after this competition, she represented Australia at the Olympics in the weightlifting competition. How enviable is her achievement? So much so that some wanker at The Sydney Morning Herald, in a fog of foolishness, ripped into Toomey for being “only the 14th strongest” woman in the 58kg class.
Consider that when America’s Morghan King placed sixth out of twelve competing in the 48kg class, it was roundly considered a triumph. Yet King–a fantastic athlete–trains only for weightlifting; she does Itwo lifts: the snatch and the clean-and-jerk. To be a Crossfit athlete, Toomey trains an insane array of movements and modalities, from track and field to gymnastics to weightlifting to distance running, as well as several that the Herald’s writer, Roy Masters, finds “bizarre”—handstand walking, sprinting, and swimming in the ocean. To then make it to the highest level of competition in a highly technical specialist discipline is an achievement worthy of praise and awe. Rumor has it that Masters himself has mastered only one sport: pint drinking.
For a thorough takedown of his ignorant twaddle, read this.
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