Opinion

CrossFit: Tia-Clair Toomey and the 10 women who could challenge her at 2021 Games

The Australian will be favourite to win it all again this year, but she can expect some fierce challengers

Ten women, who have all proven themselves with past results, look to make their way onto the podium

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Tia-Clair Toomey looks unbeatable, again, but she will definitely have some challengers at the 2021 CrossFit Games. Photo: CrossFit Games

Brian Friend is an American CrossFit coach who also works as an analyst, writer, broadcast coordinator and consultant for the sport.

Published: 7:00pm, 25 Feb 2021Updated: 7:00pm, 25 Feb 2021

With the retirement of five-time “Fittest Man on Earth” Mat Fraser, there has been little attention given to the women’s competition as the 2021 CrossFit Open draws closer. Perhaps that’s because there is an equally dominant force in four-time defending champion Tia-Clair Toomey.

The Australian’s performance at the 2020 Games would likely have been the most dominating we had ever seen if not for Fraser outperforming her (he had one more event win, accumulated 125 more points, and had a margin of victory 185 points larger).

Despite the 27-year-old’s supremacy, there is a fierce and competitive group of women who will challenge her. Here are our top 10:

Katrin Davidsdottir was second last year to Toomey, has six consecutive top five finishes, is a two-time champ (2015 and 2016) and is always in contention. She’s still only 27 and has new training partners with her at CrossFit New England this season (Samuel Kwant and Amanda Barnhart). There is no reason not to expect her to be battling for the podium again this year.

Katrin Davidsdottir is always a perennial contender at the CrossFit Games. Photo: CrossFit Games

The last woman who looked like she had a chance to beat Toomey was Kara Saunders in 2017. She is 31 now but her performances since returning from having a child have been as impressive as ever. She was 12th worldwide in the 2020 Open, third at the Rogue online competition last June, and eighth (but only seven points out of fifth) in stage one of the Games. She appears to have great balance in her life and has enough raw talent to once again compete with the best.

Despite poor performances at the last two Games, things are actually looking promising for Sara Sigmundsdottir. Like Davidsdottir and Toomey, she’s still in the prime of her career at 28. She’s recently hired Max El-Haag of Training Think Tank which seems like an excellent fit for her. Not making stage two of the Games last year was probably a good thing for her. When Sigmundsdottir is healthy, she does extremely well.