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.

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."

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?"