Six-time CrossFit Games champion Tia-Clair Toomey is stepping into a new chapter—and leading the charge is hybrid athlete and coach James Kelly.
After dominating the sport of CrossFit and competing at the highest level in weightlifting and bobsled, Toomey is now shifting her full athletic focus to HYROX, a growing global race format that combines strength, conditioning, and endurance in a standardized arena. It’s a pivot that requires new tools, new pacing, and a different kind of coach. For Toomey, that coach is Kelly.
“What’s great about JK is that he’s already an expert in this field,” said Toomey. “He’s two-dimensional—he’s been both an athlete and a coach. That’s what makes working with him so valuable right now.”
Kelly recently joined the Proven team, the coaching organization founded by Toomey and her partner Shane Orr. While Proven has long been known for guiding CrossFit elites, Kelly’s arrival marks a new wave of hybrid training specialization within the team—focused specifically on the unique demands of events like HYROX.
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A Coach Built for Hybrid Performance
James Kelly’s value lies in his deep understanding of what Toomey now faces. As both a former athlete in the hybrid space and a performance coach, he brings firsthand knowledge of how the sport unfolds, where athletes struggle, and how pacing must evolve across stations and running intervals.
Kelly’s coaching is rooted in precision and pacing.
“We’re going to become a lot more sport-specific,” he told Toomey and James Newbury during a recent session. “You’ve got the base to run faster—we just need to teach your body to handle it under fatigue.”
That specificity includes threshold-based running, fatigue-adapted intervals, and high-intensity station simulation, designed to mimic the challenges of HYROX events. Toomey is now preparing for her next race in Brisbane on March 1–2, and under Kelly’s direction, every session is built with purpose.
A two-part 10K time trial, one early in the block and another 10 days before race day, serves as the anchor for Toomey’s aerobic benchmarks. The data helps Kelly and the team determine her current threshold pace—an essential input when calculating how fast she can go, how long she can hold it, and when to shift gears.
“Don’t assume your threshold is your race pace,” Kelly explained. “It’s your Plan B. If things fall apart, that’s what you fall back on—not what you aim for.”
Mental Resilience and Self-Reliance in Training
Physical preparation is only half the equation.
Kelly places equal emphasis on psychological resilience. With many training sessions done alone in the Proven barn gym—sometimes in 35°C heat—athletes are forced to confront discomfort, doubt, and isolation. Kelly believes that’s where the real work happens.
“If you can’t train by yourself, how are you going to race by yourself?” he asked during a check-in with the team.
Toomey has internalized that message in a unique way.
She’s created a fictional training companion named Phil Fitness—a mental character she trains with to stay focused and accountable. It’s a playful, imaginative tool, but it serves a serious purpose.
“Fitness is a person to me,” Toomey said. “Phil Fitness is who I train with every day. Most of the time, he does me wonders. It helps me push when no one else is around.”
This type of internal dialogue is something Kelly actively encourages. It gives athletes a way to gamify discipline, create consistency, and avoid burnout.
From CrossFit to HYROX: The New Training Landscape
Toomey’s transition into HYROX marks a major shift.
In past years, she often split her attention between sports—balancing CrossFit season prep, weightlifting meets, and even winter sports like bobsled. But this year, she’s going all in. That singular focus is already producing results.
Toomey and Newbury recently competed at HYROX Melbourne, their first official event together. Despite being newcomers to the format, they exceeded expectations and qualified for HYROX Chicago in June.
Still, Toomey admits she was cautious during that race.
“I remember being pretty reserved at the beginning,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was worried about pacing, about whether James would have to wait on me. But now I feel way more confident.”
That growing confidence is what Kelly and the team hope to capitalize on in Brisbane.
Brisbane as the Benchmark
Brisbane isn’t just the next stop—it’s a test.
Kelly, Orr, and the Proven team want it to be a statement race, one that reflects the refinement of training, mindset, and team dynamics since Melbourne.
Toomey’s preparation has intensified. Training sessions are now built around race-mirroring intervals, combining high-stakes station work with aggressive pacing. Every element is designed to mimic the HYROX format under pressure and fatigue.
“Based on what we’ve done since Melbourne, I have no doubt we’d perform even better right now,” Toomey said. “It’s exciting to go into this next race knowing more, feeling stronger, and having JK guide us through it.”
A Proven Team with Proven Intentions
Kelly’s addition to the Proven roster signals more than just a new hire—it marks the evolution of the team’s identity.
Originally built to support Toomey’s CrossFit career, Proven has grown into a multi-sport coaching collective. And as interest in hybrid racing explodes, Proven is positioning itself as a bridge between functional fitness and endurance sport.
“I never thought we’d have this many coaches,” said Toomey. “It used to be just Shane and I, running around trying to make it all work. Now we’ve got this phenomenal team.”
That team now includes athletes and coaches who specialize in performance across platforms—CrossFit, endurance, and now HYROX. The dual expertise allows Proven to help athletes coexist in both worlds, without compromising success in either.
“HYROX and CrossFit don’t have to be mutually exclusive,” said Newbury. “They can complement each other. For most people, doing both just makes you better.”
Looking Ahead to the Floor—and Beyond
As the Brisbane event nears, Toomey, Newbury, and Kelly are refining the final layers of prep. Pacing strategies are dialed in. Recovery protocols are mapped. Final race simulations are locked in.
But for Kelly, the work goes deeper than programming.
His role as coach is about building a system, creating trust, and pushing athletes to become more independent—even while staying connected.
That philosophy fits Toomey perfectly. And with her experience, drive, and now a specialist in her corner, the stage is set for another dominant chapter—this time in an entirely new arena.
“We’re still figuring it out,” she said. “But that’s the exciting part. The sport’s evolving, and so are we.”
