The Queens of Rogue

Photo Credits: Athlete’s Eye

In six years of the Rogue Invitational there have still only been two female champions, that comes as no surprise to anyone, but the totality of what Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr and Laura Horvath have achieved over that span, and in particular this year, is somewhat mind-boggling when you actually take a moment to appreciate it. 

Laura Horvath 

• Is the only woman who has competed at the Rogue Invitational all six years
• Improved every year for her first 5 years
  • 19th (DQ), 5th, 4th, 1st, 1st
• Earned her third-straight podium this year, placing 2nd
• Has competed in 49 total events at Rogue
• Has won 39% of the events in the last three years (11 out of 28)
  • Four in 2022; Three in 2023; Four in 2024
• Has a career top-5 finish rate of 59% (29 out of 49 events)
• Has only ever finished 1st (twice) or 2nd (twice) in “The Duel” events
• Missed the final in 2019 after getting DQed based on a minimum work requirement rule, but has finished 4th or better on the final event in every year since
• Has earned over 83% of the total points available in the last three years (2330 out of 2800 possible)

Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr

• Has competed in five of the six years at Rogue, only missing 2022 when she was pregnant
• Is now a 4-time Rogue Invitational Champion, giving her twice as many as any other athlete, male or female (Horvath, Pat Vellner, and Justin Medeiros each have two)
• Only lost one time, and it was a second place to Horvath in 2023 less than six months after giving birth to her daughter, Willow
• Has competed in 40 events in her career at Rogue
• Has won 17 of those 40 events (42.5%)
• Has finished 2nd on 11 events (27.5)
• That means seven out of every 10 times she has started an event at Rogue she’s finished 1st or 2nd… 
• Of the remaining 12 events, six of them were top-5 finishes 
• And only two of them were lower than 8th
• She’s won the opening event four out of five times (she took third on “Go Ruck” in 2021)
• She’s won the final event four out of five times (she took third on “The Clean Up” in 2023)
• Over the five years she’s competed at Rogue she has earned over 89% of the total points available (3571 out of 4000)

Nine for Nine

Prior to the 2024 Rogue Invitational we had Carolyne Prevost and Alexys D’Toile on the podcast to preview the women’s field. The question was asked if Tia and Laura would combine for seven or more event wins out of the nine advertised events. Alexys responded that she’d take the over, saying ‘they could win a combined seven, eight or nine (meaning all) of the events’. We all sort of laughed about it on the show, because that’s absurd, right? 

Wrong.

It was prophetic.

And that’s exactly what happened. 

Tia Opens With 4-Straight

Tia opened the competition with four consecutive wins. She won both events 1 and 2 by :11 seconds over Gabi Migala, won event 3 by nearly a minute over Brooke Wells, and won event 4 by about :50 seconds over Laura. 

Laura Reels Off The Next 4

Laura, however, was not phased. She responded with four consecutive wins of her own to draw even on event wins heading into the finale. She began by beating Tia by about :14 seconds on event 5, closed out Saturday by beating Emma Tall in “The Duel IV” final round, then came back Sunday to win events 7 and 8 by a combined total of 2 minutes! 

A Final to Decide it All

The final was announced as a sandbag clean ladder, and everyone seemed to think this was meant for Laura. Tia, however, had other plans. Last year Tia was close enough to beat Laura in the final but ultimately didn’t have quite enough in her superhuman return of giving birth less than half a year earlier. It seemed this year that finishing the competition on a high note was important to her. She didn’t need the win to take home the championship belt, but she definitely wanted it. It was a very close race, and for the first time other than the duel, it appeared someone other than one of these two might win. Ultimately Tia found a way to finish 4 seconds ahead of Dani Speegle and secure the belt she’d watched Laura hoist high for two straight seasons. 

The Queens of Rogue

While Tia’s career accolades, and even her credentials at Rogue, are in a league of their own. What these two women have accomplished both this year, and collectively over their Rogue careers, is the stuff of legend. Through the first six years of the most prestigious out of season event we have, they are the “Queens of Rogue”.