Everything you need to know about the fitness influencer, Cass Olholm

A legal showdown between Bikini Body Training Company, founded by Kayla Itsines, and Cass Olholm is currently rumbling. Here’s how the legal dispute rolled out.

Fitness blogger Cass Olholm. Picture: Stewart McLean

It’s been labelled the battle of the bikini bodies.

The company founded by Adelaide global fitness superstar Kayla Itsines has taken a trainer lauded as the industry’s “rising star” to court, seeking to stop her operating a rival brand.

Legal proceedings were launched against Cass Olholm in September over her attempts to start a new fitness program called “Train with Cass”.

But one of the biggest questions since then has been: Who exactly is Cass Olholm?

Cairns gym owner Cass Olholm attracted 12,500 Instagram likes in one day when she posted her washboard abs.

Who is Cass Olholm?

The 32-year-old hails from Cairns, where she lives with her husband, Jake, and their two children, Charlotte, four, and eight-month-old boy Connor.

She is a qualified nutritionist – who later became a trainer – and is the co-founder of Cairns gym, The Grounds, which opened in 2018.

She started garnering a substantial following on social media after sharing diet and fitness tips. At last count, she had a neat 362,000 followers on Instagram alone.

“Growing up I was always quite skinny, for lack of a better word. My family always used to joke that, ‘You’re just skin and bones’, so [doing this kind of training] was never something I thought I’d be capable of,” she told Women’s Health last year.

“I guess that’s what lit the fire for me to then show other people that they can do it too, because there was nothing special about me. If I could do it, there is absolutely no reason that other people couldn’t do it too.”

Cass Olholm encourages people wanting to make healthier food choices to consider the reason behind the change. Picture: Supplied

Cairns-based Cass Olholm has become a rising star in the fitness world. Picture: Justin Brierty

Cass Olholm’s childhood and early years

Olholm’s early years were mostly spent at $5000-a-year private school, Trinity Anglican School in Cairns.

She was Junior House Captain and Head Senior Sports Captain, and was also part of the debate team and many sporting teams including touch football, cross country, track and field and the swimming team.

Her father Geoff Olholm was the owner of BIG4 Holiday Stay in Cairns called “Cairns Coconut Holiday Resort”.

In 2011, she commenced her higher education in the Queensland University of Technology where she studied a Bachelor of Health, specialising in nutrition.

How is Olholm linked with Kayla Itsines?

Olholm’s rising star status was largely credited to her appearing as a high-intensity trainer on Itsines’s fitness app, Sweat.

After being named as a new trainer back in 2020, she told the Cairns Post: “It’s so exciting and such an awesome opportunity to have. To have the flexibility to have an impact on women all around the world.”

The pair appeared to grow close during Olholm’s two-year stint with the company, with Olholm and Itsines even sharing a video of them working out with matching baby bumps.

The company founded by Adelaide global fitness superstar Kayla Itsines has launched legal action against Cass Olholm. Picture: Supplied

Why were legal proceedings launched?

Bikini Body Training Company launched a SA Supreme Court injunction in September, with representative Nicholas Swan stating that Ms Olholm’s contract with Sweat only ended in February 2023 and contained a 12-month non-compete clause.

He said the launch of Olholm’s new fitness plan and social media advertising breached the clause and put his client at risk of losing business to “an alternative option” for training.

“This is not just somebody who has left a business after mowing some lawns and taken up a job with a competitor,” he said.

“This is a situation where online presence is a crucial part … we have two parties that came together to present a particular persona online associated with a particular type of product.

“There is, on both sides, an association between the personality and the product … my client can’t stop this lady using her persona forever (but) 12 months is reasonable.”

The case was heard again on October 10, with it being decided if the junction injunction would go ahead.