The Sevan Podcast - #164 - Facundo Etchecolatz

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. How are you doing? I'm great. Thank you for having me. Oh my goodness, Fukunji.

Thank you for coming on. What I do now is I started recording on this page and then it takes like six seconds for it to pop up and go live on YouTube. And then I hit a button over there and bam we're live holy cow people are already logging in oh man that's dangerous lucky us i know it's funny when i first started uh when i first started doing live shows it was pretty scary it's just the first one or two it was actually i'm too scared about how you and me are going to get along not about the problem if we get along the show won't do good if we fight it will do good

that's the secret to success these days ok I'll do my best to become feisty I woke up this morning thinking about intimacy ok and I was thinking about how when we when we listen to someone and we hear what they say, we have thoughts about what they say.

But if we react to our thoughts as opposed to reacting to what they said, we separate ourselves from them. And that's called – some people call that being asleep or being trapped in your head. But another way to think about it is like removing yourself from intimacy. So the example that I have is I made a comment on Danielle Brandon's post a few days ago. Oh, your shirt's too big. And all of these people started piling in saying that I was sexist, right? these people started piling in saying that I was sexist, right? Because they had the reaction that I was saying it because they see the world through men and women, you know,

they thought that maybe I was saying it to her because she was a woman or that her sex had something, her vagina had something to do with my comment. When really it was just a, um, a discussion about clothing and how clothing fits and so and so it's okay to have the reaction that it would be sexist but once you respond to that and there's no apparent truth to it you're now stuck in your head and you're having a conversation with yourself so they say oh someone's being sexist and then they say seven you're a piece of shit sexist. Now they're having the conversation with themselves because they've made something up that's not true and not apparent and then reacted to it. And so then I've lost intimacy with them,

which is okay for the internet. It's fine. Sure. Don't you think you're very good in that, in creating controversy and putting in people's head a representation that you misled into making them believe in something say that one more time don't you think you're very good in creating this kind of controversy in people's head and guiding them into thinking something that was maybe not the original goal to for them to think like yeah yes i'm very good at that through you mean like through um sort of this um i'm very good at that you You mean like through sort of this – I'm very good at that. You mean through sort of – although that wasn't my intention with that. I'm very good at that.

So through sort of this ambivalence, just like sort of like throwing things out there that I know people will bite at even if they're not there. You mean sort of like that? Well, you misguide them to believe that. I mean you use elements that are very good to misguide them. So, you know. I agree. Wow. That's a very astute interview is over. OK. It's very early for you. I mean, it's like soon like cocktail time. So we can be friends for a while. Yes. Boy, you should talk to my wife or my kids because I do this with them so often, these mental gymnastics of reading into things. Well, I know your wife. I mean, I remember – I don't know if you remember when I used to be a volunteer at the games and your wife was around before the children, BC.

And I remember your wife being very loving and adorable. She's awesome. She's great. So I think that through that, though, that's also – when you respond to your own reactions, I think it separates yourself from intimacy. And I think that – I think it's just an important observation. And it makes people, they can go down a portal of thinking that they're out in reality when they're not. They're now projecting something that's really themselves onto other people. And it's a double whammy. One, they've themselves but two they've lost intimacy with the person because i would say that it because truly i didn't say her shirt was too big because she was a female i i didn't i i i i mean look i think that people are very sensitive

nowadays and they can take on many readings on very simple stuff and very often unlikely on very serious stuff they go for the simple answer. You know, it's maybe one of the ambivalence of people nowadays. Facundo, how old are you? Old. Yeah?

I'm going to be 45 in a couple of weeks. How dare he ask him how old he is. That's so rude. And where are you right now? I'm home in Brussels, Belgium. That's home for you? That is home for me for the last 19 years.

And where were you born? I was born in Argentina, then I moved to Brazil, then back to Argentina, then I moved to Spain, back to Argentina, then I went to New York, back to Argentina, then to Germany, then to France, then to Belgium. And did you ever live in Italy? No, unlikely not. But you speak Italian. I speak Italian, yes. And you're married? I am married.

And where and how did you meet your wife? I met my husband. Sorry, you're here. Yeah. In the European Parliament. Both of us worked there. my husband uh yeah in the yeah in the european parliament we were political advisors i left the parliament uh two and a half years ago and uh yeah i'm still here is he in the parliament he works still in the parliament? He works still in the parliament, yes. So, was he your boss? No, no.

At home, I don't know. Damn, damn. We work for different political parties. Like when you say different political parties, different political people or actually different political?

Different political parties. Yes. So I was working for more like the conservative side, which doesn't represent me, but I was working there. And he's working for the Greens, for the Green Party. I don't even know what the, the truth is, Facundo, I don't even know what the, the truth is, Fakundo, I don't even know what the European Parliament is. You know, in the European Union, you might have heard, you know, there are many countries there and they have agreed on having a common legislative organism that will actually legislate

on some of the main topics of political interaction in between countries. So that means, like in the United States, you have the Congress in Washington, but you have also state congresses like Madison, we know very well, but we know the games. Now, the European Parliament has powers on certain topics relating to European politics, topics relating to European politics, whether some countries, all countries have retained for them autonomy on decision on certain other elements. And you have kids. I have one girl, yes.

Oh man, you're writing too much. You're kind of hard to find information on. It's interesting. There's this theme about you that maybe you're a spy, but it's kind of, I've seen you around forever. You've always had a pleasant demeanor with a fabulous smile. You are always hanging around all the cool kids. if you were like a coach or a manager or a um argentinian spy i did like i didn't know i mean i never even thought you were spy until uh i was watching yesterday your interview with chris and rich and okay uh-oh what's the what's the what's the funny blonde girl's name? Ellie. Ellie. Ellie.

Sorry, Ellie. I was watching that, and Chris just opened up hard. Facundo, are you a spy? I don't remember about that interview, but no, I'm not a spy. I'm very sad that you didn't think that I was an athlete. Well, actually, when I look at pictures of you now, I'm like, I don't remember him being this buff. This CrossFit shit works. Yeah, well, I mean, having been doing that for a while, I'm just working on that. But I will tell you something. of you now i'm like i don't remember him being this buff this crossfit shit works yeah well i

mean having been doing that for a while i'm just working on that but i will tell you something um i will i remember very well when i first met you and if you i'm sure you don't remember but that might ring a bell so i was working as a volunteer for the crossfit games 2014 for the crossfit media for crossfit media then i was kind of junior, junior assistant to the assistant of the producer. And you and me were at the Marriott in Manhattan Beach, the day of registration for the athletes. We were on the mezzanine leading to the first floor.

And you were asking me, do you know him? Do you know her? Do you know him? Do you know her? And I know that you were happily paying attention to what I said because we're looking for a prey for behind the scenes. And actually, I remember very well that that turned out to be a very successful episode

because the person that you're asking about was back then Sarah Singsmoondottie's coach. I don't know if you remember, Eric. And then when I told you… The wild guy that, like, yelled and got crazy? That was… Eric was, like, kind of… He was wild? He was a bit wild, yeah.

He's kind of a Viking. He's a good friend of a good friend of mine though so but yes it's him and when i told you who he was you got your camera run down the stairs and you began your magic and i think that was a very very very successful episode right uh yeah that was and he and he was great because he like he's not afraid to voice his opinion. Exactly. And he's a great coach and he's a good friend, so we can celebrate him today. What's Eric doing these days? I never see him in the scene anymore.

No, Eric, I think after this, what happened in this whole episode that you are partly to blame, some people would say, regarding Sarah, He has a very successful weightlifting program. It's called Weightlifting 101. And he kept coaching or supervising or helping many very famous athletes, including Annie or Frederick or BKG, Adrian Moonviller. So he's still around here in Europe. He's a great coach. And he's wild as ever before. Good. You said that I might be to blame. You mean just because of the behind the scenes,

what it showed may have led to him being ostracized from the... Well, you're a great producer, Siobhan. I think that that was maybe one of the outcomes that you believe the behind the scenes could give, right? Not to get him fired. No, no, no, not fired. I don't think he was fired either. Or to get him ostracized. That was not my intention. But if someone has strong opinions, it definitely makes for a good video.

Did you ever do an interview behind the scenes where you purposefully said, I'm going to get this guy and get him fired? No. Okay. Good. But I would do a purposely behind the scenes where, oh, my God, that guy looks really cool. I'm going to use my camera as a tool to just get to know him. Okay. I would abuse my power in that way or I would be like you know I'm intimidated by

I don't know Michelle Kinney even though I know I should talk to her but Travis Meyer doesn't intimidate me so I'll go talk to him and I will kowtow to the easier interview do you ever regret having done an interview? not doing one?

no having done one like oh man that was so bad ever regret having done an interview not doing one no having done one like oh man that was so bad i regret having given this person some exposure popularity or that he or she behaves very badly so i'm i wish to erase this no not at all not at all but i do regret um the uh not interviewing people all the times i i i let my fear um get the better of me i every single person that has benefited from the behind the scenes i'm super duper duper happy um there was a uh you know there's the maybe the only thing that i ever filmed that maybe i wish i wouldn't have filmed that got shown to the public is there's a, in one of the behind the scenes. And I think it's in the documentary. Also, there's a Benny Gerard hands, Ricky Gerard, a little vial.

It's like a little glass to around the top. And I filmed that and that's one of those things like you were actually talking about before. It's like it's too much. It's like I'm making an implication by putting that in the shot that I really have fucking no business making that implication. I have no idea if the guy is on anything or not. But I'm happy that you talk about your fears. It's not something you seem to do very often, right? No, I do.

I'm terrified. Yeah, one of the themes of just my podcast is that I don't like doing – I'm terrified of strangers. Okay. I'm just terrified of strangers. But it's kind of like – do you compete in anything, Facundo? No. I don't have that mindset. Is it scary, the thought of competing?

No, not at all. It's just that I don't think that I will want to involve myself in something that I'm really not good at. And it's going to be a waste of time because, yeah, the outcome is not going to be what I would like it to be. And, you know, I work with, I work, not a workout, I work, nice lapses. I work with people that are very, very fit. And when I see what they put at stake, how they compromise,

the responsibility they take, I'm realizing that I'm not built for that. So, no. My kids have started doing jiu-jitsu tournaments. And my son told me that before he goes out on the mat, he shakes. And that when, and then I said, Oh, I go, um, that's intense. And he said, yeah. And I said, how do you, how do you compete if you're shaking? He said, Oh, well, when you step

out onto the mat and start wrestling with the other kids, it goes away. And I was thinking to myself, Oh, that's the, that in my head, I'm thinking this, that must be the fight or flight syndrome. It's like before you do public speaking and you want to flee, but you have to overcome that and parlay that into fight, right? And I get that before the podcast. Like when I text you the link, like the whole time right before I text anyone the link, like I text you the link this morning, I'm terrified. I'm like, oh, God, oh, God. I understand that. If I send this, there's no coming back.

There's no coming back. We're going to do this show. If I send this, there's no coming back. There's no coming back. We're going to do this show. Did you ever cancel on a podcast last minute because of stress or because something that you felt like you didn't want to do it? But I do literally have the feeling like I want to go outside and, like, run. Okay.

Facundo will do this show by himself. I'll hit the live button and I'll run all the way. If I know that you're a bit scared, I'll be nice. But I know the feeling. I'll hit the live button and I'll run all the way. Since I know that you're a bit scared, I'll be nice. But I know the feeling. I used to do seminars. I mean, I did with I think 30 seminars with Dave Durante through the world and then with Hinsho. I did kind of 50 seminars together

and just before starting the seminar, I was like, oh man, I really don't want to be here again. I just want to go home and I need to be very organized and Hinsho is a guy that because himself a different part and i needed my structure and i was oh yeah but uh well good to know that uh

that you are very human then oh i'm ter yeah but but we have to face our fears kind of it's kind of the only thing that makes us feel alive yeah i agree with you except you have a daughter except you have a daughter so you're cheating i have i have a german shepherd who helps me a lot with my fear especially when i'm the street with foreigners uh because they he's so big that people are scared of him. And they prefer to cross the street when they see him coming. When did your life intersect with CrossFit? What are the origins of that? So back in the days of Facebook, I had a friend in Washington, and he was every day posting, oh, today in the box I was doing, I don't know,

15 H SPU, and then I do 21 SDPH and then one REM snatch. And he was so annoying because he was putting every single day, his full workout and his result. And one day I said to him, Hey bro, what are you talking about? What is all of this? Oh man, you have to see this is CrossFit. It's the new thing. You need to do it.

And I thought it was an American thing. You know, like we'll come and we'll go in a couple of months. He said to me, you know, you have to try. He sent me the affiliates map. There was one like 5K, like three miles from where I am. I went there and I don't know why, because actually I'm not a super fit guy or I don't like sports so much. But I really liked it a lot. And a couple of, so i got addicted to that a couple of years later one of the guys working

there offered me to become a partner on a new box he was opening so i put some money there and we opened a box uh and that was my first uh yeah how i get introduced into the sport of fitness what year was that that was 2012 so when i started crossing 2010 2012 we opened our box across the power factory and and do you still own that box no i sell my shares a couple of years ago in what country was that in belgium we used to have four boxes uh then uh well they kept the big one uh and they're still there oh, you personally were involved in the ownership before? I was not. I mean, I helped building that box.

And then I learned a little bit of coaching. And it wasn't the times where I didn't remember this graphic seminars, endurance, kettlebell, weightlifting, one, two, whatever. And I could afford to go as often as I could. So I was spending maybe three weekends out of the four weekends of the month in a seminar. And yeah, so I started like that. So when you go to your first box in 2012, and you said you weren't like into where you weren't into working out or sports before then no no no i would i would go to the global gym maybe to get some biceps and some chest but no more than that and what do you think you liked about it um i think that a little bit

the unknown that you know the the well now i used to go with my my my ipod to walkman i don't know where back then and you know it was all of my pace so i chatted with someone do some curls go back there it was like hey it lasts one hour and you get a full session a full workout and uh yeah it was it was great i i loved it it was 2010 uh when i when i started i i i think one of the things i liked about crossfit is that i was so bad at sports and i was so bad like i had the weakest bench of my friends i had the fewest pull-ups i couldn't do pull-ups you know when we did the presidential test in high school all the i had to do it with the girls where you you hang sexist and um then i did i found crossfit and there was some shit i was good at

i was like it did am i am i like i can do that and some someone else can't do what i can do and i think that kind of scratched a um gave me like a little bit of uh motivation yeah maybe yeah like holy shit like come out of your shell it's okay and then of course just since and i'm speaking for you too correct me if i'm wrong since we didn't spend our youth in our bodies like a lot of other kids when we finally started working out and we got into our bodies we're like holy shit this is crazy like i used to avoid sweating like the plague i hated sweating did you ever hate sweating i still do oh i still do uh yeah i i are you gonna are you gonna make it through that are you gonna change that or do you have any interest because i used to hate sweating and now i'm just

like yeah sweating there was a time so that was at the beginning then i do craft i did two competitions team i was kind of decent in gymnastics and um yeah so i did a couple of i loved it but then you know all the training when i started crafting i was still working in the parliament uh we i was doing a master at the same time a late master in my career that was nothing to do with sport and uh there was nothing to do with sport and uh you know it was very little time uh and then i couldn't train so much but i i go to cookie cookie to cookie bowl very often and then sometimes sometimes i train with my friend early in the morning m30 uh but yeah i'm i'm happy where i am now i would like to have more fitness in my life, but it's getting very busy lately. So I need to make an effort to find additional time.

Why did you volunteer for the CrossFit Games in 2000? What did you say? Was it 14? 14. So the true story is that in 2013, there was an invitation in Berlin. Remember? America versus USA versus the world. Okay. in Berlin, remember? America versus USA versus the world. And because I put some strings

and I got some VIP tickets for me and my friends stating that I was working in the parliament. So they put me on the VIP area and I was sitting next to Hilary Froning back then. Still today, but back then I was sitting next to her. And I arrived super early. I was very, very

excited. I met Tim Chan. And then Justin Berg came and said, oh, what are you doing? We talked a little bit. And he asked me, how many languages did I speak? And I said, well, you know, I speak German. I was raised in Germany. I speak French. I speak English, Italian, Spanish.

None of them well, but I do speak some languages. And then we said goodbye. And like three minutes before the broadcast would start, he called me and said, hey, Facundo, I have a problem. You know, we said goodbye. And like three minutes before the broadcast would start, he called me and said, hey, Facundo, I have a problem. You know, we are broadcasting. It was Eurosport back then. And we have Mike Roth, so an American producer, director, a French producer, and cameramen that don't understand anything but German.

So the broadcast track was a bit of a chaos. Can you come and help us? You will miss the show. And I said, yeah, sure, I you come and help us? You will miss the show. And I said, yeah, sure, I come and help. I was there, I remember the French producer, a lady, and she was asking, what is Trasterre, Trasterre? Big movement, small movement, big camera. And I was like, big movement, you camera out.

So I started there and then I wanted more. So I volunteered for the CrossFit Games 2014. First at the regionals, I met Rory McKernan, my very, very good friend. We worked together, and then he invited me to be a volunteer for his team, the media team, 2014 at the Games. When you did that, when Justin came over and asked you to do that, to help with the translation at the Berlin Invitational, did, were you, were you like,

oh man, this sucks. I want to stay in my seat and enjoy it. Or were you like, oh, this is awesome. I love it. I love it.

You did. I love it. I mean, I, I, I've never seen a more vibrant place, like a broadcast truck. It's a lot of shouting,

a lot of cursing, a lot of, you know, I don't know if you've ever been there during a broadcast. It's really nasty of shouting, a lot of cursing, a lot of, you know, I don't know if you've ever been there during a broadcast. It's really nasty. But I loved it somehow. And a couple of weeks later, I got an email from Justin Berg

and a girl that used to work in CrossFit asking me whether I wanted to write for CrossFit as an athlete scout. So if you hear about any athlete in Europe, remember back in the day, CrossFit had articles on athletes and profiles. And so they hired me for 25 articles, which I wrote.

I do write a little bit better than I speak English. So it was kind of okay. And I did that. And then, you know, I was very lucky to get more responsibilities from CrossFit and work in the media department for regionals and the games until 2018, when everybody got fired. I would see you everywhere. It's funny. I had no idea.

I just assumed you were – I had no idea you worked for CrossFit. We both worked for the same company. I just assumed that you were somehow affiliated directly directly with the athletes I just made that assumption I remember that I was I was taking quotes from the from the athletes for the broadcast and you would come with your camera said can I steal your quote oh good good a couple of times and uh yeah I don't have any hard feelings about that so I was always nice to you you were always nice to me yeah but your wife was very nice to me i remember no i was even more nice to you i don't know it depends on my wife is very cool hey a broadcast truck a very important place not to read into what people are

saying because there's a lot of nasty immediate things being i learned so many words there i learned you know my english came from school and from university so this wording i have never heard before so you go so you go into um i want to try to connect this leap of how you work with two of the most amazing um human movement experts that i know of on planet earth today, Hinshaw and Durante. Am I pronouncing this right? Yeah. I'm two, two guys who've always been exceedingly open and generous with their smiles and time

with me and who I respect immensely. How did you go from being this guy who didn't exercise, who didn't like sweating? So I'm going to try to connect this stuff. So you, you start working out in CrossFit and do you start not only enjoying working out, but watching other people work out? Is that how you become a coach? You're like, Oh, watching humans move is amazing. Well, yes, I did that a little bit, but then during 2014 at the games, I have my, my you know i was serving coffee to all of you to all the media team coming with a coffee tray as a volunteer it's a happy volunteer and uh during one of the pauses i went to the vendors village and i met dave durante there he was he was

walking around and i i can jump on him hey man i'm i'm your biggest fan you know poor dave that's like i'm god i still I'm still ashamed about that. And then I told him, when are you coming to Europe? You need to come to Europe. And he answered to me, I'm coming to Europe in a couple of weeks. I'm going to give two back-to-back seminars during the weekend in Amsterdam. And just like that, I said to him, you know what? Amsterdam is one hour away from my, two hours away from my place.

I pick you up from there. You come spend a week at my place in Belgium. I don't the weekend i bring you back to amsterdam and then he said okay let's do that just like that so uh yeah this is just in passing as you're going by with like coffees for someone else well i wasn't like great so i wasn't carrying coffee back then but yes i was with my volunteer t-shirt very happy and were these european parliament skills you were you were honing is this is this how you is this how you shuck and jive and like

in the parliament too like just make no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no And I still struggle to tell him because of the friendship how much I admire him and how great he is. Because, you know, when you have a great friend, it's very difficult to tell him, hey, bro, you know, I admire you so much. So Dave came to Brussels. We spent a week together. We worked a little bit together on certain movements. And I brought him back to Amsterdam. He gave the seminar. And a couple of weeks later, he texted me and said, hey, you know what? I think you're very okay in gymnastics. I'm doing a new course,

CrossFit Gymnastic Advanced. Would you like to be my assistant? No shit. And I was like, yes. Like, like I said, yes. And then whatever I started shouting. You were scared too, right? You were scared. You started shaking. Yeah you were scared you started shaking yeah i was i don't shake but i was i get very excited and then he said to me yeah well let's that's great let's meet a couple of weeks later in somewhere in the uk i took my train i know i spent hours in hollows and rocks and uh you know all the things that i I know he will ask me to help with. So I was his demo boy. I was Durante's demo boy maybe for 15 seminars. Holy shit.

I know. I know. I was hanging from rings and rigs for hours while he was showing human movement. And, yeah, we became, we are still great friends. He's great. I still, I saw him two weeks ago in Power Monkey. I was very lucky that he invited me again. I see him teaching, and I'm still surprised on how extraordinary he is as a coach,

and especially as a human being. You basically took this crash course. Had you taken your L1? Basically, you do 15 seminars with him, and it's like you're just being crushed with information. You're trying to absorb it all in. Yeah. I was doing my best. I mean, it was too much information, but I was doing my best to keep up.

Had you taken your L1, or have you taken your L1 at this point? Yeah. I had my level two back then. Remember the coach's prep course? Yeah, that's some scary shit, too. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I did it with all the people from the U. back then remember the coaches the coaches prep course yeah that's some scary shit too yeah well

i did it with uh with all the people from the u i mean it was a great uh group of coaches that were there um and yeah it was scary when you have to face everybody with your workout and all the coaches were like why you do that why would you do that too and what do you want to so i did that before uh having the chance to work with dave i'm going back to um your friend um in what it was washington dc who introduced crossfit right it was washington no it was seattle state of washington oh no shit okay i just made the jump from european parliament to washington dc okay is is that is that person still doing crossfit yeah i think so yeah i mean i don't have Facebook anymore, but I think he does. What happened to your Facebook? Oh, I don't.

I prefer Instagram. I think it's easier. I kind of miss. I don't do Facebook either. I miss the whole Facebook thing. When people started doing it, I either. I don't know why I never did it. But then Instagram came and I just jumped on board board i don't do i don't do twitter

either you have a couple of accounts in instagram no on instagram i have a shitload of accounts i've one account no one can see they shadow ban me yeah i remember that you used to follow me and you then you did follow me and i was very hurt back then unacceptable well okay so how long ago was that oh maybe four years ago five years ago hmm i don't i don't recall but twice i've unfollowed everyone in my account including my mom okay well i would be happy to make you feel better yeah completely i can take that i even unfollowed my wife and the reason why is the first time I did it because my feed had gotten so clogged. I said, okay, I'm just going to unfollow everyone and kind of reset how I get my information. Okay.

If you have to unfollow someone, would you unfollow Matt Fraser or Josh Bridges? If I had to unfollow one? Yeah. I don't know. That's a good question. I don't even know if I follow Matt Fraser, to tell you the truth. Well, would you follow both of them? Who would it be easy for you to unfollow even know if I follow Matt Fraser, to tell you the truth. Well, would you follow both of them?

Who would it be easy for you to unfollow? I would unfollow Matt Fraser. Why? Because I'm just not as close with him. I've texted him 20 times in the last three months, and he hasn't responded to one of my texts. I'm trying to do another goddamn podcast with him and Josh, and Matt's too busy. Do you think he's upset with you? I think I'm going to – you've inspired me. I think I'm going to unfollow him

right when the show's done just to, just to. I think he has 2 million, 2.5 million followers. I'm not sure he's going to realize. He's not going to notice. Yeah,

you know, but, so on this podcast, do you feel that it's friendship or there's three guys talking and you're guiding them into saying things that people would like to hear?

I was texting with Matt one afternoon out of the blue, and I didn't text with him very often. I wouldn't even say we were friends. We were just acquaintances. I could see myself texting with you like this afterwards, you know, after this podcast, like you walking down the street with your daughter and your daughter jumping into a puddle and you sending me a picture, you know, just because this interaction we've had. And I'd be like, oh, my God, that's so crazy or so cool because, you know, I like kids, too. And so it was something like that. We were just talking, texting one night.

I probably and we text for like 30 minutes in the seven years I've known him. That's the most I'd ever text with Matt. And at the end of the text towards the end, I go, hey, wouldn't it be cool if we just had a 10-minute to 60-minute conversation once a week and we just put it on as a podcast, just a casual conversation? And he stopped texting me when I said that. And I'm like, ah, shit. You know, like I went too far. Like I leaned over to kiss the girl and she told me, what are you doing? We're just friends.

You know what I mean? So and then the next morning I see a text coming from him. He says, that's a great idea. Let's do it. So then I was like, oh, shit. OK. So then I was like, I think I text Josh Bridges, who I was better friends with, who I actually like maybe talk to on the phone once every four months.

I said, hey, Matt, Matt's going to jump on a call with me. a call with me do you know Matt he said yeah what's funny is I've just started texting with Matt recently I said okay so then I I got us all in one text ready I said you guys want to do this once a week and they said sure and I was like wow this is fucking really cool and it's kind of the reason why I started this podcast because I was like hey I'm going to get so much attention and I don't know why I was doing it, Facundo. I'm sort of just, I'm like Forrest Gump. Run. We'll just go off that direction.

I didn't believe you. This is the first time that I think that you're lying to me, but it's fine. I'll let it go. And so when I played Frisbee, they used to call me the Labrador because someone would throw the Frisbee and it would seem like it was uncatchable, but I would still chase it as hard as I could. It didn't matter. It didn't matter to me. So I thought, oh, shit, this is going to bring a lot of eyeballs to me and my account, and I should figure out a way to make the best of this opportunity. Like I shouldn't let this slide by. I should make sure I use the

clout or the attention or the spotlight that Matt's going to help. And Josh is going to help bring to me to, to turn into something else. And, and then at the same time, someone Matt Sousa, the owner of CrossFit Livermore, I've told the story a bunch of times. He said, Hey, your CrossFit podcast helped me so much. I want you to start another podcast. I want to pay it forward to you. I'll help you start it. I'll give you one of my employees to help you run it. And I said, no. And my wife said, Hey, what are you doing? The universe is conspiring to help you and tell you to start a podcast and get off your fucking ass and do it. It's what you love doing. So I said, okay. And so those things just kind of collided to answer your question. I, um,

I don't, I don't really know what's going on in that podcast when I'm with those guys. I'm very sensitive to them. I'm very sensitive to them, uh, because I don't want to necessarily, I want, I want to keep it real, but I don't want to drag them into things that they're not willing to, to, to go into. Yes. Very, very much so. Very much so. Okay. So, so, so I, so, so I, um, do you have a different opinion on that? So I walk the line. So I walk the line with them. I don't want to say anything that's going to affect Matt's podium sales, Josh's good dude sales. I don't want to make them polarizing characters. I understand.

I don't think that your role is so passive, though. I think that you have a very, very big responsibility, and you are the one setting the tone. This conversation started with you and me with intimacy, and actually we're talking about your fears. We're talking about your sensitive part. So I think that you're very good in that podcast to set a tone, and then once that's done, you take your space and let the voice do the job. Then once that's done, you take your space and let the boys do the job. Yeah. And maybe like I would talk about, like I would ask you, if I wanted to start talking about something intimate with you, Facundo, I would say, hey, do you and your husband, when you travel, share a toothbrush?

Because it's a pretty strong question that might make people uncomfortable, but it's not as strong as something like, hey, what are your thoughts on the vaccine? I mean, do you know what I mean? You like the second one, though. The vaccine one? Yeah. Yeah, I love that one, but I wouldn't do that to Josh or Matt because I don't – if they wanted to go there, that would be great, but I don't want to put them in that situation. I feel like that's, um, I don't know what that is. I maybe it's just, I don't want to lose them. You know what I mean?

I don't want, I don't want Matt or Josh to be like, Hey, I'm not going to interact with seven because he believes the earth is flat. And that makes it, I don't believe the earth is flat. Does that mean that any other person whom you ask about vaccination, you don't care about losing, but then you don't ask about it because you don't ask about that, that denotes that you are scared of losing them. Maybe, maybe, maybe you could say that. I don't, I don't know if I can,

maybe you can say that, or maybe it's not necessary it's based on the premise of what our relationship is about do you know what i mean so you and i just have this one um interaction i'm not making a whole show with you right i'm by i'm not making a whole series of shows with you although we might shit this is going pretty good um but uh and i'm and i always look i'm always looking for a crutch i like i i really want a side i really want like a co-host or a sidekick because like um it would really alleviate a lot of my fears well i i'm very upset that brian isn't here though because a good friend of mine is brian a good friend of yours yeah well i want to believe so i want to believe so Yeah. Well, I want to believe so. I want to believe so. I don't know. I want to believe so.

What do you think happened? Brian was like on every show for so long. Oh, speaking of reading into, Brian was recently accused of being sexist. Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he compared Matt Fraser to Tia Toomey. And people were saying that then had the reaction that they believed to you was obviously better.

So to compare them was not being able to accept a woman was better. I mean, this is just delusions of grandeur, in my opinion, but which is OK to have delusions of grandeur. But then to react to them as if they're reality. Now you have sort of embodied the delusion. Yeah, I mean, I know Brian quite well, and I think that that was not his goal, and he's a super clever guy. He works very hard,

and I'm slightly sad that he's not around for this podcast. He was invited. It's his fault. Maybe he doesn't like you, Facundo. Oh, I was totally going to say that. But I think he does, because I like him too, and we chit-chat from time to time. Yeah.

He loves you to death. Everything CrossFit, he is pretty stoked on. He likes you a lot. I think we were doing a lot of podcasts together. I think he got a little bit stressed out. I want to say it's not because of me. I want to say it's because of his schedule. That's what I keep telling myself. He came on the show a couple nights ago for like 20 minutes. I think we have a show tomorrow morning with Pat Vellner. I think

he's going to be on. I understand if they have to choose between Facundo and Pat Vellner, I would also choose Pat Vellner. He told me he can't do shows ever on Thursday, but I still keep – I told him. I mean I texted him last night. I said I'm going on with Facundo. Please come on. And he said, you know, I can't on Thursdays. I have a busy schedule. He's also two hours ahead of me, so he's probably at work right now.

I know. I texted him asking whether he was going to be around. He says he's coaching. So, yeah. But, yeah. So – Let's go back to Dave Durante. So you're doing the Power Monkey.

Does it seem a little out of place? Are you like, wow, why did he choose me? Like I've only been doing CrossFit. seem a little out of place are you like wow why did he choose me like i've only been doing power monkey is without any doubt the single most incredible group of coaches in the world they are like many olympians uh medalist uh the most knowledgeable people that i know uh brought together it's extraordinary i was like but anyway same as crossfit when i started in power monkey i was i went as a camper then as a volunteer then as a staff member then as an assistant coach then as a lead coach uh so i went to every single station uh that was to be offered

there and it was great it's you're now a lead coach with power monkey uh i well so i i used to run with inshore the endurance station the what station endurance the arabic capacity station that we have a power monkey a different station clean and jerk snatch you know a lot of them and there was the hinshaw station called the endurance station and i i was the lead there i did that for five camps or four camps and then with covid came i couldn't travel to the States last year. And I was invited. This, like two weeks ago, I took our new athlete, Guy Malheiros, to Mayhem. And, you know, Power Monkey is just 30 minutes away from Mayhem.

So we spent two days there. Power Monkey is actually a place. Mayhem so we we spent two days there. Power Monkey is actually a place? Power Monkey is a gymnastic, a professional gymnastic space or compound, I don't know, facility owned by two Olympians in which there are different, you know, seminars or camps throughout the year. Fleet Fest is the most famous. It's in Crossville. Yet again, like 40, maybe less, 30,

40 miles from, from CrossFit Mayhem. That's crazy. I had no idea. So are Durante and Rich close? Does Durante live there? No, Durante lives in Portland now, in,

in, in the other clubs. He used to be in New York and now he lives there, but he goes to Power Monkey twice a year. And then he's also coaching Fleet Fest. Fleet Fest is a gymnastic festival in which people like Simone Biles used to go. So it's

almost professional, I think, camp taking place twice or three times a year. It's amazing. You should... Yeah? Sorry? No, go ahead. Say what you're going to say. You should send your children there. It's amazing. When and where is it?

I will, I will, I will find that out and I'll let you know. Okay. See guys, if I had a producer who is live on every show, you could have pulled that up right now. I'm looking for someone who will work for free, who will just be so enamored and so thankful to have my attention and work on my show that they would be behind the scenes right now and every time like when you would say that fit fest they would just you know make our boxes small and pull up a new box but yeah well i'm not i'm not drawing that kind of uh talent or what would that person uh get from you or attention just some love some you know some time some some abuse some uh some intimacy okay some open-ended comments that um that uh that draw out their their deeper self

it is the word of the day for your intimacy right what happened the word of the today it seems that intimacy is the the word of the day you've been saying tendency over and over today. Because I was in – I normally refer to – so I have this issue with people reading into things. But then I thought, you know, that's not exactly accurate. I don't mind people reading into things. I see Facundo has sharp teeth and he has blood on his shirt. Okay, he might be a vampire. You know, like that's reading into things. You know, like that's reading into things. It's the it's it's the then reacting to the analysis as if it's true. And then and then I and so I was thinking about that today. How can I explain that to people better? Because it and I thought I always call it being trapped in your head or being asleep or um you know being delusional i thought oh maybe i'll recouch it or reframe it as not being present in the form of being intimate with people right

like you're you're taking you're now having a conversation with yourself and you lost intimacy so somehow it popped in my head in the shower today while i was soaping my having my own intimate moment soaping my back and my face. Well, it's like we call it unconscious, no? Yeah, that's a very common term used also for it. And sometimes when you say these words like, hey, you're asleep, you're unconscious, then, you know, people will wake up for a split second, say, no, I'm not. And then they go back. OK, do you have a recurring dream?

Do you have a dream that you dream often throughout the year or since your childhood or anything? You don't? No, Okay. Do you have a recurring dream? Do you have a dream that you dream often throughout the year or since your childhood or anything? You don't? No, sir. Do you? Yeah, I do. Yeah. Is there an implication to that? Tell me more. Let's say I said yes. Then what do you say? Well, I did. I did. For five, six years. Yeah, I had a dream since i was a child that all my teeth will would break and they will come sand i used to have i used to have that as a child you cannot steal my dream you need to have your own dream i asked you have your chance and you said i don't have any so now i'm going to be more i don't have it anymore i don't have it anymore funny I don't have it anymore.

I don't have it anymore. Funny, I don't have it anymore either. Actually, I think that I had it until I was 30, 35. But I had it very, very often that my teeth would break, become sand. And I would go to the mirror and I see, like, man, there's no teeth anymore. That's one of my bad dreams. It's horrible. It's horrible it's horrible yeah and the other dream hopefully

you didn't have that one is that i'm seeing when people are burglaring to my place we're going to breaking the door to come into steel yeah these are my two dreams uh you ever have the one when you were a kid that you go to school naked i used to have that one as a little as a little kid no that would be a problem for me oh it fucking sucked i would go to school and i would be there naked i was just like what the fuck why did my parents dress me but of course you you mentioned over and over you have problems with intimacy so why would not be naked in front of all your children would be fine is the definition of the non-intimacy uh uh no i didn't say i have problems with intimacy what are you talking about no no no i didn't say you have i said that you we mentioned about we've

been talking about intimacy and now you have a dream that is the opposite of intimacy right you're exposed yeah make it to the most poor people in the world but their children children tend to be very cruel at that age right yeah yeah so and i and i think i got made fun of uh people were very nice to me but but it was a it was a um it was a tough crowd i but i always liked school did you like school uh no no no no i mean i left school when i when was 14, and then I came back to school, but I left it for two years. 14, 15, I studied music back then. And, you know, if you go to a conservatory, you are not requested to go to high school. You can do that. And then it was not meant to be. So I went back to school, finished. And then, yeah. Why didn't you like school? Did did you have friends there like i love

going there to see my friends no i i i was not very popular back then uh i i want to i want to think so i don't remember maybe it was something else i don't think it was a very popular boy and uh we moved so much that you know i didn't have real friends because as i mentioned before i was coming back from another country, put into a school, then changed again to another school. My family would move a lot, so we would change in school maybe twice, three times a year. So I never was able to have a lot of friends.

I did have some friends, but, I mean, I was not, like, the popular boy. Did you go to school to see your friends? No. Oh, you didn't. Oh, because that's why I went to school. That's the only reason why I went. I just school to see your friends no oh no because that's why i went to school that's the only reason why i went i just went to see my friends i was obliged to go if i would have to choose in between staying home and go see my friends i would have stayed home yeah um so tell me what did what's the dream mean with your teeth falling out what's the deal i really don't know i mean um it might be something about speaking or have a you know

the capacity to communicate uh which is not you know aligned to what teeth are for but i i don't know it's i i really there was such that i i couldn't say i don't want to say something that i i'm going to regret later but i guess in my case something related to being unable to speak properly or to you know express myself or make the points that i would like to make and i don't know why environment my own perception of myself and what i want to say whether i didn't dare to do so and when i wanted you know I wasn't able anymore but I think that changed and funny now same as you when I got to a certain age but dreams disappear so maybe with age we have more clear ideas on how to express ourselves and how to get along the way we intend to do you have any

enemies oh I guess I do you do? yeah I mean yeah I guess a couple not many not many I like to believe that I have very good friends and I like to spend most of my time

with them and my first my family of course but outside of my family with my good friends I guess my enemies I mean when I speak to you

like I don't know I've never heard I said the same thing to Hinshaw I can't think of anyone who's ever said anything bad about you. You're very loved in the circles that you and I used to roll in. And although I think the CrossFit community as a whole is pretty darn close as far as communities go. It doesn't mean that everyone gets along.

There's some cats and dogs in there that fight. Do you regret having met anybody in the CrossFit world? That says, oh man, I spent years with this person and I didn't get anything out of it. And I regret having had this friendship or that friendship. No, maybe the exact opposite. in order to accept those around me that maybe I wouldn't have accepted if I otherwise wouldn't have worked on myself. Okay. So you did it out of generosity. No, no, no, no. I used it. No, no, I'm too selfish for that. I used it. I leveraged it to, um, make myself a better person instead of blaming them.

Like I, like, like CrossFit really taught me personal responsibility up until the age of 34. I was, um, basically, uh, I avoided basically discomfort at all costs. I was raised that way, you know, take the path of least resistance. Don't ruffle any feathers. Don't offend anyone. Don't sweat. Don't like heart, like, and then something happened and i maybe it was my l1 or maybe you know but basically i realized in a nutshell it's become one of my foundations is that controlled suffering is is uh and you don't have to use that word suffering uh or i don't have to use that word controlled um discomfort or uh pushing the body into into into

the pain cave whether it's psychologically, emotionally, or intellectually, or physically, is where growth occurs. And so you should do it as often as you can, especially if you can control the safety of it. I was never afraid emotionally. I remember being a little kid and really enjoyed exploring my emotions, like really, really. And I really, I was perfectly, when girls would break up with me or my friends maybe would stop being my friends and i would cry and i would suffer like that i was fascinated by that as a kid i was always watching myself emotionally like wow this is fucking a trip i just watched a movie and the dolphin died now i'm sitting here wailing in the movie theater i

was just fascinated by that which movie which character in which movie do you think describes you the best so if it's just a movie and you see this people know that you want to be someone that is like hey man that person is my life and this is my life uh horace gump i told you gump i'm fucking horace gump i am dumb as a box of rocks and and I just go. I trust. I'm not a religious man, but there is a, I don't even know if this is true, but there's a scene, I guess, in the Bible where Jesus tells the apostles, he says, and someone will correct me, he says, when they call you, when the kings call you to speak about me and speak about, you know, and they're trying to persecute you, don't prepare your defense.

Just open your mouth and let God speak through you. And I always was like, yes, that is, that's awesome. Like that resonated with me. Like, okay, I get it. I get what he's saying. Do you have a character for me? Do you want to give me a character in a movie? No, I don't know you enough.

Maybe Benji. No, no, no. I think that you are too intellectually clever to be Forrest Gump. Maybe some trait of Forrest Gump personality might suit you, or maybe you want to believe so. I think that Forrest was pure emotion, with very little rationality to it. Like, the intellect was not there,

but his decisions were maybe the good ones, because he trusted his emotion and his goodwillness, and, yeah, that worked for him. Did you like that movie? Yeah, I liked it very much when I saw it, for the first time in the 90s, 91, 92. Then I saw it on a plane some months ago, and I cried my eyes out, and I didn't like it anymore. Because there were people next to me, awake, and they were looking at me like, that's weird.

So I felt a bit uncomfortable. But I liked the movie. It's a great movie. So I felt a bit uncomfortable. But I like the movie. It's a great movie. You mentioned being friends with David Durante and it being weird because you're friends with him. And yet you still admire him on such a crazy high level. And it's like, I think I understand that.

And I struggle with the same thing too. But you've surrounded yourself with people like that. I struggle with the same thing too, but you've surrounded yourself with people like that. I don't think people who haven't met Rich or haven't been around Rich realize. Do you have that same issue with Rich? Well, Rich is one of my best friends. Rich and Hillary, like really best, best friend. We have a lot of intimacy, but we talk to each other a lot and we speak about a lot of a lot of topics and yes for me it's very complicated um to you know also because we just like to get emotional and so i'm it's very hard for me to find a moment to tell him

hey i love you as a brother as a friend but you know i admire you so much that i will actually bend to you know to make a reverence when you perform because i think that he's the the finest crossfitter who ever lived and uh and no but i i don't i don't do that uh i would like to find out sometimes a moment to do so yeah and and you are um because there's a lot of great people out there. But there is definitely something very unique about Rich. I remember having this feeling about him when I met him that he seems so – like such a good person. you would see walk out of a brothel you would say oh shit look at that guy was in there sleeping with women but rich is so pure that if you saw him walk out of a brothel you would think that he he was in there saving someone like that would be your first judgment about him i mean the guy like shit can't stick to the guy i mean he's that fucking cool it's he's he's he's a great person i

mean i owe him to dave of course to rory and to to reach uh reach, uh, what I am now. I mean, uh, it's, it's, it's, he's, he's a great person. And, uh, I always like to say when we do a seminar, when we, you know, somebody comes to the box, I said like, guys, you know, him as a champion in the sport. I think as a friend, as a person, he's a champion. He has the highest ethical values and, and loyalty and friendship and care for, for himself, his family, his environment.

And, uh, I'm, I'm very proud of being a friend of him. And so do you have this whole pantheon? You have this whole, I mean, going through your Instagram,

it's like nuts who, you know, it's like you've surrounded yourself with these people that it is um it would be hard not to feel that way about all of them i mean it's almost like you curated this um but i don't believe you have i think it's all just by um i think it's all i think you've attracted these people. I don't think you seek these people out. And yet you're surrounded by all of these amazing people.

And so I just wonder, like, is that something like, are you like always biting your tongue? Okay, don't say something super nice about Katrin right now. Don't say something super nice about Guy right now. Oh, God, I have to keep my mouth shut. I'm just going to be just. No, no, no, no no no no no i i i yeah no certainly not if you know me well you will realize that i can be very critical and despite i can you know be critical to someone as an athlete i'm not judging them them as a person or their

values or whatever they are i mean i can say well he or she's very bad doing this and i i would expect that people to take it like it's just that, right? But, yeah, I'm very lucky to be surrounded by great – for me, honestly, they are best great friends. And then they are great athletes and well-known to the people. But many of the people that you've seen on my Instagrams, they are very good friends. I love to be in Cookville.

I mean, Hayley is a great friend of mine. Tasia, now Guy's there. Luke, Rich. I feel home there. I really feel home. How did you end up with it? You said you're married to a man? Yeah, I said that.

How do you end up with a daughter? How do two men get a daughter? Surrogacy. Through what? Surrogacy. Oh, so can you tell me about that? Like how that works? Did you know the woman? like do you did you know

the woman like how do you pick a mom well you don't pick a mom because they are not a mom they are just people there's a a woman who donates like uh her ex and uh we we mix that with our own genetical information we make embryos and we put that on another woman who is a surrogate. So, there's two women involved. One, it's the genetics and one is the birthing vessel, the

womb. Exactly. Yeah. So, that's why you have a child. That's why we have a child. And how do they... They have your semen and they have your egg, and where do they mix them? You should ask for a doctor. I don't know. No, I mean.

Do they mix them in her or are they mixed already? No, no, no, no, no. They mix the embryos in vitro and then they would transfer that to the surrogate, already the embryo, like five-day-old embryo. Wow. Fascinating. And you have a beautiful, healthy daughter. I have a beautiful, very beautiful, happy, healthy daughter, yeah. Yeah, crazy. And so does the woman who's holding the baby, does she, when she's has the baby and the baby's growing inside of it, um, do you been talking up and down. And when Greta was born, my daughter, we stayed with her. Her name is Renée.

She's part of our family, actually. To my daughter, she's like an aunt who was loving enough to carry her in her vessel, as you said, for nine months. And it was beautiful. It was a beautiful experience. It was great. And yeah, I don't know what else do you want to know? Because I know that it's the first time that somebody ever asked me that openly. I mean, funny enough that you're making a podcast. I see only two people on the online. I don't know if it's just you or or

matthew but uh no matt's gone matt's gone if if uh matt's gone if he was on here you would see a um but we are live okay yeah so we don't know okay anyway so it's funny um it's fun so that was our experience and it was great and uh uh yeah we were very, very blessed to have a beautiful daughter that way. Are you going to have a second child? Oh, that's a good question. Who knows? We will let destiny decide. And how old is she now?

She's five. She just turned five two weeks ago. Man. Someone in the comments says, Facundo, there's 78 of us because there's 78 people listening. I see only two. That's why I thought it was a very intimate conversation.

It is. Okay. It is very intimate. It's very intimate. The theme of this conversation, intimacy. Yeah, completely. I thought it was going to be about Saxon and about rich and about Guy and about somebody else that I'm coaching, but it turns out to be very familiar.

No. Yeah, it was great, and we are very happy. You know, Greta, at home we speak German. That's the main language at home. I speak with her alone and the nanny speaks to her in Spanish and she speaks French in school. So she's trilingual and we were a bit scared at the beginning because we thought that it was going to be a bit too much. But she manages and nowadays at five she fluently speaks three languages.

at five she fluently speaks three languages uh so i mean i i think that i think that the two greatest gifts you can give your child yeah um i was gonna on more of a superficial level is um and maybe they're both languages i'll ask you this since you're into music and um is a foreign language more than one tongue to speak with and and the ability to play a musical instrument if there were two things i think those are incredible gifts you can give your child because then they can take them for the the into the rest of their life right um but maybe music is just another language. Maybe I should lump that all up. So in my studies, when I was studying neurosciences,

music, you know, it's been a work and process in a different part of your brain as the language. So language is the most dominant thing. So language just comes first and music goes a bit in the back. So they have no connection but i think that music allows for for a lot of mathematical development and why is that tell me that because i also think that the next two best things to give your kid is mastery over language because i do believe we're all sorcerers here yeah i well music has

a lot of mathematics where you need to count you know how much north how much space and so on so there's a naturally by hearing you will be able to you know maybe it's not universal to develop certain capacity mathematics uh and uh but uh yeah i think that language is great i think that we, if we are able to, which is complicated to understand, show in the world our children different cultures, different types of people, different spaces, different cultures. We travel a lot for our work with Greta a little bit,

and we're very glad when we can travel somewhere where she realizes, oh, this is not home, and it's still great. And this food is not what I eat at home, or these people don't behave the same way at home, and it's still valid, and it's still great. So I think that's also a very important gift to give to our children, for me. I totally agree. Do you get to choose whether you have a female, a boy or a girl? We didn't choose we we did uh that's nature we didn't choose we just said we know surrogacy is such a complex

uh process that we said well we don't want to push it so much i know you can you can choose the color of the hair the color of the eye, whatever. You can? You can, yeah. Holy shit. The problem is that you need to open the embryo before being transferred. So the embryo is not fully natural, so you have to pinch in to get the genetical information. And there's a slight risk to transfer an embryo that has been already opened.

So we decided, you know, we were sure it was going to be a boy. We were 100% sure. And then he said, no, it's a girl. So we didn't have a name. We stressed a little bit there. But, yeah, there she is. The naming thing is so weird, isn't it? Sorry.

It's such a trip that you're giving such a powerful uh stamp for the rest of their life yeah yeah but we were happy with the name and she she likes it a lot it's very it's very i don't know individual uh her name is greta and uh yeah but funny enough know, talking about children, I do feel I coach so many young people that I do feel a fatherly connection to many of them. And it's kind of like, you know, I still feel that I'm a father to many at the moment.

Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. I thought I would feel that more you know Facundo my whole life I never felt like I was I never felt like I was anything I never wanted to really be anything

I was just happy I've always just been kind of happy even after I directed a bunch of movies I never felt like a movie director I think that 2003 was your first movie One of Us I've always just been kind of happy. Even after I directed a bunch of movies, I never felt like a movie director. I think that, sorry, 2003 was your first movie, One of Us? Oh, Our House? Our House, yeah. Yeah, that was like my first feature film, yeah.

And I made so many movies since then. And I do CrossFit, and I kind of see myself as a CrossFitter. Not kind of, I do. But i never really wanted to be anything and then i had kids and i was like and i didn't have kids till i was 43 but then i was like holy shit i was 39 i'm a dad and like i really like i'm like i'll take like even if i know i'm faking it like i don't care like it's so real to me like i really have embodied the um the role like even though i never wanted to be a dad i never wanted to be a husband like as soon as i saw the kids those three kids man like i'm their dad and and kind of like like huge swaths of me vanished. Like Forrest Gump. Like Forrest Gump.

Like Forrest Gump. So when Durante brings you on the scene, is there any hazing period? Is there any like the other guys in the Power Monkey are like, who the fuck is this guy? He doesn't know what he's doing. I hope not. It happened and I never realized. I was so focused on my responsibilities that I didn't. It's a good question. No, I guess not.

I mean, no, I wouldn't say so. But anyway. We hazed people at HQ. Sorry? We hazed people at HQ. Not? We hazed people at HQ. Not on purpose. It wasn't like a spoken hazing. But if someone new started working at CrossFit, like, we didn't make it easy on you.

We tested you. No, no, no. You know, you said it before. I think great coaches like Dave, like Chris, they know very well what they do. And as a coach, I mean, I said it many times in the past, I think that what makes them greater is that they build this capacity of people to take a legacy. You know, they build spaces for people to develop.

And so I don't think that there was any kind of mixed emotion. On the contrary, I think I always felt myself very welcome with them. And I think Power Monkey embraced me very warmly when i was there um i saw a picture of you and gee yeah on your instagram tell me how do you know him and like and what is your relationship like your business and and personal okay so um i was coached i am coaching very proudly um saxon panchik now for almost two years um would you believe on the podcast he's awesome i know yeah he's he's he's amazing he's he's extraordinary i'm i'm very very thankful that he decides to work

with me and uh we were at the games, and I was coaching him. And after the games, we chatted a little bit with Guy, and he asked me, how do I do this, how do I do that? And we are hosting a competition with Reach in the Middle East very soon, the Mayhem Desert Heat. And I told him, you know, if you want to come. Sorry, sorry. What's the date on the competition? 12-13 November 2021.

Okay. I want to circle back and talk about that too. We talked and then Guy's dream was to come to Mayhem. He was a massive throwing fan. He even said to me, with my first coach, we used to talk very often into me paying myself for mayhem which is from brazil is quite expensive and training there do my thing impress a bit everybody forgot my i would forget purposely my some things of mine come a couple of weeks later and eventually richard said hey bro you're so great stay

and uh which was not the case. But we were talking about it, and he asked me, we talk into working together, and I said that I would be very glad to do so. And I talked to Rich, and I said, Rich, you know, I have this very talented young boy who wants to work with us. And a couple of weeks earlier, Rich was kind enough as to create a program in Mayhem that I'm leading at the moment. So create my own department or whatever program you want to say from Mayhem.

And I said, I think it would be great to have him in this program. And Rich said, you know how Rich, yes, bro, if you think so, go for it. So I called, there's a chance that we can work together if that's what you want. And he said, yes. And I admire him because at 21, he left his girlfriend, his mom, his dad, moved to Cookville and you know in Brazil he's a king but in Cookville he's another one of many great athletes

so he doesn't have any special treatment at all he's like hey bro, you have to work out this is what you have to do that's the way we do it there and so he did that and I admire the courage he has to do that, to change his life at that age for you know for becoming a better athlete so i'm gonna fill in i'm gonna fill in a couple

blanks here so you you are so you are a coach you're scott i am i am you actually do his programming scott stand over here pick this thing up, run over here. Saxon, but not Scott. Sorry, Saxon. There's only one pan chick to me. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. I mean, Scott is great. I worked with him when he was

a coach of the Mayhem team that went to London, but we didn't make it to the games last year, and he's great. Saxon is us brothers. Yeah, he's the man i was just teasing um so so and do you have any other athletes yeah i have a lot of athletes yeah i have maybe so now for rogue uh i started i mean i don't want to announce it yet because i think that such a great athlete that i'm working with, that he deserves.

There's only 76 people listening. There's only 76 people listening. Yeah. There's another athlete that I have the chance to work with now for two months. He's great. I'm very, very proud and thankful for the chance he has given me in, you know, in allowing me to program for him. He is also going to the rogue invitational at the end of the month so i'm the only thing that is stressing me at the moment is how i'm going to

deal with have these three guys uh at the rogue invitational together and me acting as a coach you should be stressed out about that that's healthy i'm looking through your instagram to see who this new athlete is i've made the assumption no picture yet. I made the assumption it's a male. I don't know if that's a… It is a male. There's no picture. And I'll tell you why. I don't want to announce it because Guy has a…

Colton Mertens. Colton Mertens. No. Oh, darn it. Darn it. No, no, no. He made it to the top 10 of the games this year. And because we did such a great announcement for Guy at Mayhem,

I don't know if you saw it he comes I think that this other athlete deserves to have a proper presentation because he's really great so I mean he wasn't I think he was in your podcast too, not long ago

yeah, yeah, he was there so I'm giving you too many hints, if you have a producer now, he will be writing down on a on this on an economy that brian was here he'd be like seven you dumb shit it's this person oh completely right no no but wait wait to to tell you how how much i do like brian he knows from a couple of months now i told of course yeah i told brian oh no this is happening he said oh bro it's great i'm happy for you so um yeah i'm happy for you too i don't even know who it is you know it's funny i have these people on the show like matt o'keefe these fucking big shots big shots and i think i'm so cool for

what unlike me you mean yeah no you're a big shot too you're a big shot too. You're a big shot too. But Brian's not here, so you don't work for an example. So I have these big shots on the show like Matt O'Keefe, and a week will pass, and then I'll be talking to Brian. He's like, so I was talking to Matt O'Keefe, and I'll be like, what do you mean you're talking to Matt O'Keefe? He's like, well, he called me the other day, or I was texting with him. I'm like, this motherfucker. It's my show, and the big shots are contacting Brian.

Brian must be a really cool dude. Oh, really? Someone guessed it's Dukic. Someone guessed it's Lazar Dukic in the comments. Wow. Who is that person? Who guessed that? Their name is the Tony Tone.

They just have a fake name. I really like the Dukic brothers are amazing. Oh, they're amazing. I mean, I met Lazar two years ago. He came to Brazil to a competition that I, uh, that I organized the bedroom throwdown,

which he won easily. And I told him back then, Hey, you know, you are great. You, you need to keep working like this. You have a lot of potential and, uh,

uh, yeah, he's, he's a great athlete. I don't say this. I don't say this about a lot of people. I'd like those guys to be my neighbors. Oh, really?

Oh, I would have so much fun with them. I would fuck with them so much. I would send my kids over there. Those guys are homies. That's like whatever vibe they're giving, it resonates with my Armenian whatever culture. They're just, when I interviewed them together at the games, how close they sit by each other, just the love.

They're just kind of like oozing off, and they can take just all the shit I give them. I didn't actually want to interview them. Brian wanted to bring them on the show, and I'm like, I'm too big time for these fucking guys. Wait until they're back. No, no, no. No, no, bring them on.

And boy, they won my heart. I know a bit better Lazar, and he's a very, very cool guy. Someone named Allegra just gave us, sorry, didn't give us, gave me $9.99, which is very generous of them. And not everyone always, I don't make money every show. So that means, I guess I should thank you, Facundo. You just made me $9 and ninety okay yeah no but uh i'll be glad to uh to have a coffee with you when i say are you going to roll no i don't uh i don't leave you i don't leave this okay okay um but um okay so go ahead say something that I want to ask you about Guy.

What do you want to – I'm lost now. What was the question? Okay. Okay, so Guy – so you meet Guy at the games. Yeah. You're there in the capacity as a coach for Saxon. You meet Guy at the games, and you cultivate this relationship, and he basically says, hey, I want to be your coach, or I want you to be my coach. And you say, okay, great. I also have this program that I've started up.

I guess it's under the Mayhem banner. What's the name of it? I saw it in your bio. It's called Mayhem ID. Mayhem ID. And you're basically running this thing called Mayhem ID. And so then you go to Rich, who who sounds like he's your partner and you say hey i want i want to bring in another athlete into this mayhem id and do all the mayhem id

athletes move to cookville or no no no no no no i mean he special circumstance yeah he was there i mean he was going to do he's going to stay there until until rogue and then he's going to travel to the middle east uh and then he's going to go back to brazil and then he's going to stay there until Rogue, and then he's going to travel to the Middle East, and then he's going to go back to Brazil, and then he's going to Guadalupalooza. But it was a chance to prepare himself for Rogue to go there, and I think

that he's in very good hands if he's training with Rich Dornan. And so now you are the coach of Guy. Yeah. What happens to his old coach uh you should ask him maybe I can give you a telephone number no I think that I think that what what you know I I just need to be very respectful to my colleagues all the coaches I think that you know that if the chance to work out with Rich Forney and learn from Rich Forney

at the barn with Haley, with Luke, with that level of athletes, you know, is presented to you, I guess that is very hard to say no, right? And, you know, Especially since it was his goal. Especially, yes, correct. And it is funny, because as a coach, I told him, you know, I do your programming, but when you are with Rich, you do whatever Rich says. Please follow him, learn from him, ask him as much as you want, as much as you can, why, how, whatever you want to ask. And I'm glad to say that I think which likes him.

So they work together quite well. What's the, what's the guy's name from Canada? He was on my podcast. I really liked him. He trains at mayhem. Samuel, Samuel,

Samuel. Samuel. Samuel. Samuel. Samuel. Yeah. Yeah. Um, Samuel Samuel Cornwell. Sam Cornwell. Yeah.

He said in the podcast that Rich was the fittest man alive. Yes. Do you think that that's accurate? Yeah. Isn't that amazing? I think that you're right, too. I think I don't even know. And I believe it.

I don't think that is amazing. I think that he's just talented and he just work hard. And, you know, people say it very often, ah, but in the Open, Rich does the workout of the Open Friday morning, only once. There's no, you know, seeing the leaderboard, watching videos, this and that, talking to people, make the setup, does the workout, done. Now let's squat, let's snatch, or whatever that is next.

And he has an understanding of the sport. You know, Seban, I think that whoever is going to be champion again is not just the fittest, it's the guy who has the more skills, the more capacity to understand the nuances of our sport. And that is something that Rich had naturally. He didn't

have a weightlifting coach, an endurance coach, a nutritionist, a gymnastic coach. There was an understanding in him about the direction of the sport. Because Dave programs whatever and made the direction of the sport one year more into strength, more into endurance, more into whatever

that is. I think this year was a bit of everything because we have 15 events. But Rich was very clever foreseeing where would the support go. And he worked very hard when he decided to bet on something. Yeah. It's a remarkable track record and a remarkable legacy.

I mean, he's definitely in a category all by himself. When are you going to have to choose between parliament and coaching? I left the parliament in 2019. Oh, I'm sorry if you said that. You're done with that. You're a full-time. So you're a manager, trainer? No, I'm not a manager.

Sorry, you're a coach and a trainer. Why would you like to believe that I'm a manager? Because it's something that comes first when you talk about me. Sweater, glasses, four or five languages, nice hair, certain air about you. nice hair, certain air about you. There's a dignity you present that's like, it's the opposite of Eric.

If I saw, I would never say Eric's, we'll go full circle to the beginning of the show. I would never say Eric looked like a manager. I'd say that motherfucker looks like a coach.

Throw a whistle in his mouth. Maybe you should wear a whistle if you want to be seen as a coach. You don't have to use it just as a prop. I would be able to mention some coach you don't have to use it just as a prop i would i would i would be able to mention some managers that don't have any hair that they don't speak any language if they have enough of that uh so um yeah i left the parliament i left the parliament

when my daughter left they they care it was too many hours for us being uh away uh in the office so uh the decision came into which of us will leave the parliament. And because I already have some experience in the CrossFit world, it was me who decided to leave the parliament. Does your husband do CrossFit? Sorry, go ahead.

No, no, no, not at all. He doesn't. No, no, no. He did it once when I had my box. He came with a lot of excitement and he came into a very, very nasty workout. You know, like 100 box jumps, I don't know, 300 feet walking lunges, you know, all the things that really hurt at the end of the day. And that was enough. He didn't like it. What's he do for training he what's he do to sweat every day oh okay okay i get it in uh and so he loves he loves hinshaw uh he know because he's

just too technical for him he does it for his fun you know um also he he doesn't allow any comment from me or his training like he we have a biker row and everything down here sometimes he he goes i'm going to roll i come down to say something and the monitor is down so he's not even looking what he's doing you know i am here uh and uh yeah and i me, funny as you said about that, I remind myself how athletes are. I used to help in a very short period of time, Laura Horvath with her endurance. I know she was in the show. Yes. I have a note here about Laura Horvath.

Ask a question about her. Go on. And her coach back then told me you know these workouts are very complicated to understand they are very intellectual so they're not easy to apply so we prefer not to do them oh okay thank you i mean i guess um and yeah so uh chris my chris my husband he he doesn't like to you know he just likes to have fun uh and so on so you can shoot the laura horvath question uh laura horvath's going to she's coming to the united states if i recall when i interviewed her she said she was coming to the united states to train with ben smith sounds like she's going to move into Ben Smith's village,

wherever the fuck he lives. He lives in Richmond. No, no, no. Somewhere in Virginia. Is this Richmond? I don't know. Do you know if she's moved already? No, no.

I don't think she's moving. I think she's going to train to prepare for Rogue and then come back to Europe. That's what I think. And do you know if she's with Ben yet? Has she moved? Has she traveled out? She's there.

She's there, yeah. She's there. I need to get her back on the show. It was quite a bizarre show. Yeah. She's quite a character. Yeah, the two of us together. Speaking about being scared,

I will be very scared to do it again, but it has to be done. It was so... It was... Lauren's great. Go ahead. scared i will be very scared to do it again but it has to be done it was so it was uh it's like putting peanut butter on a cucumber i've never done that and but i would do it but but but but it's gonna be weird i think laura's great you just need to find a way of of uh you know she's not josh she's not mad you know you need to work differently but uh she's great and you know she she has very interesting things to say very and i i love her bluntness basically i i think we started in the first five minutes of the podcast she said

hey you know i really didn't want to do this you know i i i i heard the podcast you know, I really didn't want to do this. I heard the podcast. The only one I heard, just listening to you, yours and Hunter McIntyre. Yeah. Are you friends with Hunter?

We actually... He's a handful too. I really like him too. Just it's like basically telling me to fuck off. But that's what I've heard. I will tell you something. You ask him whether he has the tattoo on his butt. Yes, yes. And I i shared room with him in power monkey he came power monkey and he was um helping my station uh-huh and uh damn it facundo you know

everybody it is nuts not only do you know him you shared a room with Lauren too. I mean, that's fine. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Fuck, Brian. I'm going to ask you to be my co-host. You know everyone. Okay, so tell me about Hunter's tattoo. Tell me about Hunter's tattoo. Hunter was, I mean, it was before he would get,

he got his, I think it was before he got his invite because of his experience in obstacle course, we invited him to help in the Kinsha Station of Power Monkey, which he came. He was great. He was very, very funny. You know, a character on his own. And, yeah, we had a good time. And did you see the tattoo?

No, because I am a very bad sleeper. So I generally wake up at 4.35 in the morning. And by the time I was leaving the room, he was still sleeping. And by the time he would come to the room, I was already sleeping. So there was no interaction whatsoever when that happened. Kind of an obvious question, but I just want to hear your response. Is he just truly an amazing physical specimen like did you see him move because his accolades are nuts like did you see him run and

jump and lift and runner for sure yeah he's like he has a great runner the problem is that we if we define it in our crossfit terms it would be a different answer maybe right because we look for different stuff he's he's in a sport on his own. So I guess that his numbers for his sport are more important, are more relevant to him than his numbers in the CrossFit world. But for sure, he's a great athlete.

Maybe not a CrossFitter, but he's a great athlete in his sport. Who do you think has the greatest um air squat you've ever seen air squat yeah uh that's a good question uh the cutest or the mechanically best squat let's talk about any any air squats that stand out in your mind i just use the word best but let's talk about people who have beautiful like you see them air squat squat, and you're like, oh, can you do that again? Like you actually enjoyed watching them do it. You're like, holy shit, because there's a few for me.

Nico Salo had a bizarre one just because of the length of his femur to calf. I don't know what it was. Zach Forrest has like – it doesn't even look like – it's like magical. I think Danny Spiegel has a great squat, air squat. Danny Spiegel. I don't know her air squat. Yeah. Have you ever had Danny Spiegel on the show?

No. I invited her – my producer invited her to be on the show, and she said – I think her response was she has different ethics and morals than myself. I'm paraphrasing. I'm paraphrasing. And therefore, she refused to do it. But I would have loved to have had her on. And the invite is still always open. All ethics and morals are welcome on my show.

She's amazing. She's simply amazing. Good. That's good to hear. Okay, I'm going to go try to find her air squat. Anyone else? Actually, you know. And what do you like about her air squat?

What do you like about it? Sorry? What do you like about her air squat? Everything, you know, when she moves squatting, she's beautiful. I mean, the legs everything she's yeah and I remember that because we were in Power Monkey she came there yeah we did not share bedrooms though just for your info uh but she used to dry my hair in Power Monkey and uh and there was a workout where we're doing air squats which is not something

that we do very often in workouts, unlikely. And I remember her doing that, and she looked beautiful. So that's what I bent her to say that. Yeah. I'm trying to think if there's any women. Like James Hobart has an amazing air squat. Well, he better. You know, Nicole Carroll has a pretty amazing air squat of all the women I saw.

Are you friends with Nicole Carroll? Hello. How are you? Good job. Congrats. Yeah. You guys would be very good friends. I wish.

I mean, I'm a big fan of her. Yes. If I was a professional matchmaker, I would set you guys up as friends. I would be like, okay. Do you have my telephone? Can I just forward her your contact information? I don't have much conversation with Nicole these days, but I think i could still text her a human being that i have the the some of the highest admiration for um when people make when i see these lists you know these um in in magazines that say like the hundred most influential people in the history of fitness or in sport or you know

the hundred most influential women ever i i'm always surprised that she's not at the top of these lists, whether they're mixed sex or about fitness, because what she did, what she does is she has no peer. She really has no peer. I agree with you. I mean, I think that she prefers a little bit of a low profile. I think that she's not a woman that wants to be exposed and so on and so on. But yeah, I mean

that from that generation, Nicole and Annie Sakamoto have given in our community so much and they're still role models and pillars. I think that the game should create a Sakamoto award. You know, still an athlete, an influencer, a great coach. You know, all of that

Annie's, you know. And I think of Cross you know and i think of crossfit crossfit women maybe annie might be the annie sakamoto might be the first one that comes to head like you know this woman has been there forever and uh she had you know find a way of renewing herself and uh and um yeah just now when you mentioned her name i I'm like, oh, I need to have Annie on the podcast. And I've had that thought probably like 20 times. But you know what? I'm kind of scared. Why?

Of Anne Sakamoto? Yeah. She's the sweetest person I know, maybe. I know. She lives just down the street from me. My mom trains at her gym. I don't know why. It's probably I'm just intimidated by her.

Yeah, I mean, I'm a little intimidated more by women than I am by men usually. But she she's she's amazing. Maybe it's just like my huge admiration for her and her contribution. Yeah. So if you have to have a podcast and replace matt and josh for two female athletes who would you go for danny spiegel and oh boy that's a that's a good danny spiegel and katrin david's daughter that's who i would pick okay those two that would, that would be an amazing podcast. Yeah, for sure. I would want them to, um, before we started, I would want them to commit to like 20 episodes regardless of how bad they are. And, uh, and I would be full in that would be something very special. That would be, I think the, uh uh i think the fans would love that does facundo coach

sasha nives from argentina is she a mayhem athlete that's one yes sasha is a mayhem athlete i met her earlier this year when i went to argentina and uh she uh and she and her coach uh you know introduced themselves and uh also their their dream was to come to mayhem to to work out and then she she did that she came to mayhem but since i'm not in mayhem one of our other coaches jake jake uh who is the director of programming is taking care of her program at the moment but she's there uh i don't coach her at the moment no um what there's another comment here it says fe, Facundo and Laura Horvat are polar opposite when it comes to conversational styles. I love them both, though. I don't know, Amy. I don't want to argue with you, but I think Facundo came in a little hot.

Like he he when the podcast started, he came in holding his sword. Like I don't want to say it was out of the sheath but he was he was ready um you know laura me she she came she she lived in my house for a couple of weeks in in brussels uh when she finished second at the games and uh she's a very fun girl to be around with i mean uh but yeah as you know in competition everybody's different and uh But yeah, as you know, in competition, everybody's different and they are focusing on the task. This is just purely for gossip. I want to know, have you ever known Laura Horvat to have a significant other?

Speaking of intimacy, does she have any boyfriends or girlfriends or anything like that? At the moment, I don't think she does. Yeah, she told me basically in the podcast that it's not even on her radar at all. Yeah, I think she works so hard that her only mission is to be at the highest of the podium of the Games. And I think she doesn't. I have not a lot of contact with her. We took the same flight coming back from Madison

after the Games. And yeah. Is Tia beatable? No. Shit. I wish I could argue with you. No, but you know what? We lived together with Tia for 10 days

before she was a fetus on Earth. 2016, we did, I don't know if you remember this episode of the game, show to the games, cookville camp or something like that, where it was Camille and Catherine and Sarah, everybody. Yes. And so I was there in Cookeville, and she was very different of what she's now as an athlete, as an athlete.

And when I see her at the games, and I want to think that we are very good friends, I think that she has, she's the closest of all the athletes who have the perfect key you know in understanding the games how to train for them how to win uh all of the other athletes that I know we are they are still trying to find the perfect lock I think that she and it's funny because if you see it at the games, she doesn't even seem stressed. You know, she seems like she's really in the control of whatever is happening.

Even there are events that they're not great for her, because they are, she's still under control. And I think that is a great skill. Yeah, I am happy for Laura in the same way I'm sad for someone like Matt and the fact that Matt never got to beat Rich. He had an opportunity and he didn't do it. But Laura Horvat has the opportunity to beat Tia. opportunity to beat Tia. And it's almost, I mean, easy for me to say as a fan, but it's almost better to take second trying to beat the greatest in the world than to be the greatest in the world when the true greatest isn't there. I mean, it's really, I speak to all the female athletes out

there and who the fuck am I, but don't squander this opportunity as much as you fucking can't stand Tia being there, it's the greatest opportunity you're ever going to have in life. This mountain will not be there forever. This isn't like Mount Everest and you can be like, okay, I'll climb it next week. There'll be a time when Tia's gone and you won't get to test yourself anymore. That mountain will be gone. So you should leverage that as motivation.

Yeah, I think that they are uh um i think that there are a lot of young ads i mean hayley adams mellow brian emma carrie you know it's just when is the transition going to happen now when is like dia going to step down and are the veterans going to go back to it like laura she's been there for a while as As great as she is. Annie, Catherine, Sarah. Or is the new generation, the Hayley Adams, the Mello Bryans, the Emma Careys are going to take over. Because they are a dangerous threat for everybody else. I just, right when you said that, I just texted. I hope that wasn't too rude.

I just texted Matt Souza, the producer, and said, please get Emma Carey on the show. Yeah. It's not true. Don't worry. Yeah, so we'll see. I mean, I think Tia, at the moment, I humbly believe that she's unbeatable. She's not my athlete, but I think she's unbeatable. How cool was it that she let us all know at the end of the games that she's coming back?

I thought that was really generous. Yeah, I talked to shane about that uh and and for his answer it was clear to me that she was she was coming back to me but you know we'll see we'll see what the new year brings why do you know something oh no no no no no no no the no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Are you fishing for some controversy here? No. We're at the end of the show. No one will hear this part. That's the kind of stuff I probably wouldn't say on the Matt and Josh podcast. Okay. No, I think that it's going to be 2021 was maybe for me my favorite games. It was amazing.

It was really extraordinary. The programming was great. Everything went, I mean, yeah. But I'm very much looking forward for the Rock Invitational and see what these athletes have been doing offseason. And Guy can win it, huh? The Armenians can win it. Saxon can win it.

Guy can win it. You know? Do you think the era of Vellner and Fikowski is over? No, I wouldn't say that. How many times have we said the era of Vellner and Fikowski is over? No, I wouldn't say that. How many times have we said the era of Annie is over? She goes back and says, I'm going. Guys, I'm here.

Stronger than ever, and I just managed to have a kid. So I would never venture to say, and also Pat, who's there tomorrow, I understand, and Fikowski, they are very clever athletes. So no, I would never venture to say that. And Fikowski, they are very clever athletes. So, no, I would never venture to say that. And I would never venture to say that if Rich Forney wouldn't come back individual,

he would win the games. I'm glad you brought up Annie. Another, like, the same way with Rich. Kind of like, not kind of, in a whole category of her own. Like, there's no, there's too much, she's done too much yeah but she's she's clever i know she she she and she knows very well what what to do and how to do i mean she makes mistakes here and there as everybody else like you know like everybody else but um she's just a great athlete i mean she climbs she starts with a very very bad first day. And then little by little, here I am. Finally, before I let you go here,

tell me about this desert competition. Where can I watch it? Do I want to watch it? Is this the first year? Will there be a second one? Tell me, is Rich going? Yeah, I think you will want to watch it. I think that it's a great competition. So it's in the Middle East.

It's in Ras Al Khaimah, which is another emirate one hour north of Dubai. And it's a rather small competition. We have a field of 20 male athletes and 15 female athletes. The male athletes we have, well, you know, Sam Cronaier, Elliot Simmons, very many national champions, game artists from that area. And it's going to be broadcasted on the Mayhem YouTube channel. And I'm going there. Rich is going there.

Many of the people of the Mayhem family were going there. And it's a first edition. It's in a very remote place in the world. Beautiful place. Beautiful place. You know, in the Middle East. It's in a very remote place in the world. Beautiful place. Beautiful place. You know, in the Middle East,

Dubai is like a very cosmopolitan city. Ras Al Ham is very adventurous. Like a lot of mountains, sea, beaches. And, we are very happy to have the chance to do our first competition there. It's invitation only?

No, no, there was a qualifier. There was a qualifier. We had some wild cards that we invited people at the very beginning so in order to avoid any problems but any hard feelings, I said.

But, no, no. We have a very good reaction. And in the morning, we have the RX category, which is more like made for local people. And in the afternoon, the international part of the competition which is going to be broadcasted yeah are you haley adams coach no i wish no haley

i wish no no haley's uh haley's coach by rich and uh a program by rich let's say and her her coach is tasia flexeves which at this case, we know when I coach Rich, I coach Rich many times, but I'm not the coach who says, oh, Rich, this is the warmup. Do three burpees, 10 calories roll, and 20, no, these people know what to do. Our job with Taysha, which is an amazing person,

is to provide athletes whatever they need in competition for them to you know concentrate in performance and nothing else are you going to move to the united states no how come because my family's here and uh i'm fine here but i'm going to the states once a month wow what airline do you fly? The only airline I fly to is Brussels, Chicago, Nashville. Wow. Cookeville to Brussels. I wonder if there's anyone else in the world who does that. I don't think so.

I don't think so. The only one. But, you know, it's from his home. It became home. It became home. Cookeville. I'm at home. And, you know, which says, I'm going to do something.

Take care of the children. So I have three children on my own. You know, so it's great. I'm very thankful to have the chance to do what I'm doing at the moment. Facundo, I would like to let you know that you can come on the show anytime you want. If you had a good time and you ever want to just come back on, I give you an open invitation. I don't think I've ever said that to anyone in 164 shows.

I've said I'd like to have someone on, but like I really, the same way maybe Rich says that his front door is open. My podcast is always open. You want to talk about anything? You want to take a great I am? You want to chastise me? You want to promote something of your own? Okay.

I'm very thankful. You know, I was a fan of you and your behind the scenes were a highlight on the year when that came. And I'm, yeah, it was a great time. So we agree I'm going to text you when my daughter falls or my daughter has something, a picture. It's all happening here now uh and uh i i had a great time i thought i thought we're going to be fighting to each other but it was nice that you set the tone same as with uh josh and matt you opened within tennessee i had a sword as you said and uh you see you you were able to set the tone for the rest of the podcast. Thank you, brother. Thank you very much.

And bam, we did it. An hour and 47 minutes. You made me $10. Okay. I mean, I know that somebody else did you $99 the other day. Was it local? Someone did give me $99 once. I don't know who that was.

That was crazy. I was going to say, I was going to tell the name of the athlete if somebody pays $99. But then I didn't want it to become too commercial. Hey, you have a really great story. Holy shit, you have a great story. Are you going to write a book?

No, I don't think so. My, I mean, it's funny. My great story. I mean, you have a fortuitous life, right? Your life just looks magical. How would that sound? Are you still recording this? No, no, it's done. It's done recording. No, no, no, no. I don't have a story.