The Sevan Podcast - #263 - Tyler Christophel
Episode Date: January 12, 2022Tyler Christophel is a three time CrossFit Games athlete. He went as an individual in 2020, and on a Team in 2017 and 2018. He is a Mayhem Athlete, and he is competing at Wodapalooza 2022. Follow us ...on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Watch this episode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videos?view=2&live_view=503 Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Bam.
No.
Now bam. Can you hear me?
Yeah, we got you. Cool.
What's up, Tyler?
I was going to call you Christofal.
It wouldn't be the first time somebody's called me something
like that. Will you pronounce
your last name for me? Christofal.
Christofal.
Yep. That's a good one.
I'm trying to think if there's
any athletes that got ass names. It seems like they all got a good one. I'm trying to think if there's any athletes that got ass names.
It seems like they all got like extra good names.
Like someone knew that they were going to be popular.
Sevan, you know there's a guy in this competition whose name is Riley Good?
No.
Really?
I know that there's a commentator named Brian Friend.
That's kind of weird, right?
Like so obviously made up. Dude, what the heck is your beard doing? What are you hiding? That's a commentator named Brian Friend. That's kind of weird, right? Like so obviously made up.
Dude, what the heck is your beard doing?
What are you hiding?
That's a fake name.
Is the audio good here?
It's a what name, Tyler?
It's a fake name.
Yeah, it's so fake, Brian Friend.
Yeah, your audio is great, buddy.
Are those new headphones?
Yep, I wanted to test them out.
This is what I'm going to try to use this weekend.
What do you mean test them out?
This is like a real hardcore show. You can't be just on here testing out your new gear. I feel like test them out. This is what I'm going to try to use this weekend. What do you mean test them out? This is like a real hardcore show.
You can't be just on here testing out your new gear.
I feel like a noob.
I have iPhone headphones.
That's how it is.
Okay.
It took me like eight podcasts to get headphones.
Got you.
April 18th, 2015.
April 18th. I'm fixing Tyler's Instagram right now.
Let me see.
April 18th, 2015
was Tyler's first. Hey,
you in the comments,
do you know the only thing dumber than me
fooling around on my computer
at the beginning of the show is you
writing in the comments
on Googling at the beginning of the show. Go away. It's my show. googling at the beginning of the show go away it's my show i don't give a shit what
you think get the fuck out of here i i do care what you think though keep writing that stuff
because it's fun it's fun little banter back and forth are you a noble athlete yes i'm part
of the noble team how stoked are you on that um Really, really stoked on that.
Proud to be part of the Noble family.
Are you there because you are a fantastic athlete,
or is it that you are slightly more attractive than the average human being?
Maybe a little more than slightly.
Let's just leave that to be determined.
He was a big fan of your long hair tyler
i don't want to talk about it man what talk about it oh do you wish it was long too again
sometimes man some days i wish it was long oh dude you're such a pimp with the long hair
you seriously look like a movie star with long hair i'm gonna see if i can find like the ones
like this thing this this mushroom hair is just crazy can we clip that i'm gonna do that whenever i go on to being a movie star
after crossfit look at this that's nice right hey do they do they um do they trip when you cut your
hair like like noble or like uh excuse me tyler do you have do you have to check with them
no i don't uh i don't think they tripped.
I think they were cool with it.
I think they might have liked the long hair.
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I like the long hair.
They didn't say, hey, we already have one guy with long hair.
We need a short hair guy.
They're like, oh, you don't have long hair anymore?
Sorry, man.
Talk to you later.
Yeah, I mean.
They only bring in women and men with long hair
wasn't like that brian you do not need to check in before you shave that thing off your face any
at any time you feel um inspired are you jealous i'm sensing some jealousy actually
he can grow in this thick it's just not this color. It's great.
Mine seriously looks like pubic hair stuck to my face.
I'm still waiting on puberty, so maybe I'll get that.
Look it.
So is John.
I'm there with you.
We should say they might not be able to grow the best facial hair, but they're way stronger than us.
Yes.
How is that? It's the secret. able to grow the best facial hair, but they're way stronger than us. Yes.
That's the secret.
Just don't grow his facial hair.
For those of you who don't know who are just checking in or have not been watching what we've been doing the last few days,
we are trying to cram in the coolest of the cool who are participating at Wadapalooza.
The event starts tomorrow.
Have they said what time?
I've seen a bunch of schedules.
10 a.m. 10 a.m. Okay. So, Tyler, you'll a bunch of schedules. 10 a.m.
10 a.m.
Okay.
So, Tyler, you'll actually take the field at 10 a.m.? I'm not sure if the individuals or teams are first.
Yeah, I don't care about anyone else.
I want to know what time Tyler is going.
What time do people who, like, want to watch big boys throw weights around start watching?
Do we know?
I don't know.
I'm not exactly sure what time I first see it.
Oh, that makes me feel so much better.
So you don't have a granular schedule yet?
They might have sent one.
Dear athletes, including Tyler and other athletes who listen to the show,
please, if you have a schedule, send me one.
Send it to me in my DMs.
Text me.
Send it to Brian. you have a schedule, send me one. Send it to me in my DMs. Text me. Send it to Brian.
I need a schedule because the schedule they give the media guys is so broad.
That's the last thing I've seen is a broad schedule too,
just like when the events start and the end time is for the whole thing.
Seven to three.
Yeah.
Do you care?
About heat times?
Yeah.
Or anything. about heat times yeah or or anything like do you would you like to know right now
that um you're gonna be busy from like 10 to 1 and then from 2 to 3 and then from 6 to 7
would you like to know that now i don't care i'll be laughing all day yeah lucky you yeah you you
go there and you basically just surrender right to the it's like hey these
four days i'm gonna have to do hard shit that's the best way to do it tyler where are you guys
living full-time now uh cookville as of about a month ago okay i thought that you guys had made
the move pretty recently did you travel uh travel down there with any of the guys or do you guys
just the two of you come down separately uh what you mean the miami or to cookville miami miami i was by myself oh did bailey not not go she's here yeah she came yeah
she she came in from uh springfield the spot where we moved or where i moved to cookville from she's
still there gotcha and brian referencing bailey rail who is also at the Bailey rail at the Bailey rail.
Uh,
but,
but it's a tough spelling,
right?
It's not like B a Y L E E.
And then that should pop her up.
She's popular enough.
Does she have more followers than you?
Yes.
Surprise.
Surprise.
Surprise.
Shocker. Yeah. Is she a noble athlete she is
hers is because she's really good and really really good looking yeah you can just answer
it outright with her both and see all the above how did you meet she's been honestly she's been
killing it this year from a marketable market standpoint i think she's she's been killing it this year from a market standpoint, I think.
She's been killing it, man.
It doesn't really matter at the time.
That's what she does.
She just kills it.
She's like the good crypto.
She's so good.
How did you meet her?
And the reason why I ask specifically is your Instagram account just take all of a sudden just like some crazy turns. It's like baseball and stuffed animals, then all of a sudden CrossFit, animals then all of a sudden crossfit and then
all of a sudden bailey rail it's like just these three distinct periods yeah that's pretty uh
it's pretty accurate podcast over we summed up your life that's pretty that's pretty good
yep maybe some childhood maybe some childhood stuff in there maybe i guess the stuffed animals
but yeah how did you meet her uh i told her that
i liked her shoes at the water fountain at the gym at a crossfit gym yes can you and how old
were you can you give us some details what was the weather like that day did you have bo man i
don't think i had a shirt on which maybe increased my percent chance of of some feedback
from her when you know when you commented
up on her shoes and she'd say hey buddy my eyes are up here uh i think she probably looked at me
like who's this gym weirdo creepo so um so you did you know that like that was that where you
like okay i gotta think of something to say to this girl not really because i that like that was that where you're like, okay, I got to think of something to say to this girl.
Not really.
Cause I feel like I was in the middle of working out and I was going to get some water.
So it was sincere.
It wasn't like Chris Rock's line.
You know, like Chris Rock says it went after a girl turns 13, everything a guy says to her is you want some dick.
It wasn't, it was actually like, Hey, those are cool shoes.
No, it was, it was totally like genuine and sincere.
You're a good dude are you a
shoe guy in general shoes what's that are you like do you always like take i always look at people's
shoes because i'm always curious about like what the new models are the new brands that are putting
stuff out is that you i don't know if it's specific to shoes i i pay really close attention
to a lot of small detail stuff so so I notice weird stuff. She had
on some pink Reebok shoes.
I was like, oh, hey, here's a good look of pink
Reebok Manos.
I take
these pills right here. Oh, I'm going
to say the word wrong. They're not desecrated.
Defecated, not defecated.
What's the word when you dry something?
I think you got it right the first time, actually.
No, not desecrated.
Dehydrated.
It's kind of like dehydrated, but it has an S in it.
Someone will write it in the comments soon.
Can we see the comments here?
Is my mom watching?
Can my mom tell me?
How good are you, mom, if you can't tell me?
Oh, desiccated.
Oh, it is desiccated.
Okay.
Oh, that's close.
Thank you, Colin. Okay. So I take
these pills because I'm on the carnivore diet or I try to stay as close to it as I can. And this
is organ meat in these pills. So I started taking these like a year ago and they had got all the
different ones. They got the beef, they got the adrenal tallow, just everything you would need.
And then I started in contact with the owner of the company. And then we've been friends for like a year.
And I said, hey, do you want to chip in some cash so we can send some people to Wadapalooza to cover the event?
And he did.
So this is, yeah, it is cool.
This is the Ancestral Supplements Sevan Podcast Wadapalooza event with our special guest, Tyler Christofal.
This is how they do it on Talking Elite Fitness, Brian. Devon podcast, what a Palooza event with our special guest, Tyler Cristofal. God,
this is Tyler.
Is that how they do it on talking elite fitness,
Brian?
They,
they,
they have like big,
long,
fancy sentences like that.
Yes.
Something like that.
It's good that you're learning some things from them.
Yeah,
I am.
I am.
Tyler,
what's the,
uh,
you,
you spent a lot of long time,
like training with the four one seven crew,
right?
Yep.
And, and, uh, how would you describe with the 417 crew, right? Yep. And how would you describe...
I mean, it seemed like pretty much everyone there
was focused on the team route for a long time.
I don't know if they had any individual athletes,
but you guys regularly had a good team.
And now you're over in Cookville,
where they have a good team,
but also a huge host of individual athletes.
Are there any notable differences in the training environments i would say the focus um going into 417 jared's background as a college football player
um strong strength bias the guys that were on the team if you look back in 2000 i think jared
competed from like 2011 or 12 as an individual like maybe 2011 to 2013 14 and then 2015 they
sent the team the guys that were on the team were really big strong guys um focus on big barbell focus um a lot of strength power output uh this type of training whereas in
at mayhem and around uh the mayhem crew there's a lot of fitness do a lot of metconning and a lot of
they do everything there how long have you been a lot of everything yeah how long have you been a Mayhem athlete?
About a year now.
And how does that happen? How does that transpire?
Last year, after the 2020 Stage 1, I was looking for a little bit more direction as far as programming goes.
I had spent a little bit of time in Cookville in 2018.
We went and trained alongside of them preparing for the games in 2018.
Loved it there.
And I was considering a couple options in 2020 of like what programming to move forward with and
when I'm moving forward with man spent some time in Cookville late 2020.
And when you do spend that when you say you spend that time there what's that like you spend time
at like the Mayhem Gym at the barn getting to know Rich and his family all the above like and what
made you finally make the decision?
So when I first went down there,
I actually landed there on a weekend that was like a train with Rich camp.
There was a couple other guys there.
Sam was there.
Rich was in there.
We trained at the gym pretty much all weekend with all the people that were there for the train with rich
weekend and like i said i had competed against rich before and uh i've also met jake who's the
director of programming for mayhem athlete uh jake locker wait so so hwpo has a jake and mayhem
has a jake that's two jakes i'm i don't know that i know yeah different people jake marconi okay what's
your jake what's your jake's name i've never heard his name what's that guy's name jake what
jake lockhart and he's a coach he's not a competitor do you know who do you know of him
john yeah yeah i mean he he does all of mayhem's stuff. He does all their videos, too, right on SugarWad if you follow their programming.
It kind of explains the workout.
He does all their workout briefing and stuff like that.
Wow.
That's crazy that I never heard his name.
Was he ever a competitor, Jake Lockhart?
I think he might have competed a little bit.
He's a pretty fit guy, but he hasn't done individual comps.
So when you go down there,
that dude's just hanging out.
I've never seen him in any videos either.
Like,
like,
like you look to your right and there's Haley.
And then you look to your left and there's Guy.
And then across the gym,
there's this dude,
Jake Lockhart hanging out in there too.
He's in there every now and then.
Just looking at everybody.
He's not,
he's not like consistently in one place.
He's kind of all over the place as far as being across at mayhem or at the gym in his office.
But he'll go out there every now and then.
Like you might go to the drinking fountain and he's there already getting a drink.
He could be there.
That's how I met him too.
Told him I liked his shoes.
No, I'm just kidding.
Okay, so keep going with that story.
So then you're at the train with Rich Camp, and then what happens?
I just expressed interest towards Jake.
I said, hey, I'm looking on taking on a little bit more programming,
learning a little bit more about what it's like to go individual.
And it was in 2019, I was was team 2019 was the weird year that was the year
like sanctionals and you could compete as an individual you know you didn't have to commit
to either so i did i think three events with crossfit four and seven i did uh wapalooza
granite games and rogue invitational and then i did the mid-atlantic as an individual and then i
did the open i took a shot at qualifying as an individual.
I didn't really know what I was doing training-wise and preparation-wise.
I was working full-time too.
Going into 2020, I took a haymaker at the Open.
I also took a different job.
Then I was getting programming through Misfit.
I was working with Drew from Misfit who did a really good job.
He didn't even really take me on.
I was just getting programming from him and doing it.
And I wound up qualifying in 2020.
And then that was the year we also competed late,
like September, October.
So we did the games, that stage one deal.
And then after that,
that's when I moved forward with CrossFit Mayhem or Mayhem
Athlete.
And with some pretty hardcore commitment, you're moving, you moved down there.
I did that, uh, obviously late 2021.
I mean, I've kind of always wanted to train around CrossFit Mayhem and around that group.
Like they have a really good thing going, right?
And just, it just happened to work out.
2021, I did the individual semifinal at CrossFit Mayhem,
which was the online event that me and Sam together.
Bailey did that one as well.
And then after coming up one spot short in that, after a major penalty,
I did the last chance qualifier and I was one spot short there too.
So I kind of went to Rich and Jake, and I was like,
whatever I got to do to not be one spot short again, that'd be cool.
Yeah, that is – oh, look, is that your significant other?
Maybe we saw her.
You better tell her the camera's on.
Something crazy done happened. He muted it. significant other maybe we saw her you better tell her the camera's on something crazy don't happen
he muted it
tell her the camera's on nothing crazy happened don't come out like naked
yeah something like that the ratings for the show are high enough tyler that that votes well for you
though because traditionally people who have come one spot short
tend to come back the next year, make it easily,
and are almost top tier.
Think Brent Fikowski.
I think it happened to Heppner when he first came in.
It's happened to a lot of people where they come very short.
They got really good really fast, came one spot short.
It's heartbreaking.
And then are just a monster the next year.
So if history shows itself again, it bodes well for you.
Thank you.
Go ahead.
Thank you, John.
Tyler, what's this?
This is your first competition ever across your competition yeah i owe that guy
on the left his name's alex kelly and uh i'll shout out his brother too who him and his brother
really really good buddies friends of mine uh raise a mentor of mine his brother but he actually
signed me up for my first crossfit competition against my will and and forced me to do a partner comp with him.
And you were stoked?
Yeah, not at the time. I was pretty terrified because we hadn't really been doing CrossFit
much at all, actually. So he had some CrossFit experience and I was just working out. Me and
that man and another, his brother, ran a baseball training facility and we were just working out like it was 24, 25, working out, helping young baseball players.
And Alex goes, hey, man, let's do this CrossFit comp.
And I was like, or he said, I think he goes, I signed up for a CrossFit comp.
And I said, that's awesome, man.
Like, I'll show up and support you for that.
That's cool.
He goes, oh, no, it's a partner comp.
I was like, oh, who are you going to do it with, Ray?
And he's like, no, you.
At the time, I was snatching like 115,
and there was 135-pound snatches in the competition.
So I was like, yep.
See how this goes.
Yeah, and was it a snowball after that?
Yeah, so we did that competition, and at that competition,
Jared Stevens happened to be there
and he crushed everybody he did a partner version of it he crushed everybody there
and uh we went up to him after and i just asked him i think i asked him if he had a gym or he
asked me if i had a gym and i said yeah we work out at our gym he's like so what's the name of
the affiliate i was like you know i have an affiliate and it was just kind of like three dudes working out and like basically the front shop of a baseball
hitting pitching and fielding facility oh wow that's all i mean we just had like a rig and
some barbells and we didn't know what we were doing honestly i feel like that'd be awesome
though you just throw down with your bros every every day yeah that was it man that's it we would
come into work early and just work out lift weights and breathe hard a little bit we had no
idea what we were doing obviously but um and then i wound up at 417 which happened to be
uh a great spot for me to be because i wasn't strong and every dude at 417 is back squatting 500 pounds.
All of them have 300 plus bench presses.
How old are you at this point?
31.
No, at the point of the story that you're telling.
25, 26.
You're pretty late to the game then.
Yep, I was.
From that point on, are you just doing crossfit hardcore
um 2000 this was 2015 so i joined jared's gym in like may or june uh crossfit 417
and have you go ahead go ahead sorry no go ahead what were you guys have you only been getting
stronger since then have you only been getting stronger since
then have you only been improving have there been any like two steps forward one step back
or is it just i think um i've been pretty fortunate not to have any serious injury
for a setback you know what i mean? Yeah. Stoked for you.
Which has been really a blessing at, at four and seven.
I was so, I was so weak compared to these other guys. And I mean, they're cycling barbells and I'm like, that's a wonder at max for me.
You know, they're doing shoulder overhead at two 55 for reps. I'm like,
okay. So yeah,
it happened to be like really good for me to be around those guys
to get stronger.
So, 2015, I was just chipping away, obviously.
They sent a team to the games that year.
That was their first year with CrossFit 417 being at the CrossFit Games.
And then 2016 was my first Open.
That was kind of peak Jared Stevenson too, right?
I would say that's kind of whenever he –
he was in the individual scene.
And he was really close.
I want to say he was close to making it as an individual in 2012 or 2013,
something like that.
Um,
and then,
but whenever he started running the teams is whenever he started to pick up
some traction.
I'm trying to see if I can see.
Oh,
Oh,
that's Jared Stevens.
He got,
he's got a big old beard.
Yeah.
He's a big guy.
He's a big dude.
A hoss.
Yep.
Six foot, six one, somewhere in there. Oh, you know, what's crazy is guy. He's a big dude. A hoss. Yep. Six foot, 6'1", somewhere in there.
Oh, you know what's crazy is that picture on your Instagram.
Usually we'd have someone in the back who could pull it up.
But you're in between those two NFL players, I think.
Dude, Grant Wishterman, Gannon Sinclair.
Yeah, what were their positions?
Tight end and what?
Tight end and defensive end.
Hey, they don't even look human next to you.
They're humongous individuals, man.
It makes CrossFit look so weird.
Yeah, because you guys look huge in all the photos.
You should challenge them to 50 handstand push-ups for a time
just so you can feel good about yourself.
Yeah, 50 handstand push-ups and 10 ring muscle-ups.
Let's do it.
How did you end up training with them? Was it a one-off? You can feel good about yourself. Yeah. 50 handstand pushups and 10 ring muscle-ups. Let's do it.
How did you end up training with them?
Was it a one-off?
They just popped in the gym?
So Gannon is a friend of mine.
He played football at the university that I was living in.
Or at the university and the city that I was living in.
And he also played for my father as a college football coach.
So he played for my dad.
And I just kind of knew him through that.
My brother played at that college too and was friends with Gannon.
So Gannon and I were just close.
This isn't the picture, but look at this picture,
and look how big you guys look here.
Look how big you look, Alex Smith looks, just compared to the ladies, right?
Right.
What's this guy's name from Misfit?
That's Cody.
Cody, that's right. What's Cody's last name? Mooney. Mooney, that's right. That's right right what's this guy's name from misfit that's cody cody that's right what's cody's last name mooney mooney that's right that's right that's right
so you guys look like that and then uh i wonder if i can find uh camille is so short
i wonder if i can find that picture it shouldn't be too far maybe i passed it already
oh here it is here it is and look at those dudes It shouldn't be too far. Maybe I passed it already.
Oh, here it is.
Here it is.
And look at that.
And that's you in between them.
Yeah.
I look like a little kid.
So there's a great picture out there on the internet.
I don't know who's on the back end, but it's The Rock. And he's right next to Charles Barkley and Shaq.
And they're on both sides of him.
Oh, yeah.
I've never seen The Rock so small.
Yeah, I've seen that.
It is hilarious.
It's one of the funniest pictures on the internet.
We don't have anyone on the back end today.
I don't know what's going on.
That guy in that-
You're doing it?
Yeah, it was me doing it.
That guy kind of looks like Andy Hendel,
the guy with his shirt off next to you.
Which one is that?
I don't know. I don't know.. Which one is that? I don't know.
I don't know.
I'm going to pull.
I don't know.
So you're at Mayhem, and so that's it for you now.
That's a pretty serious move.
You think that's going to be home base for a while there?
You'll end up finding something to do there,
even if you don't end up doing CrossFit?
Like, that's it?
I don't know.
I know. I didn't really think uh super long term on the move it was more of like this is what i know i got to do
right now uh to do what i want to do now um i think it's a little bit longer term in the in
the sense of i want to spend a little bit time in the individual space um i love cookville i love
the people around i, it's a blessing
in my life to have all the folks from man around. So are you doing any baseball stuff anymore?
Not anymore. I still have a couple athletes. Um, I still have a couple athletes that I was around
whenever they were younger. And I was at that baseball facility that I still kind of mentor
have relationship with. They're like the high school or collegiate level now, but anything beyond like actual physical
hitting training or fielding training, it's more just like, Hey man, what do you need? Are you in
a season where you need some help where I can help? Which I dig that stuff a lot, actually.
The level of commitment from the people you're surrounded by is pretty insane. The two examples that immediately pop up is Samuel just had a child.
He's got another child.
He's got a wife, and he's coming down there.
And then Guy just came from Brazil.
These aren't – as fun as it might sound from the outside, it takes some pretty crazy balls to do what they're doing.
It's a lot of testosterone. It is a lot of testosterone. Um, it takes some pretty crazy balls to do what they're doing.
It's a lot of testosterone.
It is a lot of testosterone, but there's a level of commitment.
Um, it's like, it's like we had Griffin on last night, Griffin Raleigh.
Do you know who that is, Tyler?
Yeah.
And you know, he's this big, strong dude, crazy confident when he speaks. and yet basically he had never left his like
little tiny bubble and he was talking about how scary it was to go to dubai the first time by
himself like making moves like this i mean we're all just human and uh i'm assuming you like the
pressure you want that pressure on yourself like there's no dilly-dally like if the guy next to you
is leaving his kids to be there, it's like,
you're all,
you're all,
all in,
or he hates you.
Right.
Yeah.
I love it.
Is Bailey training there too.
She's she'll come in for,
you know,
some touch,
come spend time there and then take off back home for a little while.
Um,
which is kind of what we did last year.
And in preparation for the CrossFit games, uh, last year we just stayed there so it's not it's not so far
away that it feels like a move like a permanent move does that make sense yeah it's about a seven
hour drive she'll come stay there um you know spend as much time as she wants or needs there
then she can go back home her whole family and home base is back in Missouri. So, I mean,
it's a pretty good setup for her. She can go.
Who does she train with back home?
At home.
Like who, who's, who does she have a coach?
From Mayhem you're saying?
No, no. Just like, like anywhere, wherever she is. Does she have a coach?
Who does she call daddy?
From back whenever she's back home, she does.
We do not have a coach back in Missouri,
but she does stay in contact with Jake, the same guy that I'm with.
And when she comes to man, obviously she gets time, you know,
some time there with him.
So I don't get it.
Why not just jump on the bandwagon?
Why don't you say, fuck it?
Yeah, I'm going there.
I'm going to now my training partners are Rich and Haley Adams and this dude that I'm hanging with, Tyler.
Like, why not?
Why doesn't she just why doesn't she just get does she have a job up there?
Like, why doesn't she just get on the on the program?
I'll let you ask her that okay all
right all right all right i mean i heard rich sweats a lot is that does that have anything to
do with it she doesn't like the sweaty gym okay she got a really sensitive sense of smell and
you know oh yeah does the barn have its own unique smell i don't know i'm the same you never know
on certain days it could um your dad was a football coach, which is also interesting because Griffin Raleigh's dad,
I don't know if you call him a football coach.
I think he was a strength and conditioning coach for a football team.
What is, are you born and raised athlete?
That's what you are?
I mean, because he's clearly born and raised athlete.
His mindset, the way he talks, the way he moves.
Yeah. I would say I'm a, I'm a product of my environment a little bit. I grew up around football, like athletic facilities, gyms, fields, sports have kind of always been the backbone, um, besides loving the Lord for my family.
Um, what was the, uh, What was the first sport you played?
Do you remember?
Probably T-ball, man.
I don't know.
Something, whatever.
As soon as you can put a jersey on or a uni on,
I think I was probably doing it.
Why baseball if your dad was the, excuse me, the football coach?
I love this question.
My grandfather played baseball.
I love this question. Um, my grandfather played baseball and I have a, just, I have a wild baseball story, man. Uh, God just opened so many doors for me to continue to be able to play it.
And, uh, I got a scholarship for it. Totally different story than my CrossFit story, but
can I hear it? Yeah, sure. Um, let me kind of summarize it just to hear it sounds like god's
in it are there any girls in it in baseball no but you said you know you said i have a wonderful
baseball story um the lord blessed me by opening doors and then i was hoping you were going to say
and there were these crazy girls in it no not really god girls in baseball the story of tyler
christopher i got i got a little i I got a little hand of protection over me.
I went to a junior college, played baseball,
and there's not a lot of girls at a junior college.
And then I went to a private Baptist four-year college to finish,
so I was protected.
That doesn't sound protected to me. Sounds cursed cursed but i guess it's just perspective i stayed
out of trouble man i look at it as trouble all right all right so in when i was younger uh
baseball story i started out playing travel baseball i played all sports uh growing up i
did everything you could possibly do man i skateboarded
i dabbled in motocross i did bmx uh football baseball basketball soccer roller hockey in the
street home run derby in the street you name it man i tried it um then getting into high school
when i was a freshman high school i was was very underdeveloped physically. So I have this big,
like childhood of sports, um, being around athletic facilities, football facilities,
whatever, running around. And I got really lucky because my brother might be the best competitor
I've ever been around. My little brother is like top notch, whatever he sets his mind to
competitor wise, he does it does it two questions two questions real
quick when you said your freshman year you were small how small were you time to go i'm talking
i look like it should be illegal for me to have a permit like a driver's permit it's been a common
theme with guests lately hasn't it yeah griffin said he was his freshman year he was five feet
tall 116 pounds i was probably something like that. Five, five hundred and twenty five.
And then he fucking tells us this is where the story gets weird.
And now he front squat six hundred.
No, no.
He at a hundred pounds at one hundred and fifteen pounds in a freshman in high school.
He I want to say he deadlifted like.
Or back squatted like 400 pounds like he still he had. Do you remember that? But it was John. in a freshman in high school, he, I want to say he deadlifted like,
or back squatted like 400 pounds.
Like he still,
he had,
do you remember that?
What it was,
John?
It was something crazy.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Crazy.
That's not me. I think he said he did 315 for like 10.
Yes.
315 for,
315 for three.
Was that back,
was that back squat?
Ah,
yeah,
yeah.
It was back squat.
Yeah.
So,
so he's 116 pounds, years old and he back squatted
315 for three that was me i think the only thing impressive about that is that he weighed 116 pounds
but dude no there are plenty of 15 year olds that are freaks that can do they can do that
now he grew up to be a bigger freak,
I'll give them that. But I bet there was a 15 year old at your high school, Tyler,
that were at mine that could do that. You hit puberty a little bit early and then you can.
But you were back squatting. You were 115 pounds and back squatting 87 pounds.
The training bar.
The training bar.
Understood.
Bro, I remember walking into freshman workouts my, my first year high school.
And this, this dude was on the bench press and he had 45 pounds on each side and he was repping it out.
And I was like, he was benching 135, you know, for.
And you thought you saw like a superhero
i thought this guy was going to nfl yeah awesome you said you were still really weak when you went
to 417 the first time right yeah i i so you got strong really fast then for because you're one
of the stronger people in the competitive field i I wouldn't say it was really fast.
I mean, there was a lot of nights of eating way more food than I wanted to
and Jerry being like, hey, man, you need to eat and eat and eat
and do barbell to get to this point.
I had a little bit of a background because I played a college sport.
So playing a college sport, like you get underneath the barbell,
you do some deadlifts, you do some bench, you do some squat.
And I was a college sport, you get underneath the barbell, you do some deadlifts, you do some bench, you do some squat. I was a college baseball player, so we weren't doing a ton of just gritty cleans and deadlifts.
We did a lot of circuit stuff and shoulder.
Yeah, we benched.
Did some lunges, some tire flips.
And then my second question before you continue with this story is, when you say your brother is one of the greatest competitors and it's interesting that you say your younger brother
what what do you mean by competitor he just like he won't lose and it's been like that since i mean
we could play board games together i mean he'd ruin family board game nights because everybody
was cheating and if he didn't win every everyone was cheating and there was no way he was losing. I mean, just that type of drive.
Okay.
Um, so I get to high school, five, five, 120 pounds.
I have no business on any physical, any physical field or realm.
I just, I don't know.
I guess, uh, I grew up being like bigger and a little bit, I was physical growing up playing
sports and it just kind of like everyone caught up
to me and then passed me in that like middle school to ninth grade 10th grade range and it
sucked for me because i love sports like you know obviously my dad was a coach my uncle's a coach
everyone out of seven christopher uh cousins are in my family I think six out of the seven are collegiate athletes. So it's like, like I said, besides loving God and sports.
So I get to high school, super underdeveloped.
And I'm like, okay, I played football, basketball, and baseball.
And I get cut from my baseball team my freshman year.
And I loved football and basketball, but there was something about the game of baseball, like the mental side of it, that I really loved.
What position did you play?
In baseball.
Yeah.
I grew up, I love playing catcher, but I wound up converting to a middle infielder.
Okay.
Second base shortstop. Later on, I got cut as a freshman.
And I went and played for like a summer ball team.
I didn't make our freshman baseball team or our freshman summer ball team.
So I went and played. Did you cry?
Did you cry?
You know, I don't remember.
I think I just got pissed off about it.
So I went and played.
So it hurt.
It hurt.
Yeah, it for sure hurt me.
Because I wanted to play and prove that I could play.
Were you just too small?
Yeah, just small and underdeveloped.
I'm telling you, man.
Like I had no business driving.
I had no business being on a sports field.
Like I was so far behind everybody.
Every time you say underdeveloped, I think of a polywag.
I think of like a polywag.
I got to show you a photo.
I got to put pictures right now.
I have a photo like of my 14 or 15 year old ID.
Uh,
somewhere it's in my phone somewhere.
I'll pull it up whenever,
whenever I get a second.
Um,
but so I went and played for like a public,
uh,
just a public team,
summer team,
baseball team.
So I can just get some reps.
And then my sophomore
year i came in and i made the team but i made the team which was awesome i put down basketball my
sophomore year and uh you played what kind of basketball high school basketball oh okay i
thought you said dumb basketball okay no no no i put basketball down after my freshman year and i
was like i want to focus on playing
football and baseball here you are this is you as a senior that's as a senior and that's like
i mean it's still i still look like i should probably start in high school at that
yeah you look pretty young you still look like a normal boy there though you don't look like
you don't look like a polywog i'm 5 5'8", 5'9", probably 150 there.
Okay.
Okay, sorry. Go on. Okay, so sophomore
year, you do make the team. Yep.
And don't play.
Very minimal reps.
Didn't get
in much.
So I kind of thought, you know, maybe
God's closing that door on me, and
maybe I just need to focus on football.
So you did think like that already as a 15 year old boy or 16 year old boy, you thought you couched it in those terms.
Like, no, this is God's choice. No, no. OK.
No, no. This is hindsight. OK.
So but, you know, kind of in my head, my I'm thinking like, okay, I'll go into my junior year.
I was at a pretty prestigious football school where I was living at the time.
A bunch of really good athletes in my class.
So I'm like, I'll just focus on football and kind of immerse myself even more in that and try to contribute there and see what I can do there.
So I'm thinking this.
And then unlike me, I'm probably,
probably done with baseball. And, uh, I think I was a junior, my junior year of football. And
there, it was, I was in the type of school where there's probably a senior over you.
Who's been waiting to play for two or three years. And then you're going to get, you know,
you're going to get your chance to your senior year and maybe you'll get some reps, your junior
year type of school. And, uh, the first play play of the first drive my junior year, the guy in front of me
breaks his leg. So I'm like, okay, so I'm in. So I get my name called and go in. And I was still
small, obviously, but I was just a grinder. So what position did you play then? Well, I was
trying to play quarterback, but our quarterback was a phenomenal athlete
four-year starter uh at the university of alabama as a baseball player and got drafted by the yankees
so i learned real quick i wasn't going to play quarterback so i think okay so if we play on a
friday night versus team on wednesday my head football coach goes christopher i know you can
throw can you catch and i'm like sure so he, okay, go play slot receiver. So I ran out and play slot receiver and catch one patch for a touchdown in
practice. So he's like, okay, you're playing slot now. So I'm like, okay. Which is what Griffin
played by the way, Griffin played running back and a slot receiver. It was more of a running back,
but sure. Yeah. I was, uh, I, I didn't run through people. I tried to run around people because I was so small, you know, Griffin, probably the opposite.
And that dude just runs over people like that.
Yeah, probably.
So anyways, I find myself starting football my junior year and kind of laid baseball down.
football my junior year and kind of laid baseball down. Uh, I finished my junior year of high school and, um, my,
a few of the guys on the coaching staff where my dad was coaching got fired.
And my dad happened to be one of those three or four guys.
So I immediately knew what was happening.
This has happened three or four times in my life before where we were like,
we're at a university somewhere living in that city. Dad gets fired.
We're moving. So I wake up, uh, mom's crying. They're having a conversation out back and I'm like, yep fired we're moving so i wake up uh mom's crying they're having a
conversation out back and i'm like yep we're moving again where are we going dad's like hey
did you hear that people he got fired and mom was crying getting fired sucks especially when you
love your job yep so love your job you're good at it You've given your life to it. It's everything to you.
And you get fired.
Go ahead, Tyler.
It's tough.
It's tough.
Moment of peace for my homie.
I got you.
440.
A little 40 out for my dead homie, Dave.
TDC.
Dave Castro.
Probably sitting down, drinking his miseries away.
Okay.
Let's move forward.
It's just one guy.
It's no big deal.
Everything will be fine.
It's just the evolution.
Who cares if Coca-Cola owns CrossFit?
I don't care.
Let's go work out.
Some of you are so dumb.
Some of you are so dumb some of you are so dumb it's like the car is not going to los angeles anymore it's turned around and driving up to alaska
you know that you're in there just being like it's fine
okay sorry sorry mom mom was crying mom was crying yes yeah i was about to start crying i was about
to start crying i mean it was already doing that before dave got fired i'm not saying i'm just
saying that that's i'm trying that's a signifier that's a signifier of it that's a first all the
did all the apostles die tyler do all of them get killed in the Bible? Most of them do.
Do any of them live out?
Do any of them die of natural causes? Did any of the apostles die at like 94, just like with their grandkids hanging out?
What is the stat on that?
97% of all people die at some point.
There you go.
Yeah, I'm sure they died.
We're just watching the apostles get killed, metaphorically. I hope that's not blasphemous
to use that as a metaphor. I apologize if it is.
Okay. So your dad gets
fired. You've seen it before. Yep.
And he was the coach at your high school.
No, no. College. College. Okay.
So when you say your junior year, but you're
in high school. Yep. High school.
Okay.
Yeah. Mom's upset.
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Don't know when, like I said, happened before.
So I have a couple options.
My dad, he's moving to Missouri and I can either go with him, start my beginning of my or start in the middle of my junior year at a new school, new high school in Missouri or stay in Louisiana, finish out my junior year there and then move with my mom and brother before my senior year or i can
stay with my head football coach and finish my senior year of football there so where would you
stay where would you sleep where if you stayed in louisiana or wherever you were i don't know
where you were but where would you say you're saying your dad might go yep but but where would
you stay if your dad left uh well we would i have just stayed in the house that we were living in Louisiana.
So dad would have gone and taken the job.
And held down the fort at two places?
Me?
No, your dad.
He would have had to move up to Missouri and probably start his job.
And then my mom and brother and I packed the house up to get it sold so we can all follow and come back up.
Okay. Okay. Okay. So it's a slow roll. Okay. Go on. Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm just,
I'm just picturing your dad. Like I'm just picturing your dad, like how he's fucking
managing all the finances. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So he's coaching. He is going to head up to Missouri.
And then if he takes off from Missouri to start this new college coaching job,
me, my brother and mom packed the house up and we follow him after we sell the house.
So I decided to go with him.
So me and my dad pack up like three bags and a TV and we stay in a two bedroom apartment.
And I start my junior year of high school in Missouri and kind of getting wrapping the story up.
I get a door open to play.
I moved there right before baseball tryouts,
my junior year.
And I wound up picking baseball back up.
My coach at the high school I was at in Missouri
gave me an opportunity to play baseball.
And I ran with it.
I played my junior year,
played my senior year of football
and finished my senior year of baseball
at that high school.
And I didn't have any offers or any looks.
Real quick, when you started playing baseball there your junior year,
did you catch her, or is that when you switched to shortstop?
Second base.
Second base, okay.
But I had been playing some middle infield.
Okay.
So I'm playing middle infielder, high school.
I don't get any looks.
And I wind up just playing on a summer team for fun
it was after my uh after my senior year no college looks i'm going to college just to be a student
and we wind up getting into it into a tournament at the end of the year and i wound up having a
good tournament and i got a guy in the parking lot and he's like what's your cell phone number
and i'm like this is my number he's, I'm gonna make a call for you.
And then a head coach is gonna reach out to you.
I'm like, okay.
So I'm still just going to school, all right?
This is three weeks before my freshman year of college.
Guy calls me the next day, says,
hey, my name is Coach Culbertson.
There's an opportunity here if you want it.
This is in Kansas City, Missouri.
So I'm like, this is three weeks before school starts.
So me and my dad get in the car,
drive up to Kansas City, check out the school.
I walk on three weeks later at this Juco.
Have you, what, what do you look like at this point? Like that picture?
Yeah. So I'm, I'm still pretty young. Like that senior photo with the red t-shirt on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So then I go up.
This kid right here is getting like uh courted by
um or what's it called in in sports it's courting if you're trying to get laid it's it's scouting if
you scouted these sports yes yes he's very agile okay yeah all right i was a scrapper dude so this
this kid right here i'm looking was good good at second base. Second baseman.
And could he hit?
No.
Okay.
All right.
Didn't have the physical strength to hit.
All right.
Yeah.
He's a great buncher, though.
One of the best bunchers in the game.
I could put the bat on the ball.
How about that?
All right.
Yeah, yeah.
So I moved to Kansas City, live in an apartment, start playing college baseball.
And then I got my tuition taken care of after one semester of being a walk-on. So I basically took my graduation money, which I didn't even know was actually a thing.
Like people give you money to graduate high school.
So I took whatever graduation money I got and put it towards my tuition because I was a walk-on.
I didn't get any money.
And then at semester, both coaches decided to put me on some money so I could get my tuition taken care of, which was another door, honestly.
Yeah, your dad's stoked when he hears that.
Oh, loves that.
That's a dream come true.
Yeah.
And by then, do your mom and your brother move up?
Yeah. So right after my junior your mom and your brother move up? Yeah.
So right after my junior year of school, they move up.
So my brother starts his freshman year of high school that following fall.
So after two years at that junior college, I hadn't really got any looks until really really at the end of my two year deal there.
And then I got an opportunity from a guy at a university.
It's called Southwest Baptist University.
It's in Southwest Missouri, which is not far from where my parents home at the time was
about an hour from there.
And I got a full scholarship opportunity there.
So I took that, ran with it, played two years of college baseball there.
So basically long story short, it was like.
Too late.
No, no, too late.
You can't do a tell a 10 minute story and then be like, make a long story short.
Long story long.
Yeah, that's a.
It was just it's just been a baseball was just a continuous like, oh, I think this door is shutting and then getting another opportunity and it not being like it was just like a crack in the door.
You know, it's like, hey, we have a walk-on spot opportunity for you take it if you want it you know then it's
like just a constant that was like the constant theme of the story i guess perseverance yeah like
i don't know and and then you're basically teaching kids how to play baseball and in this
facility where you teach kids to play baseball there there's these other two bros there.
And you guys worked out in whatever facility you have there, basic facility.
Yep, those are the guys I owned it.
Okay.
And then one of those – and I just picture this place full of batting cages and balls flying around.
Okay.
And then from there,
one of those guys is like,
Hey, I'm going to sign.
Did you know you were doing CrossFit in that when you were working out
there?
Sort of.
I knew he had some interesting CrossFit and he had done some CrossFit
before.
So it was kind of the,
I guess,
methodology is the word,
but yeah.
No disrespect,
but what a cutie. God, no one's ever said that to me the whole time i've
been 250 shows thank you oh him it's all you man uh have you had covid yet yep how was it
uh well the first the first time that i got it last year, the original of it
was horrible. Did y'all get that one? I got that one. I haven't had on the crime yet. So, well,
that I know of, I guess I could have had it, but did you, did you get the first one? I don't know.
I don't, I don't know. I mean, I mean, I've been, I just, I don't know. i don't i don't know i i mean i mean i mean i just i don't know did you lose
your taste or smell no but my wife my wife lost her taste or smell a few months ago that was
pretty crazy yeah did she have bad symptoms with that she tested positive she didn't feel good for
a couple weeks and like um i never it's you know it's been four months and i've never heard her
actually say yeah all my shit's normal again. Like her taste and smell.
Like, I think it got her good.
Do you wear a whoop at all, Tyler, or anything like that?
Yep.
Did you see what it was during COVID?
I think that stuff's cool.
So.
Like I was 1% for like three straight days.
And then I was like, I think I got it.
I take ancestral supplements. I don't really like, I don't got it. I take ancestral supplements.
I don't really get sick.
Are you a liver king fan?
Yes, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge.
I want him to carry me up a mountain in a backpack.
Like a kettlebell?
Yes.
No, like a little baby.
I was just thinking like a little, yeah.
You should have one of those baby holders for seven, like a really big one.
The liver king.
Just walk around.
Okay, so the first time was no bueno?
Bad.
Yeah, that's what the whoop stats were horrible.
The COVID whatever variant, I think I got it.
Omicron?
Yeah, that one.
um i think i got it yeah that one that was like probably the most mild sickness i might have ever gotten besides like a allergy allergic reaction it was a couple days of fatigue and some coughing
but it was other than that it feels like a cold run it didn't even really if i had like one negative
recovery day i think from that, and after that I was –
It may also be because – did you get vaccinated or do you have natural immunity?
I did not get vaccinated.
So that could be why it was more mild the second time too.
Not only is the variant maybe more mild, but once you get it, if you're not – if you weren't vaccinated, you got this broad swath of immunity.
I mean if you're healthy, and then your body's like – that's why vaginal – were you born vaginally? Do you know you got this broad swath of immunity i mean if you're healthy and then
your body's like you know that's what vaginal were you born vaginally do you know i don't know man
come on man you gotta go you gotta text your mom right now we'll take a moment
another moment of silence for dave okay go ahead uh so i got it and I got vaccinated after because I have to, I had to for school.
Sure.
Does that mean my immunity is the best it can possibly be in your opinion?
If you've gotten it and then got vaccinated.
Yeah.
I'm more, more just spurring on a seven rant right now.
Hey, it is interesting.
You say that there is some evidence that shows that the people who've had it and who are vaccinated um have a have a slightly better coverage obviously everything's
fucked up since 89 of america is metabolically deranged i mean that that's like the real problem
is is that we're swimming in a sea of just fucking people who are gorging on fucking twizzlers and so
we can't fucking get any real stats. But the problem with taking the vaccine is that it just makes your immune system super duper hyper looking for Armenian guys who are five five to kill.
And then all the white dudes are getting by you and killing you.
I mean, that's that's that's the whole problem with the vaccine.
So you're being generous with that five five.
Well, whatever, you know, details, shmeetails.
You're never going to fear any of of this don't get me started you you live in a you're you're scared to death okay so um so so now what do you what do you think happens i mean uh are you are you the
oldest guy at wadapalooza in the – I mean, you look like the youngest guy.
I mean, Colton Merton looks like he's 10 years older than you, but that's because he hangs out with pigs all day.
Jason Smith is in this competition.
Oh, okay.
Besides the dinosaur that's in here, like I found CrossFit when I was 34, and you're 31.
So like, I mean, it's not old, but it's like for this cohort cohort and what you, what
you're trying to get from your body, it's like, holy cow.
Yeah.
Um, I would say I have a little bit, it's not as, uh, I don't know how I want to put
this being such a late bloomer.
It's a little bit different.
I'm,
you know what I'm saying?
Like I was so far behind physically.
Yeah.
I'm 49 and I'm,
I turned into a YouTuber.
I know exactly what the fuck you're saying.
That's what I'm talking about.
It's fucking embarrassing.
You're not a normal 30.
You're more like a 25.
I don't know about 25.
My knees don't feel 25,
but yeah. But a younger, a young a young 31 a younger 30 i would say yeah for sure would you say velner is an old 31 is velner 31 yeah there's
like six people 31 oh yeah velner looks talking velner looks like he's got significantly more
miles on him than you vel there's how much longer has
velner been doing this to me though when did he start across uh 20 he significantly in 2014
uh 2013 he was not he didn't make anything 2014 he made regionals didn't make the games
yeah 2015 you know yeah four or five years behind those guys on the type of training that they've probably been doing.
And I think mileage is way more important than age.
I know CrossFit's not like an old age sport, but the type of mileage you have on your body, I think, is more important as far as aging out.
Gotcha.
And you don't have as much.
I mean, that's what you're saying.
Sure. gotcha and you don't have as much which i mean that's what you're saying sure the only thing i will say is like obviously playing sports it wasn't like i just wasn't doing anything you know
right but everybody's everybody's doing something though you know sure
yeah i was still i was working out probably i would say more than the average
uh american obese american more than the average more than the average american yeah definitely
more than americans but for college baseball i was working out probably a little bit excessively but
wasn't like i was doing crossfit training twice a day or three times a day every day
coming from california, there's – whether the nutrition plans are positive or solid, like everyone's on some sort of plan.
Like I only eat cabbage.
Oh, I'm on the hot dog diet.
Oh, I only – I'm only drinking – I had my jaw wired shut, and I'm only drinking things this month.
There's just something always going on.
going on when you live where you lived in the middle of the country you know and i'm making these broad generalizations obviously the the diet might be cotton candy and mountain dew um you know
alternated for breakfast that's more west virginia than missouri i live in missouri too tyler just
just fyi got you when did nutrition, when did you start learning about nutrition?
When, when was like, Hey, I mean, and I mean like, um, I mean anything like, like, did
you do like the, before the football games, everyone went over and gorged on pasta on
Thursday night.
When did you, when, when did the real nutrition start?
Like where you're like, okay.
I started learning a little bit.
Obviously my, my angle is a sports nutrition angle. real nutrition start like where you're like okay i started learning a little bit obviously my my
angle is a sports nutrition angle like make sure you fuel yourself for a game and like you're
getting water and electrolytes in so you don't cramp like just general nutrition stuff and
probably high school sports um college was more like survive like learning how to cook, you know, stuff like eggs, eggs and bacon for breakfast and
just simple like burgers and stuff like learning how to feed yourself. But it was never like,
you know, what it is now for, I guarantee you the 40 individual or how many individuals we have in
the field, 80 men and women, you know, these 80 individuals are, I mean, they know everything
that's going in. They're making sure that they're not, you know, short on nutrients. It's, it's,
it's another whole nother level at this, you know, style of, at this competing, you know,
CrossFit competing. Whereas, I mean, I just learned like general stuff before I got into this. And it
was probably at the high school level, 17 years old.
And what are some of the misconceptions you have that you've kind of been unfucked on now that you're in with these nut balls in the CrossFit world?
That just get in as many calories as you can.
And that was kind of a concept that, you know, whenever you're younger, it's like, sure, you can have.
that you know whenever you're younger it's like sure you can have that's not good for you you know taco bell and just just getting calories in because you're burning you know the the i love
taco bell did you love taco bell oh dude it was my it was a staple in college i mean did you do
hot sauce oh yeah 12 pack of soft tacos and hot sauce you didn't smoke weed though right no i was
a cheesy gordita crunch guy
i drove all the guys that smoked weed so if anybody ever needed a ride or needed a friend
i was that guy you're a good dude everyone needs a codependent i love it you're a good dude
i didn't do i they didn't have any when i was in when i used to taco bell um i was high as
fuck and i never we didn't have cheesy gordita we just had like soft tacos did you guys have the Baja Blast
Mountain Dew? No
I mean maybe they did but I wasn't
ghetto I was a sophisticated
I mean maybe that's a Louisiana
thing but when's the last time you had a Mountain Dew?
I don't know
but it sounds really good right now talking about it
don't judge him Sevalon don't judge him
don't judge him more of a Dr. Pepper guy
did you chew tobacco
when you played baseball
yep was that hard to quit
nope
what
let me guess you asked Jesus
for help and boom it was gone
dude he took it is that really
the story no not really but oh
good he can do that with anything you know I do I I know um no my no I did not I guess
I did not give tobacco to Jesus but he did help me in some way uh no I had a can one day and I was
like this doesn't it was just habitual you know what i mean didn't even do
anything for me it was like i have a meal i have a dip i'm on the field i have a dip if i'm doing
work i have a dip yeah you know something like that and i was like i took a can one day and i
had like a little you know in your car there's a little side pocket on the door i took a can it
was like half full and i stuck it there and i was like i bet you won't not touch that for however long and i didn't i just quit 2015
oh shit so i just had a can of some tobacco and stuck it there and i was like i'm not
never taking the dip again hey um did you know bailey at that point
i met her four months later so maybe i quit chewing i didn't have chewing my teeth yes
it may be even deeper
than that like you made space for that in your life that shit that that shit is uh i might have
worked some mysterious ways bailey would have never said yes with chewing your teeth he never
closes one door without opening another um that shit's gnarly to quit i'm impressed you did it like that i messed around
with that stuff for like six months and i smoked cigarettes for a while too and i'm tobacco chewing
tobacco like and what's crazy is the first time i did it i threw up so then like why do i come back
a second time it's that why it's weird did you throw up the first time you did it uh not the first time but the second
time i did i it was really hot outside and we were walking around i kind of got nauseous and
i was like i don't know if it's because of this but i was like you know let's do it let's do it
a third time we better we better test this one more time yeah i don't know why nicotine's like
that in the name of science yes in the name of science i don't know let's give everyone on
the planet an injection everyone fuck the baseline we don't need to let's just do a little experiment
um caffeine is a different monster though okay talk to me dude i did a three-week caffeine fast last year. Day five through seven.
It was rough.
Brutal.
Brutal.
Wait, why day five through seven?
For me, it's like within 24 hours, shit starts getting really tough.
I don't know.
I mean, it might have been like day four through six.
I don't know.
But I just remember like a couple days in, I was like, I think I have the flu.
It was something, man. It was horrible. I hated it.
I mean, after three weeks of no caffeine,
I immediately the first thing I had for breakfast was caffeine.
I think someone has went caffeine free for like a year before.
I've gone a year, a couple of times.
And then recently I was going to do another year and I made it two months
but you know literally what I do Tyler
is I
the first day I just have one cup
instead of 12
then the second day I have half a cup
and then the third day
and then literally like a week in
I just have like a tablespoon
because the headaches
the headaches for me are real
it's like someone's in there with a
sledgehammer trying to get out it's yeah that's that's whatever i just whenever i just cut it
one day i was like man i'm just gonna do a three-week deal that's what it was for me it was
like head i felt it literally i felt like sick symptoms like dehydrated headaches yeah i felt
dehydrated what's funny is you said three weeks like
that's the you know it takes 21 days to break a bad habit 21 days to build a good one the three
week that's the mark like the breaking point that's why i did it i was like man i wonder if
i can even i was like i wonder if i can even do this for three weeks you work at a starbucks
oh i i'd love to interview someone who's worked at starbucks for 10 years and
just hear all the stories worked at starbucks but five or ten days after i quit i was a zombie and
couldn't function i really hate to say this this is really hard for me to say but i but life is
funner with coffee i need to try again what'd you say i've never had coffee well then probably then then ignore
what i'm saying it's probably funner if if you've never had but have you had caffeine have you had
that can't be true yeah this is pre-workout oh yeah yeah that's what i mean when i say coffee
everyone just substitute the word caffeine like i don't care like if i never drank coffee that
would be fine again yeah pre-workout's fun too and like i drink like i'll drink that light coffee like i drink it
every morning just to get me going i usually work out in the morning but if i don't it still wakes
me up yep what's the goal for wadapalooza to like to get some have some a photographer get some good
shots of you for noble to um set a pr and um, to try to get on the seven on podcast,
podcast again, like mid event, like what's the goal? Yeah, that's it. Just to try to get on
the podcast. That's why I signed up. Check. Yep. Um, obviously my goal is always to win. Um,
I would say ferrata palooza i i don't like when people are like man we're not taking that as serious as we
would take like the game season you know what i mean because i feel like everyone's obviously
everyone's always trying to go to win you know what i mean you're not here at this level if
you're not trying to win right um so i would so I would say like, yeah, my goal is to win, but I think bigger goal also seeing like
comparing yourself, like where your fitness at is, um, where your fitness level is versus yourself
from maybe six months ago or a year ago. And also kind of like seeing where you stack up in the
field. Um, yeah. And just like seeing where you're at, like if you're where you need to
be, if not, you know what you got to work on. I feel like that's kind of CrossFit competing
in a nutshell. Like we're all trying to win, trying to beat everybody, but it's like,
there's so many things you have to be good at in this sport. You need to know where you're at on
each one of those things. And coming to events like this is good to find out that that makes sense it's interesting because you're saying the same thing that griffin
said but kind of from a different angle i could tell that like yes i'm coming there to win i'm
no athlete in as who who has serious games aspirations will be at their best because you
don't want to peak here and peaking is real. And yet he wants to try, look at some of his weaknesses. He wants to test out some of his weaknesses.
Like, Hey, I was having, and we used a car metaphor.
I was having trouble turning around turn, uh, making a turn on turn 12.
And I want to get a few turns, you know, chances in the, in the,
in the race to see what it looked, I look like now on turn 12.
And yeah, it is weird because, um,
yeah it is weird because um
I somewhere in my brain I
I suspect I understand
you guys it is it is still about winning
but there's something else going on
also whereas at the games it's like hey
if your leg gets torn off you still finish
this is not like that
right like if you got a kink in this you
would pull your car out no big deal but the games
is like finish at all costs I don't even say that you say that but then it's like
yeah i don't know oh well okay you disagree you're saying once you go out there it's really hard to
modulate down like yeah yeah once like once you get started and once you're in it you're like okay
i'm in it like i committed to it let's do it and i've started but i know once you're in it, you're like, okay, I'm in it. I committed to it. Let's do it. And I've started.
But I know what you're saying where it's like if your leg gets blown off, you're going to – I mean, the game's a go.
We saw Scott, right?
I mean, you go.
Yeah, you go, 100%.
I mean, Scott should have pulled out.
I don't know, man.
What do you not know about?
If he should have pulled out of the competition?
Oh, that's what you're referring to?
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know.
No, I mean, he can finish.
If he can do the event, I don't think he should pull out.
Sure.
You know, some events he did really well.
Some events he came last.
It just is what it is.
Man, he was wounded out there.
He was wounded. But it's the, you know, it just is what it is. Yeah, man, he was he was wounded out there. He was wounded.
But it's the you know, it's what you do.
Right.
He made so much.
He made a lot of impact, though.
You know, and it's his job.
You know, you wouldn't leave your job because you broke your toe.
If you're a construction worker, you can finish the job and get it fixed.
If you have to go out after that.
You know what I mean?
I kind of look at it the same way. I don't know, man know man most jobs if you were hurt as bad as scott you go home
i mean we we may be thinking a different job great scott's great you know oh yeah yeah yeah
i mean for scotty did the right thing i'm just saying if i'm his mom or dad i want him to go
like home and get better. But I don't.
But look, he did the right thing.
He did the right thing.
He's here at Wadapalooza ready to.
Ready to rumble.
Yeah.
Hey, what do you think it's going to be like for Vellner and who's my boy?
Ricky.
Side by side.
Like somebody.
Somebody was talking about that yesterday.
Like imagine like you had to compete next to the uh the dude who you took bailey from in this event just a minute and then you're in the lane next to him it's kind of like that yeah it happened no i just made that up did that happen
did you take bailey from some dude did you rescue her from a he shook his head like he goes i know
exactly who you're talking about maybe that that's already happened for me, bro.
You already raised next to him?
I mean, it's going to be tense, right?
I mean, it's going to be great from a fan's perspective watching them.
Yeah, I was going to say, I don't know.
I don't know Ricky personally, and I haven't spent a ton of time with Pat,
so I don't know what either of them's perspectives are
or opinions really are about the situation.
I know from like from a media hype, I'm outside to perspective.
It'll be interesting to see like, you know, how they respond to each other.
You have to suspect they're both going to do well.
You have to suspect that.
I mean, I guess this events like every other event where they seed you.
Right.
And I'm guessing that there'll be there'll be events where they're going to be side by side.
And it's going to be, I wonder how the crowd's going to react to.
I mean, it's going to be fun.
Everyone's going to watch everything.
Do they fist bump?
Do they not fist bump?
I do think that Pat Vellner has expressed through media and through interviews that he's not stoked on Ricky.
He doesn't like what happened. Yeah, we don't think pat likes him very much but i do think i do think
just from the little bit that i know pat that when it it's different when you see another human being
you start to really relate to him right you're like oh this is just another human like this dude
has a mom and a dad and this dude like loves you know just like i love and
i i i think pat's really susceptible to that i think he's really human and he'll just see
ricky and just be like yo what's up dude let's get that let's get some but maybe i'm naive
but pat is pat soft like that he got a big heart i mean he comes on my show and fucking we're made to be enemies yeah
you know what's tough with all the media too is it's like it poses an interesting story
so like oh you know what i'm saying like they could have a conversation or like respect each
other as competitors or whatever like you know they have that like grace and love for each other
that you're talking about but then like because there's so much media and you know what i'm saying there
there could be if i see sweat from ricky go on pat velner i'm recording it i'm recording it but i
saw ricky spit on pat yes or who's to say like you know ricky and pat aren't like you know let's give
them a show let's give everybody what they want to see they want to see it awesome you know if they did they come one and two and the one flexes on the on the second place
guy that would be great if they were in on it see nobody that's kind of a thing nobody thinks about
that side of it of like man you don't think these like competitors know that you don't think they
know that there's tension that people want to see that tension like so let's give the people what
you know if there's a dollar comes out's a shirt with an arrow pointed this way
it says fuck this guy and he just stands next to ricky oh my god oh my god that makes it
entertaining you know has this guy been tested oh my god hey it might not be even even if they're not both in on it
it might not be a bad ploy just for velner just to mess with his head
could totally yeah totally if they're genuine disdain though i think it'd be hard to
um be like let's give them what they want. You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. I agree.
But if there isn't any disdain at all,
then I agree completely.
That would be so much fun
just to throw a little CrossFit reality TV.
Yeah, exactly.
You just never know how much,
you know, how much of it is theatric, I guess.
If Ricky wins here,
it's insane for the sport.
It really pushes the ball down the hill pretty good it gives some pretty crazy momentum
what do you mean as far as the story goes?
yeah just the story now all of a sudden you have this
like right now without Justin here
it's always just going to be we're kind of in this Justin era
I think already I mean the guy is just a savage um
but but if but if ricky put if ricky wins this it's like oh shit like this is this is something
this is like he really is like we saw him in dubai we're gonna see him here and there'll be i think
it'll be more hype even more hype for him at the games going against you know uh the heir
to the throne what are you gonna say me yeah so me me and brian pretty much agree there are three
people that we think are like in the top tier as far as fittest people in the world it's not it's
not just the madero show but it's's Justin, Valner, and Roman.
And we don't get to see Roman, but we put him in that sphere.
So if Ricky were to – we kind of think those three are untouchable.
Like we don't think anybody's beating those three.
And Fikowski would be there if he wasn't 6'2", right?
But anatomically, he's always going to have some kind of shortcoming
that takes him out of those three um so if ricky were to win it kind of puts him in that tier and and i don't think i
don't think many people look at him in that tier yeah i think that's what he means by get the ball
hey it just throws another uh cook in the kitchen if you will as
who can win the crossfit games are you saying but he's not that like look at sam briggs right
not now but look at her like three years ago or four years ago she was the engine for a reason
right she kind of held that spot and now look at ricky does and now you guys have from the male
perspective you guys give ricky that mantle right he's the
he's closer to ricky's abilities and i have you competed with i'm really not no i have not
competed with him and i i don't know like i said when when ricky's was on the scene he got in
trouble in 2017 i was in the team side and really that was my first
year at the game so i was kind of like you know i didn't really know what was going on on the
individuals on the individual side what i know of of ricky i don't have a personal relationship
with him i just know what i see on you know social media which might be what a lot of people's
opinion is is like he had he did that one workout where he was like maybe close to Matt's time or
something at his gym and like screamed it mad in the camera.
You remember that? And I was like, man, I don't even really know this guy.
And I was like, he is mad about something.
And I honestly, all this anchor, what wasn't it?
Like the overhead squat run burpee.? It was Naughty Nancy.
Naughty Nancy, right.
So five rounds, 400 meter, 500 meter run, 15 overhead squats with 185 and then 15 bar facing burpees.
Yeah, it was a hard workout. He beat his time by like seven seconds, but he knew his time too.
And we talked about how it's easier to beat a time.
I remember because I was competing in the games that year
that was the stage that i did was the that so yeah you did that workout i did that workout
and i remember seeing that and thinking i'm like as another competitor you know that it's different
when you know times when you're not in the competition like so that was kind of a like
it's kind of frowned upon to say i'm better than this guy when you're not
yeah and just the reaction like just the what happened and what was said i guess i was just
kind of like he's upset and i don't know just the way it happened i don't know a ton about his
ability i don't know like what he's known for i remember seeing like a couple videos that he had
a couple pretty good snatches back in like 2018 or like when I first heard about him getting.
It was like the documentary or something, wasn't that like around the time that he got in trouble?
I mean, he was in the documentary. Right. Yes. Yes. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Maybe that's where I heard or seen about. He is snatched by like 20 pounds in two weeks.
Okay.
So that's what I know.
That's what I know.
Okay.
So from an analyst point of view,
I'll answer your question,
Savon.
Yes.
I used to think Roman Krennikoff had the best engine in CrossFit and he was
kind of untouchable and we can't see him against the best.
So it's hard to argue against it.
You see his numbers and ricky beat roman in
everything that was straight endurance so and when ricky was in dubai last month in dubai yeah and
then in 2017 he would be matt fraser in endurance workouts by like and he was the only guy that
could kind of beat matt at anything and that's what it was um like convincingly beat him not just you know two seconds
um so as far as the engine like sam briggs is known for it's a brick he has that mantle in my
point of view he does in any endurance workout i'm going to say that he's going to win until
proven and any biking workout any endurance anything endurance he's a monster i mean
maybe not a bicycle yeah and
rowing like obviously if it's a sprinty thing that's not really much endurance i'm talking
over 20 minutes he should be a favorite to win those events this is um ricky's skill set i what's
um i saw roman okay so roman competed what semi-final did roman do he did the last
chance qualifier i know he did that one oh oh um he uh did asia invitational and they were only
allowed two and um what workout go ahead go ahead i'll go if you recall what what work well you were about to ask what workout did
he do bad on is that what you're gonna ask oh yeah like where did he struggle at or what what
prevented him so the two guys that were ahead of him like there were three guys there were three
guys that um were kind of separated themselves and the two guys that were ahead of him were very short noah olsen type athletes and um they would he came in
like fifth in one workout like and like a workout that everybody was like two seconds next to each
other right yeah because i think friendly friendly friend might have been one of them um gotcha and
he came first like in four of the five events or three of the five events.
But since there was nobody else and it was just those two guys that had that build, they were both ahead of him.
It was kind of a sucky circumstance for him.
Gotcha.
Because Asia only gets two people.
Yeah.
Right?
And that's why he didn't make it.
Got it.
And it's only five events. That semifinalinal it's kind of oh i guess it was a six
two a day for three days yep yeah i mean it's i think you'll agree i it sometimes it doesn't
sort out the fittest just having six events and they're all online you don't cut you don't get
to cover everything oh like a competition this is what I wanted to ask you about.
So you did the Open and you qualified for the Games?
2019.
And then you got a penalty that pushed you out of the Games
and then you appealed it?
2020.
You're talking about, yeah, those are two different years.
So he made the games in 20 uh 2020 2020 and then the the next year right this last year 2021 this year
yeah and then 2021 he was in a semi-final that was online and he had a penalty and that knocked
him out of a qualifying spot can you tell me that story? So what was the semifinal workout?
What was the movement you got penalized? Can you walk me through that? Like tears and all,
and like the ups and downs? Yes. Friendly friend, uh, event number one from the Atlas games,
uh, semifinal, which was the online format. And I'm pretty, all the semifinals that were online
had the same workouts, right? CrossFit made the workouts.
I think so.
Yeah.
So there were six events and, um, I did the, I did the Atlas games on online.
I did it at mayhem.
And, uh, the first event was the friendly Fran and the second event was the dumbbell deadlift, GHD dumbbell overhead squat workout.
So we did the friendly Fran workout and we did it at the barn and I PR my
time from state. Remember we did that workout in stage one,
the one 15 thruster chest of our workout. So I PR my time.
I was super pumped about it.
I was close to like four minutes and I think I came in 10th place and friendly
Fran and then, uh, in the world, in the world,
uh, in that semifinal. okay okay yeah yeah in that semi-final okay sorry sorry sorry sorry and how much did you and you beat your time
previously yeah by like 40 seconds i'm pretty sure i got yeah stage one i was like 440 and
then in stage or in the emma on the semi online i think it was like 405 so i was super pumped
about that you just approach it differently yeah or yeah maybe so put that in perspective
seven 405 would have been like six in the at the crossfit games okay that time would have been
right so i'm not sure i know like noah was second with 358 so oh yeah yeah
you're talking about from yes i'm saying if that time would have been good perspective thank you
it was very very good improvement like i mean it's one of the top in the world at this workout
and it was good for me and it was a big big win for me because chest of bars were a big struggle
for me any workout with a chest of bar going through like 2019 or 2020 i really struggled with um and
so that felt it was cool to finish that that way so i get the four i don't remember what it was
like 405 or 410 some somewhere in that range like the four minute range but i like had a massive pr
and then then i go do the dumbbell overhead squat GHD workout. And that was the workout that
everybody was nervous about because everybody was getting penalized for the extension on the
dumbbells, the extension overhead, how you held the dumbbell. I think the only thing nobody was
worried about was the GHD, but every other movement they knew they were going to get hit
for like a, like a movement standard or something. Right. So we finished video those because some
angles are just terrible.
You know, and people are filming on GoPros and toasters. Like there's no telling what
so it's like, so we submit both of our videos and I'm, I put together like a really good day one,
like really proud of it. And everybody's kind of nervous. People are starting to get penalized for
that workout number two. And I'm like, I don't know that I'm going to get hit. And then I got it.
The video for video number two got accepted. And I'm like, I'm in the clear. I think like Bailey
took a penalty, Sam took a penalty. And then I get a, I get an email from CrossFit that they're
going to assess a major penalty for my friendly Fran, for my thruster lockout oh wow i was thinking depth when you said that
nah bro it and i was like from a thruster lockout and so i go back and watch the video
i dude there is we have there's a hundred people at the barn watching that workout no one even
batted and my judge didn't say a word about a thruster lockout you know it was like no one
even i didn't even think about it i saw the email i was like my stomach dropped i'm like what like a thruster lockout so i guess it was my head
through like the overhead position where you know putting your punching your head through the elbows
but the angle of the video it's it's really hard to make that call on that movement you know i'm
saying so it's like so anyways taking that penalty
took me from 10th in that workout in the semi-final like 10th overall in the semi-final
9th or 10th to 18th so i lost 20 i lost 23 total points from that placement jump and you were still
like six weren't you in the overall you were one you were still like six, weren't you? In the overall.
You were one spot from making it still with that.
Okay.
So going into day three, I was in fifth.
So I knew Fikowski would have a home run
in the row, row, climb, handstand walk.
Yeah.
And I just knew that I needed to fend him off
in the clean and jerk burpee workout,
which I assumed I'm like, I'm going to hammer this clean and jerk.
He had the greatest workout he's ever put down.
I love my level of respect for Brent Fikowski, which was already high.
I was like, we're,
we're sitting there reflect refreshing the leaderboards because I'm in fifth
and wait, wait, let me ask you this real quick. Sorry, Tyler.
Had you considered appealing at that point?
Yes.
I had already, I had already appealed.
They're not going to accept anything.
They don't, they don't, they're very hard on that stuff.
It's basically what I did.
I just asked them to put a fresh set of eyes on the video.
Like after they penalize it, I just email someone at CrossFit games.
Hey, this is Tyler.
I'm standing on a bridge, but before I jump,
I'm going to get a fresh set of eyes on there. Yeah. I just said, Hey, can we,
can we bump this video up to, or to someone just to get another set of eyes.
And if they agree, you know, that it's a, that it's a penalty,
then I'll take the penalty and do what I can. So, and I just had to,
I tried just try to clear that and go through the next two days of competing,
knowing I might have a major penalty on my scorecard.
So I go through the next two days.
I knew Brent was going to have a great rope climb workout.
I put together the best workout I could.
And then I knew the clean and jerk workout, clean and jerk burpee, I was going to have
to burn it down.
And I did the best I could.
I mean, I hammered that workout and I got a like a a really good time i think i
was might have been top five in the event in that time and i'm like i just gotta hold off because
the points were going to be so close this dude goes out and wins the workout he takes the first
so so fun story about this uh velner on i don't remember the youtube video but
velner says that he went really hard in that workout and got like 227, 226 or something like that.
And then he asked Brent what he got or Brent told him what he got and said, I hope it's good enough.
I don't know. I did everything that I could.
And it was like 225.
And Vellner was like, I think you're going to make it.
Yeah, it blew him away.
I don't know how he did it either.
I thought he was going to be in trouble for sure.
You know,
see where he was.
Let's just say this.
When I finished that clean and jerk burpee workout,
I thought I clinched it.
I was like,
I did it.
And you were 232,
I think was your time.
Yeah.
Just to put in perspective how close that was.
Yep.
I hammered it.
So,
and that burpees over bars is a good movement for me
and i love moving a barbell so i'm like okay um so we were refreshing the leaderboard on day three
after that event and i see my name go from fifth which is in the qualifying spot to sixth and
brent jumped me and it was like you know and that's the worst person that's like there's very
few people who you'd rather you who you would have rather fought anyone in the world for that
number five spot why the fuck does it have to be brent frikowski one of the greatest crossfitters
who ever lived it's like well you can't do anything but just tip your hat to him either
it's not like this guy's not fitter than me you You know what I mean? It's right. You're like, man. So, so he, so he beat me by 21 points on the leaderboard after taking a 23 point major
penalty.
So yeah, I took a major penalty and that took me out of contention basically based on my
scores.
Obviously I could have been, you know, you can dissect it however you want.
If I'd have been two places higher in every event, you know, be fitter and you can still qualify with a major penalty um you take that attitude approach mine is just like
first off that semi-final was yeah you also didn't you get the points back though the semi-final no
no he's talking with that penalty so he would have been in had that i thought it said
and i thought you appealed and you won the appeal.
That was from, you're talking, what you're asking me about now is from the open in 2009.
Well, it was the second open of 2019. That was the open we did in the fall of 2019 when I took a major penalty on the total bar double under thruster workout.
They assessed me and gave me a major penalty.
their workout they they assessed me and gave me a major penalty i appealed it based on language on like conflicting language from their open video standards and something like that and they
they reversed it and gave me the points back that was when i qualified for the games through the
open yes okay so i'm sorry i got the two stories confused so that story you just told basically
you ended up not being able to go to the games if Fikowski knocked you out by two points.
And so let me read you the five who made it from that semifinal.
So Patrick Vellner, Jeffrey Adler, Samuel Cornway, Alex Vigneault, and Brent Fikowski.
All multiple games people and okay three of those
guys probably top 10 fittest in the world podium guys yeah yeah so then i took sixth and then right
behind me is carone oh alexander carone so there was like there was seven or eight dudes in that
semi-final that and logan collins was in that one too phil toon i know he just said phil was in there yeah um did you choose that one so because you knew all the canadians were going to be in that
one well i wasn't i wasn't 100 sure but going into that year my brother got married this year
and i wasn't going to be i wasn't going to miss it i was going to be the best man and i knew going
into 2020 if i got assigned to a regional or a semifinal that was on his
weekend, I was just going to have to call 2020 at wash. Cause I was going to be there no matter
what I got lucky. And they were like, man, you could pick one of four. And originally I wanted
to do the Mac in Knoxville, but, uh, that was the weekend that my brother got married down in
Louisiana. So I, uh, chose the next best one,
which I thought was the best option for me. And that was the last weekend. Cause it was
away from my travel weekend. I could get back to normal training. Granite games was like,
you know, five days after the wedding. So I wasn't going to try to travel back home from
Louisiana, then travel up to Minnesota. So then I had between Vegas and Atlas games.
And in my head, I'm like, I feel like everyone vegas is like a destination right so i
figured i felt like a lot of athletes would want to go that makes sense yeah noah and all them
were definitely going to do that one like they had said they were all going to do that one um
i mean it was really a heads or tails like go to vegas or go to the online one with all the canadians
um so you're ready you're ready for the games. Yeah.
Yeah.
I was two or three spots short in 2019.
I qualified in 2020, and then we got the COVID curveball,
and then I was one spot short twice last year because I went to the last chance and took third.
Yeah, that bubble's savage.
Yeah, and with Roman not being able to come to the States,
so we only sent one person from the
last chance qualifier did you did you were you able to appeal that at all did that have any kind
of was that close to happening because we all thought yeah that was we thought that was the
most unfair thing because Roman probably knew he wasn't going to be able to come like it was kind
of universally known it probably he probably not going to be able to come yeah it was kind of universally known it probably he probably not going to be able
to come yeah i want to i do want to touch on like that semi-final real quick it was like it was one
of the strangest feeling moments maybe in my life because i lost that spot in the fifth spot when
brent clipped me and it was like total tip of the hat to brent and like much respect for him like as
a competitor i've always respected him
but that was huge he did like what any competitor at that level has to do I guess but right at the
same time Bailey won her event so my significant other not only qualifies for her first crossfit
games she wins the whole thing and she's not like we we had never heard of her either.
Nobody did.
We heard of – your name's come up a couple times, right?
We knew who you were.
Nobody knew who she was.
We thought she was just new to the CrossFit case.
And we thought it was kind of awkward.
Was it awkward at all?
No, not at all.
Just happy for her?
Dude, so she was on the team with me in 2017 to 2018 and then she
hurt herself in 2019 so she sat out in 2020 and then this the last day of competition i think she
was in eighth place at the seventh maybe in the atlas games and the two workouts were like uh
the row row climb which is upper body pull. And Bailey is unbelievable at upper body pull.
That's only a matter of time.
Like she's going to keep showing the field.
Like she can pull probably want the best of them.
And then the second one was a clean and jerk burpees.
Like a burn it down workout.
I'm like,
Bailey is super tough when it comes to workouts like that too.
So I'm like,
I told Jake,
I looked in the face.
I'm like,
Bailey's going to win the Legos rope climb event.
She's going to be top three in the clean and jerk.
She's going to be in the top three.
And he's like, I'm like, trust me gonna win the lego strobe climb event she's gonna be top three in the cleaning jerk she's gonna be in the top three and he's like i'm like trust me so who's jake
who's jake the coach jake locker locker yeah jake locker i just call him locker sorry that i don't
call him jake um so sure enough she wins the lego strobe climb event i think she takes like top
three in the cleaning jerk burpee workout and she's in first place over on the thing and jake kind of looks at me and i'm like you know you know like
i hate to say i told you so but i told you so yeah anyways that that feeling i was like
it was cool because it was like i i felt like gutted because of what happened to me
but i was so happy for her that like yeah it just canceled it out it was one of the coolest
experiences ever.
I could just forget about all the sadness or gut wrench that I got
because what just happened for her was literally like storybook.
Who was below her?
So she finished first, and who did she beat?
Prevost, maybe.
I think it was Carolyn. Carolyn Prev prevo was first and by one point she was
first bailey and mckenzie riley tied at second with again one point from behind and then emily
rolf and sydney mccallison wow dude they penalized bailey she won they penalized her on the legless
she won dude they penalized her for like clenching her legs on the legless rope climb she won dude they penalized her for
like clenching her legs on the legless rope climb or something like that I'm like on the way down
she her capacity she won that thing so she winds up you know so then I go into the last chance
qualifier from that sixth place bid with Carone and Roman and There's four workouts over two days.
The three of us,
I'm not sure who else was. There was a couple
others, maybe close, but the three of us
pretty much duked it out over those four workouts.
It was basically you three.
Taylor and Khan were 30 points behind.
Taylor Self and Khan Porter.
You three and
Roman
by himself.
Between you and Carone. Ited it between you and Caron.
It was basically between you and Caron.
Yep. And then. So.
After the third place finish and knowing that Roman probably wasn't going to be able to make it, I I basically emailed across and I was like.
I said, if you said you weren't backfilling, you know, they said they weren't going to backfill the last chance.
And I emailed them and said, I know you said what you,
I know you said what you were going to do. I was like,
I just want you to know I'll be at the CrossFit games and I'll be ready in case that lane's empty. It was kind of like what my email was.
And I, you know, I just was like, I don't know.
I don't sound like Rudy or nothing, you know, but I was like,
I'll be ready to go.
Cause Bailey's training in Cookville to prepare for the games.
And I was like, I'm going to stay ready.
I spent six weeks preparing as if I was going to compete.
So I was, you know,
crossing games ready traveling on that Sunday to Madison.
Just fingers crossed.
Well, yeah.
I mean, they said they weren't going to,
they said they weren't going to backfill.
I was like, I'll make it super easy for you.
I'll be there anyway.
You know what I'm saying?
I mean, they change stuff all the time last second.
So, I mean, it's not a bad thought.
I don't.
I'm not.
So, Bailey is a Mayhem athlete?
I'm confused.
Yes.
She is.
Okay.
Yeah, I wasn't.
But she doesn't move down there. She has not made the move to cookville she's still living in missouri but she's not as committed as samuel cornway
and tyler christophal she hasn't made the move she's she's still pretty committed though she
just hasn't moved she's at the 99 yard line around the. So, yeah, the situation with Roman, everyone was kind of like, is he going to make it to the States?
Including myself.
Like, I want to see this guy compete live.
Hey, is that an asshole move on his part?
Should he have just not done the last chance qualifier?
No.
No, because he, you know, he could have.
Yeah, he's hopeful.
It's up in the air
it's just a bad situation that nobody can help um i do on all sides i do think that you back
fill the spot i mean we i mean i agree if he can't come what does it hurt it doesn't hurt
anything and the right people are there and i think think the – look at Christy Aramo.
Like the last chance qualifier had, you know, very –
you know, the fittest people did not –
there wasn't the 30 fittest people who are, you know,
whatever the game's field was.
Yep.
Look what Will wrote.
Don't worry with the evolution of the sport.
Now they will backfill from the last day.
Yeah.
They fucked everything up.
So, yeah, I definitely don't think it was a dick move on his part.
I think he did.
He did what he had to do.
This guy does look like Captain America.
Pavandi Verdi.
Verdi.
Pavandi Verdi says this guy looks like Captain America. Pavandi Verdi. Pavandi Verdi says, this guy looks like Captain America.
That's awesome.
He does look good.
That's good.
Good astute.
Sorry, Tyler.
Go on.
No, no.
He accepted his invite.
He said yes in hopes that his visa would get cleared, I'm assuming.
And then I guess he took multiple shots at trying to get to the
united states to get that approval to get over here i'm like i'm i can't you know he's trying
to do his best to get over here to compete it's not like there's not nothing he should have done
what i think you know for future this i would say for the future of the sport maybe something
to take into consideration is like roman's case is unique right because we're
all kind of like he's probably not going to be able to make it right like it's kind of what
we're thinking so like maybe we should back to that spot and i'm like well to prevent this in
the future maybe something that could happen is like if you don't have your visa by this time
you know i'm saying it's still okay for you to How about do the games in Russia and Siberia, where he's from?
Do the games in Paris?
Honestly, you could do the games in Paris
or any place in Europe and he'd be able
to come. It's just America.
Just America.
I don't know why you just can't make
an exception. We know what Roman
is. We know the
situation.
Especially for Captain America. make an exception we know what roman is we know this situation you know what i mean so and especially for captain america you can make i don't you can just say yeah we're probably you know what i mean
i just i don't know why i just can't make that exception which one which one are you talking
about i mean like if like the whole roman situation like he like you could just say
we'll backfill the spot because it's roman like I don't see the harm in saying that
oh wouldn't that be a great show
if we did that
just took Tyler over there
knocked on Roman's door
I know I want to do that with Athens
hey come outside
put down your fucking
your raw fish or whatever you fucking Russians eat
Tyler's out here
no no don't put your snowshoes on this is barefoot barefoot siberian pussy everyone
knows everyone in siberia is a bunch of pussies really i thought they were all super tough oh god
they're so tough he talks like captain america too this he does this they're so tough i'm i'm
completely talking tongue-in-cheek this guy guy, Peter Yan, who fights in the UFC,
they're like, is your life rough? He's like,
dude, every day living up here in fucking
Siberia is life or death. It's like
fighting to survive. Can you imagine living somewhere where
10 months of the year, it's negative 30?
No, thank you. Sounds horrible.
Oh, they're so tough.
They're so tough. The Russian,
can you imagine how tough the Russian army
is compared to our army
is could you like would you like your penis turned into a vagina before we send you to
boot camp do you know the u.s government will pay for that what is khabib close to siberia
uh you know i don't know where home is for him for some reason i thought he was residing in moscow
are you a ufc guy i'm a huge ufc guy the guy like who wrestled oh savannah all the
fighters i had volkanovsky on let me a couple he interviews them just as much as crossfitters
yeah al jermaine sterling the champ are you ufc guy not really but i know that kid uh
poor age from the same city that i'm from in louisiana oh yeah great dude too great dude
i used to not be able to stand him.
And, man, he won me over.
He's cool.
He's cool.
He can throw down.
Yeah, he can.
He's got a – I know I have some buddies that are, like, doing, you know,
MMA, jiu-jitsu stuff down in Lafayette.
And a couple of them go to his gym and speak very highly of him.
Yeah, he comes across great.
He deserves the world. Okay question john what do you what do you got to say to tyler do you have anything nice to
say to him has has bailey ever took you golfing i refuse because uh you're a baseball player i
figured that'd be a really really tough transition she's already way better looking than me i don't
need any more humbling on the golf course okay okay did she did she play golf in college i know i know it was yeah so my wife
golfed in high school i didn't know this about her and she goes did you know bailey real play
golf in college i was like sure that's something i know now it's just funny you're a baseball player
because those swings are so difficult to get out of oh we do a uh we'll go to the driving range and she'll
sit there and laugh at me while i try to hit balls but that's about as far as it goes uh
khabib is in um dagestan which i knew it was a weird sounding country which is basically so this
is georgia uh azerbaijan armenia i, it's basically down there in one of the southern former states of the USSR.
Interesting.
Yeah, I knew it was Dagestan too, but my memory is just a mess.
Republic of Dagestan.
Hey, dude, good luck. How are you the uh the competition are you cool to talk to
can we bug you a little bit and i don't even care if you say no or don't say anything most
you guys don't respond during competition week anyway come bug me man okay cool i'll probably
send you some texts with some links and shit love it yeah we appreciate we appreciate your time
tyler if you see if you see um ricky
and velner talking lean in and try to hear what they're saying it increases your value for us
you just need some media in for you and even if you don't hear them um you can make some
shit up and we'll report it as fact nope not doing it not a man of integrity you are a man of high integrity
John do you want to say bye to him
I just