The Sevan Podcast - #44 - Jayson Hopper

Episode Date: June 4, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 44 - Jayson Hopper - CrossFit Games Athlete @BRIANFRIENDCROSSFIT @SEVANMATOSSIAN @JHOPPER3 The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers 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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I'm torn because, you know, I'm excited for him. I also hate him because he's beating up on all the old guys, all the guys that I like. Well, I think we're at that kind of transition in the sport right now where it's going to start to happen. There's going to be some young guys coming in, and the old guys can only stay around for so long. What do you mean that time?

Isn't every year that time? I mean, yeah, but you look at a guy like Scott Panchik, who's been relevant for eight years now, and he still is. And you look at someone like Annie Thor's daughter, or Kara Saunders, who've been relevant for eight to 10 years, and they appear to still be. But you also have guys like Jason Hopper and Mallory O'Brien and Emma Carey that are coming up, and Haley Adams and Justin Medeiros

that are the next one of those athletes that have the potential to be relevant for 8 to 10 years. Do they start to become kind of like gatekeepers? I don't want to disrespect Scott in the slightest, but has Scott always been sort of the gatekeeper? Like he's the guy. If you can beat Scott, like if you can't beat Scott, you have no chance at winning the CrossFit Games.

But if you can beat Scott, all of a sudden, like you are a serious, serious threat. I don't think that's unfair to say. I mean, he's been fourth, fifth, or sixth like seven times. You know? So if you want to be on the podium, that's a guy you have to be able to beat. I hate to judge a book by its cover, but have you ever seen Scott look better? Have you ever seen his physique look better?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, Rich looks like he's losing muscle. Rich looks like he's smaller than ever and less defined and less vascular, whereas Scott looks more jacked than ever. Yeah, he did look – Yes, no, maybe so. He looked jacked and big at the Mid-Atlantic for sure.

No, he looks good. And we have no idea what Travis looks like because he kept his shirt on. But, I mean, I know you can't judge a book by its cover. Actually, I was talking to a friend last night after we got off. Have you seen the movie The Warrior with Tom Hardy and Russell's brother and that UFC thing? I think I've tried to watch it a couple of times. People tell me it's really good and I'd like it, think I've tried to watch it a couple of times. People tell me it's really good and I'd like it, but I just can't make it through it for some reason. And by

the way, every time you say I have a friend, it's always amazing to me how many friends you are, because I, no, it's the same friend. I picture you as sort of, oh, okay. Cause I picture you, I picture you as like when I'm done talking to you, you kind of just go back into your closet with your computer and you just look at stuff. Like I in my mind i'm the only person you ever talk to you just you seem like uh a recluse a little like a yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you got a recluse vibe to you i just go in the woods and throw frisbees and then i come and talk to you on the podcast that's it yeah i just picture as a dude who just has a girlfriend he sees like twice a week and like you already have a time scheduled to see her see her twice a week but i don't call her girlfriend okay yeah exactly i mean you're just you're really uh i just just i anyway just throws me off every time you use that same with

fraser for different reasons every time he says so i had some friends at the house i'm like what the fuck you talking about you don't have any friends so i was i was actually wrong about a hopper's collegiate career last night. I looked it up a little bit this morning. So he walked on to Clemson in 2017, and that was his only year. And if the Internet is accurate, he had one catch for Clemson, and then he stepped away the following year to pursue other endeavors. What does that mean, walked on?

That means he wasn't. Is that the same same he was getting recruited by another college in the area like as a scholarship athlete but he chose to go to clemson and walk so he walked onto the team he took a chance that he wouldn't make it but he did make it oh he had to go to the like he went to the tryouts he proved himself and then they said, yeah, yeah, you're good enough. You're on the team this year. That happens a lot. I'm going to Chrome. I'm going to tell – I'm sending Jason a hopper and a text right now.

Chrome browser, please. You know – you're familiar with Jonathan Haynes, correct? He's the – I think he's the director of Gamest Media. I think that's the position I gave him. I don't know if it's changed. Okay. You know, he has a fascinating story, by the way, about that. He walked onto the football team at, I want to say, Texas A&M.

He just walked on. I think it's a fascinating story. We should have him on the podcast sometime. I think he got a scholarship to Texas A&M to play football. Then they took the scholarship away from him, and he said, fuck it. And he just went there and walked onto the football team and tried out and made it to the team. Good resolve. Jason. Hey, fellas.

Can y'all hear me? Yeah. Buddy, how old? Yeah. Buddy, how old, what are you? 15 years old? Look at you. I'm 23.

Yeah. You look like a grown ass man when I watch you in the semifinals. Now I feel like I'm interviewing a guy who just graduated from high school, maybe junior high, high school. You look like, you just like a really big, well-developed kid who's in the ninth grade.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate it man 23 look at that skin yeah man put some lotion on this morning when's the last time you had a pimple um well i take care of my face so not too long ago but yeah man my wife has some moisturizer beauty counter you ever heard of it uh no but tell if she's selling it tell us about it yeah so she's an ambassador for beauty counter and basically i get some product every now and then and helps my face you sound like uh you're part of a trial group.

This is definitely a proven product. You better make sure there's no testosterone in that. That's what I've been hearing a whole lot of. In that gel. What do you mean, what have you been hearing? Accusations about what you're doing since you did so well at the semifinals? Yeah, I've been getting a whole lot of that. I've seen a whole lot of comments.

So I've been expecting to address that, I'm assuming. Is that the first time in your life? It sounds like you've been an athlete your whole life. Is that the first time now that you're thrust into the limelight with so many people watching your individual performances, is this the first time you've ever heard that in your life? Sort of. It's the first serious, like, okay, are you actually doing this stuff? But people have been joking around with me about that kind of stuff for the longest.

People have been joking around with me about that kind of stuff for the longest. I went and saw – I went and watched my wife do Murph at CrossFit Aptos this weekend. And there was a boy who had just turned 16 years old who was doing Murph with my wife. By the way, do you know Brian, Jason? Sorry, before we just jump in. I've heard a lot of things about Brian. I know J.R. Howell, James Howell. He said he knew you. He said you were a good dude, man.

So, heard about you. He knows weird shit about athletes. Like, he knows where you buy your sheets. He knows the time you dropped the pass in the seventh grade. He knows weird shit about you. That didn't happen too often, by the way. No, I just recently met J.R. on Instagram, and he's been actually super kind and generous and

giving me some information about some of you guys that are up and coming in the sport so it's been really nice to get to know him and he's actually coming up to i'm in minnesota right now for granite games and he's coming up here this weekend so i'll get to meet him in person yeah who's jr jr is a um just a gym owner one of my good friends he lives about 30 minutes away I train with him a little bit Salvan remember

I told you about that off season competition that Jason won that was at JR's gym okay I don't remember was that last night I probably have told it to you

two or three times usually five times for retention, but it has to make it past my beard stick in my brain. So, so, so I'm watching my, I'm watching my wife do Murph at this CrossFit affiliate. What gym does JR own? Let's plug his gym. Crash, crash, CrossFit crash. C-R-A-S-H, Crash? Yeah. What city? Spartanburg, South Carolina. Okay.

And he's going to have another high-level competition this fall, I think, with some big names coming up. It's big. Man, it's probably one of the best gyms in the Southeast, man. Giant, man. I'm actually thinking of going down in October for the competition. I was talking to him about it. Yeah, come on. He's trying to get – so Jake Berman was there last year.

Josh Miller, games athlete. I was there, obviously a no-name at the time. He's trying to get Travis Mayer to come up there. Luke Parker was up there. He's a celebrity. Luke Parker? Lucas Parker. He's a celebrity. Luke Parker? Lucas Parker? You mean from Canada?

The redheaded dude? Oh. You don't know who Luke Parker is from The Bachelor? No, sir. No, sir. Oh. He trains with Rich Froning now. Anyone west of the Mississippi does not watch The Bachelor.

Really? No. Oh. You know what The Bachelor is, though? Yes. Yes. I watch The Bachelor. Really? No. Oh. You know The Bachelor, though? Yes. Yes. I watch The Bachelor.

I actually love him. Of course you do. And it's also interesting that you said, come on, because I haven't heard anyone say that since. I used to hang out with Rich Froning, because that's what he would say. I'd be like, oh, Rich, how are things going at your house? And he'd be like, come on. Like, come on. Come on and visit. I don't think he'd ever say that to me again, but he used to say that to me.

So this boy is 16 years old, and I'm looking at him, and he's just a man child. I can't believe his calves, his shoulder development. And his mom is there, and I'm like, hey, what's the deal with your son? She's like, oh, he just turned 16 years old, and he's been doing CrossFit since he's been seven. And I'm even noticing with my own boys who are just four and six that their development already, I'm guessing just from all the movement. Damn, I'm hearing an echo. Hold on a second. So sorry for that interruption.

So my thought was is that these people who start working out, not even start working out, these kids who are having normal life activities at a young age who are acting like kids and like really moving a lot, that their hormones are just – they just fire up and they just start developing earlier. They just look bigger, faster, stronger, more coordinated. My kid plays tennis with older kids who are significantly better than him. But he just moves so much better because he's just always been challenged and moving and swinging. Have you been playing sports? Did your mom birth you and then you were just playing? Did you just come out running? I started probably when I was really young, probably about 10, played football and baseball. I mean, I played t-ball from when they started letting me.

I didn't start working out until about 15 because my dad said it would stunt my growth. So kind of the opposite of what you're saying. I didn't necessarily get plugged in into the whole gym world until probably about 16. Started in Gold's Gym, though. And did you do the Arnold Schwarzenegger stuff? Bench press, back and bys, the stuff we all did? Yeah, all the machines. Because my dad did it.

So he was like, hey, come along. Just follow what I do. So we did a bunch of tricep pull-downs. A bunch of dumbbell curls and all that good stuff. I didn't actually start cleaning and deadlifting until high school, training for football. You said you were married. I must've heard, I must've heard that wrong. There's no way you're 23 and married. You mean like, will you marry me? And there's like a priest and like you put a ring on her finger and all that stuff. I did put a ring on her finger. My high school

sweetheart, her name is Grace Ann. Incredible. So you're up for all the challenges, the most painful activity in the world, CrossFit and marriage. So far, we're so good, man. It's awesome. How long have you been married? Last February, so about a year and about 16 months, I think. Is that? I don't know.

Yeah. Congratulations. About a year and a half. Thank you. It's been awesome. Are kids in the works? No. No.

We're not ready for that. That's a whole other beast. Yeah. Do you guys have a dog yet? We do have a dog. We actually just got one. His name is Teddy. He's a miniature golden doodle.

He's amazing. Yeah, they are amazing. And I really sincerely believe that a dog is like a great way, gateway to a kid. Because you'll see how the two of you react to it. Like he'll shit in the kitchen and you'll want to spank him and she'll be like, no. Or you'll see who feeds him more. Like everyone is kind of like will step into line for what responsibilities you'll be the one who always takes him to the vet or she will and you'll start to see and that really uh rolls over

to when you have kids like really really rolls over it's kind of it's kind of nuts wow we've actually actually started seeing some of those little signs like show he'll eat up something while we're gone and then she'll like want to spank him and like discipline him and i just can't because he's so freaking cute man i'm just i can't be mad at this dog i just can't be mad at him just to the best thing do you tell her not to do you try to get in the way oh come on baby yeah come on he didn't any better. I have reverse roles with my wife. It's funny. It was like that with the dogs, and it's like that with the kids.

When I'm coming down on them hard, she'll be like, yo, yo, yo, ease up, ease up. Yeah. Yeah. How tall are you? 6'1". And how much do you weigh? 220. 220.

Man, we're going to have to find a different sport for you. You know you can't win the CrossFit Games being that big. I know. That's the chip I carry. Tell me about that. Tell me. Go ahead, Brian. I was just curious.

Is that like a weight that you want to be at for competition for CrossFit, or would you prefer to be a little lighter? I'd actually prefer to be a little lighter? I'd actually prefer to be a little lighter. 205, 210 would be ideal. But, man, I've tried it all, man. It's just I have like 5%, 4% body fat, man. You need more. You need more body fat than that, actually.

Right, Seva? Yeah. Remember what Greg said about Annie Like 10 years ago She's like yeah she's too lean She's not going to last throughout the weekend Well then I'd be bigger If I put on fat man

So man We've tried a lot of things And it's just like We're just going to accept it And give our best and see what happens So you played baseball and football growing up. And what other sports did you do? Did you dabble in, I don't know, racquetball, golf?

You did weightlifting with your dad. Did you do soccer? What other stuff? No, I didn't do anything. I just played a bunch of football and a bunch of baseball. So my brother played some baseball. So I kind of just followed his tracks. And I was really good

at football but so i ended up quitting baseball in high school to pursue football i wanted to play college football go to the nfl do all that jazz and and so end up stop quitting football or quitting baseball to do football so i didn't get into tennis my i think it was because my family wasn't and in that kind of stuff. So I was just followed in the footsteps. But if I were, if I were to go back though, I love tennis, man. Tennis is my jam. I've actually got into it, but last year during like quarantine and all that, me and my wife and a few friends would play tennis, man. I got tennis lessons from this dude. I wasn i wasn't bad um and it was just so fun

man we were playing tennis every single day i think one day i'll take up golf it's just too too dang expensive so there's a lot of things i want to try um so yeah those are good those are good sports for a lifetime you got plenty of time to pick those up yeah man i go out to tennis courts and there's like older guys man just whacking the crap out of that ball. I'm just like, this is going to be me for the rest of my life. Racquet sports are weird because you'll see a guy on a court who's playing who's like 65, 70, 75 years old. He's crushing it. And then when he walks off the court, he can barely move.

And you're like, dude, do you know what I'm talking about, that phenomenon? You see that. When I was in college, I used to play a lot of racquetball and there'd be a guy who's just crushing it no one can beat him and then he's like got a walker to get to his car i'm like what the fuck how what it's a tennis sports or a trip the average the average height of the top 500 best tennis male tennis players in the world is 6'1 okay Okay. So, yeah, I mean, you're, I doubt it's 220. Yeah, they're probably a little bit lean, a little skinny. So you play, so you go to Clemson and you make it onto the football team there.

I did, yeah. Was that hard? It was a preferred walk-on. It was like already pretty mapped out for me. They already had a spot for me. And what was that training like there? What were the demands physically? We did a bunch of agility stuff.

We obviously ran, like, had our conditioning and did gassers, we ran one twenties and we did all that stuff. We did a bunch of just weightlifting. You know, we did, we cleaned a lot of weight. We bench press, we squatted, we did a bunch of dumbbell stuff.

Um, the intensity wasn't necessarily high. We were just trying to get like swollen and bulked up. Um, but then we would go and, you know, obviously do the conditioning part, push sleds around,

do agility stuff, cone work, all that stuff. So yeah, it was awesome. And because those sports, baseball and football, when I think of them relative to CrossFit, I think the time domains that you are asked to be at full blast are much shorter than CrossFit, correct? Yeah, correct. We're talking about about four seconds on a football field versus 20 minutes. And then how did you cross paths with CrossFit?

So I had to take a year off to play football at Clemson. I couldn't get into school because I thought I was going to get it. I had a few scholarships to play football out of high school, and I never got the scholarship from Clemson, so they gave me the preferred walk-on. And so they said, hey, you have to have these kind of grades to get in, and you have a spot on the team. Well, I didn't even have the grades to get in because all of high school,

it was like, I'm going to get a scholarship, don't have to worry about grades. So I played on my iPad all high school and it ended up costing me. So then I had to take my SAT, didn't pass to get into Clemson, to worry about grades so played on my ipad all high school um and ended up costing me so then i had to take my sat didn't pass to get into clemson and had to take a year off so it's basically like you take a year off go to this tech school or you go to one of these smaller schools to full ride play football and i just man i wanted to play football clemson so end up taking a whole gap year of not doing anything and that's when i got into CrossFit because I didn't have access to a gym over there. I just couldn't, like, go work out in their gym.

And so I looked up CrossFit gyms and went and tried it one time. And I said, this will get me at least in shape, man. And I grew and started loving it, dude. Started loving the intensity. Started loving just competing. There was that competing aspect with members in class, and it was awesome, and I loved it from the jump. When you showed up on the football team, could you tell that your fitness,

I'm assuming it was adequate relative to the other guys, but did you stand out there for what you could do in the gym and what you could do in training? Did you stand out there for what you could do in the gym and what you could do in training? Yeah, so this kind of started when, before I jumped into CrossFit, I was a condition, a dude in high school condition. I made sure I was the dude that was sticking behind after practice. I made sure I was the first person winning our 120 yards. Man, we did 120s from goal post to goal post. We ran these things like 30 times with like 20 seconds of rest.

We did a bunch of track stuff. We did like you run 800, you rest 60, 600, twice, runs rest 60, 400, three times, rest 60. So, man, the whole conditioning part kind of transferred over um so when this is they're like hey said the whole seven seconds thing i mean i was like doing this the conditioning aspect of it for since middle school um and so that part kind of transferred over i was like i said i've always been, you know, a conditioned guy. And the strength obviously transferred over after I did a year of CrossFit. So, yeah, for the most part.

So there was some – I couldn't go in there and bench like 315 or, you know, squat the house. But I made sure I was hustling. So you held your own there. They weren't like, like hey this is the new guy he's he's he's the slow man on the team he's the weak link you showed up and i wasn't very fast i'm not a very fast guy um but i made sure i could i can go longer periods of time and you and you um that's important in a lot of areas of life you don't have to be the fast guy. You just want to be able to put in the time. It makes for a good man.

Right. Tell me, you played wide receiver? Yeah. I mean, so you've got to be pretty fast. Well, not compared to these other guys. Not nearly. I was the Jerry Rice of the team, man. I had the hands. I made sure I could run good routes. That's how I got to play football at Clemson. It was not the speed. It was not

necessarily the talent, if you will, because these guys were like five stars, man. I knew I was going to hustle. I knew I could. It was on the details, man. I knew I had to pay attention, watch film, run good routes, and get it done in other parts of my game other than just being naturally just talented, jumping out of the air and being 6'6 and running a 4'4. When I hear you – What does that mean, good routes? Sorry, Brian. What does that mean, good routes?

Yeah, so when you're a route runner, you've got to be precise, man. It's all about footwork. It's all about how many steps, how fast and efficient can you get out of a break. So if you watch someone at a high caliber like in college or NFL and you watch them break down, and let's say they were running 10 yards and in, the efficiency and the technique to make that cut and separate themselves from

the db takes a lot of technique takes a lot like i can you can get people off with your eyes your head your arms you can like get a little elbow um and then there's the footwork aspects to it man there's there's a whole bunch of stuff that you got to be dialed in on when i when i hear you say that there's one particular n NFL receiver that comes to mind because I've heard him say something similarly that's currently in the NFL, I'm curious if there's anyone in particular that you kind of look up to or try to model after for that efficiency and the details. Wes Walker was really good at it.

Hunter Renfro played a ball at Clems it um Hunter Renfro played I played ball at Clemson with Hunter Renfro Hunter Renfro is is is in the NFL now um the guy not really the guy I was thinking of is Michael Thomas because I've heard him talk about this before and he's like I don't care what attributes physical attributes you think you have across the line oh yeah my precision accuracy and attention to detail is going to get me where i need to be before you well i thought you're talking about some white dudes um so the white dudes me they're not the i can't run a four three but if you if you can run a four three four four and then you can do all that stuff man i mean you're you're you're a hall of famer man um but i i felt like i like i said i was i was bigger so i was slow off the line

so a db doesn't necessarily didn't have to be as quick um they just had to make sure that they could i was probably bigger than most db so they just made sure um they were like just on my butt the whole time where i was gonna have to create separations through technique. Did they ever try you at any other positions besides receiver? No. I was going to play tight end. So I wasn't 220 in college, man. I was about 205.

But the weightlifting, man, got me so big. We were just doing a bunch of curls, dude. I'm talking about hammer curls. They call them Armagedlifting, man, got me so big. We were just doing a bunch of curls, dude. I'm talking about hammer curls. They call them Armageddon, man. You go from 15s and you do 10 reps and you just go up all the line, man. And we were cleaning. We were doing everything, man. And I just got super massive, man.

I mean, the food was free. So it was like you're eating this all the time um and i mean it was like gourmet meals you play a clemson i mean it's all free man steaks everything you want for breakfast lunch and dinner so i got super big to about 215 220 and i that made me slower um and so then i was like, well, maybe I'll just start keep doing this and go play tight end at 240. And I was like, well, then I'm definitely going to be too small, you know, because then I'm, you know, I've never blocked.

I'm a pretty boy. Don't like blocking. Don't like getting hit hard. So, you know, didn't like that. But I was like, if it gets me to the NFL, it gets me to the NFL. But then at that point I was like, you know, I'm just going nfl gets me to the nfl but then at that point i was like you know i'm just gonna quit and do do something else and so tell me about that tell me about the transition from uh football to crossfit when were you like okay i'm gonna try

crossfit as a competition or are you even in that space now like mentally Yeah. Or when I quit? Either. Both. I'd love to know. So when I did CrossFit before football, man, I was kind of good at it. I knew I had the potential. People were calling that out of me, and I was like, man, I'm going to play NFL. Man, this is my whole dream. This is why I'm even here. So when I got to football, the thing I loved about football was I knew I was going to outwork pretty much everybody that I played with. And I made sure of it because I carried a chip on my shoulder.

Not being the fastest guy out there, I knew that I was going to, like I said, run the routes every day after practice. I was going to make sure I'm putting in the extra hours, make sure I'm the most conditioned, you know, the whole nine yards. And then that was just the best part of football for me. And then I get to college, and then everybody's doing that already. Not only is everybody doing that, but now it's like you're there at, like, 5 a.m. in the morning, and is like the your responsibility is to do all this stuff and more everyone has a chip on their shoulder everybody has a chip on their shoulder but also there's it's like you running the extra hour you running like extra and like you running

the routes is not necessarily extra working in a way it's like what the whole team is doing as a workout. And so we're there from like 5 a.m. to like you're leaving at 9 p.m. most days. And it's just a business, man. It was very, it like pulled out of me, like the desire to like want to do extra because nobody was really doing extra because we were there from all day long. And, and it felt like a business. Um, it was just a bunch of, I didn't have any like outside time, you know, I didn't have time with my friends. I couldn't like, for me, the hard work, the thing I loved about the hard work was I got to choose the hard work. Um, like I got to choose if I wanted to watch film, like I got to choose me outworking

people in a way. And then it was when I played football Clemson, it was like, you were just doing this because it's your job. Like everybody's doing this. And so every, it just, it just kind of in a way pulled out the motivation of it for me. Um, because it was like all this is expected. Um, and I don't know, after a year, I wasn't gonna, I wasn't playing. I was in a, so that when you're a receiver, you play, there's a slot receiver and then there's outside receiver. The outside receivers are more of your bigger guys, but I was, like I said, I was a good route runner. And so the good route runners normally play the slot receiver. Um, and so I felt like I wasn't in the right spot.

But I was a walk-on, so what are you going to do? You know, you just play where they put you. And I knew that I wasn't going to be, as a 220 guy, you know, 6'1", I wasn't going to play this lot ever. And so I knew that I was competing with these guys that you see on TV, like the 6'4 guys who run 4-4s and they go straight down the field and catch, like, Hail Marys Marys and man catch touchdowns. And I just couldn't compete with them, man. Um, and so I, I knew I wasn't,

I knew the chances were very slim of me actually getting the shot that I wanted at slot receiver to like, I felt like I could play slot receiver. Um, but I just wasn't going to get that chance. And so that in that year, um, there was a lot of things, and I just didn't want to play at the end of it anymore. I couldn't do it for four more years. Was it heartbreaking? No.

I knew – so I wanted to do CrossFit. The whole time I would find little places to do CrossFit. So when I quit, I knew, when I was at football at Clemson, I knew, hey, I'm either going to pursue the CrossFit games or I'm going to pursue Clemson football. And if I pursue Clemson football and play the next five years of my life and then start CrossFit, I'm going to be kind of late on the show to the games, man games, man. Um, and so once I quit playing football at Clemson, it was like, all right, well, let's go do CrossFit. See what

happens. Are you done with school? Um, so I dropped out of Clemson because I quit playing football. I want to be a pastor one day. Actually. Um, I work, I work at a church. I'm here now. Um, and felt called into ministry about in high school and knew that once I got done with the NFL at the time, I was going to go be a pastor somewhere after that. But then all that obviously got interrupted. I stopped playing football. And then I was like, okay, now I'm going to go. I'm not going to be a pastor at the age of 21 years old because, one, I'm not qualified for that, and two, that would be terrible.

No one's going to come to Guy's church who's 21 years old. And then, so I ended up going to school online, did some online stuff with seminary, and then I paused that because I got married, but the whole time I was training for CrossFit here. What do you mean you had a call, you felt the calling in high school what's that what's that look like yeah so um kind of like the same thing you'd feel if you were just hey like I feel this deep call I had to feel this deep passion to like give my life to this um and for me that was um I love the Lord, and he saved my life. Man, I was a total idiot in high school, man, and not very kind.

I was a jock, treated girls terribly, and it was just all about me, and it always has been. And I got to a really low place, got in trouble a couple times in high school, and, man, I was like, something's got to change. And so I ended up going to church and a bunch of people got, got me around and there were people that I've never met before and they were kind. They were treating me in a way that I'd never been treated and ended up giving my life to the Lord. Um, ended up reading my Bible, ended up praying a lot more and doing these, these things, man, in my life started changing. My heart started changing towards people, towards myself, started loving people in a, in a, just a completely different way. My view on outlook or life change. It's not about

like I have my eyes set on like eternity, like nothing is, nothing is necessarily going to last here. Like all this stuff is momentary. And it's just not about me is the mindset that I kind of try to have. And obviously it's harder said than done, obviously. But the Lord kind of changed my life. And now it's just like I just want to be like him. And I want to tell people about the Lord. I want to tell people about the good news of Jesus and just give my life to that.

And if that looks like being a pastor one day and preaching the Bible, then it does. But yeah, that's the call that I felt in high school. Hey, I want to give my life to this. I want to work at a church. I want to tell people about Jesus Christ because I feel like he's the treasure of life and he's the best thing and nothing on earth satisfies, but him. And I feel like, um, we all need them

and nothing as good as him. And I want to tell people about that. You sound like me. I, uh, I want it to be like him too. Um, I'm not a religious guy and I don't believe in God, but at about at 23 or 24 or 25, I wanted to be like Jesus too. And it's interesting. You said something very powerful to me. You said your life was all about you and you are at a low. And I want people to really hear that because it's really one of the great paradoxes in life.

There's a Taoist saying that says, stop thinking and all your problems will go away. And basically thinking is tantamount to making everything about you. And when everything is about you, you will be a miserable human being. The irony there, the paradox is, is that you really have to make it all about you and constantly be working on yourself to not make it about you. And so good luck figuring that out, people. That's the journey of life. But you can't just think out, people. That's the journey of life. But you can't just think about other people. You'll turn into a pile of shit. And a friend of mine put it into a math equation for me one time. He said, work on yourself 90% of the time so that 10% when you're giving to other people, you're giving the best version of you. But it's

interesting. And those of us who find a way to manage that, to really work on ourselves, and for you, it's obviously reading the Bible, praying, and I'm sure you have other benevolent activities you're involved in. But then it's not about you. You're doing it to spread, to be – to do the best thing for the flock. Right? And in essence, you're an amazing role model. Amazing role model. And that in itself is enough because I do believe that we are all role models. I made this post the other day.

Everything we do is contagious. Do not think that something you're doing is not contagious because we're all watching you. We're all watching each other. It's all contagious. You light up a cigarette and no matter what, you're doing is not contagious because we're all watching you. We're all watching each other. It's all contagious. You light up a cigarette, and no matter what, you're telling me that smoking is okay. And we know that burning objects and inhaling into your lungs is not okay. All right.

Hold on, Savan. I'm just curious. Yes, yes. Because there are some other and have been prominent athletes in the CrossFit space that are very vocal about their faith. Was that attractive to you in any way when pursuing CrossFit, or were those two things totally separate for you? They're not separate at all.

I guess when I first got into CrossFit, I didn't really know anybody. I didn't really know anybody. I didn't even know about the CrossFit Games. I didn't know this could be a lifetime that you could pursue until about two years later. I found out Rich Froning was a Christian. He was the best at the sport and whatnot. There were other guys. Ben Smith is a believer. At the time, those were the you

know people that were winning didn't know about matt frazier until like obviously years later when i started actually watching the movies and whatnot so i wouldn't say it attracted me to the sport but it i definitely don't keep CrossFit and the Lord separated. I worship pretty much everywhere I go, and I try to carry him along. For me, the Lord is like I can have a conversation with the Lord wherever I go. I don't have to show up to church to experience the Lord. I don't have to have my Bible open to hear from him. His spirit is in me. And so when I'm working out, when I'm, you know, with my wife, with, um, when I'm at church with, um,

with friends, whatever the whole nine yards, I can enjoy them and I can walk, walk with him. Um, cause that's the, that's the invitation that he gives me is, Hey, my spirit isn't necessarily located in the church alone. It's everywhere, and you can enjoy me wherever you go. And so I try my best to carry that same mindset and have that perspective in the gym as well because, man, it's empowering to know that the Lord is with me, and I'm able to enjoy Him when I work out. It's funny. You always hear, like, if you want to win the games,

I'm just making this shit up, but if you want to win the games, you've got to train seven days a week, you have to work with Chris Henshaw, and you might as well just throw Jesus in there too now. I mean, there's just so many. Like, hey, you need your creatine, you need your Jesus, and you need some Chris Henshaw, and you're there. You know, it's like. Right.

Yep, that's exactly right. So did you know going into the semifinals this year? First, let me go back a little bit. Is that your biggest test that we just saw you ever do in terms of the biggest spotlight, the hardest competition, the most talent, the best competitors? Was that? Yeah. That was it. competitors. Was that? Yeah. That was it. And were you nervous? Yeah.

Very nervous. And why were you nervous? The crowd, the eyes, the test it was going to put on you. The guys next to you? No, it wasn't necessarily the crowd the the crowd man i've been in crowds bigger than that it wasn't necessarily being on tv it wasn't necessarily into that it was more of the hey i've i know the work i've been putting in for the last two years and i'm nervous if it was enough or not um so living with that mindset of like i I'm putting it, I work out alone.

And for the last two years, like there was that one local comp that I did at crash. But other than that, man, I don't know if this is enough. I don't know if, if what I'm doing is like, how's it parallel? You know, I see the highlights on Instagram with everybody else and everybody's posting PRS and everybody's winning comps and everybody has over 100,000 followers on Instagram. So that must mean that they're better than us. And insane training partners. I thought that's very poignant that you said you work out alone. And they all have insane training partners.

Yeah. And they have videos. They have these – I would look at that and it's easy to get caught up in the hype, man. It's easy to say, okay, like, hey, these people have all this. They have all those resources. They have so many people following them. They must be fitter than me. And for me, it was like I train and it would it be easy to to go in.

I got the training days and the comp days are completely different, completely different, man. and the comp days are completely different, completely different, man. Um, and for me, when you see these highlights from people, you're like, dude, these people are like machines because it's just their highlights. You know, it's like, you don't ever see them hurting. And it's for me, I know that I hurt in the gym. I know that I, I struggle with things. Like I know that my weaknesses I know. And then you compare those things and it's like, okay, well, they obviously don't have any weaknesses because they don't post it and they don't talk about it and we never see it. And so it's easy to start, you know, comparing and and you get eight athletes or seven athletes. I've been all been to the games and you can get if you're not careful, man, those things that creep into your mind of, hey, well, I'm this no name guy.

Some sometimes I believe in myself and sometimes i you know think i can win it and then other times it's like okay well cool down jason look at look at who you're going against you're going against people who have been there way more many times than you have older guys more mature guys in the sport all these things and it's easy just to get caught up in those lies man and and so when i say nervous it's it was okay, like I know I've put in the work. I know I've put in the work with my weaknesses and all the whole nine yards, man. I know I've dialed in the details and taken care of all the things I can control. I'm nervous about is it enough?

Was sleeping eight hours, was that enough? Or did it need to be ten? You know, was drinking three water bottle of waters enough through the season and not five every day was, um, you know, where I work out two out two and a half hours a day. These people are working out eight hours. You know, they get three sessions a day. I get one, I'm over here squeezing in 90% of heavy front squats, five minutes after a banger for 20 minutes. It's just like those things are tough.

Those things are tough on your body, and people get to recover longer. And if you're not careful, those things can make you insecure. And those things add up. And right before you go out on the comp floor, all that is like the question is, is it enough? Was it enough? The last two years, was it enough? And they have all – you're right. They're surrounded by other athletes who can give them, hey, this is how you should recover.

They're surrounded by nutritionists. They're surrounded by these teams that cater to – well, that have a shit ton of experience. And it almost sounds like you're just winging it. Not necessarily just winging it. I mean you have the internet to do research on, and obviously you've moved your whole life. But you're feeling around more in the dark than they are. They have some tried and proven methods, and you're just – you're putting it together. Why do you train by yourself?

Why didn't you go to one of these – why didn't you go to Think Tank or – you know what I mean? Why didn't you find a group? Why did you go to the Miko Sailor route, put your rower in a closet and row? Well, one, man, I moved up to Greenville. I live in Greenville, and it's the best place in the world. I got a bunch of friends up here, man. And so the idea of moving was out of the thought process. There's some things that are close handed, close handed,

the things that don't change and that's moving away from my friends and family. And so there's a few gyms around here. Most of them, um, the one that crashed, the crash is about 30 minutes away. And so I can go there, but it'd be me driving 30 minutes a day, which is, I have done that. And I do do that every now and then, maybe like once a week. But that is not the ideal situation. And so obviously, and the gyms that I do go at, I mean, I look at the gyms that are obviously not the most expensive. I'm on a budget. So it's like, I got to think about that.

I got to think about where they're at. I got to think about, can I work out during class? You know, is class going to get me out or do I need to come in open gym? Like what's their open gym schedule? So it's like, I don't have all the resources like other guys have. And so the gym I have, I work out at CrossFit Simpsonville and that's about 15 minutes away. They let me work out whenever I want. There's great people there and I love it there.

whenever I want. There's great people there and I love it there. And sometimes I work out with the, some older folks who want to just hop in on the workouts. And sometimes I'm just me. They must be so proud of you when you came home. They must be just showering the love on you. Man, dude,

I got the best support system, dude. It's unreal, man. We did a fundraiser, uh, about two weeks before I went out, man. And then we raised like $2,000 for me to go unreal, man. We did a fundraiser about two weeks before I went out, man, and we raised like $2,000 for me to go out, man.

And, dude, it's awesome, dude. Before we get into the competition and just how the world's perceiving you and how you perceive your performance, I want to go back to one more thing. You said that going back to your transformation sort of in high school. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio has your chance at the number one feeling, winning, which beats even the 27th best feeling, saying I do. Who wants this last parachute? I do.

Enjoy the number one feeling, winning, in an exciting live dealer studio, exclusively on FanDuel Casino, where winning is undefeated. 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. About how you learn to, and correct me if I'm wrong, basically you, you just learned to love people more instead of being a dick. Yeah, essentially. What about, um, receiving love? Did you learn how to receive

love too? Did it go both ways or is that a different, is that a different cat to skin? Is that a different beast? No, it is. Um, so the, the idea of receiving love actually, No, it is. So the the idea of receiving love actually actually takes humility. And because when you when you are off to it, the thing that you're saying is I don't need it. And it's essentially that's pride. And so receiving love is hard and receiving money like two grand, man. There's something in you naturally that is like, OK, I don't need this because you're saying I don't need the help. I hate putting that. And then also it's like I don't want to put that burden on people.

And that's a lie too. And so for me it was, hey, I don't like necessarily receiving from people. I don't like being a burden to people. I like, you know know no one does but at the same time like there's there's something humble about hey open up your hands and receiving a gift because people want to give it to you so that's kind of and you when you receive love you you're the the really cool thing about it is you think you're getting something but the other person's really getting something too because you're allowing them to practice in your words the lord's work too and so you have to you can you're yeah it's awesome because you're opening

up yourself to letting other people feel what it's like to give but it but that is a really really tough one that's a tough one for me too like it's it's when you first find find love you're like okay i'm going to share this with the world, but you really have to let people love you too. You have to let the universe love you back. And that's a huge part of it. So you show up there. Are you happy with your performance? Sort of.

I don't like my eighth place finish oh it was the only word it was we should put it in we should put it in context for seven it was uh it was a this workout was please it was a three minute it was a three minute workout basically it was a variation on grace where they do three clean and jerks three burpees over the bar he finished eighth but he was only 16 seconds away from first. So it was a very tight race, really close finish, obviously short time domain. So that's what he's talking about.

Thank you, Brian. Good, good stuff. Yeah, so I, yeah, like 10 rounds, 3-3-3, very fast, man. It was the only workout. So when I came into the comp, me and my coach were just talking, man. The whole strategy for the whole comp was run your race. Don't worry about a single soul. Let the rest take care of itself.

We were basically confident that my fitness level was better than the rest of the guys. We were going to bank on, hey, at the end of the day, the fitness level is there. And whether it was or not, that's what we were going to be confident about going into the comp. So I didn't need to worry about how Justin Medeiros came out on a ski if he was going 45 unbroken on the chest to bar. If, you know, on every single workout, it was going to be, hey, Jason Hopper, you focus on you. And at the end of the, at the end of the comp, at the end of the event, we'll see what, who fit, what the fitness level was at the end, but just make sure that you finish and you are dead when you're done. Make sure you empty the tank. And so that was the mindset and run your own race. We believe that, you know, the whole

idea was your pace is the best pace. So you don't have to pace off anybody else. Your pace is the best. Like you're the best one here, you know, have that mindset. And obviously, like I said, the insecurities are also on that same token of like, okay, well, what if my pace isn't actually the best pace? You know, like these guys that are super good, like Scott Panchick is, is know 11 times game athlete like there's no way my bet my pace is going to be the best you know uh but that's the confidence that i had to have in order to succeed it was like okay like even if that voice in my in the left side of my in my head was loud the confidence i had to be much louder um and so going in it was like your pace is the best like you're a dog like you're a games

do i look myself in the mirror like 14 days in a row leading up to this competition i look myself in the in the eyes in the mirror and said to myself a hundred times a day you are a games athlete you're a games athlete you're a games athlete you're a games athlete i look i wouldn't leave until i was convinced of that man um and i, and I had to have that mindset. I had to make sure that before we, before I step on the floor with Scott Panczyk, who I watched on movies and Jess Medeiros on movies, man. Um, and on documentaries, man, I had to make sure I was okay and ready to compete. And before going out there, I had that mindset on every single one except Gretel. And that was the one I came in eighth one. That was the only one I didn't.

Simply because it was a three-minute just race. I knew all the other workouts were longer time domains. I could think while I'm working out. I could have that same motivation, run your race, run your race. This one was a three minute moment, man. It was, uh, I was, I remember being in first place. I just came in second, just came in first. I'm sitting at first.

Um, and this, this is Saturday morning, you know, and I'm like, this is going to be gnarly. Like this is no time to think this is sprint, sprint, sprint, but it's also burpees and I'm two 20 and I'm six one. And this is a time to think this is sprint, sprint, sprint, but it's also burpees and I'm 220 and I'm six one. And this is a light barbell. So it's not like I could just, you know, coast through this and trust that my fitness is the best. And so we end up, it was the most amped I have been the whole comp. It was like, I can't even think straight. Like I'm pacing back and forth in the back.

Like there's, this is about to be like so intense. Like I'm about to throw up um that's all good stuff by the way that all sounds like champion mentality i'm serious i mean that's that's what you hear from these guys um and so i end up going out there man and it was a mistake it was a rookie mistake i got lost in the moment i couldn't even think i end up losing track on what round i was on and you say you do six rounds of three, three, three, before you move the bar forward. And I ended up forgetting what round I was on. It was like a moment, man. It was like 90 seconds in. I'm like, dude, I gotta be on like round five or six right now. And I ended up thinking I was on

round six and I wasn't, I wasn't first for the first like five rounds, and I completely forgot what round I was on. I was just going, man, and I am stepping over the bar because you face even. You face, I think, the rig, and then odd, you face the fans, and doing burpees, I was like, okay, I guess I think I'm on round six, and I end up jumping up ready to move the bar forward or like ready to do my last round. And I'm like, oh, crap, I need to be facing the other way.

And so I end up stepping over the bar and the lady was like, you need to step back over the bar, step back over the bar. You're on this side. And I step back over the bar and I tripped. I don't know if anybody saw I tripped and I end up falling over on the ground in the middle of this competition. I look like an idiot, dude dude it cost me like seven seconds dude and then from there i'm like oh my goodness like i'm completely my mind is like what is going on right now and ended up like it ended up costing me i ended up it could have been way worse than eighth man i ended up catching up still got beat um but then my bar was like outside like it was like sideways and like four more rounds later my my bar, I felt like did burpees.

I was going to be burping into like the other person's like square. So I had to like make sure my bar was like in mine. And it was, it was crazy. I was like dropping bar, my bar from like overhead. Like I was doing my clean. I'm the last third, you go touch and go. And the third one, I was dropping that thing. And that thing was bouncing.

Everybody else was like patting their down. I was like, oh, I should have done that. So there was a bunch of things I got caught in the moment. But, man, it could have been way worse, dude. But I was glad I got through that. But it was the only one that I felt like I had to be the hero on because it was just my weakness one. It was, hey, this is going to be fast. It's going to be a small man workout.

You've got to go fast. You've got to do something that's out of your comfort zone. So I was doing early clean into a press. I was just chaos, man, because I didn't trust myself. I didn't trust the work I put in. You want to know who won that workout? Travis. Travis Mayer.

Yeah, my boy. He gave it to you, Jason. That's right. That'ser. Yeah, my boy. He gave it to you, Jason. That's right. That's right. He did. That's right. That's what you get. That's the first time we've mentioned his name on the podcast.

I'm disgusted that you keep saying Justin Medeiros and Scott Panchik. Yeah, I met Travis. He's a cool man. He is. He's a cool man. He is. He's a great guy. Fascinating. Really cool. Great insight into how you approach it.

I think people will really appreciate that. So you finish and you win. And of course your size is a huge thought to the fans. I think even people who watch CrossFit who aren't diehard fans are like, hey, this is a little weird. We have an average height of like, what is it, 5'9", 185 pounds. I think I learned from Brian is the average size of a CrossFit male athlete. Clearly I haven't told it to you five times yet.

Because I didn't get it right? 5'10", 195. 5'10", 195. I want them to be smaller. Yeah. And so you finish and you realize you won. What is that? How does that change your mindset?

I mean, because really, and we talked about this before you came on the air and I mean, this is no disrespect. It's even hard for me to say this, even though it's not really that big of a deal. Scott Panchik is sort of the gatekeeper. If you can't beat Scott, you have no chance of winning the CrossFit games. I mean, he is just fucking, he's a feature. He's a feature in the games, right? Like we said, he's been to so many games. He's so damn good. And like, he's always threatened the podium. So you beat him,

you beat Travis, and then you beat the, you know, let's just say what it is. It's Matt Frazier's pick to be the next Matt Frazier. Justin Medeiros, the podium poster boy.

And what are you thinking after that? What's your, when you're driving home from the comp, what are you thinking? I'm thinking we did it. Like I said, man, it's –

When you say we, you mean you and Jesus and your coach? Me and my coach, my wife, all the support team. We saw this. We knew it was possible. And it takes a village, man. It wasn't a one-man show. I know I was the only one out there. But it really did.

My wife cooks for me, and she makes sure all my meals are ready to go every single day. She makes sure it's clean. She makes sure it's good protein and makes sure I'm eating enough. The whole nine yards, my programmer, Jared Shaw, is on point. We're making sure we're dialing it in and hitting the things that we need to be hitting. Then the friends, man, my best friends believe in me, man. And so on one hand, I really did think I was going to win. And I'm not bullcrapping you. I wrote down in my journal that I think I can win this whole entire thing. As a no-name guy, I was seeded like eighth after the quarterfinals.

guy. I was seated like eighth after the quarterfinals. But I knew that when the spotlight was on, I've been in spotlights. I'd been in the comp, the crucible, and I knew my training was completely different than when it's on game day. And man, I just, I trusted, I trusted that I put in the work. I trusted that, I also trusted that I wanted it more than anybody else. And I carried that hunger. I carried that motivation. I carried that, that truth. I didn't think, I didn't, though everybody else had a bunch of resources, way more resources than I, I was convinced during that whole comp that I wanted it more than anybody.

And so when it happened, when I was on the way home, it wasn't necessarily a surprise for me. It was more like this is what I wanted. This is what I expected to happen. This is what I envisioned. It was cool to like see like all the things that I kind of dreamed about in a way to like, you know, come to reality of like all like the hype and like, okay, now I'm,

I'm a known person in the CrossFit world. Now people are like, we're reaching out. People are like, you know, all the whole nine yards. Those are cool. And that's the stuff I wanted.

But it wasn't necessarily, I wanted to win first and foremost, more than anything else. And that's what we went to do. And when it happened, yes, it win first and foremost, more than anything else. And that's what we went to do. And when it happened, yes, it was, it was, I expected it. Um, but it was, it was like, there was parts of me that was like, wow, I actually really did it. Holy crap. You know? Um, but most of me was like, I, I wanted it and I knew I could simply because of the training that I have put in. And so, yeah, man, it was – I think anything, it was more of a sign of relief of, okay, we did it.

And there's no more – I don't have to be insecure anymore about the highlights that I see. I don't have to compare anymore. I know that I can't have to compare anymore. I know that, um, I can compete with these guys. I know I'm, I can compete with Justin Darros and Travis mayor. You know, I can compete with these guys that all I see is their highlights. I don't have to wonder anymore. It's like, I know, you know, I know that I'm, I'm, I'm, I could play what I could play around with these big dogs. And so it was more of a sign of relief of, okay. Like it wasn't just a theory in my head of me convincing myself.

It wasn't, hey, I have to convince myself that I'm a games athlete and like hype myself up. It's, okay, like I saw this. I went and did it. And we went and did it. And it's true. And so it's a sign of relief. But it's also something that for the last two years of my life, man, I have been visioning every day when I walk into a gym. Will you change your mantra?

Can you let your guard down by mantra? I mean, you said you were looking in the mirror and telling yourself you're a games athlete. Going into the games, will you have a different – will you start saying, hey, I'm going to win this, I'm going to win this? Will you change your – or will you stick with your current your current mental programming um will you tinker with it yeah no i think i think things will change it will evolve it won't be like hey i'm a games athlete it won't be hey i can stick around with these guys it's hey i'm the fittest man on earth i love it i'm the fittest man on earth seven can we ask him about a couple other events oh yeah yeah yeah and then brian i want you to bring earth. Can we ask him about a couple other events?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, Brian, I want you to bring up what we were talking about, about Dave Castro and Jason after you asked him about a couple events. Were you able to enjoy the snatch event? Or were you nervous during that because it was the first one and there's so much pressure to hit that lift because you only get three? I mean, that moment for a fan like us to watch seven guys snatching 300 pounds in one competition is super rare. Had you hit 300 before? What was that like for you?

Yeah. Dude, it was so surreal, man. I had not. I wasn't even planning on hitting 300. man. I had not, I didn't, I wasn't even planning on hitting 300. I was, so like I said, my game, like the training that happens in like by myself is completely different than, you know, on game day, man, because I grew up playing sports. And so when you practice, it's like you go hard, but when the lights are on, when the cameras are on for the, for my entire life. Like I, I thrived in, in competition settings. I thrived when, you know, I was with the fans. I thrived on Friday night and,

and on Saturday and, you know, when it really counted. And so when, like I said, I get super, I compare a lot of people and I see highlights and, and then I see my training. And when I, when you see like someone hit a PR and, and Scott Pancheck throwing up two 90, like all regularly snatching. And you're like, dude, I, I might hit two 90 once every year, you know, like I'm, I'm good with two 65. Like, I think that's a good training day at two 65. I'm good with 265. I think that's a good training day, 265.

And so going to that event, I had hit 275. I PR'd at 295. How long ago was that? That was the most I've ever done. That was probably in April. But I did it. I lift a lot under my heart rate. I lift when it's high. I try to lift in, obviously, when you're smoked.

And so I had never, rarely do I lift a heavy barbell, like, thinking. And I think a lot when I lift. That's probably why I don't ever hit a heavy mount, because I'm just thinking about, like, the technique aspect of it. Instead of just, I can barely breathe. Just rip this crap off the ground and hit it. That's where my PR is normally come from. And so the whole idea of like, OK, now it's just like heart rate's not high.

We're just going to be out there and just one snatch that intimidated me, man. me, man. And like the, the intimidation of that, but also knowing that, wow, two 55, this earlier this week was tough. It was tough. And I built up to two 55. I waited around for 15 minutes because I knew that I was going to get corralled for 15 minutes. And then I was like, okay, let's see what happens when I opened up with two 65 and I ended up missing it. Um, and I said, Oh my goodness, this is not going to be good. So people were asking me when I was going to hit. And I was like, I'm going 255 to 65 to 75 and I'm okay with taking 12th place. I'm okay with taking 12th place in this event. And then I knew, but I also knew that man, like you playing sports all your

life, you're going to have adrenaline. So it's like, dude, I'm a gamer. And I felt like I was a gamer. So I had also had that confidence, but also knowing that, okay, like 255 was heavy. And so, like I said, everything's on the same token with me, man. It's like one, there's two voices in my head. And so we were warming up in warmups, man. And I hit 265 and it felt great.

And I said, I'm starting out 265 see where see what happens wait around for 15 minutes um put 265 on there and I didn't really worry I didn't want to worry about anybody else um the whole the biggest event or the whole entire competition was for me was Friday night I didn't really care about the I cared but I didn't really care about the, or I cared, but I didn't really worry about the snatch. I knew everybody could probably snatch 275, and that was the normal these days. I wanted a top 10. The goal was to get top 10 in every single event. I knew that,

man, if I could just maybe squeeze in 285, it was going to give me an eighth place finish possibly, and then we'll go from there so you missed your opening lift of 265 no i missed it in warm-ups yep so i missed it missed it in warm-ups and i said okay i'll start out with 265 and man in the moment dude it was it felt like 205 you know um so you hit it and you're like that's what that's what i'm talking about that's like the adrenaline i need that so i'm like putting two two i put 275 on and i put 285 went from 265 285 then i hit that and then you're

like okay that was actually easy you know and it was easy things were just popping you stable elbows like not walking around not it was clean and then i'm like all right 295 but it's like man whatever dude let's just go for it man if you're gonna win this if you want to be the best man you gotta make some risky moves and act like the best and And so put 300 on and hit it, man, and it was electrifying. I was happy that everybody else hit it, but I was also – And you were one of the first – you were one of the first lifters in your heat, weren't you, like the third guy maybe? Yeah, third guy.

I was the AC. So you hit 300. And then after that, I mean, you're obviously feeling great, but were you watching the rest of the guys? Because, I mean, you're obviously feeling great, but were you watching the rest of the guys? Because, I mean, you're done with the event at that point. Yeah, I was watching the guys. I tried not to keep an eye on them. I knew they started.

I'm only asking about in the last round. After you hit 300, now you're done. Like, you've hit 300. And, like, five guys hit it right after you. Was that fun? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, guys hit it right after you. Was that fun? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it was fun, man.

I was excited for them because I knew we were all going to get second place. 96 points, man. It was sweet. I got my 96 points. You got your 96 points. You didn't separate from me. I didn't separate from you. It's almost a wash, really.

So it's sweet. Damn. So you said a PR out there. It was awesome. I did a PR. God. Are your parents just insanely proud of you? They are.

Isn't that the best feeling, making your parents proud? Yeah, man. So now that we've talked to you, I'm not as surprised about this, but coming into the competition, I saw that Inception workout, all that running, a bunch of ring muscle-ups, you're a big guy. Did you know before the comp that that would be a good workout for you? Yeah, so that was actually the the the favorite of the week um not because i'm i feel like i'm elite at bringing muscle ups or running uh the thing i knew was that 30 pound wall ball was

going to be pretty heavy um for some other folks and the whole workout from we had the mindset of the whole workout is going to be where the most time is spent and for us everybody else the whole time was spent on the runner on the runner and you got on that runner directly after a lot of wall balls with 30 pounds

and so I knew for me I've been gifted with the talent of being 220 so the 30 pound wall ball isn't as hard as for some other folks um and so i knew that their legs were going to be probably feeling a little bit different after that than they were for mine because everybody can do re-muscle ups nowadays man it's like the sport is evolving. If you can't do nine, you're not going to necessarily be the fittest man on earth.

And so we, me and Jared, have been hammering weaknesses. When we do a session, we're doing over 80 ring muscle-ups a session. And so the idea of doing like 50 in this event or so is not intimidating for us anymore and so

we get on there and uh it's the first the the first round is 18 ring muscle up you run 900 meters um and then 18 ring muscle ups i went 12 and 6 um and you do 36 wall balls. Everybody broke up the 18. I think Justin Medeiros is the only one that went unbroken on the ring muscle-ups. And I knew everybody was probably going to break, but everybody had to deal with that 36 wall balls at 30 pounds. And whether you beat me there by 10 reps, whether we get there at the same time, I knew everybody was going to be feeling it after that wall ball. And the whole workout wasn't on round one. The whole workout was the two rounds after that that were you doing nine ring muscle-ups into 18.

And then running 450 meters. And so I knew, man, the running was going to catch up, but people were going to hate those wall balls. And so that's the mindset we had was, hey, we're going to go unbroken on these ring muscle-ups. But we're going to also put in the work on that treadmill after the wall balls because we had the mindset of, hey, everybody else is going to be hurting on that run after the wall balls, but this is where we're going to get our money out. Um, and so that's the, Brian, I got a question for you. Yeah. So when I, when I, after the event, um,

one of the guys we work with on the podcast, he's six, one to 15, he's 23 years old. He's a great, he's a great CrossFitter. He said to me, Oh God, Oh God, I hope, I hope he doesn't pop. And I go, why do you say that? What, what, what? And he goes, it's just because it will give me, it will give me hope. It will give me hope that like someone like me could actually be good at CrossFit, like even better. Right. I mean, he's nowhere near as good as you, let's say he's half as good as you, Jason, but he's still a great CrossFitter. And if Jason, Jason, did they drug test you after the event? Okay, let's just assume he's not going to pop. Are you going to pop?

Okay, so he doesn't pop. Does he change the landscape and the perception of the sport? Potentially. There's, you know, I feel like in the last couple of years there's been. I mean, is he that big? Is he that big? I mean, he really is a giant dude, right? I mean, 6'1", 220. I mean, there's guys who probably get into their head. He's talking about other athletes getting into their head.

I bet you a lot of other athletes out there who are 6'1", 220 are like, well, I can be really good at this, but I can never – and whether they believe it or not, they hear it in their head. Do you know what I'm trying to get at here? Does he change the… I like it that there's a big guy who's come out and done really well at a semifinal this year. We've seen, I think, the last two years a trend towards a smaller athlete at the top of the sport, which I think in any sport you're going to have

some ebbs and flows like that. But there's other guys like Fikowski and Vellner are pretty big dudes that have done really well, but they haven't done that well the last couple years. So we'll see. Maybe this is trending back towards not even towards a bigger guy. They're just going to offset some of the smaller guys, and we might end up more close to that kind of norm and mean that we're used to

seeing, that 5'10", 195 is the middle, and then there's a couple guys a little bit on either side. Do you think that – so do you want to tell the story about what, what you, what you observed about Dave's Instagram and then I'll throw in my two cents and we'll see, see where this goes. Yeah. So Jason, I don't know if you saw it, but Dave put a little post up and he said, this kid is very impressive. And he was talking about you. And, um, as far as I know, he has, he doesn't do that very often. There's some's a lot of stories about 2010 when he first saw Rich Froning compete at a sectional, and then he came back to HQ,

and he told guys like Savon, he said, hey, man, there's this kid out in Tennessee, Rich Froning. He's very good. Watch out for him at the games this summer. Fast forward like five years, he sees Fraser compete live for the first time, and he does the same thing. But I'm pretty sure that you're the third guy that he's done that for. Like, I don't think he, you know, I don't, I don't know of anyone

else that he's like came back and said, this kid's impressive. Like he has with rich and Matt and now with you. Exactly. And those are the only, you're the only, he doesn't, he doesn't give compliments easily or he doesn't give recognition easily and he did i do remember that story is accurate what brian said 2010 he came back to hq and he's like holy shit i'm i've seen the next guy this guy he said savon he's fucking amazing in the way dave says it he's not that flattering and then and then and then obviously he was crazy impressed with matt fraser and then he he i talked with him after the semifinals briefly, and he said, wow. He said, that dude's impressive.

He said he's the real deal. Do you like hearing that, or does that put too much pressure on you? I mean, I have to assume the pressure on Justin Medeiros is massive now that he's doing Fraser's podium stuff. And that Matt has alluded to the fact that he thinks Justin might be the next guy, and then all of a sudden now you come out there and you win. I mean, on one hand it must feel good, but on another hand it must be insane pressure. Or do you thrive under pressure? Well, I like to think I do, but you know, um, it, it's not necessarily pressure. I mean,

it's, it's, it confirms a lot of things. Um, it confirms those, those moments in the gym where, you know, you want to be the best and, you know, you're doubting yourself and it's just like, but I've, I've, I've know the hard work that I've put in over the last two years, four years, man, I've, I've, I've known even it, it goes back to the days where I was running gassers, even though I didn't know it was going to transfer over to CrossFit, man, those days, man, I started CrossFit and I like to think I started CrossFit when I was, you know, in middle school running, you know, conditioning and in the summertime, that's the, that stuff kind of transferred over man and so i created that foundation but when when i started training

heavily man and actually started like focusing and about two years ago this is what i wanted and this is what i didn't have a lot of people like now you know telling me that i was the man and and the really impressive like dave said and you know all that stuff but a lot of that stuff just confirms the hard work more than anything it's like okay what you're doing is the right like it's it's what you're doing you keep doing like what you just what just happened you're going to get the opportunity to do again people people what people saw wasn't a fluke so keep doing the things but doubt keep going you know um there is a pressure of it too like what if what if like like i said if you don't know anything about me by now there's a war going on a war now i'm talking about a freaking battle, man. And on one hand, man, there's that voice of like, dude, you are unstoppable.

And then there's the other head, man, and it's like, dude, you suck. Like there ain't no way you're ready for this. And so, of course, that insecurity of, hey, dude, like what if you just like come in 40th in the games? Like what happens then like what are you a flute man like do what happens if like those that happens you know um but on the other hand it's it's it doesn't add pressure man because i know my training and i know that nothing's going to change i know that in the moment um i'm going to trust that nobody can beat me. And I'm going to trust that in those moments, my fitness and I'm going to trust the fitness will pay off. And so it's not a fluke is what

I'm trying to keep telling myself because that voice, man, keeps lying to me. It's like, hey, that's a fluke. Dude, the only reason you won is because, dude, those are wheelhouse workouts. You got six of them. It was only because it was a hundred pound dumbbell. It was only because there was only four strict handstand pushups. It was only because there was ring muscle ups and no other weaknesses in that workout. It was only because, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, all this stuff, man, it's easy to be like, oh yeah, you're right. I suck still, you know? Um you know um but man it's there's pressure to it but there's also not pressure of hey like i enjoy this sport and i'm gonna get my best and i know

i'm a competitive guy probably one of the most competitive people in the world and i'm gonna trust that and i'm gonna trust that when it matters i'm gonna brian do you think it's a fluke to win i don't um i you know no no can there be a fluke i mean can there be a fluke? I don't. No, no. Can there be a fluke? I mean, can there be a fluke in CrossFit? I mean, it's so hard work. There's so many details to manage.

I don't want to call it a fluke. Dude, I had so many. Let me tell you how insecure I can get dude I take Dextrose JR told me about this you know what Dextrose is? is it a laxative? he told you about this? I don't even know man dude

I love it no one's going to make it this far in the podcast anyway this is where you spill your beans he asked me to ask you about this and I was like I don't know if I'm going to make it this far in the podcast anyway. This is where you spill your beans. He asked me to ask you about this, and I was like, I don't know if I'm going to ask him about this. He wanted me to ask you two questions. One, he wanted to know what your record in legless rope climb workouts is against him. The one thing he probably ever beat you at five years ago.

The second thing was about ever beat you at five years ago. The second thing was what, what about a month before the competition? What did he decide with regards to dextrose and beta Allen? Okay. So I, I get super, super like paranoid over, you know over what's in my food. I refuse to be the dude that gets banned.

I've heard stories of people not knowing what's in their stuff. I don't know if they're lying or not. And I'm like, dude, like, could you imagine like getting on that stage and then not knowing and then getting busted? So it's like, dude, like I refuse to do that. Um, and so I only took for the last, it will have been till two months ago. I only took I, a scent protein, I drink a scent protein and that's my only supplement. And, and rarely do I drink that because I'm not disciplined. I don't, don't discipline myself enough to actually make the shake, man.

Um, and so it's just, I normally, I just eat a lot and man, I haven't, I'm actually not very good at nutrition to be honest with you. I eat a lot. You're breaking my heart. You're breaking my heart. Um, a little bit. Seriously? We are. That's why I broke my heart. You're breaking my heart. A little bit. Seriously? We are.

That's why I broke my heart. That's the only way you can break my heart is if you're my friend. Strangers don't break my heart. Tell me why. I'm the big no sugar, no – it's the whole COVID response thing. I don't think that anyone unhealth – my whole thing, my shtick on Instagram is, Hey, stop eating added sugar and stop eating refined carbohydrates. And there's no way SARS-CoV-2 can affect you. You'll never die from it. Not a single healthy person has died, but I give you a pass. You're 23 years old. No one

who's 23 years old and who's not obese dies either. So I give you a pass, but now I'm going to have to listen. People are gonna be like, Oh, I heard that guy, Jason hot. it's like when matt said he ate his snicker bars and everyone's like oh maddie's a snicker bars and drinks cokes and and now people are gonna be like oh you fucking idiot you're saying you know more about nutrition than jason hopper he fucked up the games and he eats all the donuts he wants eat a dick so i'm gonna have to hear all that shit all that crap but go on go on so you had a donut you have a donut once in a while. Let's pass by that part. So your nutrition dextrose dextrose. Yeah. Yeah. I just Googled it. Um, and yeah, yeah.

It's just like sugar and, um, and then beta. I can't say it. Say it again. And then beta alanine. Beta alanine. I can't say it. Say it again. Again. Alanine. So when Matt Fraser said that that was like his third lung, I was like, bro, what is that?

That's got to be the jam, you know? And saying something the third lung is pretty much saying like this is the shit, you know? is pretty much saying like, this is, this is the shit, you know? Um, so I'm like looking up what this is and there's a, there's some people at my gym that have some apparently. And, um, I'm like trying it and I'm like, dude, I get, I started getting tingles in my body. I don't know if y'all have ever taken it, but it's like you get tingles and I'm like, uh, like I'm breaking out. Like something good is not happening. Well, it's like a normal thing.

That's a normal side effect. And so then I take JR is like a couple weeks before that. I'm like smoking a workout at crash, man. And I have to do another workout in like 10 minutes before I have to get back to work. So I can't rest that long. And so he's like, dude, take this. Like you need to drink this during your workout, after your workout. I'm like, bro, what is dextrose?

Is this legal? We knew he was supplementing. We finally got to it in a minute and an hour and 11 minutes. we knew he was supplementing we finally got to it at a minute an hour and 11 minutes he says is this i'm like is this dude i swear if i get caught like i swear if this has stuff in it man i'm i'm i'm gonna hate you um and he's like bro it's dextrose this has an informed sport right there like it's it's okay it's just freaking sugar and so i'm like taking this bro, it's dextrose. It says informed sport right there. Like it's okay. It's just freaking sugar. And so I'm like taking this stuff and it's like it's good for you when like during your workouts, like carbs.

It's like eating a mango or something. And then this beta-alanine. This is the one I get so paranoid over. I'm like, dude, this rant. Like I have to see informed sport on like the whatever I'm taking. Like if I don't see that, then I'm like, dude, this rant, like I have to see informed sport on like the, whatever I'm taking. Like if I don't see that, then I'm like, no way, like no way I'm not even getting caught up in that thing.

Um, and so I get super paranoid. I'm like, dude, like what if like beta alanine or am I saying this right? Beta alanine, alanine, um, whatever. You're going to be able to call it whatever you want. BA. Um, um, so Matt Frazier, thank you. I actually don't really take it often. Um, I've taken it like once or twice, man. And I don't like this.

I don't like the tingling, but also I did well in this event without one, without taking it. So I was like, I don't really need this anymore. Anyways, I get super paranoid because it's like, dude, where, what is this stuff? Like, is this going to show up on a drug test or whatever, man? It's like, dude, no, dude, it's everybody takes this and nothing is in it. So I've like reached out to like the company that I use this from and I've texted, I've messaged them on Instagram a,

like a million times. And I'm like, dude, swear where, like, I know it says this, this band substance tested on the bottle. I know like the first time you said all the,

the facilities, these facilities that this was manufactured in. But are you, are you sure? Are you sure you sure that hey dude especially now i did it after because dude everybody's like he's on steroids he's on steroids he's on steroids and i'm like am i on steroids yeah it's like the drug checkpoint at the border they're like the cops all of a sudden have got you the border agents are like you start wondering shit do i have drugs in my car i i totally know that feeling you're like tripping at the border you're like holy shit how do they know that i'm i'm a fucking i'm a mule and i don't know like what what is going on here it's crazy dude i need to figure out i need to go to counseling to get

my head right man um but dude dude, I get paranoid, dude. So I think it's funny that everybody's like, he's popping or I can't wait to him test negative. Because if there is anybody, this is funny. If there's anybody on this world that is ready to see if he tests negative, it is me. Like I'm excited to test negative because it's like, dude, I'm not a cheater, man.

And I hope y'all, y'all can, you know, you feel that through this last hour of, I'm not going to cheat, man. And I, I hate cheaters to be honest with you. Like I, I can't stand cheaters, man. Um, but there is that like, okay, like is I'm going to make sure that I'm taking the right stuff. And like I said, I quit. I threw that bottle away of the betadine because I'm like, dude, I don't need this. I'm tired of like being paranoid over this crap. I threw it away at the comp and it's clean, man. It's like I know for a fact that it's got nothing in it, man.

I've reached out. He said they sent me all the stuff that this was manufactured in. It's like, dude, they got my. How was the dextrose? How was that? I mean, it's basically you just drank your sugar. you get so that gave you enough instant carbs so you said you were dead before i mean i don't want to promote that shit i don't even know why i'm asking this but did it did it did it help your training you take some of that and and you're ready to go

um i don't know if it's that easy um you definitely got a i don't know if it's that easy um you definitely gotta i don't know if it's mental like okay i'm gonna take this and then like okay now i'm ready um or what you definitely it's just like instant carbs it's like eating dry it's like eating dry mango during before it's like eating carbs or whatever in between workouts like refueluel, man, this is like instant carbs. This is just a drink. But when I go, like most of my times are like long sessions. Like I do something, I do a lot of sets of something. That's why, like I said, I mentioned 80 ring muscle-ups.

It's not like I'm doing 80 straight. It's like I'm doing a certain amount. I'm resting five, paired it with another movement. Over an hour, I've done 80 remuscle-ups. And then I have to go lift, but it's like, dude, I've just worked out for an hour, dude. I need something in my system. When I used to just be like, I don't really know what to take. I'll eat a chewy bar, and I'll be ready. But it's like, I don't really know what to take. Like I'll eat a chewy bar and I'll be ready.

But it's like, dude, that's not enough, bro. Like you're about to be – you're trying to be a professional athlete. You cannot eat a chewy bar in between comps. Were you sore after the comp? That's going to help you. How was your recovery? Oh, great, man. oh great man um after every event and i went um home and i went to the airbnb i'll stay in that and took like a two hour nap closed my eyes listened to morgan wallen and couldn't sleep

but it wasn't necessarily the physical aspect of the weekend man it was emotional more than anything dude i'm talking about like i like no one warned me about any of that dude i'm talking about like the 15 minute corral before every single event the adrenaline the handshakes of people i've met the interviews the leading the the nervousness the like i the constantly thinking about competition for four days in a row can't sleep you're thinking about it you you're first after event one the world's blowing up it's like dude like people know who you are like are you gonna finish come saturday it's like dude it's yours for the taking all that stuff like times 10 at that point and man it's it was really like 10 physical and you know who else said that it was only 10% physical about eight years ago?

Yeah. Rich Froning. Who? Oh. He said the games is a, he said it was mental, but he said the physical, all the guys there can do the physical.

It's everything else. So did you train Monday? How were you Monday? My legs were a little sore. Other that man those thrusters and bike that that workout i mean it was all legs so obviously i'll feel that and i did murph monday crazy how'd you do what was your time man i did it at a conversational pace man just for the troops i did it i did it straight through i did 100 strict pull-ups and then i went straight through 300 i think it took me with the 20 pound vest barely under an hour oh no not with the best he's mortal he's mortal listen to this you athletes or he's just not or he's just smart like you know i know i can't i

mean it's insane that you did murph on monday he's not the only one my wife did my wife did murph and she still hasn't gotten out of bed i swear to god she's like fucking she didn't 45 minutes no vest but she and she didn't do 100 straight pull-ups she just probably i think she said she learned the butterfly while she was during murph. It just came to her. I swear to God. But she's like in bed. So damaged. So Jason, just curious. I'm sure we're towards the end of the time here, but I'm sure you've watched some of the games and stuff from the past and it's known for being unknown and unknowable and having these unexpected twists and turns throughout the weekend. Is that something that

you think will suit you well, that you'll thrive under those different changes, unknown circumstances? I think I will, man. I think I can adapt pretty well. The thing that I'm going to have to be working on is obviously the skill aspect. What do you mean? Handstandstand walks what are you talking about no i can handstand walk like i need to practice it's not necessarily the weakness like i don't really have weaknesses anymore it's more of like like you just practice and get like you really

i'm not elite out of everything is that's i think that's the next step and so like walking on handstand walk like courses like with your heart rate at, like, 180, with the low poles. I need to practice walking on the poles. Doing parallettes, you know, doing practice legless. I need to practice swimming. All that good stuff, man. It's more just, like, you got to dial that in. But the grunt work of, like, the running, I know there will be a lot of running.

I know there will be ruck runs maybe or moving heavy stuff that you don't see at a semi or you can't do in your gym, stuff like that. I think that would come natural to me. I feel like my athletic ability will carry over a lot in those spaces. But I think most of the game training is going to be like, let's get your heart rate super high. Let's get you worn out. How is your swimming?

Your skills. That's coming in two months. Have you ever done a triathlon in your life? Yeah, you'll see. No. No. Don't be trying to figure out the secrets, man. Y'all are saying too much.

So you're going to the games to win the CrossFit Games? Yeah. Have you spoken with any of these other guys since is there anyone in this group games athletes that you're friends with these people who are going to the games this year these 50 guys and 50 girls or however many it is 30 how many go Brian

well only a few have qualified so far there's still several weekends I think he actually might have some friends competing this weekend at the Granite Games. Yeah, Taylor Self. He's from Charlotte. You guys did some training together? I met him at the Crash Crucible. Like leading up to semis and stuff?

We hit it off. Yeah, every now and then he'll come he'll, yeah, every now and then he'll, he'll, um, come to crash and we'll, we'll train. Um, do you, do you think that maybe that that's people train with other people to try to get better and push themselves harder, but there's a piece of it that might not be good because then those people are

getting in your head. For sure. Yeah. I actually hate losing to Taylor. Taylor actually beats me fairly a lot, a fair good amount of times because we do a lot of skill stuff. And JR, most of the time,

JR is the one that makes up our workouts or whatnot. But most of the time, I'm like one that makes up our workouts or whatnot. But most of the time, I'm like, hey, let's do a workout that is not in my wheelhouse because obviously I want to get better. And so I want to get a good push, but also get pissed when I end up do losing to Taylor. But we actually do try to balance it out pretty well, man. We'll put one of my wheelhouse movements in and one of his wheelhouse movements, like we'll do you know if we'll put one of my you know wheelhouse movements in and one of his wheelhouse movements and we'll try to we'll go but most of the time it's a blood bath but he gets me some most of the time man um but yeah there are definitely times like leading

up to it was like like again like hey i'm supposed to beat scott i don't know i've heard taylor's pretty good i'm excited to see him this weekend, too. So it's like... Taylor is really good. It's interesting. Brian and I have been... Critical might be too strong, but we've definitely discussed the fact that all the semifinals have different workouts, and I've not been a fan of that. But after speaking with you, I think my opinion may have changed because what this does is this leaves a big question mark for the games. Because if you guys were all doing the same semifinals, we would be like,

okay, overall, Jason would have taken fifth if they were all together or he would have taken first. And so we would kind of like, no, we could, we could comment more with more certainty about who's going to win the games.

And now we kind of have no idea. We still have to, I mean, not that we don't, don't have any idea, but we can't compare apples to apples. We have to start looking at the nuances. All right. No, I never even thought about that.

Tell me, Brian. Tell me how smart I am. I love it, actually. I'm working on deciphering all that information in my mind over the next couple of weeks, and I really like that perspective. I think so. That was the goal. That's always my goal.

Uh, when do you want to chat the next time? Right before the games, anything that, anything that, um, you can do to get me Instagram followers would be great. Anything that you need, to get me Instagram followers would be great. Anything that you can do to get me something.

I was telling Brian yesterday, that's why I do the games podcast. I have to tell you, I watched the semifinals to watch Travis Mayer, and then I started watching you, and I was like, holy shit, this fucker's sucking me into the games again. I really enjoyed watching you move. I really enjoyed watching you and I was like, holy shit, this fucker's sucking me into the games again. Like I really enjoyed watching you move. I really enjoyed watching you compete. And I, and I part love you and part resent you because now I'm more interested in the games that I've been in, in probably two or three years. So thank you. Thank you for that. And, uh, my boys, my boys loved watching you. I was actually really surprised how much my two four-year-olds and a six-year-old

enjoyed watching the games. They actually were like, Hey, cause I don't normally let them watch TV when the sun's out. And they're like, Hey, can we come in and watch? I'm like, yeah, sure. Watch this Jason Hopper.

Watch this Jason Hopper guy hurt my feelings. He beats up on my boy, Travis Mayer, Mayer, Mayer. What the fuck is it? You know, when I,

whenever I talk to Travis, I don't want to say his last name. What's his last name? Mayer. Mayer. Is there anyone you're excited to meet at the games? Like, are you excited to meet Tia? Are you excited to meet Scott this weekend? Yeah. Oh, good point. Yeah, I met Tia. She actually gave me a lot of advice on that before I went on the floor, man.

She's a super nice person, so I appreciate her a lot. I would love – I met Rich. Got to talk to him a little bit. Met Scott. I met all those guys, man. I want to meet Matt Frazier. I'm a fan of Matt Frazier, man. I think we have similar mindsets.

So I just want to pick his brain, man, on a lot of things. And, man, I want to hopefully become friends so I can go out to Vermont and I have a proposal for him. One, I want to thank him for really paving the way for crossfit for me like watching the documentary man is is like dude i want to be like that dude even out of as an 18 year old dude um that goes a long way man so dude i would tell him i appreciate him um and then two i want to pick his brain because i'm hungry to not only compete but also to learn. I want to learn his mindset. I want to learn his philosophies behind programming, learn where he takes advantage of the 1%.

And then three, man, I would love to, once he gets his garage gym finished, I would love to have a seven-event comp. You mean against him? Yeah, against him. The thing is, man, this guy's on the curls. He's on the curls regimen these days. He's looking lean and mean. I know, but, Savannah, I know you can send him this insert video.

I will definitely. I'm trying. But, man, I think it would be awesome just to meet him. Have any agents reached out to you? He's a role model for sure. I'm sure Matt O'Keefe is going to be circling your bull soon. Yeah, I've been in. I have a lot of people reach out to me um a few but right now i'm trying to take things slow and enjoy the process for the next couple weeks and i don't know

that world very well but he seems to be doing an amazing job for matt so would, I would keep him at the, uh, and, and, and, and his guy just retired. Um, you know, Matt Fraser just retired. And so, and so, uh, I would keep him at the, uh, oh yeah, I would keep him at the forefront. And I don't mean to disparage or say anything about the other managers out there. I don't know him, but I mean, Matt O'Keefe is definitely and Matt Fraser are powerhouse in terms of performance and making money. Yeah, for sure. I think the ultimate, speaking of Matt Fraser, I think the ultimate, the person I wanted to see my performance with him.

It was cool that, like, all these people, like, reached out to me. And, like, Dave Castro is, like, said this on Instagram. And, like, CrossFit is, like, saying this. But it's like. When's he going to drop into your, make a comment? Nice job. Nice job, Hopper.

Yeah, man. But. Brian, do you have anything else you want to finish on? Yeah. No, it was fun to watch you this weekend. I'm excited for you to train and show us what you got in Madison. I appreciate it, man. It's going to be fun.

Let's all hang out again.