The Sevan Podcast - #463 - CrossFit Power Ranking w/ Brian Friend & Angelo DiCicco

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Oh, shit. I forgot to send it to you. Sorry.

Bam, we're live. Who sent it to you, Brian? Sousa did? Yeah, I asked him. Oh, sorry. That's my fault. Hey, I want to tell you this story real quick. Ready?

Oh, there's Angela. Shit. Sorry, Caleb. Hey, I want to tell you this story real quick. Ready? Oh, there's Angela. Shit. Sorry, Caleb. Hey, this is my phone for now until my laptop finishes. It's up there. This friend of mine sent me this text today. This is a true story. Ready?

I got pulled over for rolling through a stop sign yesterday. When the cop asked me why, I told him the sign identified as yield. Guess who didn't get a ticket? I go, seriously? He said, yeah. He laughed so hard and said it was the best line he's heard yet. What a great opening to the show. Well, it's free.

I just saved everyone who gets pulled over. I mean, I don't get pulled over anymore. I've reached that age. i've reached that age i've reached that age um but angelo's what you don't you don't know that age you will where they look and they're like oh it's just some old guy we'll let it yeah it's a dude in sienna they don't want none angelo knows angelo drives by me in the fire truck and goes in 20 years i'm gonna be fucking visiting that guy in the nursing home yeah no i get pulled over all the time uh what are well let me let me ask angelo first angelo what do you think power rankings mean what

do you think that means uh uh this sounds like a big term that Brian understands that I don't. I think it means who he thinks are currently the best CrossFitters in the world, ranked in order based on their sex, a list of men and a list of women, with the one caveat that they have to be eligible in this current season to make it to the games as an individual. So, for example, if someone got knocked out already, they couldn't be on the list. Or two, like someone like Rich couldn't be on the list because he's an individual. Okay, so the Google definition is ratings or power ratings, a little different than rankings,

are numerical representations of competitive strength often directly comparable so that the game outcome between any two teams can be predicted oh so is there some so maybe there's some sort of calculation that brian does that gives each person a ranking based on their birthday, their birth country, and how they did in their last competition. That's it. Those are the only three things I think of. No, I think it's just basically

how they represented themselves at their semifinal, who they were competing against, and how they did against those people. That would be the best way, I guess. But to mean what? To mean what, when we look at this list, what do you think it means? Do you think that means that's like, if we see someone who's number 10 on the list and someone who's number five, do you think we're going to be able to be able to say, um,

Brian thinks that guy's going to be fifth at the games and this guy's going to be 10th. Um, I think as of right now, that's as of right now that's the only uh it's really the only thing you can compare i guess you know it's like they haven't done the same workouts they haven't done all the same workouts they've just um they've just keep a straight face they've just all qualified and based based on how they qualified out of their respective, um, semifinal and who they competed against is the only way you could pot.

You could say that. So no, I don't think that necessarily means that who is 10th on the list is going to get 10. I just think that, um, I think he's basically done the best that he can with the information he's been given so far.

How come I can't remember? I know I've asked you before what power rankings mean how come i can't but i always know that whatever i'm thinking is wrong i mean i think you did a pretty good job but okay and then supplemented by angelo can we do a is can we do polls in the comment section seven is that a thing we can do yes yes yes totally Totally, totally. Let's double check with Mr. Beaver. Yes, of course. Okay. Let's do a poll.

Would you rather go with the sure thing or the big risk, big reward? And we'll just put that there. We'll come back to it later. Would you rather go with sure thing, A, or B, would you rather go with big risk, big reward? Yeah. No, Dick. thing a or b would you rather go with big risk big reward yeah uh no dick genitalia size is not a factor this year thank you though that's um been taken out and um another you know we could do a good example of the you know how power rankings go just by um looking around at the three of us here it's pretty obvious that the most powerful facial hair is Angela. You come in as a close second, Savan,

and even though I might contend in many circles, I'm a distant third here. I'll take it. I'll take second. I'll take second to anything to Angela. No, John Young is not. Is John Young banned from the Savant podcast? No, he is not banned yet. Okay. Hello, John Young. Good to see you. So, Brian, can you tell us what the power rankings are and explain to us what's happened to them this year?

I know that there's 30 men, 30 women in the last year, or last time we only had 20 and 20. Yeah, so basically just trying to assess at different points of the season based on the total knowledge of what we know or I know of the athletes. Yeah, I mean, you could ask yourself this question in a couple of different ways, but, but the general question I'm asking is who do I think is more well positioned or more well poised to outperform the other one when at the competition that matters the most. There's, you know, a lot of, and so a lot of times when I put out these things, people think it is a prediction that I'm saying this is going to be the order of finish.

This guy's going to beat this guy. And I don't really, you know, feel that it's that valuable to do that really early on. So this is a different way to assess the field without, you know, necessarily locking yourself into a prediction. assess the field without necessarily locking yourself into a prediction. Obviously, over the course of the next eight weeks, many things could happen that we could learn about that could impact these things. But at this given moment, with what we've seen this year, what we know about these athletes over the total amount of years that they've been competing from not just a competition perspective, but a consistency perspective and a continuation of growth perspective or not. Yes, age does come into the equation. And, you know, I think one of the things that

people often forget is like, you can't have 30 guys in the top 10. There's one spot and then that spot's gone. And the next best spot is the next best spot available. And you can be fitter this year and do worse at the games this year, especially in the men's division. And how is that? Because the field is better. Oh, okay. Fitter than you were the previous year, not fitter than your comrades,

your colleagues. Correct. Okay. Okay. So the, the dickhead side of me wants to be like hey dude this power rankings is just you pussyfooting around not wanting to rank them in the order that you think they're going to win the games because it's too early but but what you're saying is it's who you think is more well poised to outperform the others if the competition were tomorrow we're no july june 22nd no okay shit

okay well to take one more stab at it i'm sorry no i'm i i am projecting based on what i know right now about the athletes how well i think that they will end up doing at the games but there's a lot of things that will happen between now and then that have, you know, you might think it's like a cop out or whatever, they have a lot of potential to change that. And I try to, when it comes to the competitions, put out predictions for the competitions as close to the start of the competition as possible when I have most available information, because sometimes, you know, specific information can be, in my opinion, pretty critical for certain, especially for certain athletes. You know, there are athletes that I think transcend those inconsistencies in either programming or timing or whatever the situation might be.

But those are few and far between. And for a majority of the athletes, I look at them as having a range of potential finishes, best possible scenario to worst possible outcome, obviously with the exception of injury. However, even in the case of injury, I factor that in sometimes with certain athletes because, you know, it almost seems useless to rank someone pretty highly at the games level when they have only shown the capacity to not finish the games test ever. And, you know, then it's like, okay, well,

I, you know, I, who are you saying when you say that, who are you saying like car Saunders or no car is an interesting fact or factor for sure, because she has had a lot of ups and downs at the games. She's had just as many amazing performances as withdraws or below par

performances. Um, and so there there someone who's been to the games twice and never finished the games either time? Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, but,

but part of the problem with most of the athletes in the field is that some of the only opportunities they had were 2019 and 2020, which were, you know, kind of, they weren't, you actually weren't being tested at the games you know i actually think that both adrian bosman and brent fukowski did a decent job in this past press conference of detailing what is so special about the games and that it is different than any other competition you can do and in those two years the athletes there did not get to experience the games in that way. And so, you know, I can say, look at someone and say, Oh, you only did five workouts in 2020. You only did one workout last year. You had to withdraw. And in 2019, you did five last year,

2020 online, you did the seven workouts online. And it just doesn't like, there's not a really good, even though this person's been to the games multiple times, there's no good sample size or data to look at. Well, can that person actually last the duration of the games? Right. Roman. No, it's Danny Spiegel is the one I'm referring to. Right. But Roman's another one that's like, hey, what's going to happen when he's not in Siberia?

Is he going to melt? Does he melt past the seventh event? Roman's a great example so you know because you want to you know it appears like he has every potential to be as good as anyone at the game based on the things that he's done he's right not justin madaris careful his competition resume over the past several years is better than justin madaris at the competition he's been able to compete at. The Siberian throwdown, the Moscow Open, and the St. Peterburg butchery. Those were legit.

He's competed in Dubai more than once, right? Yes, and he's done exceptionally well there. He finished behind Brent and Pat one year. He won it last year. All I remember is that Ricky smoked his ass and Pat one year. He won it last year. All I remember is that Ricky smoked his ass. In one workout. That's the one I remember. I love Roman.

I just can't give him any street cred yet. I just can't. No, no, but that is the highest level competition that he's competed at. And in the last two years that he's done it, he basically beat the field this year by 100 points. And it's not the best field out there, but you've got Lazar Djukic, Ricky Gerrard, Jeff Adler, and none of those guys were able to get within 95 points of him on the leaderboard by the end of the test.

And then you have the previous year that he did it, he lost to Fikowski and Vellner, but he was 100 points ahead of the fourth-place finisher, which is BKG. And we all know how good BKG can do in a game setting. The games are usually 13 to 15 tests. Dubai is usually 9 or 10 tests these years. And so he's getting close to demonstrating against some of the best games athletes that he can hang for at least a good portion of what the games test is going to be. We're way off track here, but I'm going to do it anyway angelo when you show up to the games and you're just a

savage like someone like roman is do you still look back and look around you and be like oh shit there's nowhere to hide like do you know that now it's like a totally different show yeah i think i think anybody who shows to now it's like a totally different show? Yeah. I think, I think anybody who shows that the games, it's a totally different feeling. It doesn't matter how many big high level competitions you've been to. The games are a completely different animal.

Um, mainly just because that's what your whole year revolves around, you know, cause, and that's what everyone else's year revolves around. So, um, like what brian's

saying is you can compare stuff that dubai pretty well because it's of the test how long the test is but then you have to think about that some people they don't train all that hard for it and they don't they're not trying to peak then you know that could be just um you know okay i'm gonna train and then let's say I'm like fourth week into my nine week Olympic lifting cycle. I'll just put it on pause for a week and go do this competition. Whereas the games it's all tailor-made, you know, I'm going to finish my Olympic lifting cycle the week before the games. And I'm going to finish this aerobic capacity cycle a week before the games. And I want to be ramped up and ready to go taper for a few days. And I'm, you know,

I'm the fittest I've been all year. So, um, I think the games are I want to be ramped up and ready to go taper for a few days and I'm you know I'm the fittest I've been all year so um I think the games are totally different animal um for a lot of reasons and that being one of them I mean you you can you can be Roman's gonna be in a heat and he's gonna look to his right and there's Travis Mayer and to his left there's Justin Medeiros and he's gonna look one more down to his left and there's gonna be Noah and then he's gonna look to his right a little more down there's gonna be Lazar Jukic and he's going to look one more down to his left and there's going to be Noah. And then he's going to look to his right a little more down. There's going to be Lazar Jukic and there's going to be no one. Everyone he looks at, he's going to have seen on TV or on Instagram when in some sort of event somewhere, someone, everyone in his heat, someone is going to, there's has a fan

base that thinks that guy's going to win the games. Yeah, exactly. It's like, um, it's like, it's almost like you playing football with the kids in your neighborhood. And then you're like, man, I'm, you know, being the best kid in the neighborhood, and then go showing up to high school and being like, just kind of run of the mill. You know, it's like, everyone is that kid, everyone's that kid who's the best in his group, and they're getting sent there. So you're not like, yeah, some people are kind of standout, but mostly everybody there is usually the best person in their gym or second or third in their gym, depending on who they're training with.

I mean, we know the training groups are a lot more prevalent now than they used to be, but you're showing up. You're probably the fittest guy in your circle or close to it. You're not usually getting beat all the time. are close to it you're not usually getting beat all the time and then when you show up the games you're competing against the guys who are just like you and they can easily beat you in any of the events uh or you can beat them in any of the events so um being able to roll with the punches of knowing like oh i'm a good swimmer getting in the water and being like fifth place in the swim you know that can freak some people out like you know this is supposed to be a home run hit what's happening so yeah there's a there's a ton of different mental there's the

mental side of the games and then there's uh there's the physical like i said just uh being able to like know that everyone's at their fittest and they've been training all year for that competition um guys this uh of all the game shows we do this is the junk food this is the cotton candy this is the fun one so everyone settle the cotton candy. This is the fun one. So everyone settle down. This is the fun one. One chill. The comments, I mean, fucking turn into it.

It's like dogs behind a cage. They're like barking at the enemy, and then they start biting each other. Brian, in those comments, in the morning chalk up comments, people say in there a half dozen times, it appears that the people commenting in here don't understand what the power rankings are. So, okay. Yeah. Let me, I want to just add something in.

So before the semifinals, there's, I think a good example of this is an Alex Vigneault. I'm not worried about Alex Vigneault at the games. I'm worried about if he's going to get to the games. If he gets to the games and he doesn't get injured, I know that he's going to do great because he's never done anything other than great. But it's not a guarantee he's going to get through the semifinals. The semifinals is a critical point of the season for him. So when I'm doing a power ratings early in the season,

I'm aware of Alex Vigneault's potential, but I'm still holding him back a little bit relative to guys like you know and it didn't even necessarily turn out this way but guys like noah olsen or travis mayor who or cole sager who i feel much more confident will make it through the semifinals and then i want to see and i see a guy like alex and he did what he needed to do and he didn't look stressed doing it and even though I think it is a stressful weekend for him because he knows that that's you know all he has to do is get find a way to get through he did that and now I think he's in in his element so he's going to move up at that point for me and that's how you can see because otherwise you could just say although

these are the power rankings for the someone at the start of the season and how are they different after the open how are they different after the quarterfinals or the semifinals? And in some cases, there are athletes that we have not had a chance to see in any real comparable setting for whatever number of reasons until the semifinals. And so those people are probably missing entirely from the rankings prior to that. And some of them are still missing from the power rankings after that. Uh, because I just don't think that I have enough information to put them ahead

of people that I do have that information about. Presuming making the assumption we'll do this show week before the CrossFit games, will it still be called the power ranking show the week before? Uh, probably. I mean, called the power ranking show the week before uh probably i mean or will it be who will win the games probably that okay thank you john i think that when it comes to the games you know obviously a few workouts might be announced right up before it but probably mond Monday, Tuesday, Monday prior to the games.

That's a good time to say, like, this is what this is what I think is going to happen in order. Steven, that show will be starting at 1 a.m. Pacific Standard Time. Power bottoms. OK. Exciting year for the CrossFit Games. Would you say if I'm reading this right what you wrote in the morning chalk up article um and if you could pull that up caleb uh it was published this early this morning uh you believe that this year's men's uh competition and this year women's competition are the best females and males ever to be um vying to get to the games for i think i think this is amongst the maybe second or third best men's

field. It's in the top three best men's fields I've ever seen. And I would not, I think the women's fields similar to last year is missing too many significant players to be considered that to be con so, so you're saying the women's isn't necessarily the toughest ever. Not relative to what's out there. No, I mean, it is very, very impressive and deep,

but you know, we just lost Kristen Holton, Sam Briggs from the field. We just, we don't have any Thor's daughter in the field this year. Well, we didn't lose Sam Briggs. She lost herself.

There's a difference between bowing out and not making it right. If you don't make it, then it's still an argument that this is the best field. I hate to think I'm having trouble. I hate to think that the women's field is sliding backwards. It's not sliding backwards. But in addition to those, you also have athletes like Sarah Sigma's daughter,

Jamie Simmons, Madeline Sturt, Katrin, David's daughter, Ariel Loewen, who have proven the capacity to finish in the top half of the games field, that none of them are necessarily past the point of their career where they could still do that. And they're all in the last chance qualifier.

Now, obviously, there are women that had to beat them to get in there. But I don't think that those women will do as well at the games, even though they beat them at semifinals, as the women that I just listed that are in the last chance qualifier would do. And so that's five in the last chance qualifier would do. And so that's five in the last chance qualifier, three that have been perennial contenders at the games that aren't in the field this year for whatever reason. And then you also have the Bethany Shadburn. You also had Carrie Pierce retire, you know, so there's up to 10 women missing that actually could be vying for top half

finishes at the games. And if you had those 10 women's there with the top 30 that are maybe on this list right now, suddenly you're looking at pretty close to a full women's field where you're like, I'm actually interested in this first heat because there's five women in here that I actually know them and they could cause some havoc on certain workouts. Yeah, the games are going to be great.

cause some havoc on certain workouts yeah the games are going to be great uh the 2014 um was that the year that uh matt fraser and rich were both at the games when they competed against each other yeah and i think that is amongst one of the best uh years for the men's field as well how cool is that for rich it's just a great field when you just look down the the leaderboard of that field it's you know it's a very impressive he that field, it's, you know, it's a really impressive. He put it to him. It kind of fucks it up for Matt. I won. I won five.

Yeah, but I beat you. Oh yeah. It's just, I'm just saying, I'm just saying like, if they were like pissing, if they were pissing in stalls next, but I mean,

great. What are you going to say? Oh yeah. I've got four titles and Graham Holmberg walks up and says, yeah, but I beat you rich. Damn. Damn. Brian. what are you going to say? Oh yeah. I've got four titles and Graham Holmberg walks up and says, yeah, but I beat you rich. I mean, damn,

damn Brian. Damn. Drat you. Oh my goodness. That's like, look, I like looking at the numbers. The numbers tell a lot of the story,

but the numbers are not the end of the story. Right. Right. Of course. Um, okay. Should we pull it? Should should we pull it up it's a beautiful list i think you guys are going to really appreciate this uh we can start with them you want to start with the men whatever you want yeah let's start with the men uh these are 30 men last time there was 20 i think that the reason why is because we have the last chance qualifier i'm still so brian just just like you know this is the first year i'm doing this and i

you know i wasn't sure of the appropriate number i felt that after the semifinals you know the cross people i think even though um in some of the semifinals there weren't great attendance in person i think that there was a really good attention to semifinals by the you know crossfit sporting community uh remotely this year and that people know enough about 30 to 40 athletes, maybe even 50 athletes in some cases, that we could expand the list a little bit and still have conversations about people that, athletes that people are very passionate about. Okay. I don't think, I don't think I understood that. But I love this list. So what you guys are seeing is the list.

Up at the top is Justin Medeiros, the champ, rightfully so. And then you see these green triangles with a number inside of them. That means the last time that the power rankings were there, that person has moved up six spots. So you see Scott Pancheck. He's got a green triangle with a six in it. That means that last time we did this a month or two ago that he was number 11. Correct?

Yeah. And that Roman Krennikoff has moved down. Last time he was five and he's moved down, et cetera. Can we see the whole list really quick? And then we'll go and then we'll – man, Jason Hopper's up there. It's split into two pictures. Do you want me to just pull up the spreadsheet? No, no, just slide to the next 15.

Merci. Man, the comments are feisty. So at the very bottom, number 30, we have Spencer Panchick. And at the top, at number one, we have Justin Medeiros. Wow, look at these names. Go ahead and take a quick look at these names. Yeah, I mean, this is what I'm saying, is that the 20 through 30 names are names that most people know.

And a lot of people are interested in these athletes. So I felt like cutting it off at 20 was not really doing a full service to this. And then at the games, I'll go all the way through 40. There was a line in there in the morning chalk up that you say aspects of fitness that don't show up on the leaderboard are put to the test. What is that? Judges, crowds, venues, outside? Are you talking about elements, the intangibles. I think it's intangibles, intangibles. Yeah, I think you're right to intangibles.

Yeah, but, you know, what were you referencing? Angela knows these things. Angela, what are some of the things that are relevant at the games that aren't relevant at any other competition all year round for the athletes? The length, the type of events, the type of equipment they can get. I want to say the heat mostly, but, I mean, not necessarily. You can get the heat in other places too. But, yeah, I would say the equipment mostly because i mean not necessarily you can get the heat in other places too but yeah i would say the the i said i would say the equipment mostly because they have access they have such easier access to rogue and they can come up with new stuff every year like the snail and

like though i mean the worm years ago and um just different things like that. Am I missing it? Tell me if I'm. No, no, just, uh, yeah, there, I think that from a total volume, a length, the ability to, uh, recover the ability sometimes to deal with new information in a very quick turnaround that, you know, the being forced into, um, environments or, uh, you know, workouts that have things that you've never touched before. Um, nothing to adapt on the fly. workouts that have things that you've never touched before, nothing to adapt on the fly. And then what you guys said earlier is like most of the time when you go to a competition, you can look around and pretty quickly assess and say, okay, these are the threats.

And when you get to the CrossFit Games, it's way easier to identify the people that aren't the threats than are the threats. There's far fewer that are not the threats at the games and that's a total inverse to most competitions this list that you're looking at all of these people have a chance of still making it to the crossfit games if you don't have a chance of going to the crossfit games based on the current rule book or where you've fallen or if you're on as an individual you have to be able to go to the crossfit Games based on the current rule book or where you've fallen or if you're on – as an individual. You have to be able to go to the CrossFit Games as an individual

to be on this list. So if you're like, hey, where's Rich Froning? Well, he's on the team. That's why he's not on here. Or where's so-and-so? Because they're not eligible. By the way, is Roman in the country? Is he going for sure?

Yeah. Yeah, okay. Okay, I think we should just – I think we should look at the biggest movers. I think that's where the most exciting pieces are. You want to do that? Sure. Okay. Uh, let's look at him or sack. Let's look at Saxon, uh, moved up, uh, six places. How come are, are people, I think Saxon's great. I think he's like one of the biggest threats to Justin out there. Um,

but I feel like people are having trouble accepting that. Why is that? Is it because it's Scott's little brother? No. So when it says it moved up six, that was prior to the quarterfinals. Tommy Marquez, Chase Ingram, Patrick Clark, Chad Schrader, myself, each did a power rankings. And then we did a composite one. And many of those guys had sex and a lot higher than i did i so i had a fairly low relative to the other group of

analysts there and um you know i think that i was probably just uh waiting some waiting some things from wadapalooza that were pretty unimpressive to me way too highly early in the season in his in his regard uh when you look at at saxon historically like he's a very very consistent performer and he has a couple things that he's not very good at and then you know he does he's not necessarily hitting the home runs to offset those bad performances but his overall consistency keeps him pretty high relative to the field um so he's got a small number of holes and a really consistent game and he's strong as shit yeah yeah yeah so really really long stuff is not great for him and a high power output especially on the bike is not great for him like those are the two

things he struggles the most with relative to the top competitors in the sport i bet you i bet you if you ask those guys above them how much they respect him i bet you patrick and i mean i don't know this at all but i bet you patrick bre those guys above him how much they respect him, I bet you Patrick and – I mean, I don't know this at all, but I bet you Patrick, Brent, and Bjorn respect the fuck out of him. Justin probably keeps that a little closer to his chest. Yeah, but – and it's also a little – it's a little different. Like Justin is so good, but we kind of forget he's really young and so he looks at guys like um saxon and lazar and gee and he's like these are my peers and they're really good and they're coming for me like brent and patrick and uh and uh and bkg you know they're looking backwards on their career a little

bit relative to those guys and they say like we're still here but yet but these guys are coming um but they like you know they know how to do this stuff that's why there's no change at the top like until this 5 through 15 show me that they can beat that 1 through 4 nothing's going to change up there there's nothing you can show me at semifinals against whatever field you're competing against that's saying yep i think you can beat fikowski at the games because what angela was talking about earlier is if you show up at a dubai or Wadapalooza and Brent Fricasse or Pat Vellner is there, they are not peaking for that competition. They're just doing that competition to get some experience, maybe to travel a little bit, maybe for some sponsor stuff. And they'll try to do well because there's some good money to win

for sure. But when they're getting ready for the games, it's totally different. And they're taking years and years and years of discipline and practice and trial and error and conversations with other people and studying the sport. These guys are really cerebral. I mean, they know their sport, they know the workouts, they know the athletes are going against, they know how to prepare their meals, their food, their rest, all of it. And you can't, you can't replicate that without having the years of tried and true experience that leads to the success that those guys have had. You like where Saxon's at? When did you make this list?

Me? Yeah. Two days ago. Yeah, I love where Saxon's at. So the main thing with Saxon is I don't think I'd – and some of this is – this is some intangible stuff. I don't think I've ever seen Saxon move on and off the competition floor with as much poise, control, and professionalism as I did in Knoxville this year. And that men's field was good. I mean, I'm telling you, like, Dallin Pepper is the real deal.

This guy is very, very, very good, and he's dangerous, and he's coming. Cole Sager knows how to manage a semifinal regional format as well as anyone. Noah had the worst possible day he could have on day one and still rebounded from it. It was in the mix. There were a lot of good guys there, and Saxon outclassed them all, basically on every workout the whole weekend. You know, he didn't win every workout. But if you just go back and watch the way that he moved through workouts,

and there's no way for you guys to go watch this, but the way that he carried himself around in the back areas and the check-in after winning the competition it was a guy who i just feel like is in a really really good place not just in his competitive career but in his whole life where things are on balance i think that this transition to working with the proven crew has been able to even improve him from what he was last year when he took fifth at the games. I was really impressed with everything I saw from him in Knoxville. And I don't, you know, even though that shouldn't be the end-all be-all, when you add that to the total body of work that he's done before,

the propensities that he's shown to be consistent and effective in these settings and these long types of tests, being the totality of the CrossFit Games, it's a guy that, like you just said, these guys are aware of and do respect. Do you like where he's at, Angelo? Yeah. Do you like those top five? Yeah, I think that's a perfect spot for him.

Not really much else to say. I think that's right where I would have put him right at fifth. What is he – when you were looking at fourth and fifth, Brian Bjorgman and Saxon, wason, did you struggle with that at all? No, not really. I mean, the thing about those four guys at the top is it's really hard to find people who've beaten them. And they're just like they're regularly up there.

And, yeah, you know, BKG didn't win his semifinal this year. Lazar had an amazing weekend. And, like, it's going to happen at some point that those guys are going to slide down or fall off relative to the guys that are coming. It has to. But he's been so consistent at the games. He's been so good. He knows even when he's not healthy there, when he's not 100%,

when he's getting some bad breaks on the competition floor, he doesn't get rattled by that. He just keeps going. And his keep going is good enough to be in the top five. Pretty damn off. If you guys don't mind, I'd like to move to Jeffrey Adler. I'm struck. We, he, he left a pretty strong mark on us in that final week.

He, he handled his business. And so here we are. I know you started this by saying, Hey, once you place a guy, you put Bjorgman in fourth, that shit's gone. No one else can be there, but it's hard to see Adler down here. I mean, I mean, he put on, he put on a show for us and he, and he finished so strong. Adler was amazing. I was incredibly impressed with him. Uh, every, pretty much everything he did the whole weekend, I thought was spot on. Uh,

you know, he made a calculation here on the lift he probably could have got five more pounds and even got five more points or four more points by the end of the weekend and had even a little bit bigger margin there um he out executed pat you know on several workouts towards the end of the weekend or both workouts on the last day adler made i mean um felder made some mistakes adler had a clean run and he earned that victory. Adler's a good example of what I said kind of at the opening of the show is, and this honestly applies to a lot of people, is, you know, he might be better this year than he was last year. In fact, I'm confident that he's better this year than he was last year, but it's hard to

move up very far. He was, you know, he was 14th last year at the games i'm sorry 13th last year at the games and i think he's going to improve but that's that's a pretty stout eight guys ahead of him and based on what i've seen from him and know about those guys i'm not convinced that he can beat any of them in that setting yet um but adler is also um i think maybe every time i've ever put a rankings out he's outperformed them so you know he's trying even at even at the semi-finals i put him second and he's he put a thing on his instagram who thinks i can uh beat brian's rankings and he did angelo i i don't want to mischaracterize Adler. I don't know him that well, but there was this kind of chatter about him at the semifinals that the guy's strong enough.

He walked into a gym his very first day, never deadlifted and pulled 400. And that basically he just is a strong dude and he's really been just working on his engine. That he, in his mind, he's strong enough. Um, do you have any, any thoughts on that opinions editorial on that? Uh, I mean, yeah, some people at different genetics and all that plays a factor. Like, uh, I mean, locally, obviously we all know Guy and that he's like one of the best

Olympic lifters. He is, I mean, I think arguably the best Olympic lifters he is I mean I think arguably the best Olympic lifter in CrossFit and he doesn't lift all that often so I think a lot of the genetics play to their strength and or I'd say work early in their life I mean Guy I think worked I'm not sure about Adler but I know Guy worked a lot on his technique and his strength early in his career and mainly because he liked it and his coach was a good olympic lifting coach and um so adler could be the same way he may have put in a lot of work when he was younger and he's got the good genetics for it and when he started crossfit

he already carried in a lot of strength that he already had and never really had to work on that that's true for some people i mean mean, like Frazier was pretty, was, uh, for Matt, that's pretty much, it's very similar to how he was. He still worked on it, but he didn't put a lot of emphasis on it. He just had to really dial stuff up and yeah, he got a little stronger, but that was never his main focus. It was more so just to build his engine and that's really all he needed. If you can only work out two or three times a day and, and you're the strongest guy in CrossFit, then why not invest those two or three workouts in your weaknesses? Exactly. Yeah. And that's, yeah, obviously everything needs tuning up.

No matter how good you are at anything, you still need to hit it every now and then. But everything does need tuning up and everything does need to be hit now and now and again. But it doesn't but it doesn't need it all the time the things that you're great uh yeah yeah you should have stopped there maybe it does need it all the time maybe god those were a great string of sentences you said angelo you're a good dude you're every time you come on the show i think you're better and better dude uh two of the two of the guys that i think that that one time he came on without a mustache that sucked um two two of the um the the funnest guys

on the on the on the circuit it was funny i had a lauren khalil the great khalisi on this morning and i asked her who the worst interview ever was and i was And I had a whole shtick I was going to do and just beat on Dallin Pepper. Just fucking hammer his ass. But the truth is, Dallin and Phil Toon are really bringing a shit ton of excitement, I think, to this men's class. Can we see where Phil Toon drops on the next page? They were both amazing to watch and talk about. And they're both fun guys. Easy to talk about. And they're both fun guys. Easy to talk to.

I think we're going to have a great, you know, however long they're in the sport, 10 years with these guys. Okay. So you have them at 15 and 16. Wow. So at 15, Brian has put in his power rankings, has Dallin Pepper, a young kid training in Florida with Matt Torres and the Brute Strength crew. Phil Toons, also his training partner.

Um, bunch of other people. Great down the right. Emma carry and James Sprague. Olivia Sulik's moving down there. Um, who, who,

who Sulik Olivia Sulik. Let's talk about her another time. Okay. Uh, uh, and then below them, we have a list of some greats, um,

that we'll hit on, but, um but let's do you just drop like when you make this list and you have one through 30 do you just put Medeiros at the top and then Dallin and Phil in the middle because you don't know I mean like how do you how did you do this

like why are they just dead center and can't Tudor Magda be up there with them to just squeeze push him in 17th like isn't he kind of like that too like shit what are we dealing with yeah so for sure there are you know there are some um athletes that i look at and i and i feel very similarly about and so in this case you're bringing them up uh i feel similarly about dylan pepper and phil toon and i also feel similarly about tutor magda and cole gray toon and i also feel similarly about tutor magda and cole gray shaver's potential this year um and that's why you see them kind

of next to each other on the leaderboard and and you know someone i thought cole gray shaver was a girl is there is there is there a girl is there what who am i confusing that with? Christine Kohlenbrander. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What a mess my brain is. Okay. Thank you. Good job. Good job, Angelo. Okay.

Sorry, Brian. Cole Greyshaber. What kind of name is Greyshaber and Kohlenbrander? Yeah. Is that it? Yes. I'm impressed, Angelo. This is going to be a tough year.

You were able to decipher the jargon of Stefan's brain. Okay. Sorry, Brian. Stefan's brain. Okay. Sorry, Brian. Sorry. Sorry. No, no. Down and Phil Toon. Yeah, so I mentioned earlier that there's, you know,

when I'm assessing these athletes, I do think about a range of potential finishes. I think that it's pretty likely that one of those two guys will finish in the top 10 this year at the games. And it'll be really impressive if either one of them does. And I think there's also the potential for both of them to finish outside the top 20. And if you look at the guys that are right behind them, Seger, Caron, Olsen, Mayer, and Heppeline and Houdet, five of those six guys made the top 20 last year.

Only Alexander Caron missed out. And I think Alexander Caron has improved from last year to this year by a notable margin obviously you see i've even moved him up a couple spots in semifinals so and if you look at the guys ahead of dallin uh it's a tough list very you know very difficult to beat those men right ahead of him we have alex we know who we talked about before jason hopper who i I think is on the Ascension this year. Yonah Koski is up there, and Yonah hasn't qualified for the games yet. So, you know, obviously, if he doesn't, then everyone moves up a spot. Willie George, who looks like he's back to his old self.

And then from there on up, it's pretty much guys. Most people would say those are, you know, the top ten or maybe nine. What happened to the squeaky clean crew? What is that? Cole Sager, Noah Olsen, and Travis Mayer. Oh, nothing's happened to them. I mean, they all took a hit at semifinals. You got Cole dropping three, Noah Olsen six, and Travis five.

I mean, that's blasphemy. It doesn't necessarily have to do with their performance. So I've asserted phil and and um dylan ahead of them so that you know and they were not on the list previously that's what the blue means so they i felt like i didn't have enough confidence that they would make it through semifinals enough information about their competitive performance and i was uh supremely impressed with both of them for different reasons at semifinals that I knew I had to have them in the top 20. The other guys that moved up past them are Alex Vigneault,

who I already talked about why I moved him up the list, because I think he excels in the games format. And Willie George, who was a huge question mark. We haven't seen him compete live in a while. And again, I think everyone would agree that he was very impressive in a pretty tough men's field like you know even the guys down 9th through 15th were like very very relevant in a lot of workouts um and he still accumulated I think 520 points or something like that which is quite a bit considering the depth of that field and he looked good doing it and then uh Jasonason hopper like that's the other guy that i

moved up ahead of him and in the case of jason hopper i you know i actually know him i had a chance to uh have some good conversations with him this year i didn't get to see him compete in person but i went back and watched all the semi-final stuff um and i think that he's in a really good place uh even though he didn't win or beat justin this year at semifinals i think as a as a totality i was actually more impressed with um him this year because i know the things that he's been working on and i think that he's put himself in a good position to not have such big blunders at the games this year and i think so i think he's in a good position to move up as well noah obviously people know had you know not not a good day one and overall was probably a disappointing semi-final form relative to what maybe he could have done i thought travis was very good uh in a stout field

at the granite games um and travis is very good and he's very solid and he's tough to beat he's never never quit kind of guy but like i said earlier on i think the games feel for the men's year this year is really tough really difficult and there's guys that will be fitter than they were last year that finish worse than they did that year uh you have two guys in orange uh tyler christopher three yonakoski tyler christopher and royce dunn royce dunn wow and and you have yonakosti. Hi. You think that those three guys are better than Colton Mertens? I knew he was going to say that. Yeah, I do. I do.

That's why they're ahead of him. Oh, you're a beast, Caleb. You're a beast. Caleb. Sick. Oh, look, now we got BKG in there uh you know what this is like you think this guy Royce Dunn the giant from Australia this guy is seven foot two 412 pounds you think he is better than Colton Mertens Royce Dunn can't even tie his own shoes in the morning. He's so big.

Royce Dunn, he's amazing. Look, the men from Australia are really good, and they're actually, I think, outperformed their semifinals performances at the games. So the guys that are on here. See that last line? You think they what? I think that they're even better at the games than they are at the semifinals. Now, at the semifinals, they only have to go against each other.

But I think if you distributed the Australian men, Jay Crouch, Baden Brown, Ricky Garrard, Royce Dunn, Bailey Martin, across, like if they were each one of them sent to a North American or European semifinal, I think it would be like they might not do that great. They would be like fourth or fifth place qualifiers out of those, some of those regions, but at the games, they could still beat some of the people that would finish second and third in those, in some of the regions, second or third and fourth,

if they took the fifth spot, like I think there'll be better at the games than they would. Watch this shameless plug here. You ready, Angelo? Yeah. It must be that mayhem programming. Yeah. They are both mayhem, tyler and royce yes and uh i mean uh i think baden brown is also baden brown yeah again i can go on and on there's a guy in here in this list of 30. He? He's the ultimate dark horse. He is actually a worse interview than fucking Dallin Pepper. This guy, but this guy is a fucking serious fucking threat.

He's a threat to Saxon, and he's a threat to Justin. And he's young, and he is a serious to saxon and he's a threat to justin and he's young and he is a serious serious threat but he is he's so shy he's quiet even thank god the last time i interviewed him he brought his coach on with him thank god do you know who i'm talking about angela do you know who he's talking about? This kid is good, man. This guy is special. I think you're talking about Geek. No. No.

He was great. I'm talking about Jay Crouch. Jay Crouch? Oh, who made Rob on. Yeah. I think what you're going to see is you're going to see of all the people on here, Brian's going to wish he had him higher after the games. I've heard, I've, I've heard he's really good too. I mean, I've never trained with him or compete special, man. Yeah.

I've heard he's really good from several people. So, but man, he makes Dallin pepper look like a chatterbox. He had Rob Forte on there. Rob Forte is the quietest man in the world and rob was just like it seemed like he was a mess on the show compared to jay he's got a nice smile rob was in a great it was great having rob it was um he he if you didn't listen to that one i i really enjoyed that was probably one of the more enjoyable kind of unexpected uh interviews i've done rob was great gave a lot of insights going back years and also where he's at now with a coaching perspective.

Yeah, he's a mature man now. He's a good person for Jay to have in his corner, and it feels like he's really invested in Jay. Look, Jay, this is Jay's third time to the games. I think he did okay last year. He barely missed the cut. I think he was pretty disappointed about that I think he's definitely hungry to you know prove that

he can do better than that guys this is a really fun field this is a really really fun field to do yeah I sorry Brian no go ahead you go Brian's not going to forget

we got to balance this shit out a little bit. Well, so I like that. I just saw that comment and I'm like, there's, there, there is people on the list that I think should be higher, uh, or maybe people that I think should be lower. But I, um, but really we have to think about it like what Brian keeps saying. There's only one spot, like there's that spot and then you got to go to the next spot and then you got to go to the next spot. Like there's a lot of really good guys. And the goal is to hopefully be surprised. I mean, I don't know.

I can't speak for Brian here, but if I were to make something like this, I would want at the end of the weekend to be like, wow, I got all of this wrong. Like everything's wrong on here. Like it's cooler to see like, man, I'm so wrong. You know, I thought, I thought for sure this guy was going to win. I thought for sure this guy was going to get me in fifth place.

And I'm totally wrong. Like it's cool when someone proves you wrong and is like, just goes and crushes it. So, uh, so yeah, there's only one spot for each person. And like,

it's hard to, uh, it's hard to get past some of those other guys. Like, um, like we'll just say tutor, for instance, like, I mean, that's those other guys. Like, like we'll just say Tudor, for instance, like,

I mean, that's a tough crew. Like you're talking about, like we said, Jay Crouch is a boys to do very well. No Olson, Travis mayor. Like they already dropped down a little bit.

Like I'm sure that wasn't even, that wasn't a hard thing to do. And then you look at the guys in the top 10. It's like, yeah, it's hard. Like you're talking about the 30 best guys you can possibly think of this year. It's a tough group to be put against.

Brian, I got something from your Instagram, unless you want to say something. I was just going to finish the thought about Jay Crouch since you asked about him, which is he's only 22 years old. He's been around a little bit. People are getting used to seeing him there, and he's only 22 years old. Like he's been around a little bit. People are getting used to seeing him there and there, you know, he's starting to have some expectation on him, but it's really, it's really tough to be relevant in the top 10 at that age. You know, that's, what's so impressive about what he did last year,

Medeiros and as 22 and 23 years old is twice on the podium. Very impressive. You don't see it very often. I think that Jay with Rob is in a great environment where they're not risking injury early on in his career and they're building an incredible foundation. I think two and three years from now, because he seems to be a guy who's really committed to this for the long run, that you'll see a version of Jay Crouch emerge that is very, very dangerous. Brian, when you say it's an extra achievement to see someone on there so young, if I were to follow that up and say especially amongst men, would that be fair?

Okay. And in the same token, very old. If a man was 35 plus and being relevant in the games, very old. If a man was 35 plus and being relevant in the games, even then, you know, that's a, that's an outlier also relative to women in their mid to late

thirties that we've seen still be relevant. Right. If this show is boring you, you're welcome to swing over to naked HD Tinder. Just so you know, we have options. You have options on Brian's Instagram. He posted the 2022 post semi-finals power rankings

that's what this show is based on the article that was in the morning chalk up brian friend crossfit um iron sharpens iron 77 i feel like phil toon has got to be top 12 no he's made incredible strides within the last year and competing amongst a really tough field i would think he's going to rise to the occasion we touched on this a little bit but you want to give it a little more look the man look phil tune and dylan pepper beat all three spence panchuk brothers beat jason hopper beat colton mertens beat tyler chrysophil tim paulson james sprague alex vignole uldis upa next a bunch of amazing athletes at guadalupadalupe. They have proved that they belong in the competition, no doubt about it. Guadalupe is not the games, and semifinals is not the games.

And most of those guys that are ahead of them have the edge in terms of experience. Those guys, you know, Dallin has been to the games and done it at the teenage level. And I think that, you know, like I said, I think he's really dangerous. If I was going to pick one of the two of them to make the top tennis year, I would choose Dallin over Phil. Um, but Phil continues to impress me. You know, he, there was some stuff at semifinals that I think is still holds it for him and he needs to shore up, but his adaptation is very fast. He seems to learn things and correct things and improve on things at an uncanny rate relative to a lot of other athletes. So I think he does have the potential to have a really quick rate of

improvement in certain capacities. I think that he's going to have to learn some things the hard way at the games this year, like most everyone has to do. Jay Crouch. Listen. It's like Andrew Hiller during the atlas games just kept saying counter duddy counter duddy and nothing ever came up uh dalton dalton ought leaving colt this is uh from your instagram also

leaving colton out of the top 20 get your colton uh playing card at wads just so everyone knows i i'm a huge colt mertens guy okay dang uh leaving colton out of the top 20 is a mistake let alone the top Just so everyone knows, I'm a huge Colton Mertens guy. Dang. I love Colton Mertens. Dang. Leaving Colton out of the top 20 is a mistake, let alone the top 30. I understand why, though. Do you, Dalton? I'm going to tell you why. I think we both agree there will be three or four workouts this year.

He contends to be best in the world. I would then make the case his improvements on his weaknesses balances him out enough to make it the entire weekend. I guess we'll see. Listen, it's all one thing. Brian thinks he's too fucking short. Brian thinks he's 5'4 and that you can't fucking be

on his list. You can't be on the list if you're 5'4. You can't. But Royce Dunn can be on the list. Hold on. Okay, great. I'm glad you brought up Royce Dunn in comparison with him. Has this guy, whoever this Dalton guy is, looked at Colton Mertens' performances from last year relative to Royce Dunn?

Because Colton Mertens, who you perceive to have the potential to be the best in the world at a certain workout, did not finish better than 17th on any workout last year at the Games. And besides for – or 15th, excuse me. At a 15th and a 17th and everything else was 23rd or worse. Yeah. But Dallin and Phil tune didn't even go to the fucking games. Irrelevant in this conversation.

Oh, Royce Dunn had a fifth place, finish a third place, finish a fourth place, finish a fourth place, finish a second place, finish. Word. It's a massive difference. You like, look at the leaderboard, look second place finish. That's a massive difference.

Look at the leaderboard. Look into these things. How old is Royce Dunn? 30. Let me start by talking about Colton Mertens. How old is Colton Mertens? Colton's like 25 or 26. 23. I think he's 24.

Colton will get better between the semifinals and the games where Royce Dunn, who almost fucked that up, Royce Dunn, his ability will wane a small percentage because of his age. You know it's true.

You know it's true. Same with Ms. Lawson. I'll wait until I fucking go nuts with how low you put her. You're out of your mind. Seven. Royce Dunn hasn't made the games yet. Okay, see? I told you. Then how the fuck is he

on the list? If he makes the games, he'll do a lot better at the games than Colton. I agree with you. I have emotional bias. Go on. That's okay. I think with you. I just, I just, I have emotional bias. Go on. That's okay. I think that you're in the majority.

All right. And sometimes I have to have the emotional talk with myself as well. Colton Mertens. I am so impressed with him this year. He set out to improve on things that people were telling him he could never compete in, rowing and wall balls and running and long-distance workouts. And he puts in more work to fix those things, as much work as anyone, to overcome the obstacles he has, especially when it comes to certain things. And he showed at the Granite Games this year that that work did pay off.

He was way better in those workouts, those parts of those workouts, than I think most people gave him credit for. And he wasn't the only one there who was doing that. But he was, I think, as good as he could have been on five workouts. And that was good enough to get him to the Games despite an awful, basically, last place workout. And there are always things in competition that are out of your control. And there are things that happened that were unfortunate circumstances for other athletes there that might've prevented him from

the games, despite perfect performances that he had. But that is not a worry of Colton's in the slightest. He showed up, he did amazing. The work you put in the off season paid off and he earned a spot to the games. I still think that like you talked about earlier, when you look left and right at the games, there are too many guys that are too good at those things that he's not going to be able to make much of a dent or an impact on them this year, one year later from last year. What do you think the highest he'll finish at an event at the games? 10th. That's the highest you think he'll finish?

There are, look, there are there look there are certain there are certain combinations of workouts that could show up that he could he could win like right if it's the right the right rep scheme and the weight of a strict handstand push-up and deadlift workout like put him in the money for the top three but he's got to get one of those workouts and you don't get one of those all that often nah there'll be one. Oh shit. Listen to this. Wow. Someone,

what? This is like, someone saw the show ahead of time. How do you think gear Roman would fare if they competed in us where they trained? Is there hype in the feedback you were seeing on them and outcome of who they have competed against so far this season. Once we are beyond Mertens and mayhem athletes are too low from seven on

an Angelo tonight. Interested in some of your dark horses and who on your, who on your ranks you feel most and least confident. I already told you who the dark horse is. Eight, eight, eight, 88 miles per hour. It's Jay Crouch. Get, if you want to get on the next, the next bandwagon, it's Jay Crouch. I'm telling you he's a savage. Ryan, who's bandwagon, it's Jay Crouch. I'm telling you, he's a savage. Ryan, who's your dark horse, Angela?

Who's your dark horse? Can we see the list one more time? What is the dark horse? Just someone who's just hiding in there. Just like someone who no one's looking at, who's like, Oh shit, this guy's a problem.

This guy's going to like ruin someone's day. I'll say, um, Calderon is my dark horse. The way you just described it, Mr. Triceps. Like he's,

you know, I don't think he's a dark horse for a top five finish, but if he puts together a solid weekend and somehow finishes eighth, like, I think that that would be the peak potential for him. And you, I don't think there's a lot of people that are going to be putting him in the top 10. How about,

how about Willie? How about Willie? How about Willie? Willie Georges? Is he just under the radar? I want to say something about him, but it's so mean. And I really like him. I think he actually has kind of a tight range of potential finishes. I don't think he's going to finish the games.

I think he's going to get hurt. Well, you know. I know that's horrible to say to say i know i know it's horrible to say well it's just there are times like there are times that i factor that into the equation i mean we talked about at the beginning of the show a little bit that you know there's athletes that just either always fade out at the end of the weekend or don't make the cuts or have to withdraw with injury or just regularly a letdown come Saturday or Sunday for whatever reason. And if that happens enough times over their career, then yeah, it weighs down my confidence in placing them highly on something like this. Do you have a dark horse, Mr. Angelo? Someone that people aren't looking at? Yeah, I'm going to say my not looking at.

Well, that kind of ruins it. Oh, no. Okay, you can say are looking at. Who are you going to say? I'm going to say based on the way it's ranked. I'm going to say I would say based on the way it's ranked, I would say Olsen is my dark horse. I think he could have a much better games um than

where he's put at i think um yeah i just think he can do better than what he showed this season so far what do you think the problem is uh i don't know uh maybe i think it was more I think his issue at semifinals was more of more of like an error more so than his actual fitness probably I mean he's proven time and time again he's one of the best in the sport so I don't think he's getting worse

and if he I don't think he's getting any worse yeah I'll leave it at that I don't think he's getting any worse yeah i'll leave it at that i don't think he's getting worse i just think he had some slip-ups i think he can do better uh anything you want to say about joy all brian um joy all had an amazing semi-final uh and we've seen people have you know know, amazing semifinals sometimes, and then get to the games and not do, you know, not,

not look like the same athlete. Um, I think that he's, you know, very capable and he's going to run into a field. That's just, uh, going to leave him in the dust.

Fair. But like, like Angela says, there will be, there will be someone that proves me drastically wrong last year i think i had gee in the bottom 10 and he finished seventh and i had jason hopper second and he finished 19th and like that will happen you know there and that's what we love about it is that you know you can have all the numbers on the paper you can do as much research as you want

you can talk to the athletes and their coaches and their training partners and put all this stuff together. And you still have to show up on the competition field and get the job done. And someone will do it a lot better than we think. And someone won't. I know why we're not talking about Taylor's self, but why aren't we talking about Jason Hopper? You just haven't asked me about him yet, but we did talk about him a little bit. All right. That's one of the bigger movers on the board.

And I said that I feel confident about the progressions that he's made this year on the specific things that they've been targeting. He was last year's hype. He was definitely the hype going into games last year, 100%. Okay, let's move to the women. I don't want to say

anything that's going to end the friendship. I you jason ish ish love you ish oh one more thing sorry one more thing with the men one more thing gotta do it sorry gotta do it one more thing tell me how fucking great justin madaris is just Just tell me how it's – I saw Morning Chalk Up. I didn't watch the video or the article, but I saw is this the beginning of a dynasty? What was the verdict in that article? Do you say it was an article or do you say it was a video? I don't know. I just saw it said it was on morning chalk up and it says this beginning of

dynasty. And I had to have imagined that it's about Justin Medeiros. Um, I'm not actually sure, but Justin, Justin doesn't take things for granted. Like he knows that he's good, but he also knows how good the field is.

And he's very aware of the fact that there's a lot of guys that have been around for a long time that know that they have a limited number of years left and they're really, really hungry to get a championship. They know he knows that there's a big group of guys within three years, plus or minus of him that are really good and going to be competing with him for a long time and trying to take that crown from him. And he's from what I know about him, he is committed to staying ahead of that, both those groups of people. And I think he's in a position, you know, based on his performances last year at the games, at Rogue, at the semifinals, that he's demonstrated the best combination of fitness. He's just better overall at everything on average than everyone else in the field right now. overall at everything on average than everyone else in the field right now and even though i think there are tons of guys behind them that are you know that you know good enough to potentially

win i think it's unlikely that anyone's going to beat him um angelo every year every year that he puts it to these guys so so we have this young group obviously that we're crazy impressed with like the group that's even younger than saxon right sprague the down pepper the phil toon the tutor magda yeah uh jay crouch gray shaver mertens mertens gray shaver uh i gotta i gotta have this dude on the podcast just so i can see his name a thousand times. It's actually not that how you pronounce his name. Oh, how do you pronounce it?

Grease saber. Grease saber. Oh, that's even better. That's like Samuel, Samuel. Okay. How important is it that he keeps putting it to these guys now?

Like, like that, that must be horrible after, for all the competitors, after watching Torian pro, what Tia did. And she just looks at the camera and she's like, there's another one. And it's just like, oh.

How important is it that he, like? I mean, I don't think it's any more important than just beating everybody else. Like, I don't think that plays as much factor. You just, yeah. I mean mean you think of everyone as – everyone that shows up you try to think of them on equal ground. Everyone's a threat. And Matt's always said this. He's always said everyone who shows up, they're a threat. They may not be a threat in every single workout,

but they're a threat here or a threat there. So you've got to think of everybody on an equal playing field and be afraid of just about everybody who shows up. Whether you think they can beat you on something or not, you know, because they can surprise you. You never know who's going to do well. I completely disagree. You completely disagree. I think there's a massive psychological component.

And I think you even saw it in Pat Vellner last year in the last day of competition where he was just killing workouts. Vellner was just killing workouts. Second place, first place. And he had to because he was just killing workouts. Vellner was just killing workouts. Second place, first place. And he had to because he was behind. And every single time he looked around and Justin was one spot behind him. He was gaining no ground. And on the last workout, Justin put it to him. And I just think that Pat had taken his body shots,

like put everything out there. It didn't work. And he just accepted defeat and took the second place. And I think i think what seven saying is if you do that time and time again he did it to him at rogue you know he it wasn't like uh justin was very very very well aware that jason hopper was in the field at the syndicate this year and he wasn't about to let jason beat him again he didn't care what the stage of the competition was yeah so he's just putting that in there he's like look guys i know you want to come, but I'm not letting up. I'm relentless in this pursuit also. And if he does it again this year and he does it in a similar fashion

to whoever starts being his biggest threat and when it matters most, he hits every key moment, which is what he's been doing for the last 10 months, 12 months now. Yeah, I don't think it necessarily – it almost – it's not – I don't want to say it's personal, but it's not like you're not singling this one guy out necessarily. It just depends on who you're having to single out at that moment. You know, like you're saying Vellner on the last day. It came down to Vellner on the last day. You know, Hopper at this syndicate was that person.

So I don't think it's – I wouldn't say broadly he's looking at these group of guys. I'm looking out for them. I'm looking – he's looking out for the guys who he knows can make a move at certain places or will make a move. Like Vellner, he knew on the last day of the games last year, Vellner's going to try to make a move here. And that's – he goes, I'm just going to try to beat Vellner or I'm going to try to beat Bukowski, you know, and that's, he goes, I'm just going to try to be Vellner. I'm going to try to be the cows.

He was close. I'm just going to beat those guys. I think it turns into really just a cat and mouse game with the people you needed to turn into, not just a broad group of people because of their age. Brian, Brian, let's I'll put,

I'll put Angelo in the hot grease here. Great. You better fucking hold on, Angelo. Who are the girls who are on your team me yeah sasha and alexis sasha and alexis and and luke and angelo do you guys think that you guys can beat fucking rich in the fucking brat pack no fuck see i you were right, Brian. He's already got Angelo beat mentally.

You're right. He's got to be physically. That's totally. Stefan, can we get a check-in of the poll from early in the show? Where are the viewers that watch the show more likely? Are they a big risky type of people? Mr. Beaver. They're not super risky types of people. They like.

Actually, they are. Yeah, 60% of them. That makes sense. What made you think that? Why did you put that out there before we switch over to the women? What was the. Because a lot of the times when I'm doing this, I am taking it one spot at a time. And so I'll get to a point in the rankings that

where I'll have someone who I consider to be a sure thing at the games, like more or less their positioning at the games is very consistent. Their performance are consistent. They still are in the prime of their career. There was nothing at semifinals that or anything in the season this year that makes me think they won't be that consistent again. And I have to put them up against someone. A good example would be like an Alex Vigneault versus a Phil Toon. And then I have to put Alex Vigneault, what I consider a sure thing, 10 to 15 place finish. Very, very solid. Look at his event. Finishes year after year after year against a Phil Toon who has this super high ceiling and potential upside, but he still has to prove that he can last four or

five days of competition, 15 events, three to four hours of workouts, limited time for recovery, limited time to process information and go execute it on the competition floor. Things are not going to go your way sometimes over and over again. How do you bounce back from that? Luckily for Phil, in this case, you know, he's got a guy like Matt Torres in his corner who is very good at redirecting the ship and making, you know, reading a situation quickly and getting his athletes the information they need and keeping that information they don't from him. There's a lot of variables. Alex has proven he can handle it. Phil has not.

If someone wanted to put Phil ahead of me, ahead of Alex, I get it. And you're taking the risk. And that's okay. But at the games, I like to go with the sure thing more often than the big reward. Fair. Okay. Women. Man, Phil Toon.

It's amazing. The comments are amazing. I can't look at the comments. I cannot look at the comments. Look at this list of women. So when I first see this list of women, I think. Is this idea on top of what we just looked at with the men and how we talked about the men? Is the phenomenon of a changing of the guards a real phenomenon you have travis mayor noah olsen a cole sager slipping onto page two um you got yannick koski um should be on page two but brian just can't put him there

and and we're seeing this we're seeing this over here we have you on page two we have don't i i think don't sleep on yannick koski in the last chance qualifier and if he makes the games he's this over here. On page two, we have... I think... Don't sleep on Yonikoski in the last chance qualifier. And if he makes the games, he's the top ten threat. All right. So Brian says. Over here, we have... I mean, look at all... You have Sarah Sigmund's daughter.

Madeline Sturt... Just clip that quote and send it to Savan privately like ten days from now. Yeah. Madeline Sturt, she's been to the games four like 10 days from now. Yeah. You have Madeline Sturt. She's been to the games four times, right? Katrin David's daughter. Jamie Simmons. I mean, this is – and you have Cara Saunders at 10.

What did Cara take in the games last year? Withdraw. No shit, that's right. Is Cara Saunders better than laura horvat uh in what a crossfit uh over like you okay so now you're talking about like an all-time rankings yeah angelo say it who's better we take we go to Laura Horvath's house with the G5 right now, pick her up, swing by over to fucking Cara Saunders' pad, and we fucking just go to a park in Sydney and just make them war. I'm not laughing about that.

Oh, the comments? Yeah, I think Laura could win right now. I don't like Cara's mindset. I don't like Cara's mindset i don't like car's mindset what to lay back i just sure her first of all her body looks like the best it's ever was she training with right now fucking her boyfriend she's still fucking in love she's swimming in oxytocin she just sits around and breastfeeds and does handstand walks all day the fucking girls but the only threat to tia claire to me and she's fucking like oh good, good job, Tia. Like, she's, like, loving on Tia.

I don't think anybody's a threat to Tia. I want to see angry Kara. First of all, do you know who her training team is, her programming comes from? No, she's got that fireman dude. Oh, yeah, the Mayhem crew. Yeah, but she trains with that handsome fireman, and they just – Did you see the stats I put out about her in the article this morning?

It's probably the best thing I put out in the entire article. In the semifinals article? Yeah, underneath the women's – I did. I read the article. I don't remember them specifically. Tell me. Tell me.

Now that we're – I flew off on a car saunders tirade underneath the women's uh power rankings i picked out a few athletes in particular from the list to highlight and car was one of them and i talked about how tia took the maximum points possible at the torian pro 600 out of 600 yes yes okay i remember this part which means that for everyone else in the field, there's only 24 less points in that 576 points available to earn. I think she earned 560 or something like that. So pretty much took all the second places. Yeah.

560 out of 576 for 97% of points available, because I'm basically assuming that Tia at any semifinal, unless there's a very, very specific test and someone who's very good at that test is taking 600 out of 600. Right. So 576 points available.

And that 97% compares to these athletes. So young Choi took 98% of the points available in the far East, but we, you know, the relative level of competition is very different yeah and the every basically every relative uh competitive russian athlete didn't show up this year and most of them are top 10 athletes over there mallory o'brien who you know we probably will talk about and had an incredible and dominating performance at the

granite games took less of the points percentage of points available than Kara did. And Emma Lawson, who had almost just as impressive of a competition against probably a weaker, well, definitely a weaker field at Atlas Games, also took a huge percentage of the points, incredibly impressive. And Kara had more percentage of points available. So the only reason that we're not talking about Kara's dominating semi-final performance is because she happens to be from the same continent as the best person who's ever done this at her best basically right she looks like she's still getting better right um and she was i mean tia did 36 total minutes of working out at the semi-finals she was like having time caps and winning workouts about 30 percent of the that's how much time she spent on

the floor 36 minutes yeah i'm working on an article about this actually wow crazy hey that was pretty amazing too that's pretty uh emma lawson if you're listening or you're emma lawson fan turn this part off that's pretty damning for emma not damning she's only 17 but you know what i mean like now i understand why you put emma where you did on the list anyway so people say well yeah well brian you just said how great car did at semifinals why don't you have her higher on the list yeah brian so you know i think that car's range range of potential finishes does include a podium. Like, it's not out of the realm of possibility that she can.

Caleb, can we have the list back? Sorry. Say that again, Brian. Sorry. I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for Cara to podium at the games this year. The last time she did that was five years ago. And she came, you know, close in 2018. And she had a couple really good years there.

Took the year off 2019. Missed in 2020. Withdrew last year. So you're just looking at, you know, I know how good she can be and I know how good she looked at semifinals and she looked just that good there last year. But in the last three years,

you'd had a, did not qualify. She was pregnant. You missed the top five in that weird year, whatever. She was very, very, very nearly made it and probably would have taken second.

I think if she'd made it to the Aromas and then she had a withdrawal after due to COVID. So it's just a bad string for her. And I, you know, and I do think she deserves to be in the top 10. It's possible that I'll move her up in the rankings by a few spots come the time of the games, but I can't put her ahead of those top five women. Like I just can't see it based on her last three years compared to what they are doing. But you can see it based her semi-finals and you dropped her in the last couple months versus raising karen friova daniel brandon amanda barnhart mallory o'brien yes very very impressed with all of those women for different reasons and and hayley adams you're lowering her not because of her performance but because of the rest of the people around her yeah or is there something you see that you don't like is there something you see the

you something you see you don't like um angela do you want to take a bathroom break for this one no i'm gonna handle it no it's uh it's very rare that i see something from hayley adams that i don't like she is an incredibly impressive young woman uh what she's already accomplished at her age is i think unrivaled for male or female in terms of games finishes relative to age and she's proven that she can be consistent at competitions over and over and over again. It's a really, really tough top of the women's leaderboard. Tia is obviously entrenched in the one spot. It's hard for me to envision anyone unseating Laura from the two spot. I'm led to believe that what we saw from Mal O'Brien at the Granite Games

is not even close to what she could have done there. Gabby Magawa has been— What do you mean by that? Can you expand on that? Because that's how I feel what do you mean by that can you expand on that because that's how i feel about do you mean yeah expand on that i mean she was she wasn't she didn't have to be any better than that she was winning workouts she was where she wanted to be in workouts and there was no need to empty the tank in those to to not only to qualify but to win against that field she was a ferrari racing honda civic so she never had to take it out of third. Yeah.

Damn. Good analogy for those. Even a bit, a bit harsh, but, but, but anyway, I don't see why Barnhart is above Daniel Brandon. Seven have Brian explained it.

No, you have him explained. And I didn't explain it. You haven't explained. I, I don't, I don't know enough about Barnhart. I can't,

I can't all these girls, I can't see, I can't see any of these girls above Cara Saunders, except for Tia. I just can't. I mean, I'm just struggling with it. I understand Brian. I mean, she's a fucking whole train wreck of fucking competitions. I get it. She's a fucking, you know, she's like,

she's like someone who just keeps showing up at rehab. Cara Saunders. He wants me to – someone's saying to explain how Amanda Barnhart's ahead of Daniel Brandon. Amanda Barnhart looks like a – go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry. I'm out of control. Well, I know there are a lot of people that are really, really high on Daniel Brandon's potential this year at the games.

Oh, on her potential. I thought you meant just high on her. I also know there are a lot of people that are just high on her and i know there are a lot of people that are really wishing i would wish heidi a happy birthday happy birthday heidi so anyway uh we were talking about you know amanda barnhart has finished ninth seventh and seventh at the last three CrossFit games. And there were very different formats all three years. The 2019 games is what really impresses me the most, because if you look at the other athletes that managed to make the top 10 in a totally convoluted season that wasn't really well thought out at all, it's really small women. Tia Clare Toomey, Kristen Holta, Jamie Green.

Kristen and Jamie had their best performances ever that year at the games. Katrin David's daughter, who was consistently making top fives in any format. Carrie Pierce, Haley Adams, Bethany Shabron, Turi Helga daughter, and then Daniel Brand.

So Daniel and Amanda were the outliers. They're size wise relative. Oh, Daniel Brandon did not finish in the top 10 that year. She missed the cut and someone got with, uh, that may had made the cut got banned substance. Whatever.

So that's it. Amanda Barner was the outlier in the games field size-wise in a year that big athletes were not supposed to be able to make it through. She beat Karasano in the online 2020 games. It was a weird year again. She got ninth last year in a pretty impressive women's field. And she looked better to me at semifinals in the same way that Saxon did. It was a year again. She got ninth last year in a pretty impressive women's field. And she looked better to me at semifinals in the same way that Saxon did, where it was just the poise, the control, the execution, just really felt, looked to me like she was in her element.

Some of her positions looked to be a little bit better overhead. Upper body pulling seems to be coming along. I'm, so I think that she has the potential to not just continue these really, you know, consistent performances to maybe, maybe even move up a few spots this year. Oh, is he going to go on a call?

That would be awesome. Oh shit. He does. I was just about to ask him a question. He's it he must have been at the firehouse um brian i was gonna ask angelo if he's ever been around any athletes who have like some emotional issues like like and by emotional issues i mean where they're they're emotional issues is too strong where the thing that they need to work on most is their emotions there's this chatter it's it's not loud chatter but there's this reputation and i haven't really i haven't witnessed it or anything but that daniel brandon's uh a bit of a wild child that she's that

she plays emotionally out there did that play into any of your placements for any of the athletes men or women but specifically danielle brandon like were you like yeah she like these other ones i'm looking at their physical capabilities danielle brandon i'm also can she keep her head in the game oh no i mean that yeah that's 100 relevant uh for a lot of athletes and you have you know you have to ask that question uh at certain times when you're trying to make a decision between two people. Daniel Brandon's athletic potential, if this was a power rankings of athletic potential, would be first or second, I think. I mean, it's incredible. The combination of strength and grace and agility and body control, speed, it's really unique. And Justin Kotler, he obviously loves and builds up all his athletes tremendously.

And he's talked about this in some capacities, knowing her better than most of us do. And he's not wrong about that. But I do think that relative to these women that are ahead of her in terms of beating them at the CrossFit Games, in terms of beating them at the CrossFit Games, that despite that, she doesn't have some of the things dialed in that you need to to beat these women who are really, really solid on the intangible stuff that we talked about earlier in that setting. What would you say to someone who said Brooke Wells ranked pretty darn high? To remind people, she was really on the bubble.

The fourth place had 441, the fifth place had 442, and the sixth place had 443. It was a really, really close call. Yeah. Another very highly emotional person. I mean, the games wouldn't feel like the games without Brooke Wells there, to be honest. I mean, I know we all want her to go yeah people have been

you know asking about brooks placement on these power rankings all season long and i mean you have her next to cara saunders yeah and also next to ellie turner for those who can't see. Oh my goodness. Guys, Cara is so good. For those of you who are just new to the sport, she's so freaking good. And Angela is wrong. She is a threat. She is a threat to everyone, even Tia.

She's more of a threat to Tia than anyone is a threat to Justin. No. Yes. I know we've had this before. Who do you think is a greater threat to justin than cara then car is it uh valner and fukowski all right fine um okay uh how did you decide with brooke wells with the 11th i just is it just looking at her her historic record you think she

has the championship mindset she knows how to just uh i honestly like i'm not i'm not a hundred i'm still not a hundred percent sure how good her elbow is feeling how confident that is and and what the total number of things that could really drastically be affected by that at the crossfit games that could inhibit her from doing this well i don't think that she can do as well as she was gonna do last year which was i think anywhere from a third to a sixth place CrossFit games that could inhibit her from doing this well. I don't think that she can do as well as she was going to do last year, which was, I think, anywhere from a third to a sixth place finish is what she would have wound up if she was able to finish the games. And I do think that this 11th place ranking is pushing towards the top end of her potential this year, given the fact

that she's coming back from injury, given what we have seen from her so far, and given how good most of the other women on this field have looked. But she's got this extra period of time. I think she's in a training environment that's really good in terms of they're going to set her up as best as possible for success at the games, whatever the limitation is, whether it's 1% or 20%. They'll have her in a good place for that. She has a great support crew there, and I think that because you talked about how emotional she is, that's really valuable for her. And she's dealt with hard things before, and she's young,

but she has the mileage over age type of thing going for her. She is young? She is young? Well, relative to the experience that she has at the games she's young yeah i think this is what her um eighth crossfit games and she's like 26 27 okay you know so it's she started doing it young and she's been able to do it consistently throughout her career or to get develop a lot of experience as she's entering into the prime of her career the 26 to 28 age range, I think, is where peak performance generally can be found. So anyway, there's a potential that this extra

time period is really good for her. She'll be able to maximize her potential relative to whatever the limiting factors are. And I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility, despite the fact that she's probably not going to be as good as some of these women are relative to their total potential that, that as good as she can be is still good enough for a 10th to 15th place finish. Who did Brooke train with before Do you think that there is some sort of effect that happens when these girls, they see that their peers, Brooke, Sarah Sigmund's daughter, Katrin David's daughter, that they're not, that they're, if one of them struggles and then a second one struggles, that there's sort of this effect where they all can, it's kind of like if your neighbor's husband cheats on his wife and then all of a sudden your wife looks at you like, hey, are you cheating on me? Like this sort of effect, like where it kind of brings them all down, but maybe Brooke's insulated by it because she's with Tia?

I think Brooke and Tia have a really special relationship. I don't think it's one that you can – How did that happen so fast? How did they have a special relationship so fast? They haven't been together that long. I don't think it's one you can really even explain. I think it's just one of those things that when it clicks, it clicks. And I don't know either of them very well. I don't know their relationship very well, but every time –

I guess me and you have a special relationship. Hard to explain. Yeah. But we've been together longer than Tia and Brooke. Yeah. I didn't mean to compare them to us and reduce the value of our relationship. I apologize. It's a,

and it, you know, yeah, that's fine. It's a good example. Can't explain it happen naturally. And it's a good thing, I think for both of them,

actually. So, so I, now I'm jumping to the fact, I wonder how much Tia is really carrying Brooke. I wonder how important that is. I mean, because Brooks,

because Brooks recovering performance is rather remarkable. If you learned one thing about Tia at this semifinals, it was not so much about, I should say, if I learned one thing about her, it was not so much about what she can do on the competition floor. I was blown away by how supportive and passionate, and it seemed to be genuine that she was for not just Brooke, but all of the proven training group. Saxon, Will Morad, John Colty, who didn't even have a great semifinals. She was still at the end of his lane cheering him on, encouraging him, helping him through whatever the task was. That was impressive to me. um she's picked up some of the value of teamwork through the olympic bobsled experience that she had where you have to be a part of a team as opposed to being in an individual sport she did

track she's in crossfit she's in a weight olympic weightlifting now she had an opportunity to work as part of a small team and probably has adopted some of those principles of teamwork from the women that were leaders for her in that environment. Yeah. She, she, I remember specifically when Saxon crossed the line, she was, I mean, she was, she was as excited as Justin Kotler. And it's not like, don't Saxon is, I know he talks about him really like Saxon is so good. And if he's actually learning things from her about the small nuances where he's giving away points on competitions by either starting out too hot, not pushing at the right time, letting another competitor influence his game plan.

And she can teach him some of these little tricks and efficiencies and whatever. That can also translate to the margins that are needed to move up when you're already coming in as last year's fifth ranked guy it's crazy uh the really the the person who dropped the most points on either men or women unless someone dropped completely off the board uh is sarah sigman's daughter um is that because what happened there what what i mean she went from 14th to 26th i'll probably say that the most difficult part of semifinals for me was hands down watching her do the second attempt at the barbell complex that was like i was in pain for her watching that. Because what I saw there was someone who wants it so bad and wants her body so badly to be where her desire is to excel in this sport, and her body's not there yet.

And she's come back and done these competitions, I think, potentially, not maybe prematurely to do the competitions or all of the competitions, but maybe she did one too many than she had to. And on those lifting events at Wadapalooza and at low lands, I think she was pushing the weights more than her body was ready for. And it set her back and therefore she falls on this list. And do you think she'll ever come back up? Dude, it's really hard. She loves to compete.

Her body needs a break. Like her body needs a full cycle to recoup and recharge, but she wants to be out on the competition floor so bad. She thrives in that environment. The fans love her. It's a big deal for her to be out there. And it's really, really difficult from a discipline perspective when you love doing that and have been so good in that environment for so long to say i need 18 months i and i and it's going to be terrible for me but if i don't give myself those 18 months and i'm just making that number up then i'll never be able to get back there and i have to accept that and like she's not is she young enough to give herself that can she can look at look at uh look at annie okay fine right you know that's all you have to look at to say, like, yeah, for sure. And we talked about it earlier.

The potential to be really, really good at the CrossFit Games as a woman extends much younger and much older. And we also have Kristen Holter from last year who is like thirty five and still was a few points off the podium. When we when we spoke to Sarah on on the show, she mentioned that she had set a personal record after her surgery, I want to say for 1,000-meter sprint or 2,000-meter sprint. Something crazy. I mean, look, we saw flashes of Sarah that we want to see at Lowlands for sure. She's pretty good on some of the workouts but the two things that were most exposing of the strength limitation coming back from that knee injury ended up you know keeping her out and holding her back and I and I do think that that was not the wisest choice that the weight on that

barbell complex and it did a number on her you know emotionally psychologically and physically that you know so like I said I think it set her back. Have you ever had hand, foot, and mouth disease? What? I just have a question for you. Have you? Have you ever had that? No. I think, I think the last month when I was sick, I think that's what I've had. I don't think it was COVID. Okay. Just letting you know. Okay. Who is Chloe Dawn?

I noticed in your comments someone said, oh, Brian, you didn't mention Chloe Dawn. She looks like she's a – it's K-L-O-I-E-D-A-W-N, Mr. Beaver. Chloe Wilson. Chloe Wilson, yeah Mr. Beaver. Chloe Wilson. Chloe Wilson. Yeah. I, I, is that when I saw this come out today,

I thought I had included her on that list. And I just, I went, I sent it to, to Michael Brink, who does the graphics there. And I went back to check. Cause I was like, did he leave her out?

And I left her out and I didn't mean to, she should have been on that list with other women in the notable last chance qualifiers. Oh, so would you have knocked off? So who would you have knocked off? No, there's a last page. It's like a little bit of a summary page.

It lists games qualified on my Instagram. It lists the games qualifiers that didn't make the top 30. And then some people like her, like Fisa Gaffey, Luka Jukic, Adrian Wundweiler, those types of people that are in last chance qualifiers that are really good, but I didn't put them in the top 30 like I did with others in the last chance qualifier, like Jamie Simmons, Captain Davis, other area alone, et cetera. Look at her. She's at work. Chloe Wilson is incredible. I would really.

Chloe Dawn. Her name's Chloe Dawn. Okay. Chloe Dawn. I would really love to see her at the games. She, you know, her consistency at semifinals was the best, the absolute best of anyone who didn't make it to the games this year, male or female. Seventh through fourth place finishes on every event and didn't get in. And what about, I didn't see her on the list, and I had her confused with Cole Greasaber.

Christine Kolenbrander. Christine Kolenbrander. Greasaber. It's very good that you said that. We'll appreciate that. We got to get it right. Christine Kolenbrander. Although, you know, I've been calling him Greasaber for like years and years,

and then only now does he want it to be right. He's at that proven training camp too, by the way. Oh. Did he qualify? Yeah. Sorry, sorry, not she, sorry. Not he, she. How did Christian Kohlenbrander do?

She did great. Yeah, and she did qualify for the games. I don't see her on your list. She was actually the very last person off the very first person off the list. So someone on Instagram put out a comment today about Christine Kolenbrander and why she wasn't on the list. And I actually responded to that person and said that I thought it was the best argument. A lot of people had issues with the list for whatever reason, and that's okay. But I thought it was the best argument that anyone had put out

for any individual athlete that they were supporting. And basically this person talked about that last year, if not for Tia being placed in her semifinal, she would have made the game as the fifth best American in that field. And that this year, even though she got in as the fifth spot, which was impressive to beat out Ariel Owen for that spot, that if she hadn't, yes, this is the one that if she hadn't screwed up the last legless rope climb, which costs her a ton of points on that workout that she might, might've actually won the semifinals. Brian, this person's not saying she screwed it up.

They're saying the judge screwed it up. It was clear. Colin Brander pretty clearly. Come on. We know the judges have made perfect calls the entire time. Okay. My bad. Sorry. There've been like the judging situation. It's not the topic of the show, but what the person is saying is Christine Colin Brander was good enough to

be at the games last year, probably. And she was potentially good enough to win the semifinal this year. And that's, this person's not wrong in either of those regards. I have no competition history on Christine Kohlenbrander. She doesn't do individual competitions. The only two individual competitions that she's done in live settings are those two, of any note at least.

And, you know, I talked about it earlier, like with some of the guys. There's a lot to learn at the games. I think that the one thing she does have going for it is she has two years experience there with the team and she was on the demo team last year. Colin Brander is 100% one of those athletes that could surprise at the games. Like, you know, let's say that some of these women have to move off the list after they don't make it through the last chance qualifiers.

So let's say she ends up somewhere between 25 and 30. She could definitely, you know, surprise and finish 13, 14, like an Ariel Low low ended last year. It was very similar projection versus performance type thing, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to rank her up there because I'm not going to put her ahead of Emma McQuaid and the Terry Helge daughter and Jacqueline Dahlstrom that are, you know,

in my opinion, just as impressive in the off season stuff, more experience under the belt and off season stuff, more experience under the belt at the games and are continuing to improve even though they're a little bit uh later on in their career they're not christine colin brenner is not that young she's in the same age bracket of those so when you're talking about how high you want to put her it's like we've been saying you have to look at who's like who are you going to take out and there are some people you could take out and put her ahead to squeeze her into the bottom five or so of this list right now i think but i you know she just missed it by one spot it does

not mean that i'm not thinking about her and aware of her i couldn't even find her on instagram instagram's not even aware of her does the demo team count as games experience um great poll um can you pull up the women again oh there she is she just hit a 215 215 pound snatch the other day i think it's there on the right yeah brian who was the man who wow wow with a big old smile on her face who is the man who – wow, wow, with the big old smile on her face. Who is the man who is below Spencer Panczyk? Who is 31? Will the Super next?

Oh, wow. Okay. Alexis Rathis and Lucy Campbell are new are new um to the list uh emma lawson at 22 is emma lawson the lowest rank winner no of her semi-final no who's the lowest ranked michelle moran oh i don't even see her on there yeah michelle moran and sun yang choy are semi-final winners and victoria campos are semi-final winners that are not on this list okay so those are from south africa uh south korea and brazil brazil okay this is so uh besides those is emma lawson the lowest ranked winner yeah and that's that's because because the Atlas Games competition was ass relative to the others.

Yeah, that's one way to say it. Okay, so would it be fair to say that you're not, that for Emma to be higher, she would have needed to put it to a more, like won the whole thing? Look, the women that she beat at that semi-final none of them made the top 30 on my power rankings wow wow she's the only one wow someone said i want to say one thing about that did you already just said none of those women made it who she beat and yet madeline sturt is not going to the crossfit games and she's on this list

also jamie simmons it's crazy that Madeline Sturt doesn't go to the games after her performance at Torian Pro. It's crazy. It was like championship fucking heart. It was nuts. By the way, that's who Jay Crouch is banging. They're together. Seven. It's not crazy.

Seven. Seven. Not seven. Seven. That's okay. It happens. I had an itch in my nose. All right.

It's not crazy. I don't know how to say this. It happens. I had an itch in my nose. All right. It's not crazy. I don't know how to say this. It's just negligence to the distribution of the game spots relative to competition. It's just choosing to ignore that as a feasible means to try to get the best women and men at the games.

And they're choosing something that's completely arbitrary and has nothing to do with competition. Yeah. So this is a good way to understand the power rankings, I think. yeah so this is a good way to understand the power rankings i think madeline sturt may be better than a lot of these girls above her but her chances of going to the games are are significantly everyone who's in orange will move up if they qualify for the games right but but what i'm saying is is madeline sturt head to head you well, anyway. Okay.

It's really, really hard to make it through the last chance qualifier. As you can see, there's five women here, all of whom I think if they made the games would outperform this current ranking. But only two of them can make it. And there's potential that none of them make it. Right. Because the winner might not even be on your list. Correct. Great.

I think it is. I think the winner is on the list, but you do. Who do you think? Oh, let's talk about that next week. I say Jamie Simmons and Madeline Sturt.

Um, Madeline Sturt I want to go through these names really quick and you just tell me if they're getting better or worse where they are in their career want to play that game sure Solvig Sigurd Dar-tor-tor-tor-tor Solvig sourdartortortortor. Solvig. Better.

So she's getting better. Yeah. And Madeline Sturt, is she getting better or worse? Oh, yeah. She's getting better. Alex Ghazan, better or worse? Better. Bailey Rayl, better or worse?

Better. Sarah Sigman's daughter, better or worse? Worse. Matilda Garnes. Better. Emily Rolfe. About the same. I don't know if that's a choice.

I think this is the last year she's getting better. Danny Spiegel. No comment. Wow. Too politically charged? I can't tell. She got better this year. She killed it this year, right? I mean, you maybe thought she was getting worse, and then she showed up and just kicked ass at the semifinal, right?

For a competition that has six events, she's getting better. Okay. Emma Lawson? Better. Definitely better. Maybe getting better than all the other bettors on the list. That's the scary thing about someone like that is that she's already that good and she's only 17. So she's got potential for a lot of room to grow. potential uh for a lot a lot of room to grow what we don't know is if you're so good so young like amal o'brien is only one year older at 18 um how much room is there to go up from there um do you think emma lawson is better than uh mallory o'brien no i almost did nothing

but but but but how about where, if you brought Mallory O'Brien back a year or imagine Emma Lawson in a year? Well, last year, Mallory O'Brien took seventh at the games. I don't think that Emma Lawson's going to crack the top 20 this year at the games. Ariel Lowen.

Worse. Sydney McElishan. Better. Lucy Campbell. Better. Katrin David's daughter. Worse. Jamie Simmons.

She's getting better post her injury, but she's doing worse relative to her top level. Thurie Helga daughter. Surprisingly better. Still getting better. Really impressed with her. And she's like 32, right? surprisingly better, still getting better. Really impressed with her.

And she's like 32, right? Her and Kara Saunders are the only women that competed at the 2012 games and are also competing in this games. Crazy. And she's still only 29. Wow. Crazy. Her head looked good, too. Like, she looked like she was in a good headspace.

Every time I saw the camera on her, she's smiling, she's pumped. It was really enjoyable to watch Turi at strength and depth. face every time i saw the camera on her she's smiling she's pumped i was it was a it wasn't really enjoyable to watch turi at strength and depth uh alexis raptus better definitely wait she she is on the ascension i have her and feesey goffy all scrambled up in my head jacqueline i know i'm just telling you what's going on uh jacqueline dalstrom better and uh Jacqueline Dahlstrom. Better. And Jacqueline's also not necessarily – she's 29, and she's kind of coming into her own now. It's kind of cool, I think, that someone who is 28, 29 can be getting to their peak potential at the same time

that someone who's 17 and 18 can be having a lot of relevance in the field. Emma McQuaid. Better, still getting better. Ellie Turner. Better. Brooke Wells. Same boat as Jamie Simmons. She's obviously improving relative to her injury.

She's nowhere near, I don't think, where she was 12 months ago. Do you think she's where she was 24 months ago? I mean, sorry, sorry. Possibly. No, do you think 24 months ago she was better than she was 12 months ago. Do you think she's where she was 24 months ago? I mean, sorry, sorry. Do you think, no, do you think 24 months ago she was better than she was 12 months ago? No,

I think from, from every single perspective, except for the weak elbow, she was at the best she's ever been last year at the games. I just put a user in timeout. Okay. I've never done that before uh hopefully it was scott polenski i'm not scott polenski uh they would they had i would have let them stay if you have a fake name and you're gonna talk shit then you gotta go if you got a real name and you want to just unload on me i'm ready i'll grab ankles. You can give it to me all day. Car Saunders.

Probably the hardest one you've asked me yet. Harder than Miss Spiegel? Yeah, because I haven't got a chance to see Cara in three years. Right. Go to her YouTube station. Go to her YouTube station. No, no, no. I mean mean at the games when it matters i want us i want us to be able to say that she still has the top five fight in her the podium fight in her and that i i think she does but when you're three years

removed from the last time you've saw it it's hard to get behind it i'm hoping that she has that if she's if you're right and she's a big threat to tia that increases the drama on the women's side a lot because right now i i really feel like there's laura then there's mal and then there's gabby and hayley and there's like these little tears of women and if cara inserts herself in there it's going to increase the the drama around you know no one's beating tia absent injury but it's going to increase the drama for the podium if she's that version of car man if something did happen to you like that that would be a bittersweet victory for anyone no i you know it's this is kind of what i was saying

about colton mertens you cannot control what happens to the other athletes and you could talk like there you know we already mentioned there's 10 women that aren't in this field last year. There were 10 women or eight women of similar caliber that weren't in the field last year. That's not Gabby McGowan's fault. That's not Mallory O'Brien's fault. So you can say like, ah,

now finish seventh as a rookie. But if you had Sarah, if you had Jamie, if you had Bethany, if you had Carrie, if you had Cara, she might probably 12th or 13th, maybe,

but who cares? It's how sports go. You can only compete against the people that show up. And if someone has to withdraw, they have to withdraw and you move up one spot and that's, that's it. Very well said. I agree. Thank you for clearing that up. Christy Arama O'Connell. I think she's, I think she's on. Ah, man. These are tough.

This is a tough game. I don't like this game anymore. It's called making friends or losing friends. There's this group of women, and it's kind of interesting because I feel that Emma McQuaid, who similar age to, um, Christy Aramo, kind of a similar athlete in some, in some, the way that they distribute results on the leaderboard, uh, is moving up. And I feel like Christy might be moving down, but Christy's moving down from a much more impressive career. So it's like, she still might be better than Emma, even though she's getting worse and Emma's

getting better because she's where they're starting at. You know, when I say I don't even know who Karen Frejova is. What? Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Most egregious thing you've said on the show so far. Well, there's two people in this top 15. I don't even know who they are. Really? Alexis Raptus.

Did she did she come from a team? Was she like on Rich's team or something? And then and then Karen Frejova. Those 99% sure we had Alexis Raptus on the show. No shit. team was she like on rich's team or something and then and then karen freyova those 99 sure we had alexis raptus on the show no shit i need to see a picture of her that's what i mean i have her all i have her all messed messed up with feces coffee caleb alexis raptus put some good pictures up from her training video. I think her training session today or yesterday. I must follow her.

Oh, yeah, I must follow her. There's one where she's lifting that's easier to see if she has this one. No, we have not had her on the show. Yes, we have. Oh, shit. Are you serious? I don't recognize her know her boyfriend's a star wars nerd am i looking at the right shit on star wars okay i'm gonna go back and watch that she's 23 she just finished college or something she's got so she's i think that she's a very similar athlete to Dallin Pepper

from last year to this year. A couple things didn't go her way at the West Coast Classic, didn't make the games, didn't make the last chance qualifier, but could have been at the games and could have had some impact there. And it's okay, I think, for her that she didn't make it last year. I think that it's probably going to work out better in the long run. she didn't make it last year i think that probably going to work out better in the long run um but she was really really she was really impressive at uh at semifinals and she has a unique combination of skills that generally translates to really good at the games relative to some other people

other combinations of skills i'll guess i'll say uh who who are you talking about what i said who are you talking about who are you comparing her to just like the thing that she's really good at is um i know i feel horrible remembering her it's a combination of gymnastics and barbell cycling kay Caleb, bring that video up of where I interviewed her. Bring that show up. I don't believe I interviewed her. Fuck you. You're lying.

How's that, guys? Standing my ground. Combination of what? Gymnastics and what? Barbell? And barbell cycling. And she's fairly competent on the machines. So there will be some stuff that is middle 20 finishes at the games, but that's okay.

Maybe she'll have a workout in the 30s. That's okay. She'll have a big slew of workouts where she's able to punch in 5th through 20th place performances. And if you can do that consistently, it goes a long way. And there's other athletes that will have big hits and then take consistently worse finishes on those combinations of workouts, which is like two-thirds of the workouts. Can you play a little bit of this? Holy shit. What happened to my beard?

This is fucking 400 shows ago. I want to hear it. Let's hear it. I had surgery on both my elbows, of them twice actually and it was like your process of trying to come back from a gymnastics accident from an injury in gymnastics no it wasn't an injury or it wasn't like okay fine that that looks real to me all right alexis i love you you're you're amazing what a great interview that was that was awesome uh um and and how about freyova how about freyova can you show me her oh seven you know how many times we've talked about her on here no but it happens

i wonder what happened to angelo angelo has his fire suit on right now let me tell you about karen freyova okay because okay it's possible that there's people that haven't been on when we've done this, or there's people that are always high like you and never remember what we talk about. I haven't been high in 30 years. Careful. High on the conversation, so you forget what we're talking about. Yes. Holy cow.

Karen Frejova, she hasn't had a chance to show what she can do at the games yet when she's the closest that she was was in 2019 to really having the potential to break through and show people and she and she got cut right before the final 10 along with big some other really big names and uh in 2020 she competed online didn't do well enough to make it. And last year, she finished sixth place at one of the online European semifinals. The five women that beat her all placed in the top 13 at the Games. Karen is better at the Games. She will be better at the Games than she is at semifinals.

Wow. And why do you say that? I know that the whole show I've been talking about people who don't have games experience that need to learn how to do that. Right. What I saw from her in Dubai the last time that she competed there against killers at the games is what I need to see from someone to say that they can do well at the games.

And Lazar Djokic has done that in Dubai and transferred it over to the games. And it's the only competition outside of the games that I think you can actually garner that information from. She's been studying pretty intensely for the last couple of years. She said that this year, after she finished, she doesn't speak English very well. I don't think she knows who I am. I'm a huge fan of hers. And I had a chance to talk to her after Lowlands this year after she finished she doesn't speak english very well i don't think she knows who i am i'm a huge fan of hers and i had a chance to talk to her after lowlands this year and i asked her you know you looked so good this year i was it just because it was in person was something changed for you this year because i feel amazing i have finished my studies last year i've been able to focus not it's not the training so much just on taking care of myself between training sessions, the recovery, the lifestyle things. And she thinks that she's as well prepared in that regard as she's ever been.

And she's now going to the games. I think that if she made the games last year, despite studying that she still would have made the top 10. And I think she'll make the top 10 this year. Bam. All right. No, I don't think I had covet i think i had hand foot and mouth i'm i'm re-diagnosing myself with hand foot and mouth disease oh it's another epic day at the beach to podcast tomorrow morning and we have hunter mcintyre on it is going to be a fucking party. 7 a.m. Live calling show. Last time you guys were great. Gazillion.

You called in. I have tons of fun Instagram clips to show you. And then we have, I don't know who we have next after that. Let me see. It's, it's a crazy week. It's a crazy.

Oh, go back and watch the interview I did this morning with the Khaleesi. Home. Go to the home. Oh, thank you. So we have Hunter. Then we have Alex Ghazan, who we didn't talk about. We have Dale Saran, the former general counsel for CrossFit Inc. That is going to be fucking awesome.

Dale was also the lead counsel in the lawsuit of a class action suit of soldiers who sued the United States government for the anthrax vaccine experiment. And he's also running another class action suit with more than 500 clients in regards to the COVID vaccine. Then it looks like there's some crazy homeless man who's going to be on the show. I know that's me. Then we have Coach Grandy. If you are a father, this is the father and coach of two of the greatest young twin athletes alive in the world today. Then we have Jaguar Hart. Then we have Brittany Schmidt.

And then we have Jeremy Kinnick, a former CrossFit Games athlete who is now the world's greatest dad. And we have him coming on the show. Killer line. What? Killer line. What? Killer lineup. Yeah, I'm pumped. All right.

Are those the only shirts in your rotation these days? Just the black one, red one, white one? Repeat? No, the white one doesn't get pulled. I think the Pride Month is over, so I'll probably store this until next June. This is just a one-off. Oh, okay. This is just a one-off. Oh, okay. Okay.

This is just a one-off. We tried to sell no on bottom. I was wanting to sell them for like $300 a piece because these are hard to make because of the colors, I guess. Should I say something that's harsh but true? Sure. Normally more of a thing you would do. Is it about Alex Guzon? No.

Oh. It's about the Masters community. Oh. Relative to what you just said about the Pride community. Please. You know, the Pride community is very vocal, and they didn't buy the shirts. That's what I've heard you say, basically.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is for the real Pride community. This is for people who, like, really support pride, not people who push it on kids. But it's a different story. And there's not a lot of them. No, no, there is a lot of them. I'm just joking. Go ahead. part of the community and they are very vocal in a lot of regards. And oftentimes we have, I have conversations with people about putting out content surrounding the masters community, and it just doesn't do as well on the number side of things. And we know that there's more than 50% of people who sign up for the open that are in the masters categories. And there's a vocal part of the masters community that wants content coverage on them. But when it's doing very, very little in terms of attention relative to the individuals or the teams or the other stuff that we're often putting out there, it's hard for us to justify doing it.

Let me push back on that a little bit. I don't know when it was, but there was some Masters event. I don't think it was sanctioned by CrossFit. And Tommy and Sean covered it on Talking Elite Fitness. like event it was not i don't think it was sanctioned by crossfit and tommy and sean covered it on talking late fitness and the viewership was nuts it drove me bonkers to see the viewership it was like normally they had like a thousand or two hundred people watch a show this was like thirty thousand do you know what i'm referencing yeah i think i i think i know what you're i can't remember the name of the competition specifically if it was like six months ago or fitness collective or the legends masters thing.

There's a couple of different ones. Yeah, I apologize. I don't know which one they covered, but that's great to hear. You know, I want to do a show leading up to the games about every kind of group of people. I want to do the master a master show. I want to do a teenager show, maybe do teens and adaptive because there's only like five total divisions between the two of them. I want to do obviously men, women, and teams. And so maybe we'll see.

We'll see if we do a master specific episode if people want to follow along. Some of Hiller's videos I have a little trouble following. Maybe it's because I can't believe some of the claims, but are there adaptive athletes that are competing in the wrong adaptive division in order to try to win? Like a dude with both arms is actually competing in an event where you're only supposed to have one arm? I don't know, but I do know some masters, some adaptive athletes who've been frustrated with

either the ability or the inability to qualify for certain categorizations within that. And this is, you know, I think this is a larger issue. And I think that what really needs to happen, if we want to fix this is and fix a lot of things is there needs to be a separate group of people that are specifically running the adaptive division there's a lot of nuances there there's a lot of attention to detail and if it's the same people that are responsible for running that as are responsible for the teenagers responsible for the age groups responsible for the teams responsible for the individuals responsible for the open quarterfinals semifinals and games finals finals crossfit games all the same people that's a lot divide those things up let and let

kevin ogar be the guy for the adaptive division and he'll bring in the people that need to make those decisions hey they should do that just to like shirk the shirk the uh responsibility and the blame. It sounds crazy. I don't know how you would do it. Because there's any billion combinations of parts you could have missing. I've said this before. The timing of getting rid of Dave set the remaining games team up

for a really challenging season because the leader was removed and everyone, even whatever they think about the leader, they know this guy knows how to get it done. Right. He delegates and I get this done and we delegate and we get that done. The chain of command was broken and there was a big task at hand. It's a really big task to manage all parts of all of those seasons.

I think that the mistake they made was not trying to simplify as much as possible so that they could avoid as many problems as possible, have a smooth run this year, even if it wasn't the best expression of Adrian Bosman's programming, even if it wasn't the best expression of a quarterfinal, just don't have the big mistakes. And that's not what they did. They went together, they tried to take on everything. It seems like they tried to do everything, and the expense was that nothing was done great. And everything is less than it could have been. And I think that one potential solution to that is to divide and conquer

and give someone the team division and give someone the age groups and give someone the adaptive and let those guys focus on the individuals and have a perfect run next year of the individual season, which does get the most attention and does draw the most everything. And then every division, I think, will be more satisfied with execution of the season from start to finish. I agree with you 100%. I didn't know that Hiller passed me. I knew that a couple of days ago we were talking on the phone and he said he was going to pass

I couldn't agree with you more I couldn't agree with you more get rid of the CEO, get rid of the guy who runs the games I mean this isn't that show Brian but I agree with you for anyone who's stuck around they got a little bonus please run over and subscribe to Andrew Hiller Brian, but I agree with you. I agree with you. For anyone who's stuck around, they got a little bonus. Yeah.

Please run over and subscribe to Andrew Hiller. Now it's a race to see how quickly he can double the number of subscribers I have. Love you guys. Thanks for tuning in. Big show tonight. We'll see you guys tomorrow morning, 7 a.m. Bye-bye.