The Sevan Podcast - #48 CrossFit Games - Semifinals with Jayson Hopper

Episode Date: June 16, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 48 - CrossFit Games Semifinals with Jayson Hopper @SEVANMATOSSIAN @BRIANFRIENDCROSSFIT @JHOPPER3 The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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See the PC Optimum app for details. Do you know about the Gains box? Yeah. Do you get one of those? No. So I get those. Really? And I thought it was going to be kind of just – I just wasn't impressed by the idea when I first heard about it.

And I've been seeing it, I don't know how many years it's been going. But now I get it. And it's actually really cool. What are some of the things you get? I always get, there seems to be always some clothes in there, which is kind of cool. And I'm not into CBD stuff at all. I'm seeing if I can see it in my kitchen somewhere. But they sent some cbd honey

sticks in this last one and then they also sent uh yeah you just put it in your mouth and i guess you get high or you feel good or you fall asleep or whatever but it just excites me because it's something i would never try if they didn't send it to me and they also sent an ab wheel i don't see that either this week. And, and I opened the box right before I went to LA with my kids and I just took the ab wheel as a toy for them to play with. And it was awesome. It was in the hotel room and we had an ab wheel and you know,

kids like kids don't think it's an ab wheel. They just see it's a toy and they start doing the ab exercises. Yeah. I mean, it's super accessible anyway. I would say half the stuff in there I don't use. But then I just give to someone else, you know? And the other half I find it's cool just because I become aware of the product.

Do you get text messages on your – sorry, go ahead. I've come across it before. I just never pulled the trigger, I guess. cross it before i just never uh pulled the trigger i guess so we have jason hopper coming back to visit to help us talk about i don't know if it's help us talk about yeah help us to contribute to contribute to the games conversation this week what happened we just had week three of the semi-finals uh yeah it was all virtual and there were three competitions it was the first weekend and there were three competitions. It was the first weekend where we had three.

It was the first weekend where any of them were virtual. And I think there's quite a bit to talk about if you want to. Yeah. What is more important to talk about, week three or look forward to week four? Because week four looks like there's a ton to talk about. or look forward to week four? Because week four looks like there's a ton to talk about. I think talking about week three sets up week four because two of the competitions in week four are also virtual.

They'll be the same programming, and we can probably learn a lot from what happened this past week. Okay. Not just about the competition, but about the administration of the competition as well. Wow. Wow. You're going to get banned from competitions if you start doing that, talking about that. No, no, I'm not.

I mean, I'm just saying that we didn't know how that was going to play out last week because CrossFit had never put on a virtual competition at this stage of qualification for this many athletes across the globe. And so we had a bunch of questions, and now we have answers to them. Before we dig in, what's the most shallow one, two-sentence feedback you have? Was it good? Was it bad? It got better as the weekend went on.

Did it exceed your expectations? No. Okay. What were the three that happened this week? Go ahead and tell me the three. Both European ones, so it was the German throwdown and the Lowlands throwdown. Okay.

And then the Brazilian CrossFit Championships in South America. Okay. And what are the four we have coming up this week? Three coming up. The two other virtual ones are the Atlas Games, which is a North American semifinal that's supposed to be in Canada, but obviously not happening there. And the Asia CrossFit Championships, which is supposed to be in South Korea, which I think people were actually pretty excited about having that competition. It's not going to happen live this year, hopefully next year. And then the only live competition is

the West Coast Classic. And when I was at CrossFit, I don't know how it is now, Korea was interesting because CrossFit was exploding there. And I don't think we ever knew why it was exploding there. It didn't explode in Japan Japan or it hasn't yet and we clearly know Japanese people are very smart and they like to move but for some reason in South Korea it exploded Jason what's up dude good morning 10 Good morning. I'm 10 years younger today than I was yesterday. You know what? Thank you.

You know what happened to me yesterday, Brian? I got a FaceTime call. Now, when you're 49 years old, you don't use FaceTime. Your kids use FaceTime on your computer to talk to grandparents. And I see a FaceTime call. And when you're 49, if anyone FaceTimes you, you usually just hang up and text them and say, you accidentally FaceTimed me because that's what you just assumed. But it was coming from a very young man in a generation different than mine.

And I had seen this behavior, this bizarre behavior from people like James Hobart and Austin Maliolo, you know, who are also a little bit younger than I am. And so I suspected that this man also had a different phone etiquette than myself and so that it probably wasn't an accent. And I answered and it was the great Jason Hopper. So he kind of, he broke my chair yesterday. I FaceTimed something and he opened up with that manipulative line that he likes to use on me. Aren't we friends? I go, what are you doing FaceTiming me? I'm 49.

You don't FaceTime a 49-year-old. You said we were friends. I did. I have to be careful throwing that term around. Now you know you have to consider the age of the people you tell are your friends and that there's a certain etiquette for different uh age ranges there you go so he exposed my ageist my ageist and prejudiced ways and uh and he also brought me up to speed and technology and levels of communication i thought his generation was supposed to be like you know playing video games and avoiding personal contact, but instead they're taking the lead for deeper communication.

Breaching boundaries. Now it's comfortable to have that face-to-face interaction, but still there's a barrier of the phone. I definitely wasn't comfortable. You can't say that about everybody. You mean in your generation, you mean? Yeah. The other guys are playing video games?

Maybe that's what that is. You feel left out because you're not playing video games and you're in the gym just sweating, so that's kind of you're bridging the gap to your people. That's one way to look at it all. Jason, we just reviewed um uh week three we we haven't reviewed them yet but he went over which events there were last week we had three virtual competitions the german something something the lowland something something and the brazil

something something and then this week coming up we have the um atlas and they those were all virtual and and next week we have the atlas event and we have the Asian South Korea event, which are both virtual. And then we have the one that I'm most excited about because it's not virtual, and it has a lot of big names in it. It's the West Coast Classic. So Brian was just telling me that. I'm going out to Vegas. I'll see you there. Dude, I will see you there.

Why are you doing that? Shouldn't you be at home training? Do you have a sponsor that's sending you out there? Why are you doing that? Potentially, I am on. So me and Matt O'Keefe have been talking. Oh, I love it. And he offered to fly me out there and hang out with him and

i think matt would be out there um and it's just to be around those guys and ask questions and so we'll still be training i think i'll get opportunity to swim and run with chris henshaw so that'd be a cool little opportunity so will that be your first will that be your first? Will that be your first time training with Chris? Yeah. So those are, those are both good omens for you. Those are both guys who seem to be around winners Hinshaw and Matt O'Keefe. Yeah.

And I'm, I'm glad to hear that it's, um, that you do have a training component and it's not just a business component because that is a hole that we see a lot of crossfit athletes fall into they get sucked into their instagram and sponsorship and then they yeah for sure next thing you know we'll just only see pictures of you in a bikini on your uh instagram but you'll never be going back to the games ever again so that'll be fun i've never even been out to las vegas so cool congratulations y'all ever been to vegas i have bring your bring your bible and your cross and garlic and your hammer and your

wooden dagger and all that shit bring all your hey savon you said we were talking yesterday on facetime you said you weren't a real a religious man but you you like jesus i don't understand will you weren't a religious man, but you like Jesus. I do. I don't understand. Will you explain that a little bit more? He's a good dude. I read the Bible, and I'm like, that dude's behavior just resonates with me.

Do you believe that he was a real man? As much as I believe any historical figure is a real man, sure. In the same respect that I believe that Abraham Lincoln was a real dude. You know what I mean? I mean, I didn't see him. Yeah. I didn't see him, but there sure is a lot of stories about him. So he's not God, obviously.

Boy, we're supposed to be talking about the games. So in my quickest, shortest metaphor, you have the sun and it's over the earth, right? And it puts light on the earth. And because we use the sun, people believe that the sun is 93 million miles away. But in my perspective, I think it's just as valid to say is that we are also in the sun, meaning it's just a diluted – we're in a diluted – we're further from the sun, so we're in a diluted way. We're still in the sun, but it's diluted, right, because it's far away, and by the time the rays get here, we're so far outside of the sun that it doesn't burn us. But I do believe the sun is here with us. And so in that respect, I believe that we are all God in the sense that we are all in the sun. Does that make sense to you? The metaphor i'm trying to use that we're all part of those rays so i do

believe in that respect he he is like a modern modern explanation of ecclesiastes jason and i and i and i don't and i don't i don't know what that is is that a rubber band is that like a band ecclesiastes no no no it's a book from the old testament and they say several times in that book you just everything is this is under the sun. You just said you read the whole Bible. Yeah, I did read the whole Bible. But I also did a podcast with you last week, and I don't remember a damn thing we talked about. You're funny. We'll continue that conversation.

I have some thoughts. Anyways, about the CrossFit Games. Yes. Jesus will not be participating directly in the CrossFit Games this year. He'll be with me. Okay. Well, he will be spectating. No, he'll be on the comp floor.

Okay. Beautiful. Beautiful. I wouldn't have it any other way. He better get a ticket. Okay, Brian. So what's the big story from week three? So what's the big story from week three?

I think the biggest story from week three is the veteran European women are still untouchable. Because not only did the top, did all ten women who've made the games, make the games before, but the person in sixth place also is a veteran of the sport. Sam Briggs just barely missed out by six points. So that's kind of a smaller sub-story of that bigger story. And the kind of dichotomy to that is that in Europe, for the men, there's a bunch of new faces making a first trip to the games. So is Sam going to be doing the last chance qualifier? She will earn an invitation to it.

I don't know if she'll do it or not yet. I would think she will. I think she will. Jason, are these athletes excited that they got the last chance qualifier or are they bummed? Are they like, oh man, this is just another beat down on my body. Uh, I don't think it's necessarily a, they're concerned about the beatdown on their body. I think it's more concerned about the emotional journey of it all.

Like, oh, man, I put on the work for the semi. This was supposed to be my ticket to the games. Now I've got to wait three more weeks to do another competition, to try to get another spot. So it's like the emotional toll it takes on you. Like, everybody else is is already training for the games like now i have to figure out how to get to the games and it's just like all that all that stuff is just is just hard to take in so and it's also like you you you

you get it you're almost there and then you like you come in sixth seventh or eighth and it's like that's that's another toll on you it's just just like, dang, like, you know, I touched, touched the glory of it. And it's like, I missed out. So now I got to do it all over again. And it's just like, man, that the mental strain I think is, is the whole thing. I don't, I don't think it's necessarily the physical part of it, but it's like, wow, all these other guys are like, how can you adapt all these other guys that I'm supposed to be competing with at the games

are games training, and I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to get there. So intellectual and emotional, not physical. Yeah, I don't think it's physical very much. And it's tough. It's tough. I mean, you just did a competition with 30 men, and you had five opportunities to get a spot. You didn't get it. Now you have to do

a competition with 30 men and there's only two spots and all of those guys already beat 20 something other guys just to get there oh yeah also like great point i also think there's a level of like how can how can you move on from the semi and you know give all your give everything in this next online qualifier. Because at the same time, it's like, if I came in sixth in a competition to go to the CrossFit Games, dude, I'm not going to be able to sleep. And there's some guys that are like, like, there's some guys who lost out on a couple points, and it's like, I won't be able to sleep.

I won't even be able to probably train. Like, I can't imagine, like, I'll be pissed. I can't, I won't stop being able to probably train. I can't imagine. I'll be pissed. I won't stop being able to think about it. And now you're telling me I've got to put all that to the side and refocus for an online qualifier. And it's just like, man, that's hard. That's hard. Brian, what about the logistics of that?

So she doesn't – so let's talk about the dates real quick. Today is June 15th. When are the games? I think for individuals it starts July 26th or 7th. So for ease of conversation, let's say five weeks. Yep. And when are the last chance qualifiers? July 4th weekend.

Okay. So theoretically for Sam Briggs, if she decides to do that and then she qualifies, she basically has 20 days less because she's got to get there early, right? She's got to get there at least a couple of months early. If I'm an international athlete who's competing in the last chance qualifier, I'm doing that competition in the United States.

I'm already seeking any way to get here. If I think I can make it to the games, I'm not leaving travel up to chance after the last chance qualifier. I would be making all arrangements to get here already. I believe James Newberry has already done that, and I would advise anyone who thinks they have that chance to start researching it now and get here. Because if you don't, that's what I think you're about to ask.

You're running the risk of you might make it but not be able to be here for it. So if you want to go to the games and you haven't qualified but you still have a chance to qualify or if you just want to go to the games, period, now is the time to get your shit together and get over here regardless. Yeah, I mean obviously there's – If you're in the last chance qualifier, you should know that you're going to the games as a spectator or an athlete, right? Yeah, I mean, obviously there's a financial question

for certain athletes, and they might have families or jobs to consider, but if your ambition is to make it through the last chance qualifier and you don't already live in North America, I would recommend getting here. That's risky. Which part is risky, to not come now or to come now?

To come now is risky. And plus, if I were to do that and I didn't live in the United States, and the stress that would have on me is just unreal. Again, I can't imagine packing my bags, moving over here, getting here. I mean, it's out of your comfort zone.

You're in a place where you're probably not training, probably live in a completely different lifestyle. Um, it's just out of your comfort, the whole, the whole thing. And then banking, I mean,

it's not even, nothing's promised. Just the stress of all that. It stresses me out now thinking about people doing that. Yeah, I guess, I guess you both have good arguments. On one hand, Brian saying it would be really stressful to wait. And then let's say you qualify and then you can't come. And then on the other hand, it's really stressful to, to, you know, I think Brian and I were

talking on the phone yesterday. You have someone like Matt who has every aspect of his life dialed in, even the mattress he sleeps on, what temperature he makes his mattress, what he drinks in the morning. And you lose all that, right? Yeah, that stuff matters. Okay. So do you want to dig in here a little bit more i i got one more question brian about this when you see the scores in the um in the german throwdown you see the woman who is shit i hear an echo when you see someone like kristen holter who has 572 points and then you see this Jacqueline Dahlstrom with 552.

And then you see Katrin Doder with 468. Is that a huge blow to her? Is she tripping? I mean, Kristen Holder could have sat out an event and still beat her. Does she think – I mean, is that hard to go – I mean, we know Jasonason here won so he he's he comes into the games feeling very confident is that just like is that in her head now no no for katrin no not at all i mean you have to look at what the events were she snatched uh a weight

like more than that last barbell i can't remember is5 or 165. I think maybe 165 for the women. More than anyone else in the world, that's a huge win for her, I think. She managed a workout that had 60 ring muscle-ups in it, her single worst movement, and placed 7th in that competition. The workout at the end, that workout number 6 that she took 10th in, her worst finish, that's one that Jason took 8th in at his competition. And we know that that's just a matter of seconds and milliseconds and whatever. So that's not really.

They didn't have to move the bar forward. They didn't have to move the bar forward. But if you look at the times, first place was 234. She was on 10th at 253, so 19 seconds. So it's about two seconds per position. So it's not like she did badly on that workout. It's just such small fine margins so i think overall a lot of upper body pulling um a couple things that are not not necessarily the best for her and she's still solidly in a game spot the

whole weekend plus she's not i don't think she's been worried about this the qualifiers um for years now i think she feels very confident she can get to the games and i think that she'll probably if she doesn't beat Kristen at the game, she'll probably be within touch of her more so than she was in semifinals. Jason, were you alluding to the fact that you lost count of your bars moving it forward? Is that your crack? No. After the fifth round, we had to move our bar forward for the remaining rounds and i'm saying

that took probably two or three seconds so that's i mean i'm not saying i would have won i saw some times on there like i think i saw 218 so it's like yeah yeah but those guys are five foot six five foot seven and you're talking about taking a bar from the ground overhead 30 times and getting your body on the ground and back up 30 times, where if you have 6, 7, 8 inches more that you have to travel, that takes two or three more seconds every round to do those three reps. I mean, I'm not even going to attempt to do that workout. Brian, you're saying she, she snatched a one 65, which was the record in the world, but I don't see the only first place I see she got was in workout for. Yeah, that's it.

That's it. It was an AMRAP of snatches. Okay. And it, and it kept going up in weight. Yeah. So they got to 30 and then the final bar was just as many as you could do in remaining time.

So she did 21 times, which not only was the most for the women, but also tied the most for the men. Obviously, they had a heavier bar, but it was world record performance in that workout. It's interesting because I'm looking at this, and man, Kristen Holtz really put it to her. Has anyone ever taken – do the Games winners usually win their regional semifinals, whatever the event is, before the games. Yeah, I think we talked about that, especially on the men's side. I think it was 15 or 16 of the last 21 podium winners have been first in their semifinal, and 20 out of 21 have finished in the top three in their regional or semifinal.

So my question to you is, do you think she's worried? And you said no. Now let me change the question up a little bit. Should she be worried? Depends what her goal is at the games. If she's trying to get on the podium at the games this year, yeah, I think there's a lot of women she has to worry about. If she's trying to make it in the top five, it's a little bit easier,

but still going to be tough. If she just wants a top ten finish, I think she's still top ten in the world. Did you see anything in week three that makes you think that Tia has competition yet? No, no, no, no. But there are some girls that I think, based on what they did this past weekend, are definitely podium contenders that maybe haven't been the last year or two. Okay. Anything else from this German throwdown? Men or women?

Let's look at the men real fast. Oh, that's great to see Janikowski at the top. Wow. Yeah, people don't realize he's still only 26 years old he seems like a veteran but he's potentially like the best he's ever been um he did it very very well here he had one slip up in that snatch workout otherwise he was first or second in in all the events but like i said the men in europe are not the same as the women in europe where there's a lot of depth and experience for the women there's a lot of these new young guys coming up for the men. If you look at the other four qualifiers in his division,

and even if you go down to ninth place, the next eight guys would have been rookies at the games this year. So on the other side, there were a few more veterans in the other draw, the lowlands, but he did what he needed to do here. He should have won this competition, and he did, and he did it emphatically, and that's perfect for him. I recognize this name, Lucas Esslinger. He's a veteran, correct? And he took 22nd place. What happened to him?

Yeah, I wasn't sure where he was at with his training this year coming in. I don't think he's – I think he's got some other stuff going on in his life. I still had, out of respect respect projected him in the top 10, but, um, I'm not that surprised that he didn't, didn't do that well. You don't have respect. Spock doesn't have respect. Well, just the name respect. I didn't know. I didn't really know what he's been doing training wise. Um, and so if he made the top five, I wouldn't have been surprised by that either. And so I felt like giving him an 8, 9, 10 ranking was appropriate because it could have gone either way. So in the games before, Janikowski's won games events, right?

Yeah, usually longer events or swimming events. And that's always impressive to have on the resume. And you're saying that workout four was the barbell one, and that was the one he struggled with the most. So it seems like whatever weaknesses he's had in the past, he might still have. Maybe the heavy lifting. I mean, if there's a heavy lifting event at the games, just seeing what other men have done in heavy, especially snatching events,

he's going to take a hit there for sure relative to the field, but, um, he's the type of guy, like you said, who can make up for that by winning, you know, one or two workouts or having top three finishes in a couple of them as well. Um, if you guys want to complain in the YouTube comments, that was actually, uh, Jason, you heard breathing and drinking. That wasn't me, my throat for the first time ever in the show, uh, guzzling something. So make all your negative comments to Jason. Thank you, Jason. That's why he's here to take some of the negative comments away.

Dude, I had brought a – I forgot it in the refrigerator. You're welcome to. I'm not going to go get it. But I was going to go – I was going to bring a Milky Way out and let this whole thing be sponsored by Milky Way. Stefan's shirt and vest combo is also kind of a Milky Way combination. You hate me, don't you, Jason? Dude, it was 29 grams of added sugar.

Just throw it in a blender and drink it real quick. Do you see anything on the men's side? Do you see any podium finishers on the men's side here? Probably not. You know, the other four guys, like I said, are rookies like Lazar,

Lazar Jukic. We found out how to pronounce that. It's Jukic, not Dukic and his brother, both qualified. They're brothers.ic, not Dukic. And his brother both qualified. They're brothers? Oh, wow. 25 and 22.

All these guys are under 26 years old. I think Lazar is probably the best. Iona and Lazar, I would say, have a top 10 potential at the games. The other guys, while I think they're all really good, and I'm excited to see them there for a variety of different reasons, I don't think that they will be threatening the top 10 this year. I really like Koski just because, I mean, one, he's great to interview. He's always nice. He's full of smiles, but also he has that early lineage

from Miko Salo, which makes him. So his, do you know the girl, Amelia Lepanen is his girlfriend, longtime girlfriend? And so they've both qualified together this year. Let me see what place. Oh, and she took fourth. Incredible. Incredible. I wonder if that's a distraction.

Oh, and he's dating an older woman. She's a whopping 34. She's eight years older than him. And she seems to be struggling with the same thing also. Yeah. The snatch. Interesting. Okay, anything else you want to throw in here on this German Throwdown before we move on?

Let's go to the lowlands. Yeah. Okay, just like you said, BKG won. So BKG won. And look, BKG and Yonikoski, to me, right now, are the class of the men in Europe. They were in separate semifinals. Like I said, they should have won those competitions.

It doesn't mean it's easy to. He didn't win by a ton of points. It was very tight for the top four or five men there. But he did very well. Adrian Munville finishing second is great news because I thought he was dealing with a knee injury coming out of quarterfinals. Obviously he's not to have a performance like this. He's been top 10 at the games before. Obviously, he's a veteran, and he's not that old either. He's still 28 in the, I would say, still in the competitive years for men in the sport. So both of those guys, I think, should be really happy with this. And again, definitely BKG, possibly Moonviller, but top 10 contenders at the games. And you see BKG open the weekend with an 11th place and had to dig himself out of that hole.

And I guess for a veteran, he had no issues doing it. No, he's not going to let one workout like that kind of affect him. That was that Friendly Fran workout, and I actually know he was a little bit disappointed with his time in that. But it's an under five-minute workout you know a mishap here there's not just not a lot of margin for air to make a comeback on a workout like that how many times has he gone to the games i think this is his eighth time his star was rising for a while what's the high he's been on the podium right yeah he's been on the podium, right? Yeah, he's been on the podium twice. 2015 and 2019.

Third both years. He just barely missed making the top five last year. He was eighth, but the guys that were 6, 7, 8, 9 were all within 15 points of making the top five. I wish that they had been able to take the top 10 because those guys were Chandler Smith, Yonikoski, BKG,

Pat Vellner, and Samuel Cornwaye, all five of whom I think could have, you know, made some significant impact on what the top five ended up looking at if they had the chance to compete. Yeah, that's amazing. Do you think that BKG would have, I know this is some pretty hardcore speculation, but do you think he would have taken second place if he went to the games last year where he beat Medeiros? Medeiros got third. Samuel Quant got second.

I think if those 10 men had been able to compete, now Vellner would have been injured because he was injured for stage one. So that's another question mark. But if Vellner were healthy, if all the 10 of those guys were healthy competing last year, I would have projected the podium as probably Fraser, Vellner, BKG. But that's not knowing how good Medeiros could have been. Now knowing how good he was, I think he still could have taken third amongst the field of 10. All righty. And let's cruise over to the women at the Lowlands Throwdown. I see the familiar name.

You should know all of these. Yeah, I definitely see the familiar name. Annie Thor's daughter in third place. And she did quite well. Wow. The top... Oh, there was a tie for third place. Why do they allow a tie for third place? Don't they then just basically add up all your finishes and whoever has

the smallest number take third place and they push the next person down? No, I think they go to best event finish. So Annie had a first and Gabby had a first. Then they each had a second, but then Annie's next best finish was another second and Gabby's was a third. So Annie will finish ahead of her on the leaderboard. Okay, but they still put them tied for third.

I think it should say third and then fourth because I'm assuming they paid them out for third and fourth. It's different. And is this? If you have a tiebreaker, then you need to show that. Is this Annie's first comeback since she had the baby? Yep. So this is impressive what we're seeing. And she's 31 years old.

Yeah, and it's her, I think this is her 11th year, 11th time qualifying. So she only missed that one year, 2020. Yeah. And Emma McQuaid dominated. Well, four points. I picked her to win this after I saw the workouts. I actually got the top four correct in order, and then five and six I had swapped. But those six women should have been the top six women here.

They're this best six here. Those are the ones where I said they all deserve to be at the games, and you said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean deserve? So now Karen Frey has to go earn it in the last chance qualifier, and we'll see if she can. Has anyone who qualified for the last chance qualifier said they're not doing it yet? I haven't really been paying attention to that too much.

There's a lot of other things going on that are more like happening sooner. Priorities. It's interesting here also. Laura Horvath is 24 years old. First place is 31. Emma Annie is 31. She's interesting here also Laura Horvath is 24 years old. First place is 31. Emma, Annie's 31. She's in third. Oh, and then you get to Gabriella is only 22.

Holy cow. She was a teenage competitor at the Games a few years ago. And she's dating Christoph Horvath which is Laura Horvath's brother. And she trains with Jacqueline Dahlstrom, who finished second in the other one. I'm saying wow not because she's dating him, but because you know that stuff. That's like TMZ stuff.

That's right up my alley. Could you imagine? Do you think that's a distraction, having your mate at the games, Jason? Or do you think that's a plus? Competing? Yeah. As well? I think it would be a distraction.

It's just one of those things that you have to, like, you're going to make sure you watch her. You know, you're going to have to be with her, like, I don't know. I can't imagine thinking about anything else other than my own events. And if your mate loses or does poorly or has a crash or an injury. Yeah, you got to be there. Yeah, that's heavy. What do you think, Brian?

What happens if you would have, what if, what if you win an event and then she does it and she comes in the last place and then now you're carrying your confidence and like, I guess her discouragement. And yeah, her emotional burden. So,

I don't know. Yeah. If you win and she takes the last place, you hide in the locker room. You don't come out. Well, I think that that's actually a conversation you'd want to have ahead of time is basically each of you wants to bring a person to the games that's not each other so that you have either your coach or your friend or your dad or someone to go to, and she has someone to go to.

That's the understanding that could happen. It probably will happen where one of you has a great event. One of you doesn't. And then you have someone there for you, but you don't necessarily have to be that burden on the other one. And you guys know this is a week we have to compete and we'll be there for each other Monday. Monday?

Yeah. The day after the games. Yeah. I mean, dude, Fraser never even shared a hotel room with Sammy when they were there. He didn't want to see her during the competition. He was that focused. When you look at all these people who are doing well, is there anything in common you've seen with their training?

Like, do they all follow Chris Henshaw's running, or do they all wear, do they all train barefoot? Is there any common elements that you're seeing, Brian, this year at the games? There are a lot of athletes that, there's a lot of, no, nothing that's that uniform across all of their training, except in this case, especially for the women, that they've been doing it for a while. But they have different programs they follow, different methods for training in groups or individually or whatever. But there was a big group of, I mean, in Europe, a lot of the athletes did congregate to do these workouts. Oh, you mean like show up at the same gym and do them together and film them together?

Yeah, like I said, Gabby Magala,acqueline dollstrom adrian monviller there may have been two or three others down there matilda garns in mallorca spain they were all doing the workouts at the same gym bkg annie frederica gidius they did them together a bunch of the uk athletes who train under jsd competes program they all did them in the same location so that was definitely happening um sometimes they would go head-to-head. Sometimes one person would go and then another would go. But they were definitely drawing off of each other and trying to support each other with the people that they either train with or have good relationships with.

How did Frederick do? Not so well. He took a huge penalty on workout number two. I think he had posted the best time in all of Europe on that workout. And then he took, I think it was a two minute major penalty. And the penalties is one of the things I was alluding to before Jason got on here as a thing that I think they could clean up a little bit because they were, from what I understand, they were very forthright in their communication with the athletes, especially about that workout that they were going to be looking

for very strict standards on the dumbbell. You have 300 dumbbell reps in the workout and three different movements that you have to do. So they were very clear. And then I think the athletes I talked to who received those penalties, they weren't surprised. In fact, Annie Thorisdottir knew that she was going to get a penalty, so she redid the workout and still had a great time on it the second time she did it. But they were proactive, and they submitted the first video and said, is this good enough? Because they weren't sure.

And they said, no, you're going to get a penalty for that. So she had time, and she did it again. That's workout number two? That was workout number two? Yeah. He didn't. He took a huge hit there. I think he ended up finishing pretty poorly on that one,

and I just don't think he recovered from that mentally, to have the fire to push the way that he would have otherwise the rest of the week. That's kind of personal assumption. What do you guys think of that? What do you think about that, Jason? I'm going to make a little bit of an assumption here, but you have a couple, Frederick Agidius and Annie Thor's daughter. They're working out together. They're a couple. She knows that her workout may have not fallen within the guidelines of the workout and the strictness of the judging. So she redoes it and takes first.

I'm guessing he chose not to redo it and take 10th. And now she's going to the games and he's not. Are you asking what I think about that? Brian, did he know? I'm assuming he saw Annie redo it. I wonder why he didn't redo it. There's a possibility he didn't have the time to, depending on when he chose to do that within the 24-hour period.

Do you think it's fair they get to redo the workouts? This isn't the open. No. I would say no. I think that they need to... If he would have came in first in that workout, would he have still made the games? That is a good question. He's like 100 points out.

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you want to try to emulate the live competition feel as much as possible. So I liked that they had passwords that you had to say to activate the workout or something like that, but it wasn't as stringent as I would have liked it to have been. So I would like to see them have to say, okay, I'm Jason Hopper. I'm doing workout one. The password is George. And now that I turned this app on, boom, as a blue checkmark, this is my one and only chance to do this workout.

Because at a live competition, you don't get to say, hold on, hold on, hold on. I think I can do better. Let me start over. What if you just said, what if you just turned the app on again and said password George again? This is my one. It activates one time for one user and then it becomes obsolete. Oh, and is the password to show that they did it within the timeframe of the event

and they didn't just submit an earlier recording? Maybe that. The other question is if you have two workouts that you have to do in the 24-hour timeframe, do you care what order the workouts are done in? I think we've had this conversation about quarterfinals. I think it should matter because doing the four at max front squat at the start of the week is very different than doing it as the fourth event out of six. And so did they give guidelines on that? Did you have to do them in order? I don't think so. I think you just had the 24-hour window to do those two workouts,

and then they wouldn't release the passwords for the next ones until the next window opened up. So you couldn't do that thing with the four-rep max front squat. But with the two workouts in that first window, second window, third window, you had a little bit of leniency still. So they tightened it up some from the quarterfinals, but not as much as I would like to see when you're talking about qualifying for the games. In a way, I see your point because it emulates the game is more buddy move out of the shot only only close people on the shot

um uh thank you um i see what you're saying on one hand uh brian um but on the other hand it's it's also adds a strategy component you you're saying it should and you like the idea of being more strict because it emulates the games and in-person competition but in the other uh i see what you're saying now you don't have consistency between the people who are doing it in person and the virtual is that what you're saying well yeah but basically it's like if i'm competing against jason in this competition and i choose to do my workouts i mean there's still yeah there's still a strategy component component but if i choose to do my workouts early within the time window and there's an opportunity

to redo them then i get an opportunity to you know maybe do what annie did submit a video ask a question and make a decision if jason's like, man, I'm used to training at night. I know I can do my best stuff at night. It is pushing the end of the window, but I'm going to take that risk and go for it. That's on him a little bit. But then the other question is why can he do workout two before workout one and I can do workout one before workout two? You never have that choice in live competition.

in live competition. Another interesting part is that I've only heard people complaining about the virtual competitions, that they would prefer to do it in person. I haven't heard anyone say it the other way around, but Annie sure took advantage of that. I don't say that with negative connotation and made it work for her. I know there are some athletes that chose to put the Atlas Games, for example, in North America as their first choice because they feel better about competing online. Or in the case of some of the athletes, they have a child that's due this week, and so being at home was much more favorable for them than potentially having to travel. And more cost efficient.

Sure. All right. And is there anything to talk about here in the great country of brazil yeah i think definitely well then go say it i think the four the four athletes that made it two of them are brazilian one man and one woman two are argentinian one man and one woman, two are Argentinian, one man and one woman, are the correct and best representatives of that continent right now in our sport. They're all kind of young. I would say they're all a little bit slighter, smaller athletes, which is fine.

But their performances actually stack up, especially Larissa Cunha from Brazil. Someone at the Morning Chalk wrote about it today. Her performances actually stack up really well against the European women, and that's impressive because we already know how good and well-established a lot of those ladies from Europe are. And I'm sure she's looking at that and excited too, right? She knows she took first, but then when she compares it to those guys, she's like, oh, shit, I can hang with the big dogs.

This isn't a fluke. Yeah, and this is what you want. I mean, we know that there's not five or ten Brazilian women that can compete at the Games, or South American women that compete at the Games yet. But they have some that can, and they have a huge support system. South America, you know, they're crazy about their sports and their athletes. And Brazil, I think, is the second largest CrossFit community after the United States right now in the world in terms of affiliates at least.

And maybe even open participation. I'm not sure. So they'll have tremendous support and they'll be a great addition to the – when you want to have a global feel at the games, you want to have some representatives from those countries. And the fact that they're also good and capable enough to like show out and do well um that's really brazil is bigger than the uk or australia or uh italy or canada that's what i think i'm not i'm not sure about that but i think that they're in the top three yeah um and and basically earlier you said that what you would have liked to have seen and usually you don't use words like what you would have liked, but you said you would have liked to have seen one Brazil

and one Argentinian from both sides, and you kind of got your wish. Yeah, there's definitely a bit of a battle there, but I think that both countries have strong games quality athletes, and they'll get a chance to prove that now, both the men and the women. So, yeah, I am happy about that. Jason, did you do any of these workouts? I did the row legless. Which one was that one?

Fifth? Five, workout five. Yeah. I did that on Saturday night, actually, by myself. You know he likes to go long, Savan. Of course, he chose the longest one. How did you do in it? I can't tell you.

And why can't you tell us that? Well, don't tell us your time. Did you feel like you executed the workout well? Well, yeah, I think I did pretty well. That was my third workout or fourth workout that day um i had worked out in am the games training i did like 50 strict vested pull-ups and so i had no like this was not in the plans to do this i got a text message from some dudes jr and taylor were texting me and like hey we should do this. I got a text message from some dudes, Jr and Taylor were texting me and like, Hey, we should do this blah, blah, blah, blah, Wednesday. And I was like, I'm not doing anything

now. I'm just going to drive to the gym and buckle up and do it. So I did it. I felt good. It was the rafter, like a two hour nap, man. And then I completely forgot. As soon as I started pulling on the rower, I was like, crap, I could feel all of these pull-ups right now. And then I did one legless, and I said, crap, I can really feel all of these pull-ups right now. It was also super, like, humid in there, man. I was, like, slipping everywhere when I was trying to handstand walk. My dog was following me on the handstand walk, licking my nose when I was upside down. So you got a DNF? You got time capped?

No, I finished. I would say minus the dog licking your face, all of those things are good things to practice under that kind of fatigue and environments to get ready for the games. For sure. And it's no surprise that JR asked you to do the legless rope climb workout, is it? No surprise. He thinks he's better than me at legless. That's a crazy thing. So, Jason, you're at home just chilling, woke up from a nap. You have no intention of going to the gym,

and these two guys call you and are like, hey, you want to do this workout? And you just jump in your car and go do it? Yeah, so I trained that a.m. I went and took a two-hour nap my wife was hanging out with a bunch of friends that night woke up i woke up to like a bunch of text messages from jr and taylor and they had sent me what jacob heppner posted on instagram like did this workout before they released all their times on the internet so all all they, all we got was his time.

And so I was like, I'm going to try to go beat Jacob Heppner. And I was like, sure. Woke up, um, and went and did it. It was,

I regretted going there in the middle of the 2000 meter row. That's honest. Why don't you do them all or when you see this, is any part of you like, hey, this is what it's going to look like at the games, I should do all these? Or this is programming from HQ and I should...

How do you decide to do these or not do these? Well, I want to do the 30 ring muscle-ups to start a workout just because I think that would be good training to jump into. Potentially that could be a thing, 30 ring muscle-ups into a workout at the game. So I think I'll do that. Other than that, I mean, I don't really see the need to do friendly frame. I've done it before, like when they released it last year for the games.

And I know that hurts really badly. So I don't want to do that again. And I don't know. It's just not in the training, I guess. There's some other things that I want to prioritize. And that one was just, I don't know. I don't even know why I did that. I would just wake up.

I was tempted. That's what I was., I don't know. I don't even know why I did that. I would just wake up. I was tempted. That's what I was. And so I did it. But no, nothing on these, none of these workouts is like, I need to do these. Except the 30 ring muscle. I know enough about the Bible to know that you were using some Bible vernacular there. You were tempted. Tempted.

I was tempted. Jason, I can't remember't remember i apologize do you have a coach yeah his name is jared would you do you tell do you ask him before you do that like do you call him and be like hey i'm about to do something crazy i'm done today but i'm going back or no yeah i did yeah okay um yeah he was fine with it and plus we were we we let it train volume so it's still a good workout like i said like like brian said like doing those workouts under fatigue like 12 leg lists all the all that hands a lot of handstand walking too yeah a lot of hands 120 meters yeah so it's uh it was good to just get the work in but no he didn't really care i also don't do them because i don't want to compare my times with anybody like i'm feeling pretty confident about my fitness after that competition a couple weeks ago so i don't want that to i don't want to to do these workouts and me like be not make the games if i had tried to add up all my points and

whatnot and be like oh wow i'm not gonna i'm not gonna win and i'm gonna get beat by all the europe field you know so i was just like i'm not even gonna worry about that even and there's no way you can simulate the motivation and tell me if i'm wrong guys but there's no way you can simulate the motivation and tell me if i'm wrong guys but there's no way you can simulate the motivation in your situation because you've already made it to the gym to the games and these guys they have a real tangible pressure on them and you and you just can't simulate that right like yeah for sure and i work out better in person with everybody so it's's like me going to a workout after a nap and by myself on a rainy day with my dog is not going to help me much. Do you plan on taking naps at the games?

Yeah, dude. I took a nap in between every single event two weeks ago. Just at the venue? I think that's awesome. If you can do that, I think it's awesome. On a cot? No, I went home in between. They gave us like four hours, so I was like, all right.

That's awesome. Brian, is it okay if we move to next week? Yep, definitely. The West Coast Classic is the big one, right? That's where we want to spend most of our time yeah i mean look the asia um honestly there's not that much to say about it there are a couple people there especially men like roman krennikoff and haynes um maybe alexander illion or stas soledov that are interesting to talk about but most of the women they don't have a

lot of competition experience. A couple of them have been to the games as national champions. So in terms of Asia, I don't really have too much to say. I more want to see what happens and see if I think the people who qualify, like the Brazilians and Argentinians, can be competitive and good representatives for Asia at the games. But I think better to talk about that one after it happens. The Atlas Games, the men's field is ridiculously loaded. It's just as stacked, if not more so, than the West Coast Classic. So we could talk about that, but they're doing all the workouts we know from this past week. The West Coast Classic is more interesting because it's a very impressive field, especially on the men's side and a new slate of work. Let me,

let me just go back to one more thing. I guess we can talk about it now in terms of the virtual event. So these guys are all these two virtual events this week. They're going to do the same workouts we saw last week. And how would Jay, how would Jason Hopper have done in the virtual events when you see his performance? What would have been your guess? My guess is that –

Would he have qualified? It depends on what field he's competing against. But, yeah, I think that he would have done well. Give me numbers, Brian. Would he have qualified in any of those divisions? I think he would have done well. Are there any of those virtual events that you think he would not have qualified in last week

no I think he would have qualified easily in all of those competitions last week are you saying that just because I'm right here Brian I'll give you more information after we hang up

and that's really just a question I'll give you more information after we hang up. And that's really just a question for the next real big question, which is really what this whole podcast is about. How would Travis Mayer have done if he would have gone to the – if he would have been in the virtual competition? Was there anywhere you think he would not have qualified? Travis was – I mean, he was very impressive to me. All the guys, I said, all the guys in the top four there at the mid-atlantic who I was very impressed with and I feel like they all have top 10 potential at the games and if you have top 10 potential at the games you should have top

five potential in any semi-final you're slotted into so I would feel confident that they would be right there in the top three of just about any semi all four of those guys i would tell you this i hate online competition it's like my kryptonite like absolutely despise so don't be just don't be surprised if i win the games this year and i then i finished like 200th in the open next year it's it's a possibility. And that's not just him. And actually, there's been a lot of massive disparity between quarterfinal performance and semifinal performance. The interesting thing is, in some cases, it's someone like Ariel Lowen, who's like 90th

in quarterfinals and wins her semifinal. In other cases, there's guys like Reggie Fassa and Simone Montilla who were first and second in Europe in the quarterfinals against all the Europeans, but finished 13th and 14th in their semifinal, which was also an online competition. So you've had some much better in quarterfinals and semis and some the other way around. So all this is telling me is that the quarterfinal performance

is not indicative of semifinal success. And if CrossFit's using that to seed the competitions, they can't. They need to use some different metric next year because it's obviously not a good correlate. Ooh, there's a lot to unpack there. Let me just ask you this one question all right why isn't it a good correlate how else would you do it now they have said that there there were other things that they considered um in in terms of seeding those athletes so how else would you do it and i don't even know i don't

actually know their process so it's difficult for me to be critical of it. But when I look at the fields, I feel based on the historical knowledge I have of the athletes competing that there are some fields that are significantly stronger or weaker in terms of depth than others. I'll give you an example for the team competition that's coming up. Already your argument's losing weight because you started with, let's talk about the teams, but go on. Okay, okay. For the West Coast Classic, they have 10 teams that are ranked 33rd

or better in the quarterfinals. At the Atlas Games, they have 10 teams that are ranked 61st or worst at the semifinals. 11 teams. 12 teams that are 58th or worse. And they only have 6 teams that are better than the 10th best team at the West Coast Classic, based on quarterfinals alone. I don't know why that is. In the case of the individuals, there's nothing that's that dramatic.

But that's because I think at some point they just got like halfway down the field and then they just started circle seating them 61 over here, 62 over here, 63, 64, 65, 67, um, with the remaining people after their first criteria. But again, I don't know enough about how that actually happened. I'm just looking at the field of athletes and I've, and I don't think that it's a very unrealistic thing to say that some of the fields are much more competitive than others. Most of this podcast I've had your face covered, Brian, I cannot lie, because I have another window open with the games leaderboard and stuff.

So I just slid it over to look at you, and let's take a small break to talk about this trophy on your desk. What is that? Oh, this was all the marbles trophy. I play this game with my friends, and I've never won it before. So they told me I had to feature it prominently on something this week. So I'm featuring it right here. What's your day job, Brian?

I coach at a CrossFit gym. Oh, no shame. Jason just putting a dagger in your heart. right here. What's your day job, Brian? Coach at a crossfit gym. Oh, no shame. Jason just putting a dagger in your heart. Just straight to you. What do you do? Do you live in your mom's basement, Brian? Like, what's going on here? I don't know. Coach at a gym and I live on my own. Thanks, guys. And he's a professional all the

marbles player. What is the all the marbles game? What is the game? It's called Seven Wonders. The trophy is basically a joke, and this is kind of a joke. But I introduced the game to them. We've played like 20 times, and I've never won. And they say that I don't win because they are chaos. They don't play the game the way most people would play it,

so I can't predict their behavior. But somehow this past weekend I won, and now I have the trophy until the next time. I still don't know what the game is. Is it arm wrestling? Is it like? It's a board game. It's a board game.

Gotcha. Now it's making sense. Does Savan pay you to talk more than he does on his own show? This is the only episode, probably one of the few episodes I've talked more than him. I normally don't let him talk. If he's talking more than me, that means I got lazy.

And Brian actually knows something. He probably knows more about the games than anyone alive. And I probably know the least. So, okay, Brian, um, let's dig into this, uh, men and women in the West coast classic. Oh, before we start with Jason qualified these, is this feel too deep? He would, I would be more, I would be more concerned about him in the online virtual atlas games i would not be concerned about him for the west coast classic the only the only workout

at the west coast classic i don't know his capacity for is the um 9 10 11 12 strict deficit handstand push-up workout everything else i think he'd be just fine and that is the question about jason hopper right because the semi-ifinals that he was at only had four. Not deficit. There were 40 total, so the volume's not much different, but the deficit and the volume per set are different.

I've just never seen him do that, so that's the only thing I don't know. I guess that would be a surprise. Or not. It might not show thing I don't know. Well, I guess that would be a surprise. Or not. It might not show up. We never know. They said the same thing about the ring muscle-ups, too. And before we dig in so I don't forget, tell me about my Armenian brother here,

Tyler Toussagnon from Lumberyard CrossFit. Does he have any chance in hell? He was a backfill. He finished 127th in the quarterfinals. He has been close to the games before. He used to compete against Brent Fikowski in Western Canada. I think he missed by either one or two spots in a year that Fikowski also missed by one or two spots. But he hasn't done anything recently to make me think that he can threaten.

I think he'll be in the bottom ten of this. So he's not living in Canada anymore? Or he is? I'm not sure. I don't know. When I see Armenian in Canada, I think immigrant. I have a lot of family there. Okay, who's going to win this? Who are the top five for this West Coast Classic? This men's division?

Are we talking about Atlas or West Coast? You keep going back and forth. Now we're back at West Coast Classic. Unless you want to stay with Atlas. Unless you want to stay at Atlas, Brian. I'm sorry. You lead. I follow.

Jason, pipe down. West Coast Classic. Yeah, let's talk about the top five. I see Noah Olsen, Spencer Panchik's in the group, pipe down. West Coast Classic. Yeah, let's talk about the top five. I see Noah Olsen, Spencer Panchik's in the group, Alex Smith. There are a lot of good guys here. There are seven former games athletes. There are three former teenage athletes, two of which have won in the teenage division, but they're all at least two years removed from it,

and they're pretty good. And there's a couple guys that should have been in the teenage division, but they're all at least two years removed from it, and they're pretty good. And there's a couple guys that should have been at the games or could have been at the games if things had gone just very, very slightly differently. Like Tolo Morikino actually qualified last year but did not get to compete because of the way that it had to be reshuffled to accommodate the worldwide situation. There's a couple guys who were competing on teams the last couple years that are making back an individual run this year and there's a couple guys like sarin suvinasi and matt delugos that most people won't know too much about or matt poolin or dylan pettit

that are i've heard of actually that suvinasi and dylan pettit are pretty good and competitive and it just makes this feel like i was at the, you know, I'm going to release my top 20 rankings later in the week. And I was at spot 20 and I still was like trying to choose between three or four guys. Cause it was that deep. Um, Siren's a picture. I wonder if that's really him.

He looks like he's 12 years old. I mean, he is only 22, but man, he looks young. Well, James, James Hobart has a picture of a,

a transformer on his profile. How about Will Morad and Sean Sweeney? Will Morad, I've been told, has been dealing with some nagging injuries this year. But he's been training down at the Proven Camp with Tia and Brooke and Alex Smith and Street Horner and all those guys. So it's pretty competitive. I actually think John Colty has been training with him too. He's a former games athlete, one-time games athlete. Didn't do great at the games, but he looks shredded in everything I've seen. So I'm kind of curious to see how those guys do, but I actually don't have either of them within the top 10.

And Cole Sager? Cole Sager, he's notorious for making these competitions to qualify for the games way closer than they need to be. I think, and I'm hoping that he's past that. I mean, he should be first, second, or third, no matter where he's seated, pretty much. I mean, if he gets a draw like Mack, where there's four guys that are that good,

maybe he's fourth or fifth. But he shouldn't have a problem qualifying for the games if he's going to be competing for a top-ten spot at the games. So I've got him seated second behind Noah Olsen in this field, and I hope that he has a performance that's indicative of the fact that he's a veteran in the sport now. He's made the game six or seven times, and he should be winning these competitions

and honestly coming into Sunday without too much stress. So you've revealed you've got Noah number one, Cole number two. Who do you have number three, four, and five? I mean, I've gone back and forth on this a lot, but I don't think I'm going to change anything between now and then. I still have Sean Sweeney up there. I think that he's really good in this format. He's won regionals before. He's a veteran. I don't think he has too many holes in his game, and I think that there's a couple workouts here that can expose some other people,

so I think he'll be fairly consistent. I think these workouts are amazing for Jake Berman. He trains with Noah Olson, and I'm putting him fourth. And then I have Spencer Pancik in the fifth spot right now. I originally had him outside the top 10, but just some stuff I've kind of learned and people I've talked to in the last two weeks or so make me feel that he, even though it's a really competitive field, that this might be one of his best chances to make the games, actually. Have you ever, have the three brothers best chances to make the games actually have you

ever have have three brothers ever made it to the games all in the same year the panchic brothers not in the same year no but the anderson brothers three of them did make it but over different years okay and has spencer ever been to the games no no so this is and he hasn't even he really he's been close through the sanctional circuit like maybe maybe one or two spots out, but he was never that close in the regional format. But that was three years ago and he's still young. And even though his brother did make it, you know, that through the regionals, you know, I think that Spencer's developed as a, as an athlete and, and even a young man a lot in the last three years to the point where he's much more competitive now. 5'8", 180 pounds. Man, I would love to see all three of them go.

Is this Scott's last year? I don't know. But I think it's his best chance to podium. Aren't we trying to get one of those guys on the podcast? Which one are we trying to get? I don't know. What's the, what's the, which one are we trying to get? I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. Uh, what Spencer's twin brother's name who won the event? Zaxxon. Zaxxon or Saxxon? Saxxon. Yeah. Yeah.

We were trying to get Saxxon. You're right, man. And, uh, we were trying to get Danielle Brandon and we haven't gotten her yet. And who else? There was one more.

Oh, and, and Mallory and Mallory O'Brien. I'm writing their names down so i can yell at the producer is there anything you want to say about this um anymore before we switch to the women at the west coast classic um i just just want to say like just on the outside i've got dylan pepper cedric lapointe and brandon luckett and all three of these guys i think have definitely potential to finish in the top five i'm extremely excited to see dylan pepper compete especially um he's a beast 6162215 a big guy at only 19 years old but he's very good i was like i was it was hard for me to leave him out of

the top five but i just need to see him it's kind of like like uh jason like i knew that he had the chance based on what people had told me but i hadn't seen him do it yet so it's hard it's hard to make that move as a you know projection when you haven't seen it happen yet whatever dude how'd you even hear about me tell me the people that were telling you things yeah i want to hear too i know it is uh the reason i i think i've said this before i knew i saw came across that competition from crucible and i saw the names of people that you'd beaten so i reached out to a couple people of those guys that were there that you beat that i already knew from traveling around the Sanctional Circuit.

And I said, who is this guy? And they said, oh, he's good. And then I said something about it on a podcast. And then JR reached out to me. And he's like, no, yeah, that wasn't a mistake. He's really good. Did JR tell you that he was better than him or did JR say he was better than Jason? JR said that Jason was better at everything except

for one thing ah the rope climbs okay let's move over to the women here uh daniel go ahead he probably told you about about that 12 months ago didn't he oh it was only two months ago we started talking we've only done one legless since then and ask him what happened about it hey are you disappointed in what what happened to your buddy um that you were mentioning in the podcast we did with you taylor taylor yeah what happened he came out a little too hot on event one event two thrusters run. I think he got 19th in the 19th. He was leading the first, like, four minutes.

I mean, he came out, like, trying to, like, crush everybody. And it just was not the best way to go about that. I think that he— Well, that workout was interesting because mal o'brien did the same thing and she was able to hang on and on the opposite side you had tim paulson and alessandra pachelli who started slow but closed the gap and passed almost anyone by the end so maybe taylor thought he had it but that event singularly kept him out of the game yeah i talked to him a little bit and it did keep him out of the games i talked to him a little bit and he just wasn't he wasn't

able to to attack after that he was very just paranoid about you know attacking it was basically being safe like don't screw this one up don't screw this one up don't screw this one up um and so i'm not he's mad um so hopefully he could squeeze in with the last chance qualifier um he works so hard dude he wants He wants it so bad. Like I said, me and him go back and forth in training. So I want him to make it, man. He wants it.

Awesome. Okay, back to the women over here. West Coast Classic, Daniel Brandon, Reagan Huckabee. I didn't even know she was still competing. Carrie Pierce. Danny Spiegel. Go, Brian.

I think it's not as deep as a field at the men's field. It's more top heavy. I think Carrie Pierce, Daniel Brandon, Danny Spiegel, and Bethany Shadburn deep as a field at the men's field that's more top heavy um i've you know i think carrie pierce daniel brandon danny spiegel and bethany shadburn are they're pretty likely to make the games here and then there's another four women that i think will be battling for that last spot lauren fisher christine best meg reardon and reagan huckabee so and all eight of these are games veterans um so i think you're going to see more you know I don't think you're going to see a lot of new names in this women's field at West Coast, but those top eight women should be fairly competitive for the last spot or two. Is Carrie Pierce the best in the group?

the best in the group? I don't know if she'll beat all of them at the games this year, but I think with this set of workouts that she should probably win. I think her biggest threat will be Danielle Brandon. So I want to be surprised if those two are kind of like 50 points clear of third place who's 50 points clear of fourth and fifth and sixth place or something like that. So Danielle Brandon's that good, huh? Yeah, yeah. I think she's that good, huh? Yeah, yeah. I think she's very good.

She's strong. She's great at gymnastics. Yeah, I think she's pretty well-rounded. Because she presents – it's interesting. She presents – when I see – when I see someone and compare her to someone like, say, Tia's Instagram versus Daniel Brandon's Instagram, Daniel Brandon seems so much more – I don't want to say lackadaisical, but chill. Let's just say chill, right? And you see someone like Tia and you see she's serious as a heart attack, at least how it presents to me on Instagram.

And so then I just see, I just always just imagine after watching Danielle Brandon that she's strictly doing this for fun. But I guess no one at this level is now doing it strictly just for fun, right? I mean, how would you categorize Noah Olsen's Instagram? That's a good point. That's a good point. He's actually a great blend of being very serious as a heart attack and having fun. So he's actually a great blend of that. Danielle recently was on Arm & Hammer's podcast,

and she was basically saying, we haven't been getting enough credit, the girls out here in Vegas, and we're going to send a message at the West Coast Classic. That's Carrie, Danielle, and Bethany Shadburn. So they feel a little bit hard done by, I guess, with the media coverage this year, and they have kind of a little bit of a chip on their shoulder and something to prove this weekend. That's at least the message. That's how it sounded to me who's the who's the i heard

bethany and daniel bannon who is the other one carrie pierce okay hey man i mean i i don't understand how anyone could possibly overlook carrie pierce i mean she's the only hope america is carrie pier going to win this? I'm picking her first, Danielle second, Danny Spiegel third, Bethany Shadburn fourth, and the fifth one is really tough. I'm torn, like really torn between Lauren Fisher and Christine Best for the fifth spot. When I think of Lauren Fisher, I don't see her as a games athlete anymore. Why is that?

I see her as… Because she's been competing on teams for the last couple years. But her team got second at the Games two years ago, the last time there was a team competition. Now, it was a super team, a very good team, but they still finished second and did very well. She's not that old. I think she can still be competitive.

She's won the West Regional before in her career. She's qualified from there a couple times. She's good in this format. She'll be comfortable out there. Here's the fascinating thing. She's always been an Invictus athlete, and now she's with Training Think Tank, and replacing her at Invictus is Danny Spiegel. So I don't know if there's any kind of tension there or drama or what,

but it is a little bit of a question mark for me who doesn't know much about it. Think Tank is the one that Travis belongs to, Travis Mayer. Yeah, and they've got several athletes competing out here. Noah Olsen, Jake Berman, and Kyle Bernier are now her training partners, and so she'll have a bunch of support at the competition. And I think Alexis Raptus trains with them too, who is also in the field for the women. So they've got a big contingency going. Invictus has a huge contingency going because their top two teams are competing.

Cedric's over as well. Oh, Cedric's also with Training Think Tank. That's right. Jason, did you ever compete on a team? No. And do you think – I know it's still early in your CrossFit career, but do you ever see yourself competing on a team? I don't think so.

Do you see the consistency there, Brian? Yeah, but I'm not – I don't put much stock in that answer. He shouldn't be thinking about that right now. Because he's too young. Yeah, but you got to ask him when they're young. And that's the normal answer. No, because he's thinking about the game. Wait, so what's the –

I think the normal answer is that most people, when they come into the sport as individuals, they don't ever picture themselves being on a team. I can't remember what Rich's early answers were, but I just – just from my general foggy memory, I don't ever remember asking an individual athlete in their early part of their career ever saying, oh, yeah, I would do team one day. They're usually like, I'm not doing teams. I'm not doing masters. I'm here. They're singularly focused. And I think it's healthy.

It used to trip me out, but I don't think there is any other way to think. Yeah, I haven't even thought about that, honestly. Were you invited to be on a team this year? Nope. Last year? Nope. Have you ever been invited to anyone's birthday party in your life? I'm looking for a data point where you did get invited to something.

Before I rule that out as just people don't like you and don't invite you to shit. Dude, I've been in this sport for four years, dude. No one knows who I am. Our six listeners know who you are. We got six, dude? We're live right now? No, we're not live.

You know, I think the podcast we did with you is one of the best podcasts we did in terms of sheer numbers dang really yeah and that's pretty cool and it was it's one of that's probably the only place on youtube where there's no negative comments you get a you get a um a little stipend from youtube for how many viewers you get oh yeah yeah we probably made like 32 dollars all right that's a whole meal the way i live so i probably made 32 bucks off that podcast give me about 10 10 of that lauren fisher has experience she's probably in her prime 27 is a prime prime age so you're saying it's totally misplaced my writing her off. And that it's probably just because she's been on the teams and I don't really stay focused on the teams.

I don't look at the teams. You're saying she's a serious threat. Yeah, I think she's definitely a games threat. And we've talked about it before. If you take a couple of years off individual competition, what are you doing during those years? And she's still been competitive in the sport. She's still been training.

She's still had intentions of doing well at competitions, traveling around the world and having success. So I think she's still very focused, very motivated, excited about doing individual competition this year. I'm expecting her to have a pretty good weekend. It's just Christine Best, Meg Reardon, Reagan Huckabee, they're also seasoned veterans that have had success in this format.

So it's not an easy ticket to the games by any means for her. Reagan Huckabee, 34 years old. I feel like she's been around forever. I just texted JR, Brian, and I said I'm talking about how bad you are at Legless, and he texted me and said, I'm the best you'll ever face.

Are there any of these other virtual... Are we done with the West Coast Classic here? I think so. I mean, it might be interesting to you that Brooke Wells' sister is competing. Oh, wow. Her twin sister? Uh-huh. Holy cow. That is a –

So I don't know how good she can be competitive wise but it's definitely a story and people will obviously be you know excited to see her out there competing and see how good she can do you didn't put her in the you didn't put her as your winner no no i got her about mid middle of the pack what's her name i'm i'm looking for her right now oh sydney wealth is this a uh is this new for her when did she get into crossfit she was the track girl too right she's the she's the one who i would see her in pictures with brooke and that was her track star sister yeah i mean they both ran track growing up together and then she stayed with it longer than Brooke. Brooke decided to pursue CrossFit. And I don't know, when I finished playing college sports, I was looking for something to do. I think it was probably maybe similar for her.

And this was an easy thing because her sister was already so heavily involved within it. So the transition made sense and she seems to be pretty good. I'm pretty impressed that she would dig in. You would think there'd be some intimidation factor factor. Her sister's got like what a five year headstart on her six year headstart on her and people are going to be comparing her to her sister. And, uh, that's pretty cool.

That's actually really cool. Do they train together? Hmm. I would guess they do, but I don't know for sure. She's part of Think Tank. Did you say Brooke is part of – where does Brooke train? She's in Nashville.

With Tia at Proven. And is Sydney over there at Proven? Jason? Jason seems to think so, yes. What about Allison Scuds? I just see her name pop up here in the West Coast Classic. She does a lot of demo. She was on the demo team at least once or twice,

and I've been out to the ranch on several occasions. Dude, Stevon, could you get me out to the ranch? Bring a bulletproof vest just in case he doesn't want you there. But, yeah, I can definitely want you there. But yeah, I can definitely get you on. I can drive by and just like back my truck. I wonder, I want to do a trail run just to say I did it.

Yeah. All right. Well, I'm going to call you after this and we'll set up a time. Any, anything, anything you want, anything you want,

as long as we get to keep your share of the $32, I'll probably charge you. I'll charge you $33 to go to the ranch. That way we don't have to exchange any money. Yeah, do that. You can actually – I think there's a place you can actually go on. There's a CrossFit gym there. I think it's called The Ranch.

And I think you can log on and you can sign up for a training session. And I think that the vast majority of them, Dave does. And I just don't think a lot of people do it. So they don't do it, but I, but I, I'm pretty sure. And I think everyone who goes there does the exact same workout and there's a leaderboard up there for that. I don't, I don't know if that's for sure, for sure. know if that's for sure for sure um but yeah i could i could i could like i could like somehow trick dave and not being at the ranch and then you and i sneak on yeah you're not you're not best friends no no we hate each other we hate each other i went when he's when he trains my

kid i just drop my kid off and run dude i saw your i saw your kids uh yesterday one of one of your kids smokes the other kid of the twins yes well one it's all just different motivations i don't know i don't you never know you never know i was no repping the crap out of your kid on those muscle-ups. Come on, man. Come on. At the top or at the bottom? Oh, at the top. He wasn't getting his butt to the ground. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That kid's only four. And that kid's got the big Jewish brain. He's all about thinking his way through workouts. The other two got the Armenian half of me. They do the work. Jewish kid's like, how can I be most efficient at this and get the prize at the end? Yeah, that kid is smart.

So does Allison have any chance of making it to the Games, Brian? I don't think so. I think that she's a good athlete, but I think the girls ahead of her are too good. All right. I bring her up because I know her. Is there anything else you want to talk about? For West Coast?

I think it's going to be some fun workouts. They're going to do the ruck run. I'm just curious to see how people handle that implement better. They should hopefully know how to use it more efficiently. I would not have some of the problems they had last time. I'm just going to ask if I could do that event just to do it. Do they have a demo team at these events like the CrossFit Games does? Do all of these events have demo teams?

Yeah. They have teams that test out the workouts, and then they will demonstrate the movements and the movement standards at athlete briefings. You should ask, Jason. They may let you test it. They probably won't let you in the event, but they may let you test it. Or you could just say you're going to be the rabbit. Jason, if you want to do – what day are you getting to Vegas, Jason? Thursday night.

I mean, it's not impossible that you could do it Friday. I don't know if they'll have the course set up or what, but sometimes you can do some of the media or some of the... There'll have to be some kind of course. Is it on like an air runner or something? Oh, no. I think they're...

The last I heard, they were planning to do some kind of a loop out of the building, back in, get your weight, and go again. But I don't know. It's going to be pretty hot. They might change that up. They did say that they were still debating it. Is this in downtown Las Vegas? What are you going to be doing, running on the strip? It's just off the strip.

It's just off the strip. Where is it? What's the name of the venue? There's definitely – What's the name of the venue? The Orleans Center. Okay. Is it a? What's the name of the venue? There's definitely a venue. The Orleans Center? Is it a casino or is it actually like a venue? It's a, like I think they host, you know, college basketball or high school basketball tournaments there.

It's an arena for a competition. I've never gambled. But there's a hotel that's adjacent to it and there's probably a casino in there. I've never gambled, but I do plan on taking about $50 into a casino for the first time. I've gambled once or twice. I think I lost $60, and I never gambled again. That's the worst feeling ever. I played blackjack.

I was on the table seriously. I sat down. I ordered a drink, but I was out of money before the drink came. My feelings were hurt. I'm like, I'm never gambling again. This is stupid. This is absolutely stupid. It was the worst 60 bucks I ever spent.

I'm looking for the other events so I can ask you to talk about them. Oh, do you want to talk about the South Korean event at all? No, we already, I think better to talk about it after the fact. The Atlas Games, we should probably do a quick little rundown. Okay, let's run over to it. Atlas Games. North America virtual event. Do you want to start with the men or the women?

Up to you. Okay, let's start with the women. Women, the biggest name in the field is not competing. Caroline Reason Thibault has an injury. She has to withdraw. Oh, that sucks. Which means that there's a lot of opportunity here.

It is a bummer. She's a very good, consistent, games-caliber athlete. I think that that opens the door for Caroline Prevost, who you know, Sevan. Remember her? Hockey player, teacher. Yep, yep. Probably, I shouldn't say this, probably my favorite female athlete competing. Amazing.

Like a bona fide athlete. I think she could beat all these girls up. Yeah, she's awesome. Yeah, she does. She does a lot of martial arts training, too. She's a savage. Which one are we talking about? Caroline Prevost.

She's on the very bottom of the list. She is truly one of the most remarkable movers I've ever seen. I've been on the – I think it was in Albany. I was on the ground with her. And I probably missed a lot of great shots of athletes who are winning because she's fascinating to watch move. I mean, this girl can move. She can do it all.

Are you a photographer? I was in a previous lifetime. I think we get one photographer for games. Will you be mine? That is, wow. Let me see. Travis asked me, too. Let me see.

I'll be taking bids. I'll text you guys. I'll start a group text later and we'll take bids i think what's funny is as we're getting closer to the games now a handful of people are reaching out to me hey you're coming with me i'm like whoa i got three little boys i gotta play with at home you told me why um you said you you would tell me why on the next show what happened oh with my that's it no no no not this show not this show i'll talk for an hour and a half he asked me why i got fired he said did you get fired from crossfit i said yes he said why i said oh

that's it i'm not gonna do that here we got to record that we got to record that i tried to look i tried to get it on the internet i couldn't find it um no no that's where all the vicious rumors start there's some like i'll say some bad stuff about people and i and i and now's not the time but there there is definitely a time you can't say that you love jesus yeah yeah yeah it's it's not my fault that they're bad people like if if you slip and fall down and i'm like hey jason slipped and fall down i'm just pointing out the facts if i see you walk out of a brothel i'm a brothel, no judgment, but you did walk out of a brothel. I used to say when I first met Rich Ronin, I was like, if this guy walked out of a brothel, he's so clean and pure and kind that people would think he was in there like rescuing a baby or something.

Like nothing sticks to him. He's such a good dude. Anyway, I digress. I don't even know what a brothel is. Oh, good answer. Good answer. Seriously, I don't. Will you tell me what that is?

A brothel is where you go, you pay money for sexual release. Oh, yeah. I don't know what that is. Good. No, I do. You'll never catch me in one of those. You're teaching me about Jesus, and I'm teaching you about brothels. This does not seem like a fair trade.

I'm going to have to send you something in the mail to make my value more. Okay, so Brian, Carolyn Prevost, does she have a chance of winning this event? Does she have a chance of winning this event? Does she have a chance of qualifying? I think with Carolyn Rezantibo out, Carolyn Prevost is the favorite here to win. I mean, she's excellent. I would love to see her back at the games, and I think she has a great chance. The other girls that I think, it's a really interesting field. There's like 12 women that are 30 or over and then six that are 21 and younger,

including, if I'm not mistaken, I think there's a 16-year-old competing, 18, 19. So there's some young girls, and they're actually pretty good. You'll recognize some of these names in the field that are Mackenzie Riley, Chyna Cho, Alexis Johnson, and Danny Horan. Those are like old school CrossFit names. They're still competitive and competing. But on the other side of that, you have these young girls, Sydney McAlishan, Emma Lawson, Annika Greer, that are, like I said, 21 or younger and are looking to, they've done really well in the competitions I've seen them in. So you might get a huge spread here. And again, it's kind of a bummer that we won't get to see them

on a live competition floor because it would be cool to have that final heat with a couple eight-year games veterans going up against 16- and 18-year-old girls. Do Chyna or Danny Horan have a chance? Brian got a haircut too. That's what I learned. But do you have to evacuate your building? Is that a fire alarm? That is definitely a fire alarm.

Look, he took off his headset. He can't even hear us now. Just keep asking me the questions. I'll try to answer them who jason who's the 16 year old i have no idea good answer good answer that's what you're supposed to say when someone asks you who the 16 year old is uh brian you coming back on the show or what what happened buddy put your headset back on. Just give us a thumbs down if he can hear us. No, he can't. He has his headset off.

I think what we saw is he has a fire alarm went off in his apartment building. He has to evacuate. Yeah, and he's got a, listen, they're doing an announcement. Oh, he texted us. Let's see what he said. Oh, okay. That won't stop for a while. I think I'm done. I have to go.

You have to evacuate, Brian. You have to go. Oh, my God. He knew I was going to ask him about the 16-year-old, and he doesn't want to lie. He just wants to get off. Bye-bye. All right.

Hey, Jason, thanks for coming on. Hey, I'm really excited you're going to the West Coast Classic. And I love the fact that you're going to be working. It sounds like you and Matt O'Keefe have started a courting process. That's dope. Yeah, we have. He's a good man. Did he reach out to you?

Yes. Fantastic. That's always a good sign, right? When the girl asks you out and you're not asking them out. It's always a plus for sure. Yeah well thanks brother um i'll be in touch maybe maybe we'll facetime again sometime all right all right