The Sevan Podcast - #51 CrossFit Games - Semifinals Week 4

Episode Date: June 21, 2021

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Starting point is 00:00:19 Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. I don't know if I really care if our guests use their cell phone or not while we're on like... Someone was complaining in the YouTube comments that Jason Hopper was texting or using his cell phone like a 20-something. I mean, I understand why they're upset, but like, I don't care. Like I'm 49.
Starting point is 00:00:48 Maybe if you would ask me when I was 39, I would have had kind of like that, still that judgment of the world. And maybe. Care that the younger generation does that. Shit. I shouldn't even say it like that. Even fucking people our age do that shit.
Starting point is 00:01:05 When we first started doing these, I was like super conscious about not doing that. To the point where I would turn my phone off, airplane mode. I hate it when the beep comes on the computer. Oh, I love that. I fucking hate it. And it reminds me that I have friends. It just reminds me I have friends. But then we were on one
Starting point is 00:01:26 episode and you're like i don't care if you use your cell phone when we're on here and so i was like oh i guess he doesn't care maybe i should use it maybe they seem more important if i use it like i had all these thoughts you know oh i like that i it's kind of funny like if you're listening to a show and then you hear someone's cell phone go off and you think it's yours yeah i liked um i like there was a comment in the youtube section i go through all the comments in the youtube section always looking for the good mama joke like i'm always wanting like someone to say something so i can say yeah so is your mama but yeah i know i noticed but someone someone wrote that they're obsessed with your voice i'm going to start working on my voice too i mean that's a i think if there's one person who said they're obsessed with your voice that means there's probably you
Starting point is 00:02:08 know i get i get questions all the time about where my accent is from and i never got questions about that until i lived in the dominican republic after i came back from that people ask me all the time and i i don't know i never know what to say like it's just my voice it's funny that that's the way they word it to you. When they ask me about your accent, they just say, hey, does he have a speech impediment? Set myself up for that. Okay. We don't have time to fuck around.
Starting point is 00:02:36 So I'm drinking coffee today. It's the first time I've had coffee in a long time. I said I was going to go a year. I failed. I'm okay with that. Anyway, so Brian is at the West Coast Classic in Las Vegas. Super hot, super competitive field. And today's day three, but it's early in the morning.
Starting point is 00:02:55 I got up super early. So did Brian. So Brian's going to give you a rundown. I'm going to try to stay quiet. Oh, yeah. People told me I need to talk louder. What the fuck? No one's ever told me that my whole life.
Starting point is 00:03:04 Okay, Brian, go. Let's do men first. First place, Cole Sager. Second place, Sean Sweeney. Noah Olsen. Brandon Luckett, fourth. Dallin Pepper, that's kind of yoked out of his mind. Will Morad in sixth. Okay, so what's going on? Spencer Pancheck in ninth. yeah so basically those top six guys are all very good and all six of them would do great at the games um cole sega without a doubt has been the most impressive i mean i think almost everyone would have projected noah to win this this semi-final and he's been fine but noah's been a lot better you mean cole has been a lot better yeah sorry cole has been a lot better. Dominating, 464 points versus Noah's 372. Yeah, and Sweeney's 393. So the most impressive thing to me was actually for both Cole and Sean was the ruck run yesterday. They just looked like guys who knew how to manage an event
Starting point is 00:03:57 that is honestly a games event. You're not going to see an event like that that often. It's something other than the games. They tracked down a young kid who is tall and a very good runner and james sprague um and basically said like this is how it's done um so yeah i've been super super impressed with with cole sean no i think these guys will be fine all three of those guys should be fine to make the games the next three guys is where it's holy shit sorry to Sorry to interrupt. Is this – is that two hours and 54 minutes? How long?
Starting point is 00:04:30 Oh, no. Okay. I'm looking at the length of duration of – okay. Never mind. Sorry. I was – what event – yeah. How long was the ruck run? 31 minutes.
Starting point is 00:04:38 Okay. Still long as shit. Okay. It took me 43 minutes. I'm actually not upset about that. Wow. Good job. how heavy was the rock they wore a 20 pound rock for the entire run uh in the first lap they only had that in the
Starting point is 00:04:53 second lap they picked up a 20 pound bag in the third lap they dropped the 20 and picked up a 30 pound bag and these weren't bags that went in the rock they were like additional weights they had to carry on their shoulders and then the final lap they still had the 20 pound ruck this time with a 40 pound bag. Where do they put the 40 pound bag on their shoulder? Yeah. I mean, holding it like this with both, both sides of it draped around and like your fingers loosely around the handles is by far the best way to hold it. I mean, it's uncomfortable, but it's definitely the best way. Is that the year Matt Fraser had it like just fall out of his backpack or something? Is that
Starting point is 00:05:23 that event? Yeah. And so the, you know, ruck reevaluated several things since then in the last two years they've reconfigured their bags it made them a little more comfortable and this event they didn't have to open it and put different objects into it instead they had one fixed object and then added weight externally every round and this kid james sprague you're talking about, he's in 18th overall now, and he took second place, and you're saying that, oh my goodness, and Cole took first. You're saying that James and Sweeney took third. They sandwiched them. Okay, Sprague would be a lot higher in the rankings, but he had actually a great learning opportunity for him on the rope climb workout. He's 6'3 or 6'4. He's very very good he's been at the games as a teenager twice um he's the same age as down pepper and tutor magda
Starting point is 00:06:09 there's three like 19 year old guys in this field that are all very good but he had a couple no reps on the rope climb for not showing control on the way down he's an incredibly good mental attitude like very positive he recovered i mean he accepted it for what it was and moved on so he'd be doing a lot better without that but he was in the lead for almost that entire event. And there were these group of five men chasing him down. Um, Chris Hinshaw called it like on the start of the third lap. He's like the strength of the pack is scary. Someone's going to catch him. And they did. And it was cool. Oh, that's a beautiful line by Chris. The strength of the pack is scary. Um, and, and you know, James Sprague is young because his pack is scary. Um, and, and, you know,
Starting point is 00:06:45 James Sprague is young because his picture on his profile is, um, his like high school graduation with his dad. That's awesome. I love it. Okay. Uh, so do we, it was these next three guys, Brandon Luckett, Dallin Pepper, and Will Morad. I think two of those guys will get the last three spots today. And it's probably going to come down to the strict deficit handstand pushups because all three guys are going to be strong enough to do 15 muscle-ups and a squat clean ladder. And obviously there will be margins of points to be won there. But Dallin Pepper is 6'1", or 6'2", 215.
Starting point is 00:07:18 Brandon Luckett is over 6'1", also over 200 pounds, and he has a wrist injury and an elbow injury that he's trying to navigate through the weekend. So for both of those guys, that is not a great movement right now. So when you say injury, what do you mean? What's Brandon like? Like he scraped his arm skateboarding like my son or what? He had something wrong with his wrist coming into the weekend.
Starting point is 00:07:41 That's what I've been told at least. And the snatch workout, he actually posted on his his instagram yesterday he did a snatch and his elbow just kind of bent the wrong way and he immediately dropped it fell back was grabbing his elbow i mean i thought he was done for the weekend so the fact that he's bounced back from that and done as well as he did he finished yesterday really strong with a impressive event win coming out of the second heat on the last event. What was the last event? It was a regional finale from 2017. It was 30 cows on the bike, 20 burpee box jump overs, 10 D-ball cleans at 150.
Starting point is 00:08:13 It was unbroken. He moved fast. He was faster than the fastest guy from four years ago. He also had a really fast time. I mean, there's not a lot of margin in that workout for the top guys like so you're saying he injured himself in in what event did you see him grab his arm yeah very first and then now in an event one two three four in event five he won he took first place after injuring himself he's gone sixth fifth ninth and first so he's been
Starting point is 00:08:43 very good and i mean look what i'm saying is all six of these guys are good enough to compete at the games, but one of them is not going to get a spot today. This guy, Brandon, look, we're talking about in the first event, the one you're saying that he might have injured himself and he grabbed his arm. He took 22nd, and it says cap plus one. What does that mean? That he got DNF'd? He didn't finish?
Starting point is 00:09:03 Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the heavy snatch ladder, so he had one snatch left,'d he didn't finish yeah yeah it was the heavy snatch ladder so he had one snatch left and he didn't hit it okay are there any other um oh and these events are exclusive to the west coast classic but what i was going to ask you is has anyone else made it to the games who dnf this year i guess i can still ask you that uh Uh, well, DNF, I mean, the thing is about DNF. So like Danny Spiegel didn't finish the ruck run yesterday and she is also in a game spot, but I talked to the competition director. There was no minimum work requirement for those for that workout. So that's always a question when, when you're running a competition,
Starting point is 00:09:41 what's the minimum work requirement. And if you fail to meet it, what does it mean for you going forward in the competition are you removed from the competition can you not win the competition like a couple years ago at the rogue invitation laura horvath didn't meet the minimum work requirement in a strict deficit handstand push-up workout or maybe it was a parallette kipping whatever and she just she could continue to compete she just was ranked last let me ask you this this has fallen into the weeds and we don't have time for this bullshit, but I'm going to ask, but I'm going to ask you anyway. It's not,
Starting point is 00:10:07 it's my fault. I like the idea of having a minimum work requirement at the CrossFit games. I get it. I don't know if I'd like that in the semifinals event. I mean, I think, or do I have that ass backwards? Maybe it should be at the semifinals event and not at the games.
Starting point is 00:10:24 I think, help me with this one. Yeah, no, I don't think there's a clear answer to that. And there hasn't been a clear answer to it, you know, ever. Sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. It's oftentimes the competition director's programming style. I think when Dave was programming the regionals, which were the, you know, for so long were the barrier to get to the games. You know, because there was only one guy and it was a uniform programming across the whole workout. The regionals, which for so long were the barrier to get to the Games, because there was only one guy and it was a uniformed program across the whole workout,
Starting point is 00:10:51 he was very intentional about that. This is just, I think, something that needs to be ironed out next year, amongst several other things, which we should probably talk about after semifinals finish. What are best practices for semifinals as a qualifier for the Games, especially once they can all be live competition. We're going to give that information away free. Shouldn't people have to like hire, like contact me and then I let them talk to you. I let you out of your little box. I keep you in and be like, Hey God, I thought you were just wearing a yarmulke for a second, but it must have been just a light. I like the two hours a day when you let me out of the box. Yeah. Just a light.
Starting point is 00:11:23 I like the two hours a day when you let me out of the box. Yeah. What is the point of minimum work requirement? Is it so that people don't game workouts? Or is it so that you don't end up with someone who gets to the games who can't snatch? Yeah, what's the point of it? Well, if you can't snatch, you're probably not going to make it anyway. Right?
Starting point is 00:11:45 Because you're going to do so poorly on a number of events. I think it's for competition and entertainment. You don't want to see people on the floor just not trying. That's not fun and it's not a good representation of the sport. And you also don't want to see people who, you know, at the highest level, they can't do certain skills. So you're saying that the integrity of the sport is being compromised by entertainment and whatever the other word you did. Because the goal of the games is, from my understanding, is to find the fittest human on the planet. Yeah, but you want to find the fittest human on the planet, and you also want them to do it against the most competitive field.
Starting point is 00:12:21 If you're not competing against the best, how can you say you're the best? So the overarching question is, how do we get the best how can you say you're the best so what is it so the question the overarching question is how do we get the best to the games but there's other there's other elements that have entered the company the conversation over the years we also want to represent the global community we also want to be oh that makes me sick that vomit those two make me vomit i'm just saying this is i'm not hating the messenger i'm just telling you and we also want to make the sport marketable so we want it to be digestible for the live audience and the audience that's tuning in from where they are. Everyone just has to take their shirt off and we check that box. Marketable. Done. But if they're not doing anything when they take their shirt off, except for just standing there.
Starting point is 00:12:56 Yeah, you're right. That's not good. If you're going to be naked, you need to be doing something. Then you need to go to a bodybuilding competition. Have you heard that description description of crossfit games before that it's really just the worst porn in the world it's just really shitty oh i don't think that's my line i probably just use it once a week and i forget okay so uh back to the men here um before we switch to the women you're saying that one of these three, four, fifth and six are going to make it. It's Brandon Luckett with 357 points down pepper with 357 points. And in sixth place,
Starting point is 00:13:30 we'll more add with 352 points. Yeah. So those five points are just negligible. It's basically a three way tie right now for fourth place. Yeah. I mean, look, the three guys ahead of them are,
Starting point is 00:13:42 are too good. They're not going to screw up today. Those three guys, I'm expecting will to beat the other two on the first workout because he's so good at strict handstand pushups and nothing else should trip him up. And then it's going to come down to Brandon and Dallin and probably who can do better on the ring muscle-up squat clean ladder to end the weekend, which is fine. I mean, one of them is going to earn it,
Starting point is 00:14:01 and the other one is going to have to earn it through the last chance qualifier. Can Noah Olsen take first place in the – no. In this competition, no. How about in any of the last two workouts? Or is there only one left? No, there's two left. He might win the push-pull workout today. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:19 I mean, he was excellent at that seven years ago. He should be great at it. Who has the best body out of these guys? The best body of the entire field? No, out of these top six. Who looks the best out there? Is it Noah? Unless you
Starting point is 00:14:35 like big guys, then it might be Dallin. Oh, yeah. He's huge. How does a 19-year-old get that big? That's just genetics, man. I mean, you can't... I could never train and look like that. Just drinking my last sip of coffee of my first cup. I also just want to say, like, despite the fact that it's only six that can make it at this point based on the points, there are 10 other guys that can be spoilers on the day.
Starting point is 00:15:04 They can have great workouts and slap themselves in between there and disrupt the points. Because there are some good guys that have had some unfortunate circumstances this weekend or less than ideal performances that are still very good in these two workouts. Cole Sager has 464 points. Is each workout 100 points? Yeah. So to give you an idea, he's almost 200 points ahead of 12th place. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:15:36 That's insane. He's killing it. He's killing it. And basically what I've taken away from this weekend when it comes to Cole Sager is he has reasserted himself into a top five conversation when it comes to the games is is this normal for him 202 pounds to show up this big uh yeah i think he's competing at the normal normal weight he'd usually compete at but what's not normal for him is to dominate at a semi-final he's usually scraping to get in from from the regionals
Starting point is 00:16:05 i watched day one and um the first event they did the camera i don't think the camera went on cole or noah except for five seconds even one of the commentators made a joke at the six minute mark and goes oh look at noah's here like kind of like making fun of themselves because they hadn't shown him yet if you if you see who's in charge of that camera work, would you just go over to them and just like lick your hand and slap the shit out of them for me and be like, Oh, this is from Sevan, nothing personal. I mean, it's crazy. Don't get me wrong. I love the hype around Dallin Pepper. It was so fun watching a new guy come on strong, but there's no context when I can't see Cole Sager and Noah Olsensen i mean i mean hey yeah
Starting point is 00:16:46 yeah they're they're that's great that is a great point right there if you're just watching down in isolation you don't realize holy shit he's beating these guys in a heavy snatch ladder by over a minute these guys that have been on the podium at the games that have been top five at the games that have won sanctional events that are perennial contenders and And there's in the past, I've made some, I don't want to say excuses, but maybe justifications for the floor layout or whatever else. This is the best floor I've ever seen. I think it's slightly less long than the old regional floor. It's a perfect width and length to be able to tell every story, whether you're live or at home. And I don't see, you know, unless they're like short on budget
Starting point is 00:17:25 and don't have enough cameras, there's no reason they shouldn't be able to tell the story very well with what's here. But I haven't watched any of the broadcasts yet. I'll watch that this week. Let me just say that, let's just say, I'm making this completely up,
Starting point is 00:17:36 that 50% of the people who are watching, no, let's say 100% of the people who are watching know who Cole Sager and Noah Olsen is. And let's say 50% love them and 50% hate them. That means's say 50 love them and 50 hate them that means that regardless you're invested in to seeing them lose or to see them win and to not show them as complete it's it's it's insanity and then and it only hurts dylan pepper i mean don't get i love the fact that they focused on him it was really cool but like yeah it's just
Starting point is 00:18:03 it's nuts to me it's the first time a weekend you want to hook people in you want to draw and you're not going to show the two two most popular guys in the competition and one of noah's great one of the some of the greatest shots of noah are right before the competition he gets really pensive he gets really just like like that first 30 seconds i remember i can picture it in my head now when he's when he gets out there onto the floor he's he's like the space shuttle right before it takes off i mean you know he's uh i saw that in him yesterday right before the triple g chipper he looked focused and i was like oh my and did he win it yeah yeah i mean he just full thrusters on and he gets all fucking agitated
Starting point is 00:18:43 he's like a pit bull just like waiting to be led into the dog park and take someone's tennis ball i mean and actually him and cola both have this characteristic they're very generous and kind humans off the competition floor but when they take that starting mat and they get ready to compete it's a totally they flip the switch yeah yeah i agree um did you did you mention yesterday when i was texting you you were saying that there was some – I don't know. Controversy is too strong, but you were saying that one of the events, there was something great to talk about. Do you remember that, what it was?
Starting point is 00:19:14 One of the – you don't know which event? No, I don't. And maybe it's about the Atlas Games too. I'm totally – sorry. I'm totally taking this out of context. Okay, let's move to the women before we run out of time here and i do want to talk about fukowski fukowski okay so west coast classic classic women's event bethany shadburn in first place once again i watched i think i watched that opening of that event i don't remember seeing her in the video during the first event
Starting point is 00:19:43 um and she's she's great to look at carrie pierce i don't remember seeing her in the video during the first event. And she's great to look at. Carrie Pierce, I don't remember seeing much of her. Maybe I'm wrong. I did see Daniel Brandon a little bit, Reagan Huckabee, Danny Spiegel. So those are your top five. Oh, and they're not running away with it. Ah, yeah, Bethany Shadburn is running away with it.
Starting point is 00:20:02 Bethany and Carrie are well clear of the field. They're eight points ahead, and they have looked, you know, as a totality of body of work, they've just been the best two. Carrie Pierce, that's not that surprising. Bethany Shadburn has been as impressive to me as Cole Sager. And not just her performances or results on the leaderboard, but the way she's moving. I talked to her after the snatch. I was like, she was just standing by herself, and I was walking by. I said, hey, just so you know, like you looked awesome doing that workout.
Starting point is 00:20:26 Your shoulders were in such good positions. It was great to see you moving like that. And she was very grateful. She's like, thank you all. I feel good, but it's nice to hear that someone can see that. So I think she is in a better, like as fit and more in control of herself as an athlete than she's ever been. Interesting that you spoke to her.
Starting point is 00:20:44 But when we were talking about the men, let me go back over here. And there was a man I mentioned and you, and you acted like you hadn't had, did you talk to Brandon Luckett yesterday? I haven't, I haven't talked to him. Jesus. So he's been injured and you're speculating on his injury and you haven't talked to him, but Bethany Shadburn, you talked to him. I don't seek out these conversations. That was just a rant. I wouldn't have talked to her either. She was just standing by herself in the hallway and I happened to walk by. Just a data point for me, buddy. Just a data point for me. Okay. So are you surprised? I mean, she's always been good, but is this going to change her whole reality now that she's like, oh my God, look at this field of people and I'm in and I'm winning.
Starting point is 00:21:22 She has to do it at the games if she does this at the games if she plays fifth at the games this year then yes then she is up there in the conversation in the caliber of best best female athletes in this sport obviously there's tia there's maybe cara and a couple and but she's she's right there and especially uh you know she's beating carrie who's been the fittest in the u.s for a while now now. And Bethany's 100 points ahead of fifth place, just to put it in context. 98 points, which is... Yeah, but that girl in sixth place is actually doing
Starting point is 00:21:51 incredibly well and still has a chance. Alexis Raptus? Yeah, I think she uses Training Think Tank for her programming. Morning Chalkup did a little article on her yesterday because I told him, I was like, this girl's actually doing well. Once she did well on the the ruck run i think she was third on the ruck and she was fourth on the triple g chipper she's a little bit of a bigger girl i was like damn this
Starting point is 00:22:12 is uh this is she you know she's young but she's good um the problem is the girls ahead of her have too much experience danny spiegel's in fifth and she's taken a 27th which is basically last on the ruck run her other placements were second sixth fifth, and she's taken a 27th, which is basically last on the ruck run. Her other placements were second, sixth, fifth, and first. She's not going to, I mean, well, I shouldn't say that. There's those deficit handstand push-ups looming in the first workout, and Dani's a big girl. But Danielle Brandon's a big girl. Alexis Raptus is a big girl. Chloe Wilson and Kelly Stone, who are right behind her, are also big girls. And Sydney Wells, who's in ninth, the only...
Starting point is 00:22:44 Oh, shit. The only chinks in her armor so far have been are high-skill movements. That's Brooke Wells' sister right there sitting in ninth? She was awesome yesterday. So after the first day, I was like, okay. Is the crowd losing their shit when she comes out? Yeah. She won her heat in that final last night, and it was pretty exciting.
Starting point is 00:23:07 Everyone was pumped about that. And look at her results yesterday. She was 9th, 7th, and 6th. Those are great finishes. I mean, this is her first real live competition. So if you look at her and you say, oh, she didn't do great on the snatch. She didn't do great in the legless rope climbs. Maybe she struggles on the deficit handstand pushups.
Starting point is 00:23:22 Those are high-end skills. Those are the last things that come around for a top-end competitor. She has the work capacity, and she has the determination and ability to fight on the competition floor. So she might actually be someone to watch in years to come. She's not going to make it this year, but she has potential. Going back to Alexis Raptus, I want to talk about Sidney Wells, but Alexis Raptus, you said she does Think Tank. That's what Travis Mayer does, Think Tank? Yeah, they have a lot of athletes here actually.
Starting point is 00:23:50 And when you say they're big girls, what do you mean? Because I like that you say that because I think that makes me think you're going to get torn up on YouTube. And you've had way too many nice comments. Over 150 or over 155 pounds. And the average woman women's athletes usually 145 when you're talking about doing 45 strict deficit handstand push-ups an extra 10 pounds especially if you're a little bit taller also because usually if you're heavier you're taller the extra range of motion and the extra weight for that particular movement is obviously
Starting point is 00:24:20 disadvantageous against danny carrie pierce yeah dann is one 68. Is she, and she's five, six. That's interesting. Cause she, yeah. I mean, they, they all look amazing. I mean, you would never say, Oh yeah. It's not to say anything that that's a problem. It's just that, you know, we know that in the sport, there are certain movements that are going to be better if you're heavier and there's going to be better that you're lighter and better if you're shorter and better if you're taller, the key is, can can you can you manage the ones that you're not as good at that's what dylan pepper told me he's like i just have to do damage control on that workout i know what i can do i can't get caught up in what noah and cole are doing they're different athletes then you talk to
Starting point is 00:24:56 dylan uh someone told me that he said that god damn it just so you know we have no authentic information on here. Brian just either speaks to Tommy, Sean, or Armin and gets all his information and we just steal it from those guys. Even though Brian stands closer to the athletes than anyone else, God forbid he talked to them. He doesn't want to be rude. When Brian says, just so you know, that they're bigger, he is spreading a disease and he is being rude no i'm just joking listen people these people work on their bodies 24 hours a day we told jason hopper he's huge um when whenever you work on your body 24 hours a day your sleep your feet feeding your
Starting point is 00:25:38 clothing the angle in which you brush your teeth that's open season for us to talk about their bodies we mean nothing negative by it don't be fucking crazy if you think it's wrong to say that you can say anything you want about these people's bodies without being a scumbag they're basically racehorses and they and they should accept and want their bodies to be talked about because they're those are their race cars so if we see something or notice something it's okay it's all it's all it's all in love we're just studying these machines, these incredible machines. And they're all so good that, you know, when I'm breaking down a workout, I have to look and see why does this person have the potential to do better than this person? And it could be
Starting point is 00:26:14 any number of things. And in some cases, it does come down to body type. Right. And we even said it to Hopper on the show, like, hey, the test is going to be when you go upside down and you have to do more than five or six or ten handstand pushups. Strict handstand pushups are deficit in a row, right? Going back to Sydney Wells, why is she – I mean think of what a competitor she must be. Her sister is already in the sport. She's kind of getting in the game late. I mean I haven't been paying attention for years, but I remember early on that she
Starting point is 00:26:47 kind of had no interest in CrossFit. I mean, she was a great supporter of her sister, but she was doing track, and now she just... How did she make it to a semifinal so fast? What's she been doing? Well, you know, she was a competitive track athlete in college, and Tia Claire Toomey's background is in track. We've seen track athletes do well in this sport before. And like I said, that ability to just line up on a starting line in an individual competition and fight for whatever's in front of you in your lane is something that she's been doing her whole life. Obviously, her sister's got a tremendous amount of capacity,
Starting point is 00:27:19 and we know from the sport that it's not uncommon for siblings to do well in this sport. Have you been to her instagram account no i wonder how if she's just exploding i mean what a cool i mean she could be like basically she could become like the dan bailey of the sport have no go but be able to you know parlay yeah and we can't leave the women's field without at least mentioning Reagan Huckabee. Oh, yeah. At the most superficial level, she looked amazing. She looks amazing.
Starting point is 00:27:56 She's in her mid-30s. She's been doing this a long time. She's a mom. She did great in both the online portions of competition, and I wasn't sure how good she'd do here. I mean, I thought she'd be in the top eight. But she's ahead of Danny Speed. And, you know, it's very impressive.
Starting point is 00:28:12 She's, let me see if she had any bad. No, 10th is her worst finish so far. I mean, she's 34 years old. Yeah, she's awesome. And she's most likely going to make the games this year for her fourth time as an individual. She's competed there on a team before as well with Invictus' teams. And yeah, she's awesome. She's smiling. She's happy. She's engaging with people. And I'm really happy for her. Are any of these women possible podium at the games?
Starting point is 00:28:42 You know what? Yeah. I do think that there is an outside chance for all three of the girls from underdog athletics which is carrie pierce bethany shed to make the podium at the games i would say it's like like i said 25 chance or less daniel brandon to me is actually the most scary of the three she just needs to get her mindset right i think she would say that too she knows that she can like and i you know she's had her ups and downs this weekend in terms of of performance but she's rallied mentally and i think she's moving in the right direction so i think she might actually be the best at the games but you know she's not doing the best this weekend okay let's talk some shit about matt o'keefefe and Dylan. Tell me all the bad shit about the games. Are you seeing needles in the locker room? Are the events starting late? Has O'Keefe shown up drunk a few times, stumbling around? What's going on? How's the event?
Starting point is 00:29:44 And programming yesterday to me was very impressive as a whole. You know, to have a workout like the ruck run is a risk. It's going to be, especially when it's so hot in Vegas as it is. But they moved it into the morning and it was brutal. I mean, a lot of athletes were in bad shape after that. But they gave them a break in competition, which is warranted, so that they could come back and test them. Are you able to recover in a four-hour window and perform tough workouts? And then the finale was great.
Starting point is 00:30:09 It was a sprint workout, three minutes. Dave is notorious, famous for doing workouts like that at the end of regionals that are super high drama and excitement. Danny Spiegel and Daniel Brandon had perhaps the closest finish we've ever seen in a competition, three-tenths of a second. They were chasing each other down. They were the two athletes that I thought would win that event. They performed exactly like I wanted them to and like they needed to.
Starting point is 00:30:32 And then the men's race was like everyone was finishing at the same time. It was a great day of competition. The one kind of, if I was going to pick apart something from yesterday, would be the ruck run for the teams. If you look at the leaderboard, one team finished under the time cap, two teams say cap cap, and then all the rest of the teams say cap plus one. They were all on the last run.
Starting point is 00:30:53 So I think they just needed to extend the time cap for the teams relative to the individuals. They addressed that very professionally. I think with the teams after the competition, because they, they realized in the middle of it that what they briefed was going to end up being an issue. But they told the teams, they said,
Starting point is 00:31:13 we know you're frustrated with the way that this ended up, but we have to stay true to what we briefed you guys on. We'll try to improve next time. And I believe that they will. Who cares if they all capped? Because let's just say, I'll give you an example. There was a team that was in first place after lap three and lap three was the last checkpoint for a 1500 meters. That last lap with four people holding a rope and a total of 240 pounds of weight is going to take 10 to 15 minutes.
Starting point is 00:31:43 So you have no checkpoint to go back to that's within 12 minutes of the finish of the workout, which means you're if you were in the first place and you finish and you go out after lap three, this this happened, the team in first place had a girl who was struggling with the heat, several teams passed them, but none of those teams made it back to the next checkpoint. And so they finished ahead of all the amount of leaderboard and got more points, even though their performance over the totality of 40 minutes was worse. They were further away from the finish line at the end of the workout. But I don't think that you, I didn't exactly understand that. I don't know if I need to, but, but I do understand,
Starting point is 00:32:17 but I do understand what you're saying. You're saying that between the last checkpoint that denotes what place you're in and the finish line, there was a 1,500-meter stretch. Yeah. So was there a four-way tie for first place? No, because there were tie breaks, and your tie break was your third lap chip time. Oh, okay. So if you were the first team to cross lap three, and you just sat down on the course for the whole time knowing, well, none of these teams are going to finish anyway, you'd still get more points than them. Did anyone do that? Not on purpose.
Starting point is 00:32:51 One team had to because one of their girls couldn't finish. Oh, now I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. But none of them made it to the next checkpoint because it was so far away and everyone got time capped. So that team got more points than all the other teams that had passed them on the last lap. Wow. So I just want to be clear. That's not how it should be.
Starting point is 00:33:14 You should be rewarded for your performance. However, once you brief the athletes that these are the rules, you cannot go back after the competition and say, actually, we're going to change the rules and give these teams different points. But that's, and especially this week, to me, that is critical because CrossFit made a different decision last week on the online competition. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I agree with you. I see what you're saying. But I think the most important thing is, is to get the best person to the games, even if it means someone's feelings were heard or they they like you're you're you're putting all the integrity on the event in one place when maybe it shouldn't be maybe it shouldn't be there if you lay out a set of rules then the athletes and coaches have the opportunity to execute within that that those parameters if you change the parameters after they've already performed
Starting point is 00:34:05 then i see what you're saying that's a gray area i see what you're saying unless you change it on every uh yeah anyway another competition another conversation you know there was an event at the crossfit games one year and i and i this is back in carson and i'm going to screw it up a little bit maybe you know this story but there were basically there was a workout where there was this is back in Carson and I'm going to screw it up a little bit. Maybe you know this story, but there were basically, there was a workout where there was like 70 pull-ups, 70 pull-ups and like 120 thrusters. And Dave announced it wrong. He switched the two.
Starting point is 00:34:37 So it ended up being 120 thrusters and 70 pull-ups. Like he reversed it and he announced it. And the whole, do you know, do you know what i'm talking about i'm not sure i do it was in the um it was in the outdoor stadium and the whole time he's saying it i think as i recall adrian bosman is like yelling at him from far dave dave like screaming at him letting him know he's fucking it up and i don't know if this is how i remember it maybe i'm wrong but basically basically Dave announces it. The athletes start,
Starting point is 00:35:07 Adrian comes over. He's like, dude, you said it wrong. And Dave's basically like, like, I don't remember exactly how he done, but it was fucking hilarious.
Starting point is 00:35:13 It didn't affect the event. And he's like, you said he just stuck with it. They just changed the games on the fly right there. I mean, this is like in 2010 and basically the thrusters, then the, uh,
Starting point is 00:35:24 pull up, uh, numbers just got, and it was awesome. It was a testament to how good the athletes are. They didn't, you know what I mean? They just, 70 thrusters, 120 thrusters, 70 pull-ups, 120 pull-ups, whatever. Get some. Yeah, man. The athletes are going to do their best no matter what you tell them to do.
Starting point is 00:35:41 But once you say this is what you got to do, and this is how we're going to judge you on it. I think you have to adhere to that. Yeah. Um, anything else you want to say here about the women before we move on to the Atlas games? Uh, no, I think, you know, the five girls in the top five are probably probably going to remain and we'll all be excellent representatives at the games that they do. How happy are you that you're there are you just stoked i mean we're always being critical and picking and is it just like if someone came with their like if i came with my kids and my wife would i be stoked is it fun is there cool places to sit down nice people oh yeah uh this is a good this is a good i don't know if they'll ever use this venue again but it's a good good venue. There's a space for the vendor village. You can go around between events and buy some stuff, do some challenges at the U.S. Army or Warrior Fitness thing or whatever you want.
Starting point is 00:36:32 Every seat in the arena has a great perspective of the floor. There's space for media to get around. The athletes have their own space. It's a great venue for a competition like this. So it's cool. Yeah. That's good to hear um atlas games patrick velner in first place jeffrey adler second samuel cornhole and third alex vinnie and fourth and tyler christopher christophile christophel and fifth. Oh, God, I wish sixth place was in first place.
Starting point is 00:37:05 What an easy name, Phil Toon. And then in seventh place, we have, oh, that's almost like Spit Toon. And then in seventh place, we have Brent Fikowski. He's actually 102 points behind Patrick Vellner. I don't care how far he is behind Vellner. How far is he behind Christopher? He is 35 points behind fifth place. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:29 So, I mean, Friendly Fran is the worst workout Fikowski could ever hope to see in an online competition like this. They probably did that on purpose to weed him out. The singular worst thing for Fikowski is high volume of pull-ups. He'll manage bar muscle-ups and ring muscle-ups better than he'll manage pull-owski is high volume of pull-ups. He'll manage bar muscle ups and ring muscle ups better than he'll manage pull-ups or chest bar pull-ups. And thrusters, at a light weight like that, that's one of those movements where Fikowski's never going to beat Josh Bridges on a thruster workout, unless the weight's too heavy for Bridges, because the range of motion is too much. So I knew he would do bad on that workout, and he'd be in a
Starting point is 00:38:03 hole to start the weekend. Workout two, he didn't do as well as I thought he'd do. I thought he could finish top five there. I think he was like 13. And as soon as I saw that, I was like, he's not going to make it. And the reason why I don't think he's going to make it is because the last workout of the weekend, Gretel, is a workout I think should never be programmed in an online competition. In a live competition, I don't have as much a problem with it. Like if there's a finale or a regional, because you can move the butt, the bar on the floor. There's just a lot of different elements with judging. Will you tell them what the workout is? It's the, it's the 10 minute workout or 10 round workout, right? Yeah. It's three. It's grace plus 30 burpees.
Starting point is 00:38:37 It's three clean and jerks, three burpees over the bar, 10 rounds per time. Let me tell you how arrogant CrossFitters are. I go, will you tell him the workout what gretel is and he goes yeah it's grace with this like jesus christ but say it a little slower a little slower brian i know we're in a hurry but not everyone computes at your processing power what is gretel three clean and jerks 135 pounds for the men 95 pounds for the women three bar facing burpees 10 rounds for time so is that a sprint? Yes. It's everything you got until you can't feel your body and then keep going for three minutes. And the problem is for Brent is he's incredibly strong.
Starting point is 00:39:17 He can move the barbell great. And he can manage burpees in big sets better than just about anything. But this is, again, range of motion matters. If you got to get the bar from ground to overhead and you're 5'7 compared to 6'3 and you have the same work capacity, the 5'7 guy is going to win. If you got to get your body off the ground and over a bar 30 times and you're 5'7 compared to 6'3, the 5'7 guy is going to be faster. A lot of these guys have the same work capacity within a three-minute window, and that's just not – it's a great test.
Starting point is 00:39:50 There's a place for it. I don't like it in the online format, and I don't like it for Fikowski. So I think he's – Why don't you like it in the online format? I just like that test better when there's an ability to advance down the floor. I think it makes it a little bit – it gives a little bit more possibility for some things to happen that can allow a guy to just execute more cleanly and make up for a range of motion limitation or something like that. Now, I could be totally wrong.
Starting point is 00:40:22 We might see him smash that workout. Um, but I just have a feeling that it's going to, it's not going to be enough. It's not going to be enough. However, that's not the reason why I thought he would make it. When I saw the totality of workouts, he didn't do well enough on workout two. And that's why I think he's going to be out. He did great on yesterday's workouts moved from 15th up to seven. He should do amazing on this rowing like a rope climb and legos rope climb and handstand walking workout so he you know if we could see the leaderboard after event five which we won't be able to see he might be sitting in fifth place even he could win that workout he probably will win that workout but if if he
Starting point is 00:40:58 just like you know j Jason Hopper. You froze on me, just so you know. I'm just pretending like I'm listening now. He might butt just like Jason Hopper and you froze. Yeah, he might be very close time-wise to the best time in that workout, but it's such small margins for time that it might be a 15th placement. Did I hear you say that he might win workout five? That's the one, the rowing one and the handstand walk. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:27 He's great at handstand walking. He's a world-class at Legos rope climbs and he's a good row. So you think he's going to, you think that he's going to shit the bed so hard and, and, and workout six? No, no. I think he's going to do the absolute best that he could possibly do on that workout. And it's not going to be enough. Interesting. Well, let's talk about fourth and fifth place that he could possibly do on that workout, and it's not going to be enough. Interesting.
Starting point is 00:41:45 Well, let's talk about fourth and fifth place. How do they do in workout five and six? You're saying that Alex and Tyler, Alex Vigneault, pronounce his name for me? Alex Vigneault is a very similar body type to Fikowski, but he's got a big points cushion on him. And Tyler Christoffel is a shorter, smaller power athlete who could be top five in that workout.
Starting point is 00:42:09 With great hair. Wow, he's got great hair. And Christoffel, I love Tyler Christoffel. I think he used to compete with CrossFit 417. He always does pretty well on online competitions, and he never lives up to that standard or ranking when it comes to live competitions. Dude, Alex does not have the same body as Brett Fikowski.
Starting point is 00:42:30 What are you talking about? He's over 6 feet tall, and he's over 210 pounds. That's right. Oh, my God. Fikowski is 217 pounds? Yeah, and he's lean. That is insane. God, I had no idea he was that big i would have guessed he's 195 6 to 195 that's incredible just says what i know about people so you're saying what alex and tyler
Starting point is 00:42:59 alex who's in fourth and tyler who's in are going to do well enough to fight off Vekowski. That's your prediction. That's a bold prediction. Okay. And Patrick Vellner is just going to take first. Keep going. He's just going to run away with it. The top three right now are the three I projected top three before this competition began.
Starting point is 00:43:19 Not everyone knows Samuel Cornway as well as Adler and Vellner, but those three guys are very well-rounded and should have no problem staying in the top three spots. Did Brent see the programming and go, oh shit, this fucking weekend is basically sandwiched on either end with two workouts that are going to make this damn near impossible for me? One of the things I think is the biggest conversation that needs to be had around semifinals is how many tests are there going to be? Because to me, and I've spoken to several people here this weekend who have the same sentiment, there's a big difference in a six event competition and a seven event competition. I think if there were seven events, you would make
Starting point is 00:43:58 the games. What do you think? Do you have a preference for how many workouts there should be? For the qualifier to the CrossFit Games games i think it should be at least seven wow i think seven is actually is a great number because it's half as many events as the crossfit games roughly yeah i mean you could say that about six too yeah and then if you have two workouts that are under five minutes you can offset them with two workouts that are you are 20 and 30 minutes or something like that a little bit more easily. And you still have a space for a strength event if you want a strength event. It makes it a little bit easier to program workouts that can skew the leaderboard. And there's nothing wrong with workouts that skew the leaderboard.
Starting point is 00:44:40 You need to test everything. But to me, if you have the opportunity to have six tests or seven and you're trying to get the best guys to the games, do seven tests. Sorry, I'm switching. As we run out of time here, I'm switching to the women's leaderboard for the Atlas Games. I'm singularly focused on third place, Carolyn Prevost. I'm singularly focused on second place, Sydney McEost. I'm singularly focused on second place, Sydney Mikhailovich. Okay, I don't know who that is. Tell me why.
Starting point is 00:45:11 Sydney and actually several athletes. I think there were over a dozen athletes that took at least two-minute penalties on workout number two in this workout, some of whom have posted some stuff about it. And again, that double dumbbell movement workout would be totally different in live competition than in a gym. Because we know from the workout at the games in 2019, for example, with a double kettlebell shoulder to overhead, that athletes were getting a ton of no reps. But it's really different to get no reps while the workout is happening than to get suddenly a two minute penalty 24 hours after you did the workout.
Starting point is 00:45:45 And that, and that mentally messes with people a little differently. She's only 21 years old. This is the girl that would have qualified. She was competing at Wadapusa in the RX division, which is the second division at Wadapusa. She won it. If she had been competing in the elite division, which was like Tia, Claire, to me, Sarah Sigmund's daughter, like tons of games athletes, she would have placed seventh, which would have qualified her to the games that year. Wow. And then she was slated to compete at Atlas Games. She's going to try to make a run at the games anyway, and it got canceled.
Starting point is 00:46:14 The whole season got canceled, so no one knew who she was. So I have been super excited to see her compete and see if she's actually that good. And so far, she has been. How is she going to do in the fifth and sixth event because i bet you carolyn provost am i saying her name right i think she's going to do privo she's going to do incredible on that last event i mean that that's she's made to go yeah yeah yeah i think i i think um the three girls in first right now barring any crazy crazy penalty situations mackenzie riley sydney mccallish and carolyn privo and i and honestly emily rolf who i think is in fourth right now, barring any crazy penalty situations, Mackenzie Riley, Sydney McElishan, and Carolyn Prevost,
Starting point is 00:46:46 and honestly, Emily Rolfe, who I think is in fourth. I think they'll all make the games. What's Carolyn's weakness? Is it strength? I don't know what her upper-end strength is. I think she's pretty well-rounded. I think she's a dangerous top top 10 threat at the games, even in a loaded women's field.
Starting point is 00:47:07 I would, you know, she's, I want to, I'm really excited to see her at the games and see what she looks like over the totality of, you know, 13 tests. I think more reasonable for her this year at the games is like 15th to 20th. But if she has a great weekend that she could be pushing for 10th. And she's the kind of person who can ruin other people's days. You know what I mean? Like someone who wants to do well, or she can push the pace to a point where she makes other people who really have a chance to win the games uncomfortable. She's really a remarkable athlete. If you don't
Starting point is 00:47:39 follow her on Instagram, you should. Her posts are crazy. Do you follow her? Yeah, of course. Yeah. She's amazing um anything else you want to talk about this the women's i don't i don't recognize any of these people's names so i'm kind of over it who's in fifth six seven uh fifth place is annika greer with a very interesting name of annika oh spelling of annika and under six is alexis johnson a lot of alexis oh seventh place china cho here you know alexis johnson alexis and china obviously our game is veterans um so i don't i don't recognize alexis i'm looking just at a little tiny picture but china chose in it i mean
Starting point is 00:48:18 she's six points out of qualifying it's i think it's really tight on that women's leaderboard from like maybe even from like third to tenth is really tight on that women's leaderboard from like, maybe even from like third to 10th is really tight, like 20 points or something. So there could be, I mean, there could be a ton of shakeup in the leaderboard. The reason why I think Emily Rolfe and Carolyn Prevo will still make it is because I just think they're that good. Yeah. Hey, you're absolutely right. This is really tight. 11th place has 270 points and 5th place has 285 and 4th place has 288. Holy shit.
Starting point is 00:48:50 This is... A matter of fact... And now you throw that workout Gretel into the mix. And we know 5 seconds, 10 seconds can be 5 or 10 places in that workout. So, I mean, even though I'm saying these girls are
Starting point is 00:49:05 probably going to make it anything can happen in a workout like that especially when you don't get to do it against your competitors you just start doing it blind in your gym it makes it exciting that's for sure right not as exciting as it'd be if they were lining up and we knew that all these girls on the floor correct i'm i'm just i'm just standing up for the workout like some people might be like oh the five seconds shouldn't determine whether you go to the games or not and it's like yeah it should but you're right it would be amazing if they were all next to each other i agree i would like the workout a lot better live as a finale and yes the drama would be super high um anything else you want to talk about before i export this and get
Starting point is 00:49:46 this up and and we make six dollars on youtube the russians are killing it in asia oh great okay let's do that let's look over there uh cf asia invitational the met whoo yes they are can those men come to the united states are the russians gonna have any issues coming here i know they've had issues in the past oh roman won't be able to get to united states but the other two guys alexander illin and stas solidoff they should be fine i mean well assuming that any athletes can get to united states illin has competed at the games before stas solidoff's a master's athlete he's already made it to the games this year um so you know i i would expect that if. He's already made it to the games this year.
Starting point is 00:50:29 I would expect that if athletes are able to travel internationally to the United States, that both of those guys would be able to come, but we won't get to see Roman in the United States. Do you know why that is? I feel like we've talked about this before and you always avoid talking about it. I will do that again. Roman's in first place. He's tied for first place with 34 with with a guy named stas soledov and alexander illin is in third place with 342 very close there's another guy who's not russian but he has a russian name dennis samsonov he's in fourth let's just say he's russian what flag is that that's an incredible flag is Is it Bahrain? Oh, Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan?
Starting point is 00:51:07 Kyrgyzstan. And fifth place is Mortizez Sidgat. He sounds like a UFC fighter. What, what, what? You want to say his name? Only reason I wanted to bring up Asia was so you could say these names. Thank you. What is that guy's name i'm not sure i'm not looking at it okay oh and he's from iran uh 312 points a man and in sixth
Starting point is 00:51:34 place we have another russian and in eighth place we have another russian oh is crossfit exploding in russia go look at the women's leaderboard. Incredible. Are any of these people podium threats? No. Not the men. Roman would be the best chance at the games to get into the top 10, but that is what it is. There's a Japanese competitor in fifth place,
Starting point is 00:51:59 Yuko Sakuyama. What's her history with the games? She's in second place, isn't there? There is. There is. There is. Probably first, third, and fifth are Russians. Correct. First, third, and fourth. First, third, and fourth. Excuse me.
Starting point is 00:52:15 Yeah, yeah. So all those, all five of those girls, like, I kind of know who they are in Asia. Well, I shouldn't say I know who they are. They were the five girls that I was expecting to be towards the top in Asia. And I was hoping that someone that wasn't Russian would make it from Asia because I actually really enjoyed watching the, I don't know what to call them, the Oriental Asian athletes,
Starting point is 00:52:35 like the South Koreans or Japanese. I don't think you're allowed to say that word, but go on. How do you distinguish the ones that are from Eastern Asia from Western Asia? It doesn't matter until the podcast gets huge. So just keep feeling around in the dark. But those athletes, they just have different body types. And it was cool to see some different body types that were still capable of doing all these movements at the Games in 2019. And a couple of those girls have competed at the sanctionals in Asia when they were there the last two seasons and have showed potential.
Starting point is 00:53:06 So I'm hopeful that one of them can get in. But the three Russian girls that are up there are also going to be rookies if they make the game. So either way, we're going to get newcomers. I shouldn't say – some of them have been there in 2019, but I kind of consider that an outlier. So they'll be their first year to be able to compete at the Games in the full spectrum of a Games test. When you say different body types, don't forget about the guy who just qualified, the guy who pushes hay with the mullet. Colton Mertens. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:53:37 All body types, all body types, Brian. No, it's awesome. Don't be prejudiced. You can get a guy who's 10 inches and 50 pounds lighter lining up and throwing down against the other end of the spectrum. Yeah, and different ratios of leg to torso and arm and hair. Do we know how many affiliates there are in japan it's always i love seeing someone from japan there because i know crossfit is not or traditionally it wasn't very popular in japan and i just love to see it you know creep into a community that loves movement so much into a country that loves movement so much i i don't know those numbers and they have two and then look at
Starting point is 00:54:20 this guy from israel look at his name. His name is Orr. Or her name. Sorry, her name. Yeah, yeah. What a great name, Orr. I know a couple of the Israeli athletes. There's two women, Nicole Patel and Orr Cohen. And there's two guys, Etan Lieberman and Rand Dover, that are in this competition. They're good.
Starting point is 00:54:41 They're good. But I don't think they're as good as the Russian athletes. Not yet, at least. Man, there's a Syrian. Brunei. And that's cool. I do like the continental structure of the semifinals where you get athletes from different countries at these qualifier events. They need the experience.
Starting point is 00:55:03 And then the live competition experience counts for something. And then you'll see them come back year after year. And maybe one of these will break through eventually. And maybe we'll get even more representation from those countries as it continues to grow there. I mean, that's speculative, but we'll see. But this isn't a live event, right? No. Yeah, that's a shame. I haven't really cared anywhere, but that's a shame, especially when you have these communities that are in their infancy. They're the ones who really need the live event because that would really generate more energy and love around the sport. Is this a sport?
Starting point is 00:55:36 Would you call CrossFit a sport? Yeah. Is it a lifestyle? Yes. Is it a fitness methodology? No. Health methodology? Life methodology? Is it a fitness methodology no health methodology life methodology is it a cult i think you could say yes to all of those is there anything else you want to add to this is i
Starting point is 00:55:55 give me how about a dark horse pick for this west coast classic who's someone who you're like oh shit they with two days left they they can still just screw shit up? Matt Poulin. Matt Poulin was like the fifth or sixth seeded male out of the quarterfinals in this field. And I've talked about how deep this field is. But I knew nothing about him. I talked to him.
Starting point is 00:56:19 I did talk to him. I talked to a guy. Of course you did. I talked to him on Thursday at athlete check-in. And just kind of, I was like, hey, man, I don't recognize who you are. You know, and he told me he was. And I said, oh, I do know, recognize you by name. And I'm excited to see you compete this weekend.
Starting point is 00:56:35 I asked him if there were any workouts in particular that he knew he could do well on. And he said the ruck run would probably be his best workout. And it was. I think he finished, oh, fourth. Well, he actually finished third in the triple G chipper also. And he said the ruck run would probably be his best workout. And it was. I think he finished, oh, fourth. Well, he actually finished third in the triple G chipper also. And he's not a big dude. Like, he's a well-built 5'10", 190 type guy. He might do well in this handstand push-up workout.
Starting point is 00:56:58 And if Dallin Pepper really struggles with it or Brandon Luckett's elbow is bothering him, he could potentially sneak in there and be right there with just the finale to go. Yeah, that's incredible. 317 points. We need someone like that to root for. Yeah. I mean, guys like this have been making it. We had Zach Watts. We had Colton Mertens. We've seen some women get in there that most people don't know who they are and Ariel Lowenen so it could happen it definitely could happen i didn't we didn't talk about him earlier but if you want a dark horse he could be an unknown guy to make a move today and possibly possibly do it and when you say he's not a big guy when you say matt poolin is not a big guy he i mean but he is he's
Starting point is 00:57:39 the right size 25 10 195 i mean that's the size right that's the game's winner size that's the average size of a top 10 athlete at the games over the last seven years yeah isn't that amazing he's he's five to seven pounds lighter than what matt fraser competes at and yet five four to five inches taller yeah that's that's like a bowling ball bro that's yeah but it's weird when you when you stand next to him it doesn't seem like that like i never stood next to him been like oh shit i'm standing next to like you know what i mean i've never felt like he's no no i didn't i don't think i don't disproportionately when i stand next to him or rich but when i bumped up against them like we were i was in a booth with him with fraser at wadafusa one time and i just you know we were rubbing shoulders just standing close and i was
Starting point is 00:58:28 like wow there's like there's no give here right that's for sure and rich is the same way i went to the thing with him years ago and took a picture next to him just put my arm around him and i felt like i was putting my arm on like a marble statue or something yeah yeah it's that's always weird although all the crossfit men and women are like that when you hug them you don't even feel like you're hugging a woman you're like wow this is just like hugging a rock there's a guy it literally is weird there's a guy here from the northeast who won the wadapuza strong competition two years ago when i was working it and he was like oh brian friend and i gave me a hug and like i thought he might crack the rip like he hurt you like he hugged you too tight?
Starting point is 00:59:06 He's just so freaking strong. He can just put an 800-pound yoke on his back and walk across the floor with it. And he doesn't look like he could, but he's just so dense, so built. Did you watch any of the UFC fights last night? They were on at the restaurant we were at, just kind of in the corner. I didn't really watch too closely. Did you rub shoulders with any big names last night? Was it Matt O'Keefe where you were?
Starting point is 00:59:29 No, I went out with the Morning Chalk Up guys. Oh, I'm sorry. I mean, just because it sounds like work. No, no. We were just eating steaks and drinking beers. Yeah, good dudes. You guys are all good dudes. Tell those guys, give everyone over there a hug for me.
Starting point is 00:59:44 Slap someone on the ass are we done here i think so

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