The Sevan Podcast - #57 - James Hobart

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by car and other conditions apply. 165 pounds. And that concerned me a little bit since he's going to be going up against Jacob Hebner. I heard you talking to Dave about this. I don't think I just saw Josh, and we hung out a little bit.

We did a fundraising event, but he didn't look 165. Josh still looks jacked. Well, he'll look 165. If Heppner shows up at 190 for the fight, Josh will look 165. Yeah. Heppner looks a little bit leaner too though. five yeah all right heppner looks a little bit leaner too though but that's um and he's a bigger guy like in terms of like height and reach which i which from what i do understand that is a game changer when it comes to fighting right yeah boxing yeah well normally i don't know if it's going to

i don't know if it's going to in theirs but normally james could you tilt your camera down so i could look at your torso i will not be saying you know it's crazy i guess i am sexist because if daniel we have daniel brandon on tomorrow morning and her camera is like just pointed at her head i wouldn't say that it's all right i guess i do have boundaries i guess i am concerned about my my my my peers and the public's judgment of me. I always thought I was – I don't know. I'm just glad you said it to me.

We are eight minutes into the show. I think it's time for Brian to say something. Brian. Yeah. When the show started before you dipped out and dipped in and dipped out and dipped in and dipped out, you were looking at something on your screen and you go, holy. What were you looking at? Actually, I don't remember. Good answer.

Which means he remembers perfectly and he does not want to talk about it. Actually, I do remember. I do remember now. I do remember now. It wasn't anything that fascinating. It was just, remember I told you about that guy who's helping me out with some data accumulation or congregation? He did a lot of work today. And you're impressed.

Yeah. And it's not easy to impress you. And you're impressed. Yep. And it's not easy to impress you. This is the first show, James, where we've had Ryan Jevning. He's always worked deep behind the – what? I didn't say his name right?

Forgot a consonant. Jevning. Jevning. Jevning. Ryan Jevning. Usually we just have a guy – this is the guy that runs our YouTube station, and he runs the YouTube station for Josh Matt and Sevan podcast. And. I mean, he's gung ho and he's like, hey, we can do stuff live. And if you give me access to the Riverside FM software, I'll figure out a way that I can like produce the shows.

So that's why he sent out the phone number today. And now the team has expanded to four. It's myself, Brian, Matt Souza, owner of CrossFit Livermore and Ryan Jevney. And I don't know what he owns. I think he's too young to own anything. I think he's,

I think he's doing a great job so far. See that? Look at that. It's our first sound effect laugh tracks oh my god did you see did you see the tour de france um footage that happened um with the lady holding the sign and she turns the sign and knocks off the bikers off their bikes no i didn't see i just saw the clip of it on your instagram okay so you saw it i saw that yeah okay oh it looks like look at ryan showing off now look at this okay can you see this james yeah yeah 100 a bunch of handsome lads helmets on for safety first oh was she was she taking a photo oh my god i don't know. That's a good question. But that is an epic wipeout, right? Yeah.

Oh, that aerial view is insane. So I saw an article today that says that they're looking for her. They don't know who she is and that she could face a year in jail. And basically, I wouldn't even know the Tour de France was going on if it wasn't for that clip. Yeah, that's a good point and i'm almost in and part of the tour de france is the fact that like dogs run onto the track and that people are out there and it's hairball like yeah it's and i i just don't think she should be punished for it in any way no fine no like you're the um the people who put on the event i mean like they should just have people sign releases first like hey it's like the iditarod if you were eaten by a polar bear like is that really the fault of the uh is that the polar bear's fault or the people who put no you're not buying it james i just don't think you can make the analogy that this lady's like a polar

bear, but I get what you're saying. I think the only way it's like the polar bear situation is that that's the only reason anyone would know what's going on. Yeah, no, I, yeah, that too. I get what you're saying. I don't, I don't, it didn't look like she was doing it maliciously. I don't know. You probably can't like, like most things, like who knows if they're, you know, who, where did that, things like who knows if they're you know who

where did that that clip come from that they're gonna put her in jail for a year i bet she's in the hospital man she got smashed that's probably where they're not looking where they should be looking someone should ask her if she's all right too like i definitely you know the competitors and we talked about this last time like i don't wish any harm on competitors who are competing but i do feel like if you're gonna compete compete, that's par for the course, like risk of injury. Especially when they let the fans just hang out there right on the edge, which I think is brilliant. I don't think they should stop doing that. If anything, that lady – if this happened in the USA, that lady can just turn around and sue Tour de France.

Perfect. That's what should be happening right now. Perfect. I don't know we're big time i don't know about that james it reminds me of that um the guy at the cubs game back like 10 15 years ago he hadn't ended up having to go into witness protection because people were so you know crazy about how he interfered with the sport. What did he do? He like stuck his hand out over the field of play a little bit and interfered with a potentially foul ball catch in a very pivotal moment of a playoff game. Yeah, I have a hard time with that. I'm okay with that.

Go ahead, James. That he's going into witness protection or that he did it. Both. This is a free show. You don't have to follow any script or narrative. You can switch the subject and talk about your granny glasses on your head, whatever you want. Oh, yeah. I still have them on.

I usually don't wear my glasses in front of people for that reason. I'm glad you called me out on them. But now the world knows. No, I don't know. You're a Masters athlete. Of course we know. You're going to bring three pairs of those supermarket glasses to the game. They're those blue light glasses.

So that's why I'm actually embarrassed to wear them. Because I'm not someone who really needs glasses. I'm just sucked into a trend that's probably totally unnecessary. I wore the blue light glasses one night for an episode of on here and it was just reflecting all the other screens i was looking at i didn't like it so i put them aside yeah i don't know i just think i think that i look at it you know like most people look at a computer screen a lot but doesn't the sun put off like a shitload of blue light is there a fact check on that i don't know it doesn't anyway it doesn't matter i think the

lady uh i hope she's okay i hope the riders get back up on it um i think if they're gonna put her in jail for a year that's insane that's my hot take on that how about a fine no man what do you someone she's out on the track like i don't know regulate your race better right and and that's part of the cool thing about unfortunately we live in it we live in a time where people are so risk averse but they don't that i'm concerned that they're gonna like put a keep the fans away now yeah like push push the fans back do were you in the 2009 games j James? I was, short for a very brief period of time. I got cut early, but I was there the whole weekend. They had cuts 10 years before 2019?

Yeah, I'll never forget that moment. It was the run and then the deadlift, which were the two events that I just did not practice all year because I sucked at them. So why would you train what you're bad at? Of course. them so why would you train what you're bad at of course um so i got cut really early and i remember dave standing up on a table in the middle of that that shed and announcing the first cuts did you cry no i didn't cry i was really frustrated but i was also like there was this point in my crossfit life where it was just like i met everyone who had done you – eventually would go to do just about anything in CrossFit. I met that weekend, and it was just – it was like – it was a super awesome weekend.

No complaints. So you didn't do the hill run? I did the hill run, then the deadlift, then I got cut, and then I did the hill sprints, which I didn't do. Oh, sorry. I'm talking about the hill sprint. The one where the fans were on either side. Did you do that? Yeah, I didn't do those. And I would argue that that's the best event in the history of the CrossFit Games.

And I would love to talk – I wish – next time, hey, guys, let's vet our guests a little more. That was the whole premise of this show is to talk to them. Yeah, you need somebody who's a little fitter. Who ran that event. Is that because it smashed everybody or because it was a foot race? All of that stuff. It was short. It was a foot race.

It smashed everyone. But even though it was short, there was still like all the modalities were being sort of – not all, but more than what would normally be tested in a short event like that in a running event. In addition to all those things it was just the timing of it like no one was expecting that it was it was a very on the like spur of the moment thing and then the crowd's reaction the athletes didn't really know what to expect so it exposed people in a different way and the footage of its raw the event felt raw so it's very very like of the of theomas days, like it encapsulates what that emotion and feel of that place must've been like. So I think that like the same event at a different time wouldn't have had the same effect historically or in the moment.

And places were changing throughout the entire race. It wasn't like a hundred yard sprint where you get ahead and you're the winner. It was like 20 feet before the finish line. It was still like shoving and pushing and places switching. But what I really liked about it is the fans were there. Like they were yelling two feet from your head. It was like that Tour de France thing we saw. It did have that vibe to it.

There's few events at the games that have had that feel. I think that both years in Madison to differing degrees, the bike events had similar feel, especially the crit. The second one, there was like, people were lining that course, especially near the finish line and start area.

They were like when the athletes had to change their bike, if they got like a, like a foot caught in a peg and a clip or a clip popped out. I mean, they were basically in the stands getting a new bike or getting the maintenance fixed, not fixed on their bikes. It, the crit was really fun to watch except that it's a biking event i don't know i liked it

i don't know if there's anything wrong with that i mean this is i mean i see the tour i see baseball biking and golf kind of all in the same world of interest for me, for me in terms of sport world of interest, but it's, but they're totally different in terms of, or like, or like the triathlon. I'm just saying from a spectator's point of view.

And so the most exciting thing that can happen in a car race, I think is the crash bike race, the crash baseball. Well, actually I was having a exciting there or golf. I don't think anything exciting does happen. I was having a conversation there or golf i don't think anything exciting does happen i was having a conversation today with a friend about uh nascar i went to one nascar race in my life and i remember the first five laps the last five laps and the one crash those

are the three things that stood out luckily for the crit race it was only 10 laps so it got both the first and the last where did you go to a nCAR race? Texas Motor Speedways. It was probably 2007. That's a big speedway. I went down to Bristol for a race a while ago, and that was for NASCAR. It was really cool. Oh, okay. So tell me, what did you like about it?

I'm sure it's my lack of appreciation. It's a super short track. And I just think one of the things that's really – one thing that's neat about it is all the behind the scenes the team aspect that goes into getting one person in a car and getting through the race successfully like the more you understand that i think the more appreciation you have from it and then um just honestly the ability for consistency throughout the race i think is really amazing you know it's um and i think from a driver's standpoint while the course becomes very consistent there's a lot that happens throughout that race that does not make it like the same lap over and over and over again. But I think that's what's really cool about it.

I went to a motorcycle race. I filmed the Ducati team at Laguna Seca one time. Oh, cool track. Yeah. And I think the track's like a mile long, right? Yeah, I don't know the exact length on that, but it's just really famous for that, that back downhill corkscrew turn. Yeah. Holy cow. Yeah. I actually walked over there and looked at that thing. You can't even get your head wrapped

around it when you're looking at it. It's so steep. It's like, it's like racing down Lombard street in San Francisco. Yeah. But basically if you're a fan you you are kind of i mean you can walk around the track um i actually heard that the place holds a million people i don't know if that's true but it's massive right that's huge that's one of the reasons i wanted to go is because i cannot kind of believe how many people i feel like a hundred thousand people go to every nasca race like that's bigger than any sporting event event pretty much but once you get seated somewhere like that that's if if you don't walk around you're just there and the and the cool part is when they go flying by like i was i spent most of my time right in front of the pits filming and and you get it's amazing when they go flying by on that straight

away but i i don't know the most exciting part is one of the racers I was following his bike caught on fire. Probably wasn't very exciting for him. Hobart, do you still FaceTime with Austin? Yeah, we talk frequently. But specifically FaceTime? Yeah, I try and regulate it a little bit. I have this weird thing. I don't feel like everyone should be FaceTiming you all the time. And I feel like it's becoming a ubiquitous form of communication,

which in some ways is probably really nice for people who are distant. But it's also like if you FaceTime me all the time, I'm hanging up on 70% of those. Oh, interesting. And I'm just going to call you back on the phone. I don't think Stefan has this problem at all. No, not at all. But the reason why is because the only two people that I know who FaceTime, like outside of like grandparents and kids my whole life,

are you and Austin Maliola. I've never heard of anyone else like using FaceTime ever. That's a lie. Oh, tell me who that's not a lie. I feel like all of my friends FaceTime. Right. But most of your friends aren't, most of your friends hate me and aren't my friends. So that's fair. You're supposed to push back. How old are you? Sorry. Go ahead, Ryan. So i just got a message that the remember we talked about that woman jeanette states the girl that was uh formerly banned by the weightlifting world that was competing on the team that qualified from the mid-atlantic do you remember that seba oh yes

yes yes so without any uh public knowledge they were removed from the games invite list and the next team was invited. Someone just messaged me. It's on Instagram. Oh, awesome. That's fantastic, right? Yeah, it's great. It's always so strange to me how those things get out. There's no announcement about it. There's no publication about it. It just happened behind the scenes and someone tracks it down eventually okay let's circle that let's circle back about that because i have i have some interesting insight into that i want to say um i want to talk about this facetime thing so how old are you hobart hobart put your glasses on if you're squinting i won't make fun of you anymore no i was what is this little logo on top of the thing oh that's uh is that you sitting like go on is that you that's like um who is you've been hanging out with the sun god raw too much true um anyway i just turned 35

and um how what's the um average age of the people who FaceTime you? I know it's a biased sample. That's a crazy question. Thank you. Let's say, I don't know. Yeah, 33. Okay. And do you have any recollection of the oldest person who's FaceTimed you?

My mother. Come on, man. That's it. I mean, someone besides that. Of course, your mom can FaceTime you. you have no rules about mom has no rules i don't know i don't know other than that because the reason i bring this up and i mentioned this to jason hopper too is that he was on the podcast once we really hit it off good times i hit it off with everyone on the podcast and then like a week later not even a week later like three days later, he FaceTimed me.

Did I talk to you about this already? Did I talk to you about this already? How old is he? 17. As I say, because he looks like a grown man. 23, 23. He's actually older than Justin Medeiros. And he had his shirt off.

He FaceTimed me with his shirt off. he had his shirt off he facetimed with his shirt off when because when you look like he does you can do that kind of stuff you were wearing five you were wearing five jackets jason hopper shows up shirtless i think that is also a fair analysis brian was wearing something low-cut other day. He had no business wearing nice. Like a, like a, what are they called? Boat neck, boat neck shirt.

Nice. It was something he was Marsden gave him. It was a tank top. I was going to their party, man. I was going to their party. And he had a, he had just the full carpet showing.

Oh, how was the after party in Vegas? Would you have fun? Yeah, it was great. I was pretty late to it. I think relative to a lot of people. I feel like a lot of people had left by that point, but there were still plenty of people there. How late did you get there? 10. It was supposed to go from 4.30 till 10. I was going to say people were leaving at 10, and I don't know if it was that good of a party, but I guess if it was only going from four 30 to 10,

it was a good party. But it was a, it's like transition into just a normal party in Vegas that happened to have a bunch of CrossFitters added in addition to who would have normally been there. I was flattered that he, I was flattered that I want to wrap this up and then, sorry, I'll get off the FaceTime thing,

but I was flattered that he FaceTimed me as flattered thatattered that he facetimed me with his shirt off but my um my old man ways i was like tripping i was like hey you declined that if if i didn't decline it but if anyone else would have facetimed me i would have hung up and automatically assumed that it was that pocket dial but no matter what i'm only gonna facetime you now oh shit well that's kind of cool you're that's cool you know eventually maybe i'll be acclimated um yeah i i vibe with that i don't think it's a i was talking to another friend of mine there there are a lot of things i like about the phone call oh without without the image yeah yeah most of the people i talk to i only talk to like three people

like i recently just added brian to my favorites and now it's like we're friends like i call him even if i have nothing to say kind of weird um but most people i talk to i just like to have them in my ear and like even if i go into a store they go into a store like we just stop talking until the person comes out. You know what I mean? It's like, just like hanging out with them. You just sit there. Yeah.

Or like, if no one's saying anything, we don't get off the phone. We just go through the silence. I want to, I want to ask a Jason Hopper question, Brian. Okay. I want how, what, what kind of real shot, knowing what you know now about who's going to go to the games, what kind of shots does he have about top five and what, what makes him so good? Hmm. Uh, yeah. An answer to that Hobart, are you asking? And then you have,

no, I'm asking like a serious, a serious question. Yeah. Cause I watched him at the Mac a little bit and, um, you know, I've heard all the chatter, so I'm just, I'm just really curious to know what an expert thinks well i think he's a he's kind of a unique case this year where i feel like we um seven i talked about this the other day but i feel like you have to give him actually a chance to win or to podium but i also don't think he's necessarily one of the three favorites to win or four or maybe even five favorites to win coming into the game. So he's just this, he's like, I feel like there's a couple of guys that I would rank ahead of him that I think have a lower floor, but he has a higher ceiling, if that makes sense. So like, for example, Scott Panchik, I feel like he's going to have a great year this year.

And I would say that like more often than not, he'll finish at the games higher than Hopper, but his highest possible finish is lower than Hopper's highest possible finish. Wow. Okay. I'm feeling you. Yeah, no, that's, that's really interesting. And the reason, what do you think makes him so good? Cause he's like a, he was a collegiate. He played football at Clemson, correct? because he's like a, he was a collegiate. He played football at Clemson, correct? Is that true? Or some sport at Clemson?

Is that what I heard? Yeah, he was a preferred walk-on on Clemson's football team. And he's very athletic. He's very, you know, but the thing that, the reason why I think he can actually do that well, I'm expecting him to have a couple of bad events at the games. It happens to almost everyone. I, you know, I have a feeling that there might be one or two things that will most likely show up that he's just going to struggle against this field. Because it is actually a pretty deep field on the men's side this year, you know, relative to some other years, I'd even say.

And, but he can win events and he can beat guys that can win events at the games. I mean, he won several events at the Mid-At mid Atlantic. He didn't really have a bad event there. So I'm thinking that he's going to, if let's just say there's 13 events, I wouldn't be surprised if he has, you know, 10 top 12 finishes and three finishes 25th or worse. What do you think about this idea about Hopper? Hopper reminds me of a fighter who's like undefeated, like a 10-0 or an 11-0. And maybe I'm wrong, but from the time I've been talking to him. Whatever. He – I just mean early in his career.

Let's say 6-0. Let's compromise. And he doesn't – from even I think the words out of his mouth or what he was conveying to us is he doesn't know how good or how bad he is like he doesn't know you know and so i think on some levels that plays with that gives you a shit ton of confidence he's never been knocked out once a fighter's been knocked out then it's like oh shit then they kind of know where they're at i don't think he's always going to go into it like thinking he can do really well. Or, yeah, or he's like, this is a bad analogy, but kind of almost like a scare, like backing a cat into a corner. You fucking have no idea what it's going to do to you.

Is it going to roll over on its belly or is it going to attack you? Like, I don't think he really knows even. He doesn't know, like, he doesn't see the boundary. i don't think he knows his boundaries that's pretty cool i'm excited i'm excited to to see that do you have you asked matt the question of like hey whoever wins this year do you think that guy is thinking like or should be thinking like oh thank god matt God Matt's not competing. Cause I can finally, you know, fourth place can be like, I can finally get on the podium.

We all think that in the CrossFit world, but I wouldn't dare. I wouldn't ask Matt that. Matt, I think Matt, I think I feel like it would be in a weird position. I feel like he's probably been asked that in reverse in 2000, you know,

15, 16, maybe leading up to the games. He said, if you, you know, someone probably asked him if you win this year, will you feel like, I wonder if I would have beaten Rich? And maybe even in 2016, they say, do you think if Rich was still competing, you would have also won this year?

I'm sure someone's asked him that. So he's probably been on the other side of it. So it might be interesting from that perspective. I'm sure his answer would have been something like, if the guy wanted to put his name in the ring, he should have put his name in the ring. And if he didn't, I can't do anything about it i can only beat the guys that are here there's a better way to ask that question yeah it's got to be it's a great question james but there's got to be a better way to ask it yeah much better way because if someone

asked that to me i'd be really pissed how about fuck you like that yeah they're kind of shitting on your parade yeah was 2009 your first crossfit games it was and and um were you nervous your first event like what's jason gonna feel when he goes out there i was really nervous and i was i was nervous too because i was pretty entrenched in the community up until that point. So it's like everyone I was competing against out there were people like that had, without knowing it taught me CrossFit through the internet. So it was like, I was like, you know, it was very cool. Oh, there's Spiel running up and down the hill.

Oh, there's Pat Barber. That's who I've, you know, I've watched 15 videos from. And cause in 2008, you did every second counts. know i've watched 15 videos from and because in 2008 you did every second counts and i've watched that movie 25 000 times um seven how'd you choose those guys to feature on that documentary because there were some other good choices that were left out i think like why didn't we choose james hobart oh i didn't that was 2008 i didn't uh um what so before i answer that question like give me some ideas like who should we have chosen i'm trying to remember um who the i think it was five guys that you featured but like you

know the one guy uh welburn you know it's kind of obvious why you chose him despite the fact that he didn't do well was because he was an outlier but i think it was um like dutch like there were some guys that were just about as good as d that I felt like you could have chosen. And you just went with that guy for some reason. You should have picked Jason Kalipa, but you didn't. Oh, Hobart,

we should have had you as a producer. You could have unfucked us. So the story is this, the media team at that time was like, I think it was just me and Carrie Peterson, Tony budding. I don't know if there was anyone else on the media team at that time. It was originally just Tony and Lauren, and then Lauren stopped making media,

and then I think it was just Tony. And then Kerry and I popped onto the scene in 2006, and we wanted to do a documentary on the 2007 games. I really wanted to, and that was the first year of the CrossFit Games games and they said no or greg kind of just brushed it off he i know it's a shame huh in hindsight he should have just done it i could have just done it too um so then in 2008 about um two months before the crossfit game started um tony who was the head of the crossfit media at that time said hey this is what I want you to do at the CrossFit Games, X, Y, and Z. I said, okay. And then Lauren called me, and Lauren Glassman, Greg's wife at the time, and she said, hey, what do you guys want to do at the Games?

And I said, I want to make a documentary about the CrossFit Games. This is two months before the Games. And the way the Games worked back then, I think you just show up and compete. Anyone can just show up and compete. So she said, said okay go ahead and make a documentary and then i said okay so then i called tony i think back and he said no you're not gonna make a documentary you're gonna do this you're gonna make content for the site and i was like okay so then i talked to lauren and she said you're not what you're not doing the documentary

and i said no he said we had to make content for.com. And she said, oh, just ignore basically anything. Whenever he tells you something, just say yes and then do whatever you want. I'm not even making that up. I don't know if that's verbatim, but it's so close to paraphrased if it's not verbatim. don't know if that's verbatim but it's so close to paraphrase if it's not verbatim so um first i put together a budget for the movie it was like seventeen thousand dollars um and and you know back in when we shot it in hd we bought the best hd cameras they just come out it was like a for camera geeks it was like a panasonic 150n or 155N or 50N. And we immediately got on. So then we basically talked. I think we probably talked with Dave.

And we just chose those athletes. I can't remember. And we also chose women. So the goal, we chose five women and five men or six women and six men. And we filmed with all the women and we filmed with all the men. And back then, the women's was way less developed than the men. It's not like now where maybe you could even argue the women are surpassing the men in terms of the evolution of the sport. There was just no comparison. There was just no comparison.

There was no – I mean there's probably 12-year-old kids who could win the CrossFit games in the women's division alive now. So we just chose those people. And I remember we were at Freddie Camacho's CrossFit gym in like Sunnyvale or Fremont or some shit like that. And we were filming with Pat Barber and Austin Biji being who's on the L1 team and good friends with James Hobart. He's there training a guy named Jason Kalipa and busy beings like saying, dude, this guy's so good. This guy's so good.

And he does some crazy workout while we're there. Something like, I know it wasn't this, but it was like 10 thrusters at 135 10 burpees three rounds and we just saw him just decimate it and so then we were like or maybe it was 95 pounds back then i can't remember but i as he walked off i think i said to austin bish austin busy busy being or freddie camacho hey that fucking i think it's big evening fucking dude better not. I think it's Big E-Bing, but. Thank you, Big E-Bing. Sorry. It's nice the way you say, no, no, please, always correct.

And I turned to one of those guys and I said, hey, that dude better not fuck up our movie. Ben, you fucked up our movie. And you had this experience of watching him move a barbell that well and you didn't think on the last event, oh, damn, someone should probably film this guy. I'm no Brianrian friend i'm no hey dude when we were in the back room at before the final event we so we were in this

in the in dave's like shed that was like 110 degrees and everyone's warming up i think dave i don't remember if it's in the movie but i think dave looked at jason cleep and goes what are you doing here because it was just supposed to be the finalist. And Dave is so serious. He said it even more serious. What are you doing here? Just like, fuck you, get out. And I can't remember.

Obviously, he belonged there. Yeah, I've heard that story. I don't remember where it was from, though. He started so, I mean, Spieler started like easily a minute before him. Yeah. So. So then, yeah, so then, yeah.

So then Jason won the games and the movie was movie. And then we just didn't have enough compelling footage of the women. Like it just, and the movie was already. So the movie was already like 90 minutes or however long it was. That footage is probably sitting somewhere. It's kind of crazy. I got those. So part of the reason I ask is like,

if you said to me today, Hey Brian, who are the five guys I should cover in the lead up to the games? You know, and I'm going to try to pick five. Like, I feel like I could pick five and of the five I pick the minimum, the absolute minimum number of podium placements I could get would be two. And it would most likely have all three of them. And I think that four out of five in the top five is even doable for the men this year. But I look back and I see the guys that you picked and I see where they finished. It's like, obviously understand why you pick Fitzgerald and Josh Everett, Spieler. And then you just pick Dutch Lowry, Matt Murski and John Welburn.

And there's other three guys like you could have picked Pat Barber. You could have picked Matt Chan. You could have picked Jeremy Thiel. There's a bunch of guys you could have picked. So I just didn't know if there was a specific reason for some of the others. Jeremy Thiel. Like there's a bunch of guys he could have picked. So I just didn't know if there was a specific reason for some of the others. You know what? Maybe we filmed with Jeremy.

I can't remember. I filmed with him a lot or I would see him a lot in the community. I can't remember if we filmed with him or not. Probably not if it's not in there. But – It might be because – It was a $17,000 budget. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's a –

Just two guys working on the film. I mean it was nuts. It was nuts it was nuts obviously it was very good anyway it came together and it you know it set the stage it gave you the opportunity to do a bunch more of them so can i sidetrack us please so brian says that he you know if you said give me five people to film he could give you five and three all he would you know without a cert without a smit any doubt he could all three of them would be on the podium what what stats brian are you

looking at that makes you so sure is this just is this just like i thought you were gonna ask a dumb question that's brilliant that's brilliant so uh to i guess to be fair i thought you were gonna ask well who would they be, Brian? Like just the cheap, easy question. But you asked something like deeper. That is fucking good. Can you pretend like you didn't say it and I ask it? Yeah, go ahead.

Hit it up. Tee it up. Savon, what a great question you fed James there. I sent it to him in the chat. Texted it to me, yeah. So I guess I should start by saying at this point in the research that I've done, I still have nine men that I feel like could make the podium this year. But if you were going to ask me to only pick five, then there are certain things that I

would look at. And some of them would be like head to head performance in a similar competition to what I'm expecting at the games. And obviously there's always factors coming into the games. And we just talked to Noah last week and he was telling us about a shoulder injury and then a very personal kind of outlier type of experience that he had leading into the semifinals that none of us knew about. So, you know, there's always- Did you hear that story? Did you hear that story, James? What happened to Noah?

I didn't hear that story. I wanted to watch that podcast, but I haven't listened to it yet. Okay. Sorry, Brian. You're saying important shit, so I'll try to not tell it. Yes and no, but it was an unexpected thing to hear from him, and obviously those things can happen. But based on what I know, no one's ever beaten Pat Vellner in live competition in five years, at least in a live competition where he's been able to take the entire test other than brett brentfikowski who's done it once at dubai crossfit championships so i'm going to put velner in the in the list um then i look at brentfikowski and look at this the historical performances that he's had in relevant competitions between winning uh you know regionals

in the past uh winning dubai winning the Asia CrossFit Champions, second at the Granite Games. So he's great in the last recent live competitions we've seen him in. Plus he's got three top four finishes at the CrossFit Games. I'm going to put him in the list. And he got through in the online version of the competition, which no one will be able to convince me is a disadvantageous setting for him. The more events there are, the better, the more complex the events are, the better. So for me, it's pretty easy to put those two guys in that list.

Breaking it down the rest of the way, it's almost where you have to start eliminating guys. And so I just start looking at head-to-head records when it matters the most. And even then, it's tough. Because like I said, Scott Panchik and Björgman Carl Goodmanson, those are great examples of guys who have historically been amazing at the games.

You can almost pencil them in for a top six finish. But how do they rank against Justin Medeiros and Jason Hopper, who are up to 10 years younger than them and riding a lot of momentum? Medeiros made it through the stage one last year and then beat Noah Olsen at the games. You can't just overlook that. Who beat Noah Olsen at the games? Who did you say?

Medeiros. Well, he was third. Sam McQuant was second. So he's the highest ranking returning guy from last year's games. Very young. Has a sanctional win at the Filthy 150. He would have won the Granite Games the year before if he knew how to move a sandbag. He's proved that he can do that now. So he's, you know,

has proven in the few competitions we've seen him. Now he was third place at the Mid-Atlantic, but he's actually in the group of athletes now who I'm thinking is not peaking for semifinals even. They're prepared and ready, but there's still another place for him to go. And really, if you look at the Granite Games, the guys that were in the top four there, they were so far clear of the fifth place guy that I think that they almost... Those are people, maybe with the exception of Hopper, who's still learning what he can do. But Pancik, Medeiros, and who's the other guy that was... And Mayer. They were coming into that saying, we should qualify for this. I would say Mayer, not so much. He was, you know, for him,

he has to make it, you know, he'll, he's oftentimes fourth or fifth and just barely getting in, but halfway through that weekend, he knew he was hanging with those guys. Anyway. So that's, so I was give you, that's a great question because if you told me Scott Panchuk and BKG or Justin Medeiros and Jason Hopper who's going to have the better finishes at the games I don't know if I have the answer yet what about Jeremy Stuckey does he have a chance to win the games are you looking at the Masters division that's good but

I like what are you looking at no I'd like how quickly you know what did you think about his answer now review his answer does he know what he's talking about hobart i mean you're an athlete what do you think that that's fair critique analysis did you not get what you wanted i didn't feel like i got what i wanted no i mean because basically he says he looks at wins he says he looks at wins yeah i wanted i wanted to hear like a little a tech a technical approach i'm sure there's some um you know there's some style in there yeah some nuance to that from what you know something that's not tangible that he's picking up but i like that brian i've known brian a long time so i trust his analysis and he seems to be pretty accurate so far. I agree with both of that. I trust his analysis.

He's astute and reliable, but either he's holding something from us or he sounds like a goddamn psychic. Wow. And there are more, like with all of the stats that I'm given, like I can tell you he won the Dubai CrossFit Championship, but you might not know really who was in that field.

And you might know the caliber of athletes that he beat and the quantity of tests that there were. I mean, I can't remember the number, but there were at least a dozen games athletes in that field, several top 10 finishers. Roman Krennikov was there who people always want to see go against the best of the best. He finished third. The only guys who beat him were Fikowski and Vellner. He beat Vellner by like a handful of points. It was very close between the two of them. And there were some other guys in that field. BKG was in that field. Yonakoski, Lazar Jukic, Georgios Kerevis, who are all going to the games this year. Tolomora Kinyo was in that field. It was a deep field. Jeffrey Adler was there. Alexander Caron was there. Fabian Benito,

Jason Smith. So winning this competition is not a small feat, over 10 events against that quality of field, that's the last time he's competed live, Fikowski but if I say that he went first at Asia CrossFit Championships it's like well, the second place guy was Josh Woodhull and third was

Ant Haynes, it's not the same kind of a win, so wins isn't the only thing that I'm really talking about, I'm really talking about. I'm talking about caliber of win. Hobart, do you have a chance of winning your master's division? Yeah, I think I have a chance. You do? I love it.

Yeah. And who's the – is Casper Bauer in your – Yeah, he is. Oh, that's horrible. Who else? Any other just pitbulls like that? Honestly, all of them. The, the 35 year old masters are, are stacked.

Um, Nick block, uh, Adrian Conway. Um, I mean, Zach Forrest competing, Dan Bailey's competing. Um, a lot of it, even, you know, and even names, I don't know. What was cool, and I've said this before, I think I said this last time with you guys, is that if you look at the qualifiers going to the Masters, what was really cool about it was just the international diversity. Like, it was like there's somebody from Japan, Ireland, Russia, you know, U.S. It was just cool seeing that. And all those guys are super fit. Why is that cool?

Why is that cool, Hobart? They should all be from the united states of america no canadians that'd be cool that'd be cool too no um there actually are no there are no they're already beating the shit out of us in the individual competition there are no canadians actually competitions they're in the masters there's no canadians not in not in' category. Oh, there you go. Only 17 have registered so far. They're from nine different countries.

But the thing that is most interesting to me is the distribution of ages. So seven of the – well, first of all, from the last time they had a Masters competition at the Games, they only had 10. Nine competed. Kyle Kasparov actually withdrew prior to the games that year. And the other nine that competed are not, none of them made it this year. So it's an entirely new group. It's cool. It is cool. And those guys must

be savages. Well, Kasparov did come back. And besides him, there are also, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 other guys that are 37, 8, or 9 years old, which is like 7 out of 17 is a pretty good number. One foot in the grave. Can Jason Smith win? I know this is harsh.

Sorry, Jason. I like you. I kind of want to have you on the podcast. But can Jason Smith – do you know who Jason Smith is, Hobart? Yeah, qualified. He's a multiple games at times games athlete, qualified out of South Africa. Right. Can he win the 35 to 40 division? Who's in there with him? That's 35-39. It's the same one as James.

Oh, and that is the first Masters division. It starts at 35. Can he win that division? Is he better than Hobart? Are you asking James? No, I wouldn't ask James. Put James in a position like that. I could have sworn you just asked him. He's like Switzerland. Switzerland. He's a good dude. I think if Jason Smith was

competing in that division, he would be the favorite to win. Wow. Okay, James. Can that dude beat you? I got to go train, guys. This was fun. See you later. You know what the guy in that division that really intrigues me is the Finnish guy, Tomas Vainio. Yep, really fit.

Yeah, why do I know that game? I'm sure I've interviewed him. He was a games athlete. He was? Let's check his profile. Is he? How do I know him, James? His name sounds familiar.

His name sounded really familiar to me, too. I don't. I'm trying to figure out where I know him from. But I definitely recognize him. Maybe Ryan can pull up his Instagram or something. Thomas V-I-N-O? No. V-A-I-N-I-O.

He's not Italian. Spanish. No. V-A-I-N-I-O. Italian. Finish. Are you regretting coming on, James? No, not at all. I love chatting with you guys. I just like listen to Brian just body bag you with stats. It's not nice. Sorry, I'll be nice.

And I should say Jason Smith would be among the favorites. I have a feeling that Adrian Conway is going to be pretty good. I'm expecting James to do pretty well. Nick Block should be pretty competitive. Those are the guys. I don't know all the international guys, but those are the guys that I think – how old is Ader Costa? 36.

Have you talked to Zach Forrest at all, like on the phone or anything, or do you see him anywhere, James? I actually texted him when we were going through the age group qualifiers. And I'm going to take credit for the reason that he made it because he texted texted me he said should i redo the last workout because he was close he was like 23rd or 22nd and i said why wouldn't you redo it man like there's no reason not to if you redo it and do worse you're in the same spot you are now and if you redo it you do better you might get in and then he like just

squeezed in i think the 20th or 19th wow there should end up being at least there should end up being at least one backfield because one of the guys stas soledov qualified out of russia is as an individual as well you know i watched because when he was putting up his his times i watched all of his videos he's a monster it was like in my head i was like you know and i know where my training's at and i'm not something like i'm just not all show up and do my best and have fun kind of guy but i looked at him and i was like holy shit like i gotta really get fitter so here's an interesting thing numbers are crazy i haven't looked i haven't really looked into him

too much yet i'm kind of start at my bottom at the top and work my way down through the guys that I'm more familiar with to least familiar with. He's at the bottom of the list, like bottom five guys right now for the games. He is a monster, and he's very good in online competitions. He was in the trials for Loud and Live last December as well, and he did pretty well. What do you think is realistic for this guy in the open division at the games uh middle of the pack do you think like 20th place finish is within reach for him looking at how well he performed i think so yeah currently ranked 20th and it's a little i haven't done a ton of research.

I have Tim Paulson. Like that's a guy with a lot of experience. Burp into your mic or something, James. We can't have that much silence. Like if he talks and you don't know what to say, just burp or something. No, it's just, I made like a noise. I guess it didn't come in, come through.

It did. It did. So where do you have stats? No, it's all right. He really blasted me there. Blasted? No, I'm just saying getting 20th this year I think is harder than most people think. Jeff Adler was in the top five last year at the games and I don't have him currently. I don't have him inside the top 10.

And this is based on, but this isn't, those guys aren't based on live competition. This is just you based on comparing stats of or open performance. I mean, I haven't, like I said, I haven't done a thorough analysis, but based on my just preliminary knowledge of everything I know about these guys. And for a guy like Jeff Adler, I know quite a bit because I've seen him compete live. I've seen what he can do online. I know where his strengths are. I know what he's been working on for the most part, where he thinks he needs to improve. And there's a lot of information about him.

Because I saw Soladov, I know hardly anything. So I haven't really ranked him yet. I don't know where to put him. So I was just seeing if you had any insight. I'm throwing middle of the pack out there. It's just, that's what I got. And it'll be good. The Russians have really, like, Roman's qualified all these years,

but we never got to see him live at the games. Alexander Elin was there as the national champion, and he's going to be there again this year. How come we never get to see Roman? How come we never get to see Roman? I've asked Brian this question 20 times. We never get to see Roman. How can we never get to see Roman? I've asked, I've asked Brian this question 20 times. He doesn't want to answer,

but you know, Ellen only competed in three events before being cut in 2019, two or three events. I think he was right around 50th place and, uh, 56. Yeah, you're right.

And when do games tickets go on sale? They've been on sale since February. Yeah. Oh, really? I bought like a – Oh, shit. So you do have valid concerns. You mentioned in the last podcast – I think it was you, right? Probably.

Someone said that they were like, yeah, I wonder how many people are going to show up or be scared. Maybe they have more tickets than normal, but when – I remember past the the madison and carson would sell out in like under 15 minutes i've never seen them promote uh ticket sales like they are this year wow that's really weird that is really weird because that then that there aren't a lot of tickets i mean i mean well in the coliseum packages of tickets and the coliseum should sell like it should sell it i don't know you could go online and probably check but i bought um i think about eight tickets using our affiliate pre-sale code right the first day that they it became available

um brian did you see that text i sent you the other day it was it was a screenshot of a dm about two athletes who are brothers who can't get an appointment with their embassy to come to the United States for the CrossFit Games. They're individual competitors until 2023. And they've even already received – they said CrossFit's helping them as much as they can. They said the game sent them letters. They're trying to come. Do you remember that text I sent you? You sure you sent it?

On the big thread? it's with, um, it's, it's on the thread with, um, the team seven and Ryan. Yeah.

Uh, I don't, I'm not sure actually. It's, uh, it says, Hey, is there any way you can see?

Have you heard that yet? Are you talking about the guys from Serbia? Yeah, the Dujics. Djukic's. Yeah, I found it. Djukic's. Yeah, I sent it to you. Yeah, I think I missed it.

Okay. Well, it was from someone called Big Badass Wolf. Oh, geez. Man, you're giving away all the secretsass Wolf. Oh, geez, man. You're giving away all the secrets. You said the name of the thread. You're talking about like who sent me the intel. You're killing me.

I don't know what this is. I remember looking at it and I was like, what is this? And I just ignored it. And now you're asking me about it. Oh, I know. You're giving away. You can't reveal the sources. Basically, it looks like those guys are having trouble.

I thought you said it was from these guys. I don't know who it's from, but it looks like it's someone who's intimate with them. From reading it. I mean, I don't really. The truth is, is I pushed it to you so you could like, you know what I mean? I don't have any other information. Someone knocked at the front door and I just said, Brian will you get it um so so that's the first you're seeing it right here like look at brian maybe even angry a little bit you think he's angry hobert

he looks pissed from what i normally know this news is 24 hours old brian likes to be on the edge i just i don't want to you guys here though basically that those texts those dms say that those guys basically haven't found a way here, and their path here that they have right now is through an appointment at the embassy in 2023, which, if my math is correct, would mean they would miss the games this year. James, what were you saying? I just wanted to give you guys an update. I'm looking at the Ticketmaster Coliseiseum and it looks like very few seats are

left inside the Coliseum. Okay. That's good. I just want to get a heads up. I think, I think it's going to be a good show this year. If you're thinking about going great to be in the Coliseum. And I don't think there's a bad seat in that Coliseum and bring your earplugs. I am not joking. That will get so loud

that your brains want to pop. It's the loudest indoor event I've ever been to. Like no concert, nothing has ever been louder at the end there when they're screaming. It's nuts. It's so fun. It is fun. I agree. James, what would you be? Go ahead. So you said, so, so I, you don't have to re go, you don't have to redo the story. I should catch up on my homework. But based on what you guys learned about Noah, is it more impressive that his performance now or less impressive

or considering what happened to him this year? Okay. More impressive. I would also say that his performance at semifinals didn't detract for me in any way of what I project for him at the games. It was a comfortable second. And knowing that he was injured makes it even more impressive. He had kidney stones. And they, I guess, shot a laser into him or something and broke the kidney stones up.

But just to make sure that they came out, they put a stint in him. And I don't know if you know where kidney stones come out of, but they come out of your penis. So to put a stint, I had to ask, where did they put the stint? So basically, there was a, they put it up through his, I don't know what that hole is called, but you have one. It's at the end of your penis. Urethra. Thank you. You're welcome. The hole at the end of your penis. Urethra. Thank you. You're welcome.

The hole at the end of his urethra. Basically, they put the stint up through there, and then there was a string hanging out of his penis that was long enough to not vanish if he chubbed up. I made sure I asked that. And thank you. Thank you. And he had that hanging out of him for a few days i think

until he peed it all out maybe even a week and you know his words not mine it was uncomfortable just a cool uncomfortable i love it so so i know i've had kidney stones it's not fun uh sevens about this. Um, those guys from Serbia. I mean, my first thought was, well,

who competed for them in 2019 and how did they get there? But the answer is no, uh, none of the guys, no guy did because I think Jukic Lazar Jukic turned down his invite that year. And I'm, I don't see another Serbian flag on the board here.

That's some good. That's some good investigative work, by the way. But I mean, in that year, there were men and women from over 100 countries that were able to get to Madison. So, you know, it seems weird that this one country would have this problem. And so I don't know if it's a country's problem or if it's their problem. Like, you know, the same reason why some of the Russians can get to the U.S. and some cannot. Oh, you mean like the story, like the reason why you won't talk about whatever happened? Yeah, the problem isn't coming from Russia to the U.S.

It's that guy who can't come from Russia to the U.S. Gotcha. Just like Hobart can't come to my house. There's nothing to do with it. I would love to if you give me an invite. Other Jameses could come to your house, but Hobart, no. That's a difference. Hobart, if you came to my house, you'd probably lose 20% of your fitness capacity in a week. Or maybe you would gain 20% of fitness capacity. Okay, so there was a girl from Serbia who came.

Okay. And she competed in the first event, and she was cut in third to last place. But she was there, and that's the only thing that's really important. So she was able to get here. What year was that? 2019. Okay, so those guys should talk to her. Yeah, I mean, the bigger picture here is I've,

everyone, everyone I've asked this question to who has any kind of insight has basically told me that CrossFit is taking this responsibility upon themselves, that they're working with athletes and have been working with athletes to get them to the games from wherever they're coming from. So if that's great and what, I don't know what else I can ask for. And if there's one problem with one guy or two guys coming from one specific country,

that's really unfortunate. But I don't know why that problem is occurring for them if it's not occurring for other people. Will they backfill or it's too late? That's a great question. Those guys can't come. The problem with the backfill in this case is that it's going to be an international backfill. And we've already identified in some other conversations

the potential timeframe that it could take for that to happen. Even if you're able to come, how much time do you need to prepare for it? Or would you backfill from the last chance qualifier? The last chance qualifier could just as easily have international athletes in those positions. True. But I think that they'll intend to have 40 guys at the games one way or another.

So the back foot would just trickle all the way down, like just keep going back. To whoever could make it, yeah. You didn't pass your PCR test. You live in Serbia. The next thing you know jehovah's in the games they're gonna they're gonna pull the masters men into the open game why not what if they said that what if they said whichever one of you guys is in first place after day one come back on thursday compete with the elites no man you'd make sure you were in second yeah no he wouldn't hobart's a savage inside um brian there's a guy named jeremy stucky um and i guess somehow he gave us some money through

youtube i don't even know how that works but it's it sounds like it's been earmarked to upgrade your internet. I think that's the stipulation on the donation. Although you guys have to know that was my – the last podcast that was all jacked up, that was totally my fault. That wasn't Brian's fault. There was a – we use Riverside FM as our podcasting software, and for some reason, this is the first time it's happened on my end the whole thing didn't upload and so then i had to use the backup copy and it had really shitty audio but brian actually did an amazing job yesterday so he shouldn't get shit for that i am concerned about daniel brandon tomorrow because she is going to be on a cell phone um and that is not uh that's not

like setting us up for success. That would, that's not good. That's like if Hobart didn't sleep the night before the games. Stucky is not the only one who's offered to pay for an upgraded internet, by the way. Savan should help you with that. Um, so I could sell my jacket.

I could sell that jacket I was wearing and get him a whole new computer. Yeah. And your hat. Well, no, I can't part with the hat haps. I'll probably never wear that jacket I was wearing and get him a whole new computer. Yeah, and your hat. Well, no, I can't part with the hats. I'll probably never wear that jacket in California. So you had said that the women's division may have surpassed the men, Savan, and what does that mean? And then, Brian, is it true?

Fact check. Let's let Brian do both. Good answer. fact check it let's let brian do both good answer uh no i could interpret it but i'd love to know what savon meant before i do we just had the greatest we just had two of the greatest crossfitters ever just dominate the the men's competition right there's no doubt we just had rich do a four-year run and then we had matt do a five-year run and they kind of did it maybe more math than rich but they did it really matt rich maybe did it with more fanfare but matt maybe did it with more dominance maybe i don't even know if that's true but but now we have this i feel like the competition in the women's – I feel like the people underneath Tia are so damn good and they still can't touch her.

I think those women who are underneath Tia are of the same caliber. They're all superstars. They're all amazing. I'm not sure exactly how to articulate it, but that caliber, you like to watch me flub around and talk and try to talk about stuff. You talk about Brian, um, you, you have, you have these just savages in the women's class and they've all, and maybe it's just an emotional analysis, but I, they, there's like seven girls. I would think that could win the games if Tia wasn't there and i don't you know and i don't think that about the the men's competition anymore like it's just it's a bunch of washed up dudes and then some new dudes

vying vying for something let's say an old dude does win it this year let's say scott panchick or noah wins it this year i don't think that they repeat what about if velner or fukowski wins it this year. I don't think that they repeat. What about if Vellner or Fikowski wins it? They're just as old as Noah. How young? How old is Noah? 30. Guys that are 30 years old. Noah Olsen, Travis

Mayer, Cole Sager, Brent Fikowski, Pat Vellner. All 30 this year. We almost had an episode without saying Travis mayor's name. Thank you, Brian. Do you, do you think it's more impressive or it's, um, it elevates the women's field that the women's games competitors range from like 17 to 35 at the high, you know, upper levels and the men I think exists in a smaller age window than that. Is that

true, Brian? This year's men, 21 to 37 is the range. The women is 17 to 39. Oh, but I think you're, but I think you're right, James. I think we're seeing more. The thing is that like the 21 year old, the 21 year old on the men's side, then you have a couple of guys that are 22 in Justin Medeiros and Jay Crouch. I would say Guillermo Mejeres from Brazil is the youngest guy. And so I would say he's probably going to be in the bottom 10 this year. It'll be his first year in the elite division. Jay Crouch is an interesting one.

He's pretty consistent. He reminds me of BKG, just a younger, less experienced version. He's not going to have a lot of top 5 finishes. finishes he's not gonna have a lot of bottom 15 finishes so probably finish somewhere between 15 and 25 this year but but justin madero's obviously can do very well his third last year he's like i said he's had a couple good sanctional performances so he's like the outlier in terms of the capacity to really excel at the games at a young age. On the women's side, you've already have Haley Adams, who's still only 20 years old, who's finished inside the top six in back-to-back years. I mean, just her alone has already proven that on the low side, you can have better performances at that age. And on the high side, you have Sam Briggs, who's at the ages that Stas Soledov and Jason Smith are now.

I guess she was a little bit younger than that. She was, I think, 34 and 35. She took fourth in back-to-back years. So, yes, they've proven at the higher ranges that you can have excellent performances at the games in addition to being older and younger and qualifying for the games. I always wonder why that is. I didn't have the stats behind it, but I had thought that same thing about the games. I always wonder why that is, but that's kind of, I didn't have the stats behind it,

but I had thought that same thing about the women. The way that I interpreted, the way that I interpreted what Sevan had said about the women surpassing the men is like on, on relative workouts. So I haven't done a full study of this yet, but based on my, I haven't done a full study of this yet, but based on my, just like what I've observed over time, I feel like at this point, pretty much any barbell workout that has a 65, 95 pound barbell or a 95, 135 pound barbell that the women will outperform the men. Now, if you put in like a high volume of ring muscle ups, maybe not, but with like most couplets or triplets, if that, if that barbell cycling is in there at those light to, you know, maybe even to moderate weights, like a one 55, one Oh five that the women will outperform the men. But if you start, and like I said, I haven't, I like want to eventually go back and look at some of that

and try to see if it's true or if there's been an evolution over time, but it just feels that way to me. And it doesn't only feel that way to me at the highest level. It feels that way to me at the affiliate level. Like the women that have been doing CrossFit for a similar amount of time in my gym to the men seem to do better on those workouts specifically that have that barbell cycling at that light to moderate weight. So that's something that came to mind when he said that for me. You know what I'm excited about, James? I want to know. you know what i'm excited about james i want to know it's the it's the it's the more emotional and dramatic side of it when when someone wins two crossfit games in a row if that happens and and like i think the greatest thing that could happen for the sport is like hopper to win the

next two games then all of a sudden overnight people would be like oh he's better than matt or if the next person who wins two in a row that conversation is going to start up just right away right i mean just the way it did when matt won two in a row all of a sudden like now we have a i don't know if it's a problem but we have just you can't just win one and anyone bring in the other guys like you can't win one championship we start comparing lebron to jordan but as soon as he wins two it's like uh-oh and i just like that that that's like a fun discussion for the fans and a fun like thing for fans to like rally behind waste their time doing while they drink beer i want uh i want i want t to win six

i think that would be amazing that would be the best case scenario for for CrossFit as a sport. As impressive as she is, man, and I know Brian disagrees with this, but I think Kara Saunders is like... I think she's a threat. I think she's a threat. Look at Brian. Oh, no, no, no.

I think she's a threat. I think she's a threat too. I think she's a threat to finish on the podium. Not on top of the podium. Do you think not other than she has to go out there and do it? Do you think Tia has it locked up? Look at her results. I mean, she never loses.

She's first in the Open this year, first in the quarterfinals, first in the semifinals, first at the quarterfinals, first in the semifinals, first at the only four, five sanctionals she participated in, first in every one of them, and first at the last four games. Yeah, she looks incredible. Did we talk about this last time where I think,

I have a book I'm going to send you, Brian, that I think you'll really like, but I think statistically, mathematically, it's more unlike, or excuse me, it's less likely for someone to be a repeat winner than it is to have an underdog upset.

Statistically, it's less likely to have a repeat winner of the games than to have an underdog. No, I think this is just in general what's been observed across just different sporting events competitive events that it's like it's more likely for an underdog to have an upset than it is to have repeat um champions not so not exclusively to crossfit yeah not exclusively to crossfit and i'll dig ryan right now is is going to find the answer to that question but i could be really wrong but what um james what book is it that you want to share with uh brian paint by numbers or no it's called um the drunkard's walk seven i hope that wasn't a shot at the painting behind me no no that's just like a kid's book that's just it's

making fun of you but if you don't have kids you don't get it i'm trying to run this walk the drunkard's walk yeah it's how randomness rules our lives. I'm trying to find the author. Speaking of authors, on Wednesday, we're having Sam Appel on, the author of the book Ravenous. If you like history and you like great stories – oh, here we go. Wow, that's a tough name. Can you see that, James? Yeah, yeah. How old's the book? wow that's a tough name can you see that james yeah yeah how old's the book it's not i don't think it's that old i probably read it like

less than 10 years ago but it's really fascinated by it it's a really fascinating book yeah in the same way it kind of makes you it kind of puts you in this position where you start learning about the statistics of things happening and you find yourself in the book being like, is it a damned if I do, damned if I don't scenario? But he talks a lot about different sports examples and it's just – it's very, very, very cool. I'm going to get it now. I'll send it to you, Brian. Did you read it? Yeah, I read it.

Did you read it or listen to it on audiobook? Okay. No, I haven't. Yeah, I read it. It's from 2008, so a little older. Yeah. I don't know. I think that I wouldn't be surprised to find that to be true in a lot of sports. But so far in CrossFit, there's been quite a few

number of repeat champions to the point that I think it outweighs it on the individual side. Like 5-4 and then 4-2-2. So 8-9. So 17 of the... How many games have there been now?

14 or something like that? 17 of the 28 have been a repeat. Well, not the first time they win, it's not a repeat. So if you take away all the first time for five of them then it'd be 12 out of 28 repeat winners yeah it's it's it's it's really interesting and i wonder too if it just has to do with the the age of the sport like it's because cross it's a young sport or younger sport and you know the the competitive population pool is is much smaller and it's not bigger yet, will we get to a point where it's like we might see a repeat winner every 10 years

and it's just way less likely? I think about that a lot. You know what Brian has as one of his wild cards is Annie Thor's daughter. Wild card? Kind of as an unknown. Do you know about her,ames annie thor's daughter yes an unknown in terms of her performance this year okay like he's giving her hope he's giving her hope to get on the podium because he's just not sure you know know, it's hard. I mean that as a compliment.

That's not a dig, Brian. I mean that as like, holy shit, like, yeah. Like, here's someone who could just. Yeah, I misinterpret. I thought you were saying a wild card or an unknown, like we didn't know who she was. Yes. Well, what I told you the other night is.

We don't know who's going to show up. We don't know who's going to show up. But based on what we do know, which is that she's outperformed her expectations in all three stages of competition so far. She's improved in all three stages of competition so far. She has a track record of doing very well at the game. She has more experience and can draw on that than anyone else in the field. that women who've had children can come back and be relevant in the sport. So it's not completely unprecedented at this point for that to happen either. Um, I don't think that she's competitively ever checked out of the sport. I think she was just had to do that to give birth obviously. And, uh, yeah, I think there's a very real possibility that she can make a podium again this year, which is awesome. I like that. That would be awesome. It would be hard. It will be

hard to do, but I feel like you have to put her in the conversation. It's funny. Cause I, you get so roped in, like you have a very narrow perspective. Like I do anecdotally. And it's some of the, you know, there are so many new competitors around who I've never been around and they've all put in millions of hours and they all have this killer attitude, but it's like, and he's one of those people and Simone, you know, you know this so well, it's like who you meet and you're like, this is just somebody who winning is just in their DNA. You know, it's like, she doesn't know how to lose, you know, and whatever that is, if it's up, you know, it doesn't matter what it attributes to it, but it's like you hang out with her and you're like, oh yeah, that totally makes sense. And that's a critical factor for when you're, when you're projecting how someone could do at the weekend of the CrossFit games, because

someone who has that innately in as a part of them is not going to care if they're in 12th place after two days, they're still going to think on Saturday morning, I have a chance to win this thing. Like they, cause that they can't program it. Otherwise other people get to 12th place, 15th place after a couple of days. And they're like i'm just hoping see if i can hang on to top half like and if you have that mindset you have no hope because the second half of the weekend is completely different than the first half of the week yeah that's why i always liked about bkg too i think time i've spent with him competing against him and just listening to him talk about competing i remember the the year that they had all those cuts and everyone got really upset.

The national champion year, that was what, 2019? Yeah. I think BKG had some one-liner just saying like, every single event I just assume that I have to earn the right to be in the next event. You know, it's like it doesn't matter what my place is. I was like, that's such a cool attitude to have. And he did well the whole weekend, but he just, you know,

it has that like fighter mentality. It's cool. How did he place in the 2019 games? Third. It was the second time he's taken third place at the games. The other time was 2015. I don't remember what year it was one year. I thought he was going to win it.

It was looking good for him. Uh, that was the first, um, the second Murphy with a year. He won Murph or smashed Murph, right? He won Murph in 2015. Josh won it in 2016.

Okay. Brian, before we started the show, when you and Ryan were chatting, he said something about you being in the 2017 documentary. Why do I not remember that? It was a 2019 documentary. Oh, okay. That's why you don't remember. That's the one that Heber and Marsden made. Yeah. He's talking about actually like the, the movie that was that whatever they produced that year. Uh,

I think it was the redeemed and the dominant. And I just had two like small interviews in it. And your face was in it. Yeah. And I had no idea that they, that I was going to be involved in that in any way. And when I go to competitions and Heber and Mars are there, they'll regularly find me one to five times over the course of the weekend and put a camera in my face and say, what's going on and what's about to happen next? And then if I'm, and then, you know,

a lot of times it's either right or it's so wrong that they'll just put it in their little show because it's like funny part of the story or informative part of the story of the weekend. And they did that at the games that year to do. I just happened to run into them a couple of times. They talked to me for a couple of minutes. And then six months later in London,

I was at Strength and Depth with them. And they're like, hey, are you willing to sign an NDA and to be or whatever agreement they wanted to be in our movie? We're gonna wanna feature some of your interviews in the movie. And I was like oh damn yeah cool and i like it wasn't even on my radar that that could happen so when you go to

these events now that you can get on camera do you are you a little more concerned with your appearance because you seem to not give a fuck on the podcast oh god uh i i guess i don't think about maybe should i think about it more? no do you he's too busy crunching numbers yeah like what if you go in there with your beard trimmed up and your eyebrows I was fully shaved in the movie in 2019

that's probably why you don't remember yeah what are you going to do at the games this year? I want to get that one question out or we gotta go is it too late for you guys no no no no it's never too late i mean you're the late you're up the latest at all of us oh he moved i'm in colorado oh shit i'm a little bit last time we had you on seven a little bit closer to you so ryan might it might be latest where ryan is he's asleep that's why we've been getting so much interaction from him no he just put the book up he just put

the book up that was nice go ahead ryan what was i supposed to talk about um james had one more question remember it was james it was it was a big question but maybe you guys will have me back on because I had a cool question. I'll save it. So that way I'll dangle that. But I want to know what Brian's going to be doing at the games this year. Not 100% sure. 2019, which was basically to write the scripts for the different ceremonies at the games and to help work with on the backend of the app to get information out to everyone who will be on site there. Brian does have two. I haven't read them yet. He sent them to me tonight, but they haven't

been published yet. I don't know. Am I allowed to say that? But two articles, he told me the title of them that are coming out on the morning chalk up that sound absolutely fascinating. Can you tell us the titles, Brian? Are you allowed to do that? Yeah, of course. One of them is taking a look at the top 10 finishers from the 2019 games, which was an outlier of a year for many different reasons. And seeing where they're at now to see if like those 20 athletes who happen to do really well that year when things were so different could do well this year

when it was more of a traditional season, what we're used to prior to 2019. And then the second one is just a reflection on the semifinal programming from the first year of semifinals, asking some of the kind of the bigger picture questions and then zooming in to answer them with more like exact examples or like definitive examples. So if you'd like to read Brian's work, hit the smart, even the smarter version of them, go over to the morning, chalk up Brian friend. And you won't have to worry about me interrupting and changing the conversation

every time I get bored or whatever, me making fun of him. And if you want to see Hobart, you can buy a ticket for the CrossFit Games and watch him compete in the Masters division. Thank you. Dude, I'm really, really pumped that they've moved the Masters and Adaptive in Teams so that it's not directly overlapping with the individual and team competitions this year. Yeah, I'm excited for that too, because I'll get to watch more of the individual and team and I'm pretty pumped. A Tuesday to Thursday schedule is going to be nice. I think, I think they're doing that because of the bigger names. You think they're doing that because of the big names, like people like Hobart? I think you can't answer that, James.

I mean, it's better for everyone. The one thing that I know is they've reduced the number of competition venues that we're using. So instead of having Coliseum, North Park, and Age Group Pavilion, there's no Age Group Pavilion. So it could possibly be just from a cost perspective. If they can have one less competition floor, but they have to have two more days of competition, maybe there's a cost analysis there. The other possibility is that a lot of people who usually work at the CrossFit Games internationally can't get through this year so they don't have the staffing that they want to have a third pavilion.

So I don't know if either of those are true, but they're just thoughts that I have. It's a win-win then. Well, I think it's a win-win for what James said. More people can watch the Masters athletes and all those, or that should be the age group and adaptive athletes because they're all competing on those three days. And more people can watch the elites

and teams compete later in the weekend because there won't be any conflict of interest between athletes or fans. I mean, let's say that James' family wants to watch the Mayhem team compete. Well, they can this year, and they don't have to worry about missing what James is doing. They can do both. Or if they want to throw tomatoes at the Mayhem team, the Mayhem Empire, whatever his family wants to do.

Whomever they would want to watch, right. The Mayhem Empire. Oh, man. All right. That was perfect. perfect so james one more thing i had this in my list of desperate questions when i run out of questions for you what would you normally be doing at the games if you weren't training if you weren't working out if you weren't competing and are you going to be working for crossfit i mean i know you work for crossfit hq in your in your normal clark kent life but will you when the event's over will you put on your crossfit hq hat and start working the event um i don't know yet what i'm gonna do i mean

last couple years i did demo team which i really liked um i liked a lot and um i think if i but i would still be training for that so and then i have commented i kind of wanted to get back into commentating um for games some you know uh semiifinals live events, but I didn't really press it too much over the last year just cause there weren't a lot of live events, but that was something I thought about doing. That makes sense why you're jockeying. Um, you're on a Brian's jock so hard. Yeah. I have nothing to learn, learn, learn good lessons. jock so hard yeah i have nothing just trying to learn learn learn good lessons um in the past um the why do you like the demo team and in the past dave has let superstars like you'd make guest appearances on the demo team or had on like i can think of at least one person who was kind of unofficial on the demo team who would pop in and out um why do i like the demo team i just i just care about the sport i really care

about the sport so i want to be i want to participate in that process that helps make the test as awesome as possible i just i love that part of it you know it's been a huge part of my life and it's just a good way i feel like i can still get back yeah i like that part of it a lot and it's just cool it's cool the behind the scenes just from volunteers to community to Dave's process to his team. Like, you know, I participated in it for so long. It's neat to just see all that goes into it.

Have you ever had a, like when you're part of the demo? Free gear is nice. When you're part of the demo team, are there times where you'll do a workout and Dave will say, what did you think without telling you what he thinks? Yeah. And when you give that feedback, do you feel like it's ever actually contributes to a change that is made?

Oh, I know it has. Yeah. And then when you see that play out in the competition and it works, are you like, oh, fuck, thank God? Yeah. I mean, it's small pieces of feedback, but yeah, the standard was a huge workout that got tested a lot in 2019. That final event got tested a lot. And was there, I mean, he said that he had that idea for a decade. Yeah. So what was it? What were they trying to pin down the time cap i think well there was everything from the time cap to the order of the events to oh okay changing how much uh strategy you gave to the athlete like you could let them chip at different parts of the event or they could start they could choose whichever one of the

three that they wanted to start with and then you would have had people starting on different ones um but i think that workout i think turned out i mean being there in the stadium for anybody remembers that was like when matt finished that workout it was insane well really it was the first five snatches that made the work that made the drama of the workout. I mean, those two guys got to the bar before him and he ripped five in a row and that was it. I still get goosebumps talking about that because just being in there and everyone saw him do that. And it was just like Matt was just like, all right, I'm going to put the car into turbo gear and this whole other speed that I have. It was very cool. But, yeah, that was a good example of a workout where we tested both individual team, different people, different athletes, a ton, um, to get that version. And I think, yeah. And I got feedback and it came out just right.

Does the, does the inverse ever happen where you give feedback on something, they don't take it into account and then the competition happens and you're like, well, it's a, it got fucked up. Just how I told you when you did nothing about it, despite me telling you. me telling you yeah um i i haven't noticed that to be honest with you and the reason i'll say i don't think that really happens is because um it so they get so much data now on testing like i bet that's happened in the past but i think now they they get a you know the vetting process is robust and i just i think it's the final product is so much better tested. Because the reason that I'm so interested is because occasionally I have the opportunity,

not necessarily to test the workouts, but to read through the workouts and the workout flow and the description and the time caps. And, you know, before a competition starts, sometimes the competition director will send them to me and say, Hey, can you look over these? Sometimes they want me to review it for grammar before they publish it. But obviously in the reviewing for grammar, I'm still going to look at the workout and think, well, does this actually make sense? And occasionally I give feedback and it's received and something's done about it. And sometimes more rarely after the fact, they're like,

Oh man, we probably should have changed that. It's not like a, it's not something that's so obvious that it like ruins the event, but it's smaller things like you said. And, and once in a while I don't get asked something. And then it's the first time I see it immediately. I'm like, oh my God, this is not going to work. And I'll say something to someone and it's too late. And then they'll be like, oh man, I wish you would have seen that beforehand. And it's, again, it doesn't ruin the event necessarily, but it's like, here's a good example. And in, um, in London one year, there London one year, there was a jump rope at the end of the workout. It was 300 double-unders to finish the workout.

And they were having all of the athletes do, I think it was 200 or 300. They were having them do a huge quantity of double-unders in a fixed location, two feet away from the finish line without progressing forward at all as they were going through the double-unders. And it was a 20-athlete lane wide. I'm like, and it was a 20 athlete lane wide. I'm like, how are you ever expecting to catch the winner? There's going to be 20 guys doing double unders. I mean, at the end of a chipper workout,

it's going to take you three minutes to do 200 double unders anyway. And everyone's going to catch up to the double unders. By that point, you're going to have 15 guys doing double unders all within two feet of the finish line. You have no chance for any of your cameramen to react to this. And you know what? They changed it. They changed it.

And they moved the guy and they made him go down and back like 50 at a time and come back around. And then you could see the progression and it was easier to tell the story. Damn. That's that. I mean, that's really, really,

really good advice. That's like a mistake that would have been made at the CrossFit games in 2008. Actually. Yeah. Maybe not even then, but yeah, at the CrossFit Games in 2008. Actually, yeah, maybe not even then. But yeah, that's good foresight. Well, you can tell Siobhan's tired. I've seen Hobart give feedback to – because of my voice or my posture.

I've seen Hobart give feedback to Dave on multiple occasions, and I see Dave ask for it on the regular. And I have seen like immediately – i can think of a workout specific that immediately right after hobart finished it they immediately went into a powwow and he had like 10 questions for hobart and basically was is the weight okay did you like like all the things that james was saying did you like the order how many people james do you think are going to be able to finish this i mean he really will pepper the testing team is more than them just going through the movements and dave making the assessment by himself. He there's a exit interview, wouldn't you say, James?

Yeah, there is an exit interview. Maybe maybe this is a hanger for me to be able to come back. But this is like I wanted to ask Brian a question related to like what programming advice he would give to certain athletes. But we don't have to get into that right now. Ooh, how would he program? Brian games, Brian, everything,

Brian. Well, just, just to circle back to that last thing before, before maybe we end is all the stuff that I have in terms of experience, like what I would contribute or relate to people who are asking me about it is only based on the things that I've seen. And most of it is Dave and his team developing this over time.

I think to the 2010 games, for example, there was the pistols, deadlifts, double under workout, and they were running back and forth across the floor. It was really hard to know who was in the lead because James could have been two rounds ahead of me, but we both could have been doing double unders in the same spot. We've both been doing pistols or deadlifts at the same spot. So you really have to pay attention to know. And as soon as the camera goes away from the wide shot, you lose track of where everyone is. That doesn't happen anymore. Especially not if it's a competition that Dave's running because he learned that you need to have a progression along the floor.

I think about the killer cage. You're just going down and back across this cage. Now, luckily it was a short enough rounds and the rounds are long enough that you could tell, but it was still possible that James and I could have both been on the cage and he could have been a whole round ahead of me. And there was no marker on the floor or something to indicate progression in the workout other than that. So I've, I actually said earlier this year, I'd love to see the killer cage come back, but I think that if it did come back, there'd be an evolution of it where you'd actually be able to, to visually see the rounds that the athletes are on as they progress through it. Even if they're going back and forth on the same apparatus,

the killer cage was monkey bars. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That event was insane. That was amazing. And the watt bike, it was like a bunch of new stuff. And yeah. Oh yeah. The watt bike. I forgot all about that. Are they still around? I actually don't know. I think all about that. Are they still around? I actually don't know. I think I saw one at an affiliate a couple years ago when I was dropping in somewhere in the corner picking up dust.

Wow. It's cool. Well, thank you. Hour and 35 minutes. That's our first test of a live feed. We brought on James to carry the show. Thank you, James. Yeah, thank you guys thank you saman thank you ryan thank you ryan um thanks matt and uh we'll check you guys out later