The Sevan Podcast - #69 - Carolyne Prevost

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 69 - Carolyne Prevost & Brian Friend @cprevost27 @sevanmatossian @brianfriendcrossfit The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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She paid for most of it on the way here when we drove. But usually back in Toronto, we'll just alternate. You are in California yep in Oakley right now but training in Oakland right now also oh wow don't tell me you're making that commute every day we are but that's how much she loves her gym and her community there she wouldn't go anywhere else she's at end game athletics oh who owns that who owns that uh arnie i think guy named okay there is her coach okay there is a gym and there are some incredible gyms in oakland i don't remember this lady's last name she was a firefighter and she was a games athlete going back to i want to say 2007 and eight and i think she has a gym in oakland and i think her first name is tamara tamara

not familiar does ring a bell and maybe she competed a few years a few years after that too did you visit any other gyms in oakland uh no i went to cal strength so cal strength does my um olympic lifting program. So I jumped into, uh, their gym the other day. I'll go there actually tomorrow, uh, to go lift. Um, other than that, we'll just be training outdoors, different pools or water swimming, and then, um, and game athletics for all the CrossFit stuff. Is it, is it Holmes Savant Tamara Holmes? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah 2008 and 2009 what would you know

do you know her gym in oakland no i just searched the games history document i have oh if you do she would she's one of the kindest most welcoming badass people i know if you guys get a chance you should go to her gym she's amazing she's probably 10 or 20 years your senior now. How old are you, Carolyn? I'm 31 years young. Am I saying your name wrong? No, Carolyn, you're right. And your last name is Prevost. Yep. It's a silent ST. It's French. And it took me, I used to, I would say Prevost and Brian just kept laughing at me. And then finally I corrected myself. I say Prevost a lot when people are writing it down, just so they know how to write it. So I grew up saying Prevost in English. And you don't sound like you're from Canada. Where do I sound like I'm from?

Just wherever, just the States. Just a little American? Yeah. I grew up in Sargau, Ontario, which is like a border city to Port Huron, Michigan. My parents are from Montreal area. So we grew up speaking French, me and all my sisters. And is French your first language? It is. That's what I learned first. And then when you live in Ontario, you pick up English

just naturally. So I learned English through sports and that was it. I went to a French elementary, French high school, went to an English university and then came back to French. And I'm teaching in a French school now, actually. And is Alexis Canadian? She's American. And like what kind of American, like a real American? She's a real American trying to be a Canadian, getting some visitation, exempt papers and stuff like that also. And where in the United States is she from?

Right here in California. Oh, okay. Like you said, that's her home gym. Yeah. And where did she go to high school? Where did I go to high school? No, where did she go? This interview is not about you.

It's about her. Alexis, where did you go to high school? Deer Valley High. Deer Valley High. Oh, okay. or she this interview is not about you it's about her alexis where'd you go to high school dear valley high oh okay i don't know where that's at i grew up in the bay area that's why and i went to high school there and now i live in santa cruz just as you know just i'm probably just south of you like where you're at on your computer by like 70 80 90 miles um for those you don't know um carolyn has qualified for the CrossFit games. Uh, we crossed paths for the first time in Albany, New York, I think. Yep. 2018. And I was, um, I was mesmerized by how well you moved.

And I think the only reason why you didn't qualify that year to go to the games was it was a strength issue, right? Bench press. It's weird. Cause hockey players bench, like like we squat and bench but just not a great movement for me like can you imagine that saying that about crossfit the reason why you didn't make it to the crossfit games was a bench press that's that's i mean it sounds it sounds weird oh it's i think i finished like almost last in that event it's not that it's not outside of the line of the conversation we've been having about semi-finals though that there could just be this one movement that shows up. And if you don't have it, you don't get through.

At least in that year, everyone had to prove that movement. She didn't just randomly draw in a competition that had the bench press when all the others didn't. Yeah, I read your article about that. And yeah, I was in agreement. I like the process before that everyone went through the same test to get to the games. As much as it's nice for the semifinal host people to create their own workouts, you start wondering how you And there are differences with semifinals. I mean, the top top make it through regardless. But for those bubble athletes, it does make a difference, I find. What year was that? Did you say 2015?

For the regionals? Yeah, the one in Albany. What year was that? 18. 18. Okay. Do you know Brian? Have you guys ever met before?

Yeah, we actually crossed paths last year at Atlas Games, I believe. And other times probably. Was he nice to you? Yeah. I just knew him as a math person, like just statistics. That's all I knew. Just numbers? Yeah. You just looked at, hey, what was my phone number again? And he just spits it out at you. And he just spits it out at you.

So as I'm going through your Instagram account today, I started having a really, really, I started getting really anxious about a thought that was developing that for 15 years people have been saying and I've been telling them to fuck off. They don't know what they're talking about. People would say stuff like, you're not the fittest human being alive. You're the CrossFit Games champion. And I'd be like, fuck you. Greg Glassman defined fitness and that's what it is and that's the fittest human being alive. You're the CrossFit Games champion. And I'd be like, fuck you. Greg Glassman defined fitness and that's what it is. And that's the fittest person alive.

And then a few minutes before the show started, about an hour before the show started, I called Brian or Brian called me. I can't remember. And I said, hey, dude, this chick's a problem for my brain. And he goes, what do you mean? And he goes, what do you mean? I said, she, if you go through her Instagram and you see the way she moves and all the shit she can do, she is an argument for why the CrossFit Games don't crown the fittest person in the world. And what I mean by that is, is there shit you can do that's not in the games? And it's not, it's not as specialized as putting a basketball through a hoop.

No. But man, oh man. It's like a difference between athlete and fitness like you can be the best athlete but doesn't mean you're the fittest also like there's you know i've played with phenomenal athletes in different sports you give them another ball they have no idea what to do other athletes are just multi-sport and then some of them are just like fitness beasts um can you dance yeah Yeah, I think I can dance. You're a good dancer?

I think I could just like pick up stuff. I'm very visual. So if I see something, I can kind of pick it up, except for like some stuff. Because this is straight where my brain went. I was like, well, shit, she can do all the stuff to raise a family. And if she could dance, she could like seduce a mate and shit. Like that's an argument that you're the fittest human being alive i mean like for the for the future of uh humankind you know um as funny as that sounds that is where my brain went i was like well man i wonder

if she can dance and sing and like do the stuff that definitely can't sing like peacock like you know like put your feathers out um so so so you have five sisters and you're a twin yeah there's two sets of twins in the family uh five girls within five years of each other so my poor parents five under five and we're the youngest set of twins so it goes oldest twins twins and both sets are fraternal. Don't look anything like my twins about a head taller than me. Okay. And why did, um, how, how old was your mom when she had, so the, the, so say that one is, are the twins the oldest? Uh, nope. There's the oldest one. And then there's another set of twins and then me and my twin. and how old was your mom when when she had her first baby

let's see she's born in 1961 and i asked because women over the age of 35 or start dropping multiple eggs maybe no maybe around like 25 ish or something like that wow and is there any explanation for that is your mom always just dropping like two three four eggs she's just like just french in her it's the french in us just a baby maker yeah wow so on the five girls under five yeah nuts yeah that is absolutely nuts i would i would love it'd be interesting to hear what your mom would say when she had the second set of twins. Because people gasp when they have the first set of twins, right? Oh, yeah.

I can't do it. But then the second set, you're like, do you know if we're all you were all of you guys on purpose? Or your parents just bone in without contraception? Probably. I mean, clearly they were. But do you know if they were like, my mom was done after, I think my dad wanted a boy. And then after the other side twins, they're like, okay, no, we're done. That's it. I was the young boy in the family, basically, for my dad played a lot of sports with him. Uh, they all had, you know, they all got exposed to different sports, uh, soccer, figure skating, hockey, a little bit ballet. Uh, they just weren't as competitive into it. Um, were you trying to be, um, you know, doing well at whatever sport you're, you're doing. But I just loved moving. Like I was, I was climbing between the doors. I was climbing this big van that we had. Like I was just climbing everything. I saw that video on your Instagram of you climbing the van and the adults are just chilling. Those are the most chill adults I've

ever seen. Yeah. They're just like, this is normal. So my, I had so much energy so my parents just put me in gymnastics too which i think is probably the most important sport that i did growing up just to learn body awareness i think like dancers and ballet like ballet like gymnastics body awareness is so important for kids to learn and flexibility and i think that made me the athlete that i was was that initial exposure very young to gymnastics. And how is that? That's your first sport, gymnastics? Yeah, I was around three, I think, for gymnastics. And then I started hockey and soccer around the age of five and a half, six.

And tell me about soccer. How long did you play soccer? Up until the 2019 games. Wow. I just didn't want to play that summer because that was? Up until the 2019 games. Wow. I just didn't want to play that summer because that was my very first CrossFit games. And I was like, OK, I don't want to risk any injuries. Let's just train for the games. Like up until that point, it was always three sports. Basically, it was hockey in the winter, soccer in the summer, and then one individual sport that was all year round which was crossfit

at that point did have you had surgery on your knees have you had any knee surgery nope wow i the only major injuries i had in all of my sports uh two mcls like grade two in hockey just teammates that fell on the outside of my knee and then an ankle a high ankle sprain also in hockey interesting wow that's incredible and then so so, a high ankle sprain also in hockey. Interesting. Wow. That's incredible. And then, so, so I want to talk, ask you one more question about soccer and then, and then move on to figure out where a CrossFit came in. Would you say that soccer is, I know you said the gymnastics is like one of the most important things to get

your kids into, but how important would you say is soccer? Cause Avi's playing tennis and his tennis coach said, you got to get him into soccer right now. And ever since I met Miko Salo in 2009, I kind of had this whole, you know, I had this, I started building an idea of what soccer really does for a human being in terms of just building up their metabolic capacity. And then at any moment you want, you can just transfer, you can start training any other sport and transfer that metabolic capacity. Yeah. I mean, I think there's different positions in soccer that can get your metabolic capacity a

little bit better. Like your midfielders, I was a striker. So for me, it was sprint, recover, sprint, recover. You're thinking about like an outside midfielder or like center mid, that's going all the way. Like they're're running constantly like they're at a lower intensity but they're everywhere on the field um so i guess it depends on the position but i you know every sport that i've done i've learned you know so much like hand-eye coordination uh agility and soccer learning how to cut uh it was you know it's funny you go to the games and there's like suicide sprint events and then like there was like the those cones and you can just tell right away like i was looking at people in the warm-ups and you can tell who was an athlete and not like some people had no idea how

to how to turn around like around a cone and i was like wow like they just didn't grow up they just grew up running straight lines like maybe track but you don't learn how to cut unless you're doing some kind of soccer, rugby, some kind of agility sport. I always thought that was missing from just general CrossFit programming. Everything is linear or horizontal. They're linear. That's one of the things that I find it misses too. Brian played collegiate soccer. Do you have any surgeries, Brian? No. How are your knees? No, knees are fine.

I broke my ankle one time, but that was it. Damn. I feel like it's kind of strange because I feel like that's like really, really common. Like you can just go up to any collegiate level female soccer player and be like, pull your pants up and look at her knees and bam you'll see the lines a lot of knee surgeries for i find soccer and uh basketball uh for females i think well we're more prone to acl tears as females i think with the angle of our hips and

stuff like that um i've read that before so do you know who Joe Westerlin is? No. He's, he's a, he's a, uh, he was a strength and conditioning coach at maybe Nebraska. I don't know. I can't remember where, but, and then he's also on the L1 team. I think he's a flow master on the CrossFit L1 team. And he has some fascinating thoughts on that about basically if you have good ankle flexion and I think he said good ankle flexion and good squatting.

If you had people squat from a young age below parallel and good ankle flexion, in my opinion, that means just not putting shoes on your kid early, that those would vanish, that those injuries in the knee would vanish. Anyway, it's fascinating. If you ever get a chance to talk to him. Yeah. And I'll plug the L1 anytime I can, especially the great trainers who are in it. They are great. So you took your L1? I have my L2. Yeah. I'd like to take it.

Oh, dang. I'd like to eventually take my L3 too. I mean, I teach a fitness class at my high school and I expose my kids to CrossFit and to all the nine foundational movements. I love everything about CrossFit. I don't make them do butterfly pull-ups and stuff, but they love CrossFit. They're at my lunchtime hour knocking on my door, asking if I can train them at lunch, after school, everything. It's great. Oh, that's cool. Do they know what a freak you are?

Do you put on little like like demonstrations for them like just like no like when i'm when i'm at school if i teach any phys ed or fitness class like you will rarely rarely see me participate i think in my seven years of teaching i may have jumped in less than 10 times and like probably more than like like maybe five it's not my time to move it's their time. Like I used to hate when I would see gym class teachers hopping in and while the other kids are on the bench, like it's not your time to be moving. Like I want them to, to move. Like I'll only jump in. Um, like for some sports, if like there's a few kids missing and then all of a sudden, like there's like two, like there's, they're just out of breath breath or or if there's a kid that has like no one challenging them for a certain sport. And I feel like I can give them a little bit of a whooping then teach them a lesson.

I don't mean I don't mean jump in, but I like that. But I mean, like, like, as you're setting up the hurdles, you do a one legged jump over it and the whole class is like, what? And you just do it casually like, oh, shit. Did you see Miss Prevo? No, I don't go too crazy with them. Oh, you need to. I used to love going to the clarinet practice, and the teacher would play for like the first 30 seconds on the clarinet, and I'd be like, holy shit, this is amazing. But if I find that one of my athletes can do something,'ll try to teach them like different scaled versions of stuff and just

kind of like where to progress. And they'll often ask questions on how to develop, you know, single leg power and stuff like that. So it's cool. It's really cool to work with, um, with those,

like, like that young high school population, you can really mold them. Are you a PE teacher or you're another teacher and you just do this at lunchtime? I teach math and science, grade 9 and 10. And then normally one phys ed class, which it can either be like a fitness class or phys ed. So you teach like three classes out of like four periods in the day.

One period is like your lesson prep time, which like it can be corrections and stuff. But when I'm like really organized, I'll try to use that time to go and work out. But yeah, normally one math, one science and one phys ed. Yeah. At the school? Yeah. You should see the gym. They gave me the budget for it.

We got into a brand new facility and they're like, here's the money. Do the orders. Like they were expecting a bunch of machines and everything. And it's so much cheaper when you're doing functional fitness. Like I got a rig in there. It's a CrossFit gym. I got it affiliated. And does it. Oh, that's sweet. What's the name of it? CrossFit Gaj. And do they do any of the teachers or anyone like come in like they get a drink of water or like, yeah, a few of them make out and they see you working out. water or like yeah a few of them make out and they see you working out a few of the teachers uh you have to definitely use it to work out i'm i'm currently trying to get a couple of the teachers to do their l1s um in a few years i mean i would like for it to kind of develop into an after

school program um you know keep the kids moving as much as possible right now while my focus is a lot more like on myself and training for the crossFit Games, it's hard to give back as much as I'd like. So I'd like for other teachers to kind of come in and be able to take over for a few years. So you work full time as a teacher and train for the CrossFit Games? Yes, sir. That pretty much sums up your life? And hockey. And hockey. You're still doing the hockey when you told me when you told me that in albany that you played hockey i was just like

i was just blown away that you had multiple avenues of expression for your movement because it just do you think if you didn't do hockey, you'd be better at CrossFit? I mean, at this point I can quit hockey for sure. And then I focus on, on CrossFit, but I think growing up, like hockey made me have certain strengths in CrossFit and CrossFit has also made me a better hockey player. The ability to just recover on the ice. Like if you're stuck on the ice for a long time and then, you know, you're icing the puck, I don't know if you know anything about hockey, but you can't get a change. And then you're having to stay on the ice. Like if you're stuck on the ice for a long time and then, you know, you're icing the puck, I don't know if you know anything about hockey, but you can't get a change and then you're having to stay on the ice. Like when you train, like you get a few seconds to

recover and it's like, okay, go again. And like, you'll see some of my teammates sometimes be super tired and it just takes me a few seconds and I feel, um, I feel better and just stronger on my legs, like stronger on my skate, sorry for like skating and stuff like that um and that came from why not why not give up teaching and hockey and and go all in on the games there's no money there's no money i don't understand i have a i have a i have a career um it's not guaranteed money you know you it takes one look at sarah sigmund's daughter this year like you know she gets injured and her her year is done like she's got sponsorship but there's only certain athletes a small group of them that really have sponsorships that can make a full-time living out of crossfit a lot of them are more american i find that canadians have a

little tougher time jumping into that sponsorship market for some reason. But it's just, you know, you see a lot of people, you know, quitting their jobs, not going to school to go full time, which I mean, they only get that opportunity for some time. But for me, I just can't give up a career for something that, you know, it's not guaranteed money. I got bills to pay. When did you start martial arts? When I was nine, I quit gymnastics. It was too much for my parents. Like they wanted me to switch to an English school. So that would have to switch from the French school I was going in my sister's class obviously we're twins they want me to go in English school so they could pick me up before

and after school and then they also wanted me to basically quit hockey and soccer and focus on gymnastics and my parents were like no like you need to do as many sports as you want so quit gymnastics and within a week I was going around town with my dad and we saw a blue water taekwondo club that had boxing jujitsu just a bunch of martial arts there um walked into that gym and then just fell in love with fighting and it's funny how you call it fighting um well it speaks volumes about your character your character and who you are you can do taekwondo and you can advance in your belts without being necessarily a great fighter. You can be very good at your patterns or I think people call them katas and karate or other martial arts.

But like I enjoyed, I mean, I did enjoy that very much, but I also enjoyed sparring. Just like the adrenaline that you get. How long did you do taekwondo for? Up until I went to university. That was my favorite sport. They don't have scholarships for it. So I had to choose hockey or soccer. And then I thought my best chance at making the Olympics at that point was hockey.

So I chose hockey. It was going to pay for my schooling. So at that point, I gave up Taekwondo. But that was definitely my love. I loved it. And did you make it up to a black belt? Yep. Fourth degree black belt.

Wow. Holy cow. And do you remember your first tournament your first sparring tournament yeah how old were you uh nine like i i was white belt and they were putting me against the girls and it i just was destroying them like just like doubles like and you weren't allowed to kick to the face and i was and then I was getting DQ'd and then eventually my coach he took my white belt and gave me a black belt he goes you can't fight in the white belt division because all the girls were getting scared so he gave me a fake black belt to fight at all these competitions and then I would go back to my normal belt in training but it just made no sense for me to fight against these young nine-year-old ten-year-old girls that

I mean they were beginners. I was a beginner, but I was so athletic and so fast that it just wasn't too good for some of them. There's the video on the Instagram. Maybe Ryan can find it. How old were you in that video where the girl gets kicked in the head? And is that not legal what you did there? No, it's legal. It is legal.

I think I was like 16 or 17. Oh, you're that old in that video? Yeah, I think I was 16 maybe. That was provincials. I had already fought that girl not that long ago. My coach goes, whatever you do, don't kick her in the head. Don't make her quit the sport. Don't make her like quit the sport. Like he literally told me that before the fight,

she got a small point on me. And like back then, like I wouldn't get a lot of points scored on me. And it just like, I just got so mad. And then we were both looking, looking at each other. And I could see that she was looking at my eyes. So then I looked down at the ground briefly. She looked down and then my leg went up and it was perfect. But then I, I got in trouble a little little bit after because i wasn't supposed to do that

the um the the at the end of the video you can see people rushing out there to tend to her was she okay yeah i think just the bone maybe and her pride yeah i i felt that like i didn't like doing that i just once you're in the ring like it's just different like after i cried like i felt so bad and like i don't mean after you did that you cried you kicked your face and started crying in the in the stands like i it shows something like i like i didn't like doing it but when you're in the heat of the moment like you just forget about stuff and you just like they're trying to kill you it but when you're in the heat of the moment you just forget about stuff they're trying to kill you as much as you're trying to kill them and it's just part of the game

but I mean that part's not fun seeing someone get knocked out or injured what is your Instagram? it's cprevost27 so cprevost27 if you're watching this right now It's C-P-R-E-V-O-S-T-27. So C-P-R-E-V-O-S-T-27. If you're watching this right now, then you should probably – if you're watching it live, you shouldn't pause it.

But if you're watching it after it's been recorded, you should pause it and look at that. You won't be disappointed. Hold on. Does that – oh, we can ask that after you ask this question. Basically, I wanted to know if that killer instinct, that switch that you can't get in the ring and it just kind of happens, if and how that carries over into CrossFit when you're competing. I think so. Martial arts is a different beast like the mental aspect that you like for training and everything and it's just that killer instant like when it's like go time like you just get in a different mindset and it's just like the suffering and during workouts and stuff like that um it's just different like i i

absolutely love any type of martial arts like not just type i know like i'm a big fan of uh like ufc boxing jiu-jitsu um anything i just I just find that they're some of the fittest athletes in the world. Like being able to like wrestle or grapple with people for minutes, like that takes so much fitness. It's pretty cool to see some of the CrossFitters and other athletes are doing a lot of boxing these days. And they're kind of getting an eye opener. They think that they're in shape and then they go to boxing and others.

And they're like, holy crap, like I'm out of shape or it's just a different type of shape. Like for me, when I was in shape for Taekwondo, I was in shape for any sport. I could be in shape for hockey. It didn't mean I was in shape for soccer. I could be in shape for soccer. It didn't mean, but when I was in shape for martial arts,

you know, you're in shape. Like that's when I knew, that's when I knew I was at peak form. When I was being able to do rounds and not getting as tired, you know you're fit there. I miss that training. I remember Spieler saying one time many years ago that he likes CrossFit. I'm paraphrasing here. He likes CrossFit more than wrestling and it or it's easier than

wrestling I can't remember what word to use and I said why is that and he said because in wrestling the entire time someone's trying to stop you from what you're trying to do and in CrossFit no one's stopping you it's all just you and then recently Josh said um Josh Bridges is training for a boxing match against Jacob Heppner and he basically says he has to stop and rinse his shorts out like mid practice. And then at the end, you can rinse them out equally a lot. And I'm like, it wasn't like that in CrossFit.

And he's like, no, no, it was no, actually it wasn't, you know, like he was about to say, yeah.

And he's like, actually, no, I didn't sweat that much. And you know, he wasn't cutting it short in his CrossFit training. No. Did you ever wrestle?

Um, I would watch some of the wrestling there. I didn't do it. I trained boxing a lot. When I quit gymnastics, one of the things my dad said was, Taekwondo is going to be great for you, but it's a lot of kicking. Taekwondo has some of the best kickers in the world. But I wasn't using my upper body. And in gymnastics, you're doing full body.

So he wanted me to train upstairs in the boxing and use my upper body too. So I didn't lose out on the strength that I got from gymnastics. So I would often do a few hours of Taekwondo, go upstairs and just shadow box. They wanted me to fight upstairs for boxing, but I never did that. Would you ever consider taking jiu-jitsu or wrestling now picking it up? Yeah. Probably not. Um,

not at this age, probably not, but like at any time, I just don't want to get hit in the head. Yeah. Anytime. Um, I go back home to my hometown in Sarnia, I will always make time to go to the Taekwondo club and kick around.

And even now, like I'll go and kick around and it's just like I feel so out of shape. It's just a different type of fitness. What's your hometown? Narnia? You're from Narnia? Yeah. That's what I thought you said. Narnia.

That's cool. Sarnia. I, that's what I thought you said. Narnia. That's cool. I thought that was a fictitional place. It's a border city. It's about an hour from Detroit. Oh, don't try to make it better. That's worse. Border town near Detroit. So where does CrossFit come in? How did you stumble upon this easy activity after training so hard your whole life? So I went to school in Madison, Wisconsin, where the games are. Graduated. On a hockey scholarship, right? Yep, hockey scholarship.

And did you guys win some sort of championship? There's a picture of you guys sitting around a trophy. We have two national championships. And then my senior year, we lost in the finals to minnesota the gophers um actually wisconsin just won this past year they're they're they're a really good team like we have we're full of olympians by the way i'll say in here i hate gophers i hate go great it's only animal anyway go on sorry oh they suck so at that point, I was part of the national under 22 plus development team for hockey. And I also was at a lot of the senior camps. So they had made a bunch of cuts.

And they were preparing to centralize a team for the Olympics in 2014, which was the Sochi Olympics. centralize a team for the Olympics in 2014, which was the Sochi Olympics. And within that group of players, they took a, so they take a few extra players that they centralized, they train there for the year and then basically cut down to the team. So I was in that pool of players that were like bubble players. For what country would you have played? Team Canada. Okay. And then I ended up not, not getting picked for that centralization team. So at that point I'm 20, 23 years old. So they basically say you're 20,

23 years old. We can't guarantee you that in four years you're going to be on this national team. We're probably going to be developing the younger girls. We understand if you want to move on with your life, et cetera, et cetera. So I was like, all right, yeah. So I mean, I was like, okay, close that book. Um, you know, you're, you're not getting hockey Canada strength and conditioning program anymore. Cause you're basically out of the program. I'm no longer, uh, Wisconsin Badger. So I'm not really getting their strength and conditioning.

Um, I had heard about crossfit through a few people that were like you should do crossfit with all of the stuff that you've done and then i in my hometown there was um a family that is very good at crosshair was very good um christina and delhi she was one of the top players or athletes before in the in cross that she's really close to making it to the games the one year i think just one spot out and she was on a second carolyn that's not your place to say if she was any good brian what's her christina she finished third was she any good carolyn's like oh just she's swerving out of her lane into your lane brian i'll let her finish she was third one

year at the canada at the canada one and then they only took two instead of three um so she was third one year at the Canada at the Canada one and then they only took two instead of three um so she was good so she was from my hometown I did Taekwondo and gymnastics with their family so I went to the CrossFit gym there in Sarnia and right away I was like this is awesome because as an athlete I had never specialized in a sport like I was still playing soccer in the summer um playing hockey obviously and like when I found out that CrossFit was like, basically, general fitness, and you don't have to be the fastest, but you don't have to be this, like, you want to be basically like, as you want to basically expand your the spectrum of like fitness as close to like endurance and as close to strength as possible. Like, I love that. And it's just challenging. I had to work work on a bunch of things and I just thought that that was cool. Like it was different every day.

Like it wasn't boring and repetitive and I liked that. So just, I like how you're wearing the California, um, strength shirt. Did you just buy that today? No, I got that. Um, about a year ago, probably. Oh, you've been down here before to train there? No, no. Oh, you just had this shirt. Yeah. Um, so you talked, you mentioned something a second before to train there? No, no. Oh, you just had the shirt. Yeah. So you talked, you mentioned something a second ago that interests me. You said that you were training with, what was the, the development team had a strength program? Well, every, every national team will send you kind of like strength and conditioning programming. It's just a general program for the team, or you can kind of of you can do your university program or like Team Canada program. And how did that compare to CrossFit?

Were they doing it all wrong? No, like it's fine. It's just it's sports specific. Right. So it's a lot of like hip flexor strengthening, which I find like you almost like overuse those those muscles so much in the anyways, that you need to be standing up more, you know, not be in that flex position that we're in all day. Um, no, it's great. It's still great training. Um, just CrossFit's different. Like it's a lot more circuit based, a lot more higher intensity,

but I've been finding that a lot of the athletes are starting to do CrossFit more. Like they used to make fun of it and they used to be like, Oh, it's dumb. But then they started doing it and they're like, Oh, this is CrossFit more. Like they used to make fun of it and they used to be like, oh, it's dumb. But then they start doing it and they're like, oh, this is CrossFit. I was like, yeah. So a lot of them are actually choosing

to do CrossFit now to get fitter for their sports, which is cool. Were you heartbroken when you didn't make the team? For sure. Like you, as a female athlete,

we don't have professional sports. Like unless you're a very good tennis player or golf player, like you dream about going to the Olympics. That's all you dream about. For males, they don't even dream about the Olympics for half the time. Like they want to play NFL,

NHL, MLB, NBA. Like they're, they're dreaming professional sports. Like for us, it's the Olympics for females. It's every four years.

Like that's where you want to go to. So for me, I had different avenues and it's that's where you want to go to. Um, so for me, I had different avenues and it's like, I always look back on like, what if I stuck with Taekwondo instead? Like, what if I went this way? Like, what if I actually specialized in, in a sport versus doing three my whole life, but it is what it is. And then when I found CrossFit, like that became my new Olympics, like that became my new goal to try to make it there because that that door had closed for the hockey Olympics. And then I said, OK, you know, need to find something else to kind of change my mind. Like a lot of female athletes or just athletes in general become very depressed and kind of lost after university when you're when you're done and you're entering the real world the real world um and for me crossfit saved me like it just gave me that team community aspect like that you miss like when you're on a team

you work out with them they're your family then all of a sudden you found yourself going to a global gym where you're by yourself like you're lost you're doing it by yourself and then the crossfit gym you all of a sudden it's like oh it's like you're lost, you're doing it by yourself. And then the CrossFit gym, you all of a sudden you're, it's like, Oh, it's like being a team, like you're doing it together. So I just fell in love with the community part of it first. I've often said that CrossFit is where professional athletes go to die. And, and you know what, I realized what a sexist comment that is because, and I have no problem with being sexist, um, as everyone knows and loves to say but really it's

for males it's where professional athletes go to die and for females it's like it is a professional sport and it is hope and I don't even mean that in a negative way where they go to die you have someone like Jason Hopper who's so fucking talented but he's playing wide receiver or whatever and he was just too short

you know and then he parlayed all that skill to Crossfit so part of it's kind of just me being no but aggressive dick but for you this is it's it's a mistake to say it's where female athletes go to die it's where female athletes go to thrive yeah yeah and it's just like like it's just that that's like my like my new olympics like bullets like going to the world championship like that's what you want to get to um yeah we don't we don't always pay the same prize money yeah that's the thing that's awesome like right like when i when i found cross i was like this is amazing like the girls are getting paid the same as guys we're doing the same workouts it's like it's just cool like it's just like same media yeah same attention same it's's. And that's not the case for, you know, like my hockey. You know, we're like the visibility is just not there. It's popular at the Olympics, like the Winter Olympics.

The female final like USA versus Canada is one of the most watched events of the Winter Olympics. And then after that, they go and play in these leagues and then no one comes and watches. You don't know about them. They're not talked about like on Twitter. They're not really on TV much. So it's just such a different reality from CrossFit, which I found was just like equal. And I was like, wow. Do girls fight in hockey? No, we're not really allowed to. Guys will get like a five minutes and get back on the ice.

For girls, we'll get like game misconducts. No shit. It's so dumb. And let me tell get like game misconducts. No shit. It's so dumb. And let me tell you, that's why it's not marketable. I think it's all. I mean, the only thing I know about hockey is just like something that goes viral on Instagram where a dude gets punched in the face. The problem, too, is the masks, right? Like we wear a full cage when guys play.

So it's hard to recognize the players. You can't relate to them as much when you see the sports that are doing well. Soccer. You can see the body. You can see the face. Basketball. You can see the face. All of a sudden you have a bunch of equipment and a mask. It's not as marketable in this society of. So the girls are more covered up than the boys even? Yeah, because the guys have the visors for a lot of the girls. Some of them are wearing like the visor, but then still has part of a cage or like a black cage. So it's just harder to see them. You'll see like the ponytail at the back, and that's basically it. I guess another way to look at it is why don't they make those same rules for the guys? Like why not just shut the guys down and be like, hey, you can't be fighting anymore.

And we know why, because it will make the sport less marketable right yeah people like to see it yeah people want to see yeah i mean same thing with auto racing i'm sure it's different but like auto racing like the only auto racing i see is when there's a crash or like i didn't even know the tour de france was going on until that lady knocked out all those dudes with the sign. That was awesome. The whole Peloton. Yeah, the whole Peloton. Oh, look, you're an athlete. I'm like, she knocked over the bicyclers. And you're like, you mean the Peloton?

Yeah, yeah, those guys, the Peloton. Would you watch a lot of sports? Yeah, I love sports. I grew up, I would wake up in the morning before school and I'd watch SportsCenter with my dad. That was every day before school. We would watch different sports. I just loved watching anything. We watched basketball.

He was a horrible dad. He should have never let you watch TV. What a horrible dad. Baseball. We watched everything. I just like watching sports. I'm excited with the Olympics coming up. I love the summer games, all the sports that are getting broadcasted there.

It's exciting to watch them. So, so you're doing CrossFit and when do you realize that, how long before you realize there's something actually called the CrossFit games? Like, so you're just going and doing the movements at the gym and you're practicing the methodology. Did you, and also tell me, did you you like your gym was it an eclectic crowd it was great like was there like the was there like the fat guy and the skinny guy and the old lady and the guy in the wheelchair like did you was it like no it was just oh the gym was actually had a lot of young

members the one that i went to there um but just just like any other gym it's just a great community people just trying to get fitter. Uh, now I train in, uh, in Toronto at CrossFit Coliseum, but it just, yeah, just like being part of, of that group. I found out about the games almost right away. Um, cause I wanted to compete right away. So then once I wanted to compete, I'm like, okay, well, what's the highest step? And then it's like the CrossFit games. I never thought it was actually a possibility, especially not with all the things that I was doing,

being a teacher, still playing hockey at a professional level, even though we weren't really getting paid. So I just didn't think it was possible. I made it to regionals my very first year, 2014. And then I made it every year at regionals. And I was just progressively getting like better every year, but just like any sport, it just takes time to kind of get the grasp of different movements and, you know, just get better. And then, but also I would say like competition settings, you know, each year at regionals, you, you gain that experience of,

Oh, now I'm in this position with this many events left, et cetera. You learn how to recover. I have to think that that's super valuable too. Yeah. For me, I used to just be happy to make it to regionals and then try to be on the front half of the field and try to get as close as possible. But I just thought, I looked at those girls, I'm like, those girls are just ridiculous. That's all they do. I can never be like them because I'm doing way too much. But then I just started getting closer and closer. And I was like, all right, like we're right there. And then in, I think it was 2016, 2016 or 2017, Dave Castro had the, the invitation, the invitational when they had like team canada versus team usa versus team europe uh versus team i think australia uh that was in oshawa ontario which is like an hour from

where i'm like where i live and there was a little competition on the friday and i got to be on the demo team because our the top two pairings that that competed got to be the four people demo so i got the demo in front of all like the team canada people and i was like this is so cool i hope one day i can be like these athletes because i was just like looking up to them i still do like they're great athletes and then the next day dave castro goes uh new location for the crossfit games it's now going to be in madison wisconsin and no one knew where Madison, Wisconsin was when you're in Toronto. Like, like we don't really know as much in the States. And my jaw just like dropped. Like,

I was like, this is where I went to school. This is amazing. Like that's there it is. There's my sign right there. And I just remember like that, that flip, that flipped the switch for me. And I just was like, I want to go back to the school I played hockey at for CrossFit at the World Championship. That was just an amazing moment. That's what clicked for me. I just remember driving home and listening to Rocky music. And I was just getting fired up. What year was that?

You're saying that was 2016? Yeah, I think it was November 2016. So the first games in madison were 2017 yep and i remember they had signed like a three-year deal so i was like all right i have a few years to try to make that it's not going to be in 2017 but i can get pretty close um and then sure enough it was like 10th place that year then the following year was like so close to sixth place. And then finally in 2019, it happened. I was like, perfect.

Who is more sad, me or you, the year you didn't make it to the games in Albany? Both of us. I was sad. I mean, that final event, you gave it your best. You were so cool. I wonder if you're still that cool. And it almost happened because Chloe had a really bad final event. Yeah. She struggled with the rope climb with an elbow and i did well in that event i just couldn't overcome that one bad event too but do you have that picture up on your instagram you said you were going to print that picture to remind you did you do that it was in a frame

it was up in a frame in my like on my wall at my condo until i made the games but then she got upset one day and kicked it no but i but i used to i used to do that when i was young like i used to have the pictures of like girls that i used to fight against because like rocky did that like rocky four when he had like the rush in there and like grab the picture like i was just a different kid growing up like i just so for me it was just like a like i remember doing that when i was a kid so i just had the picture there as a reminder to be like don't let that happen again um matt said that the worst thing that ever happened to him was taking second place when he first took it and then he realized it was the best thing that ever happened to him and he hated his second place

medal and i'm probably not telling the story right i apologize matt but then he ended up loving his second place medal and it was his favorite medal and he just always hung it up because to remind himself like this is not the one you want do you want to get another one of these fuckers or do you want the first place one and it's interesting it's it's interesting. It's this championship level mentality. It's a competitive nature in us. It doesn't leave you feeling very good. Even when you're so close to what you want, it's just like, and then you have to wait a whole other year to train. other year to train so after you said that you said that getting to the uh the games in 2019 was perfect but did it did it how i mean how did it really feel because you've been trying through regionals and been close close close so then to earn it through the open was that satisfying in

the same way no and it still wasn't satisfying this time around too because when you think about the regionals like the most amazing part is that last event everyone is lined up and you want to hear first place is this second place like you just want to hear your name and it's like that excitement that you did it live in competition getting an email was like okay like you know not the same music this is music to Brian's ear. You're totally on the same page as him. He's so, he's such a bum. It's not the same, you know? And then like 2020 was the same thing.

I had, I qualified through the open and it's like, woo, same email, copy paste. So it was like, just not fun. Like you just, it's not what you dream about. Like it's not what you visualize. You visualize being on the floor, hearing your name. You qualify. That excitement, that good moment that you have there. And then same thing here this year. You're a 2020 games athlete? I lost my spot once they made the cuts.

So I was just a little bit too far. I think I was a spot or two away from once they just started cutting. Because they took the top 20 at first with the national champion it went back to like 30 something i don't even know i was 26 and then one girl was pregnant one girl tested positive one i think then then the for covid or the juice for covid or the juice oh the juice then then you had like the sanctionals were moving around. People were losing spots. Yeah, so there's a few spots out there. And then so I lost it.

I tried to message Dave Castro because the Rogue Invitational was going to be a sanctional event. And everything got canceled with COVID. Rogue was the only one that took place after all the ones were canceled it was online i would have gone the spot back there i finished sixth place the five in front of me had already qualified then the game is we should say their names again seva this is good dude you should be a co-host of this show you sound like fucking brian's twin right and i had this is great um i had no problem with the cuts that they made for COVID. And it's like, okay, you know what?

I should have finished top 20 and I didn't. Top 20 deserve it. Whatever. But then when the games went virtual and the CrossFit game go, okay, we're not going to have an in-person event anymore. We're going to go virtual. I go to Dave. And at that point point that's when all the shit was going down also with crossfit and rogue had uh decided not to affiliate with

crossfit for that event like a week before so it was no longer like the rogue crossfit games it was the rogue invitational um so that no longer counted as a as a sanctional so then i go to dave i go now that the games are moving virtual would you consider using the virtual from rogue and he just plain out said nope and i was like cool oh did you dm dm'd him i i had what a good dude i had yeah i didn't think he would uh me and adrian moonweiler both both dm'd him because we both um didn't get the spot that we would have had and uh he replied back just like just straight up there's no and i was like yeah at least i tried i had nothing to lose so quick props to katie and bill they don't fuck around no but that was amazing competition bill hen, but that was an amazing competition. Katie and Bill Henninger. That was awesome. Yeah. They sent us gear.

They sent us judges. Like, it was legit. Do you know how much bad shit I hear about Rogue? They're awesome. Like, I love them. Zero. Zero. Like, any equipment.

The other thing about that competition is. Anything that goes bad with your equipment, like, they replace. That competition was also an incredible field. Like, when I look at the games field this year, I see maybe 17 women that I think have top i look at the games field this year i see maybe 17 women that i think have top 10 potential at the games and like 15 of them are in that competition at rogue that was the best competition i've been a part of by far um yeah like that's why i was like that couldn't like that is more legit to me than the open to qualify for the games that year and i was like how much like how hard is it

to add a couple people to a virtual competition but it is what it is still confused i just need to ask this question one time are you how many times would you say you've been to the crossfit games this will be my second officially but like and so you're saying last year you were you were a games athlete you were an official games athlete. Supposed to be. Yes. Right. In my opinion, and this sucks because this makes me so agree with Brian or at least I don't think anyone went to the games except for the five people we saw on Aromas, men, five women. Like besides that, like if you didn't get camera time and you weren't there in reality, fuck you.

In my mind, like you didn't make it. I think the online competition. Like I don't think you should get to put it on your instagram or whatever wherever you put that shit i i think it was still they did the most that they could with it um i still think the road yeah not a dig at crossfit not a dig at crossfit i still think the rogue invitational was a better like it was just a like a nice tougher comp yeah a legit comp yeah um tell me about this mule thing you won and then let's go back to your crossfit journey what's this mule thing you won that was cool it's great when

i'm like when i'm like champion people like you and travis mayor and everyone's like who the fuck are these guys and then all of a sudden i'm like see bitch look at this girl she just won the rogue mule look at travis won the quarterfinals uh so the rogue has been doing a bunch of challenges on their instagram for the past few months uh they did like a max bear hold like a sandbag challenge they've done a max hanging on the bar which your kids should have done um like it's like max time hanging on a bar pull-up bar they've done like a rowing workout whatever so this time around they did a twist to a workout that they did at the roving rotational a few years ago called the mule which was a 21 59 of a heavy deadlift and chest to bar so that was a wheelhouse workout for me so i was like yep signing up for that

because there is prize money so i was like let's go for that anytime there's any time uh 158 fast holy cow were the only were any of the guys you're the only one under two minutes right yeah i think i think the top guy was maybe a 217 220 ish something like that yeah who was the guy i don't know no one cares about the guy. Oh, was it Alexander Illin or Stas Solidov maybe? They might have been first and second. Yeah, it's one of the Russian. It was the same two guys I think they qualified for the games out of Russia

or Asia through the semifinals. Are we going to see any of those guys? Yeah, well, Alexander Illin and Stas Soledov shouldn't have any issue at all getting there. And Roman is doing everything he can. I think he's in Kyrgyzstan right now applying for a visa. I hope he's able to. Oh, wow. He's trying every option.

Wow. Does he speak English? We got to get him on the podcast. Carolyn can translate. She could talk French to him she could talk french to the russian translator we could do it like three steps um uh so so do you know who entered that like like do you think that gets in the some of the other athletes head they're like oh shit uh there was a few of the mayhem girls that that did it they're strong like taylor

williamson has won a few of the challenges uh she's like the 50 cal echo bike for time which is just a disgusting test and she won the sandbag hold and that was insane the sandbag hold i think she won a clean and jerk she's been doing like all of them basically paying paying off her her school she's doing right now i think um yeah so there's a few of the uh good girls that sign up there I tried to sign up early just to scare people and maybe not sign up good on you

normally I'm like a last minute sign up and I was like no I'm going to sign up right away every story has like a fierce competitor element okay so you're at this CrossFit gym, CrossFit Narnia. No, it was back then it was We Are Fitness. It's in Sarnia with an S.

Right. And in Sarnia. And then why do you switch to CrossFit Coliseum? In Toronto. And how did you find your coach? And why did you choose this guy? Uh, so I, and why did you choose this guy? So I moved to Toronto for hockey and for schooling. Uh, I lived with my sister for a little bit then on my own. Um, your twin, my older, my older sister was in Toronto already.

So one of the teams I played hockey, um, for there was a team in Montreal or Toronto. So I was either, so I was only in Sarangha for like the summer basically of Toronto. So I was either, so I was only in Sarangha for like the summer basically of 2013. So I wasn't there. I was only there for a few months. I was, I was already going to Toronto to, um, to go to teacher's college, which is, uh, the certificates that you need to be a teacher. And then I was going to play on the hockey team in Toronto. And the gym was really close to home, uh, to, to the condo that I lived at and, uh, found my coach there right away. Like one of the first classes I was there, I've been with him ever since, uh, haven't changed, uh, wouldn't change. Like he's, uh, he's been a great coach

to me. Um, more than a coach. He's been my dad basically in Toronto taking care of me, uh, ever since I moved there. Anything that I need fixing or whatever, he's done. And I just feel that I see a lot of people yo-yoing around with coaches and stuff. And there's something about sticking to a coach, good or bad years and learning from each other. And we just kind of grew together over the years. And yeah, very loyal to him and to the gym um did he have aspirations to have a games athlete of course before you walked in the door uh i think mostly like a probably like a regional team like he was the regional director

for canada east um okay okay so he so he he knew a lot. Paul McIntyre. So he, he knew a lot about like the CrossFit space. Uh, the gym was huge. Uh, it had great hours. So it was like open from like 6 AM to like 9 PM, 8 PM at night, every hour on the hour, there's classes and there's like open gym all day. So it just, it was a gym that allowed me to just train and do anything. And anything that popped up at the games, he would buy. So full of equipment. Even the pig? Yep. We actually do have a pig.

But I'm in California right now. It must be a trip to be a coach and really like elite athleticism. And then you walk into the gym it must be like you got to like look right and left it's like someone like drove away and left the briefcase of money you know you're like wait what like he must have been stoked because there's so much that you don't have to do with you already that you can just get to work right yes and no i think there's quite a bit because you know how to move there's quite a bit to learn in crossfit like um but i just mean you're capable of the learning yeah and i'm willing to put the time and he doesn't have to explain to you where your hips are he doesn't have to be like

open your hips and the athlete's like what open my what yes yes i know i still have a lot to work on um but uh definitely willing to learn and keep at it. And where did you meet your current girlfriend at? Are you guys engaged or I don't want to like miss? No, not engaged. Okay. And what, did you meet her in the gym? No. So I do a lot of the programming for Casa Coliseum and I was programming for myself

and I would sometimes post on my stories like workouts and then she would message me and be like oh I like that workout like she would dm me on instagram and be like I just did that workout this was my time and I'd be like it's bullshit like that beats my time and then like she would just and I would like ignore her and like nothing of it and I was just getting annoyed that she just kept sending me her times and kept crushing me. And then we just started talking from there. So we had actually not met, um, like at a competition or anything like that, just through,

um, social media. And how far away did she live at the time? California. Okay. Oh, right. Sorry.

And so, so actually it was, it sounds like it was just courtship. Yeah. Like, so like we, we started talking. Like she knew, like she knew, like she knew she did the workout four times so she could beat you as part of

the courtship process. Right. Probably she was inventing scores probably. Uh, no. And then I was supposed to go to California cause I had just talked to Cal strength. I had signed with Cal strength and I was like, Oh, this is great. I'm going to go to California. I'm going to go Olympic lift there. She was with Cal Strength too. So like, I didn't even know she was until like we started talking and I was like, oh, I'm with Cal Strength.

So I'm going to go there. I'm going to go to the games and then COVID happened also. So the whole trip got like messed up and I wasn't able to go to California and actually meet her in person. So she ended up going through a bunch of processes and then was able to go to California and actually meet her in person. So she ended up going through a bunch of processes and then was able to fly to Canada with her dog, Coast, which is just the cutest thing ever. See, seven, that's it.

Wait, she went from the U.S. to Canada? That's it right there. That's why she doesn't have the Canadian accent. She said processes, not processes. Oh, no. Good catch. So she flew to Canada, and she's been there for five months. So she had like a six-month travel thing.

She'll have to reapply for it and stuff. How the fuck do you – it's so hard for Americans to get into Canada. She's smart. I hear so many fucked up stories. And she brought the big dog, the big horse dog I see in all the videos. Yeah, he wasn't that big, though. He was like 50 50 60 pounds when he got there now he's like 90 something and like up to my shoulders um so that so we actually

couldn't fly that dog loves you probably more than he loves her that dog loves you that that dog you haven't seen the instagram post he doesn't have that dog wants a pc he doesn't hump a single dog he only humps me and in my condo if i'm working out because he just is so excited he doesn't know what to do uh that's hilarious well he's choosing the most dominant person in the room and trying to like establish his dominance he just knows he's funny um but yeah so actually when we so she wait a second wait a second wait a second i want to say something so you guys had never met no god you are fucking crazy i love it you had never met. God, you are fucking crazy. I love it.

You had never met and yet you said, yeah, come up here. Like what if you didn't like her? I was going to get a good training partner. We were going to train for the games. Like it was going to be good. And then, no, she came here. We just like clicked right away. Like we really bonded like all through.

Bonded. It's not a really good word. We just clicked right away. Bonded's good. Yeah. And what year was that? When did you say that was just like? Last summer.

Last summer. And then we started talking last summer. And then she came here in Canada in January. And then we actually, so once my school was done, so once the school year was over and I didn't have to teach anymore. So June 30th. So the first she was going back to California because she has to go back eventually. And she also got another dog. So but we couldn't fly together because the dog is just too big now for the flight.

And cargo was just not an option. It's just like he just could never go cargo. I agree. I couldn't do that to my dog anyway. So I can't drive across the border. She can drive across the border because she's American. So she drove to Detroit from Toronto and I flew to Detroit. She picked me up and then we drove from Detroit.

Well, she drove from Toronto, but I drove from Detroit with her to California and we got there July. Why can't you fly? Why can't you fly, but you can drive? No, it's the opposite. I can't drive across the border, but I can fly. I could have flown to California, but I didn't want to leave her driving by herself for like four days. For sure. That would take all the fun away.

So wait a second. So that's just like some law. That's some government law that you can drive into this country, but you can't fly into it. It's the opposite, Simon. You can't. Whatever. You can drive into it country but you can't fly into it it's the opposite someone you can't whatever you can drive into it but you wait no you can fly no you can yeah you can fly into this country you can fly and get exposed to everyone but you can't drive and just be by yourself i don't know that's just well it makes perfect sense with all the other dumb shit. So I guess like if you just throw it in the pile, Hey, uh, let's just make this dumb too. So, yeah.

So I flew and then we just drove out. So we're here training for the games. Um, how long was that flight? An hour. It was just a quick flight just to get across the border. So she drops you off at the airport. She drives to Detroit and picks you up at the airport. Exactly.

No shit. That's literally what happened yeah that's literally what happened amazing but it was it was actually it was actually a lot like it was a pretty long drive for her it was like three or four hours for her to detroit because it was like on the way because by the time i had to go to the airport did she miss you of course like did she acted like she missed you when she picked you up oh my god no she was just like no no she's like you drive the rest of the way okay so you were coming out to california to train and so in flying wasn't an option because of the or because of the dog yeah so whose car are you guys in yours or hers so we rented a car for the trip here, then gave it back in California. Her Jeep is here.

So she has her car back. So now we're with her car. You can do that? That's like her? Yeah. You do that just with her? She rented the car and then dropped it off in California. It's like a one-way rental.

They're more expensive, obviously. And how long did it take you to drive from Detroit to California? And was it a fun trip or was it just like straight as fast as you can? We stopped at a few CrossFit gyms along the way, train every time, every like gas station stop. We would be running with the dog on the hills. We stopped at a high school track to do track work. It actually wasn't that bad. We, so we left July 1st and got to California July 4th.

So 1st to the 4th. Brian, do you have any concern that like here she is, she's made it to the games. This is like when I want to say bad shit about you, Carolyn, but I don't have the balls to talk shit about the guest. I put it on Brian. Do you have any concern that like people are hunkered down and resting and training i didn't miss a single training session and this chick's gallivanting around with her girlfriend across north american continent like thinking it's a party with and she's like talking about her training is with her dog running this does not sound like a professional athlete to me i have

to sounds like just like a summer of love shit before Before answering that, I have to just go back like three minutes and just commend Alexis. Actually made the decision to go to Canada during this time, Seva. That's how incredible she must have thought Carolyn was. That was also another. That's like visiting Auschwitz in World War II. But that was also another reason why I wanted to come out here was everything's still so shut down in Toronto. Like it's one of it's I think it's the most shut down place still in the world. Like everything's shut down.

I want to be training for the game. I need to be training in the heat. It's a different like I train in humidity in my gym, but there's not much outdoor space for us to work out. Like it's a it's a bunch of like it's a big parking lot, there's like industrial stuff there so you can't really use it very often and at the 2019 games i like the heat just was just a different beast wait can we pause there for a second yeah what happened on the first two events that year at the games for you uh no nothing really i just think that uh like the legless rope climb event is a is a weird one right because it's you have that fine line of you don't want to go too fast because then you blow up and then you also don't want to go too slow because then you're just not that great um

yeah i mean it's they weren't my best events for sure. I kind of got more into the groove as I went along for sure. I think the events were getting better and better for me as I went along. What did you see, Brian? Well, she almost made the final cut at the Games that year. So she was within maybe 10 points or 12 points of the cut line. And if you look at her event performances that, that year, her worst two events were in the first event and the second event.

And I consider the second to bet event, it was five spots worse. I think she was 33rd and 38th, but I consider the 38th to be a worse finish because it was against a smaller field. And, um, I don't know, she mentioned that, you know, she was getting acclimated to the weather there, but also just to just to being at the games. And then if you look at the rest of her events, they were very good, 18th, 7th, 16th, and 2nd, but it just was barely not enough to get her over those first couple events. Would you have predicted, Brian, by looking at those movements,

that she would have done so, lack of a better word, poor? Well, I think, and Carolyn, please tell me if I'm wrong about this, that she would have done so um lack of a better word for well you expect it better i think and carolyn please tell me if i'm wrong about this but just from looking at the last couple competitions she's done that handstand walking or handstand push-up workouts tend to be her worst relative to the other things that she does which was also true that year at the games uh yeah i mean i think handstand walk or something like under shoulder fatigue but at that like at that point that year wasn't as strong it's definitely gotten better um in the recent like this year it's been double unders like this year in the open that one workout had nothing to

do with nothing to do with the handstand wall walk like that was literally easy i am the worst double under person in the world i have no idea and then the same thing happened if you look at if you look back at the event number three from semi-finals this year my ring muscle-ups are as good as anyone on the field anyone on the field that were that were doing it there the lunges were annoying it took me like six minutes to do 300 double unders it took me like two and a half minutes to do 300 double unders. It took me like two and a half minutes to do a hundred double unders. Like you give me box jumps, you give me any other movement in that workout.

And I ain't finishing 18th in that workout. Like it was like that. That's the only event that really in the semifinal, it was double unders. And then in the quarterfinals, the double under again, like everyone's unbroken for the 50 and I just miss. So it's actually not the handstands.

I'm actually like fine with the handstands. My double under, for some reason, it's not connecting. And it's almost like I'm holding a hockey stick. My right hand is very low. No, no,

no. You are holding a hockey stick. I have a post on it. Like it's so dumb. Cause it's such a annoying movement that everyone is so good at. So like low skill at the games level. And especially when it's paired with a low skill movement like i don't know like well it's every it crushes me anytime i'm coaching someone if you look at if you look at the the rogue invitational my worst event the double under the heavy double under

it's for the past year and a half couple years every event that has had the double under it hasn't been the toast of ours hasn't been the handstand it's yeah it's embarrassing the past year and a half, couple of years, every event that has had the double under, it hasn't been the toast of ours, hasn't been the handstand. It's, yeah, it's embarrassing. I'm spinning in a circle. I'm working right now with Dave from RX Smart Gear to try to correct it. Awesome, dude.

God, I love that. Dave Newman, right? Yeah, Dave Newman. Great dude. Trying to fix it. I'm working on it like so much. But once you get that big chunk on the spot, that natural tendency to get back to my like hockey stick is like horrible. Like one hands in front. The rope isn't going here. The rope is cutting my body. It's fully this way.

So like I'm turning in a circle. I'm whipping myself. I get frustrated. circle i'm whipping myself i get frustrated stunt jumping um this is a this is a test for you carolyn did on this trip did you have a jump rope in the car and did you practice every day on your drive across the north american we we stopped at a gym we were we were training and it was funny because like one of the workouts had like double unders and i was i just got like smoked by alexis with there's like double unders handstand walk and chest of ours, it was like double unders, handstand, walk in, chest to bars. And I was like, I swear I'm the games athlete.

Cause I was just like minutes behind, but yeah, no, we, we worked on it. Um, we're going to several times a week, but it's also,

again, you don't want to overdo it because then it messes up your calves too. Um, so that's, and then you also, again, your head. So it's's like you don't want to do it every single day but there's definitely drills i'm trying to do uh more of but yeah it's everyone has that one movement i guess like i'm sure laura horvath works on her handstand push-ups

as much as anyone but it's like that one movement that, you know, she has a sticking point probably. Like for me, it's double-enders. Will you stay in the States now until the games? Is your next trip going to be from California to Madison? Yeah, going to fly. Going to fly from California to Madison. Who watches the dogs? Her parents. Oh, Alexa.

Okay, because they're in California. Okay. By the end of the show, I'll understand that she's from the Bay Area. Are you competitive with her? And how does that affect? Does that cause friction? I'm a very competitive person with everything. I don't think I've met a more competitive person than her. And like,

I will beat her in workouts and it's fine, but she, and like, she doesn't want to talk to me. She needs time. She needs her space. Like I'm going to be probably kicked out of the bed. Um, that night she wins a workout. She's all happy, everything. I'm okay with it because I know she's, she could be at the games if she had a healthy shoulder. Like the only thing I beat her in is like the high volume gymnastics. She like all the machines, a lot of the weightlifting, like strength stuff. She's actually stronger, but it's like, it's just great training. Like I get to compete and push against someone that's a very high level, uh, CrossFitter, but yeah, she's all sunshine and rainbows when she's winning.

But when I look for her, let me give you an analysis of what she's doing. Let me give you an analysis of what she's doing. God, I hope she doesn't beat me up when she says, although I'm pretty fit right now. Um, like we can't even play tennis against each other. Yeah, here's what I think. She reminds me. Oh, God, Alexis is going to hate me. She reminds me of my son.

There's this thing when you have kids where the whole thing about kids is they try to hold you hostage. So you know the right answer. So like I played tennis with Avi and beat him, and then he cries. And then the next time we play, I let him win because I don't want to deal with the crying. So, so what she's doing, you got to just mash her harder. What she's doing is she is, she, she's letting you know, Hey, if you beat me, I'll be a bitch to you. So like throw that into the equation of when you beat me. I'm not slowing down. i'm not slowing down i'm not slowing down to not okay good good yeah just mash no but like i take her wins because she's your your girlfriend's

really a six-year-old you gotta just mash i i take her winning as a good opportunity to be like okay this is what a high level like power output athlete on this machine is like i i'm trying to chase her like i've been better in the past year just by having a training partner too like i've had training partners over the years and they've been good at pushing me in different movements but not consistent and it's mostly just been guys and it's like okay rolling wall balls like stuff like that that more like guys will be girls at um but do you like training with guys so that you have horses to chase if you want to be the best you want someone that's better than you and someone that's right behind you and and you you get you you're pushing but you also need to know what it's like to get to have someone that's right

behind you on your ass too it's like that that's what i've always uh loved and wanted in a training partner and i feel that i get that with a, uh, loved and wanted in a training partner. And I feel that I get that with Alexis, like I'll be in front of her for a lot and she's in front of me for a lot. So we're just kind of, um, yeah, it's been good for, for the training. I've never heard it explained that way. I've heard a lot of people say you need someone better than you to chase, but that's what you need. You need someone behind you too, because you can get complacent or you, you know, there's – yeah, it's just both. You can always use the excuse, well, that person always beats me.

But you can't let the guy behind you beat you then. Yeah, you want both ends. So last time you were at the Games, you got to participate in six events. And most of the competitions that you've been a part of are in the neighborhood of six, seven events. This year at the Games, we're expecting most of the athletes to be able to participate in up to 15 events. Do you think that that's a better opportunity for you? Like the more events, the better? I usually like the more events, the better. Yeah. Well, I also feel it rewards more well-roundedness. Like if you have one hole, two holes, it's okay, but you get

crushed on five or six events. As you see some people not make it through semifinals with six events versus seven events. The more events you make, you have, at the end of the weekend, you're like, this is the fittest. These are the most well rounded people. So I'm excited to have a lot of events. It'll be definitely new to have as many as those. Well, the year you went to Dubai, there were still several events at that competition, wasn't it? And multiple days, three or four days. That was a tough workout.

That was a tough time for me. The first two events were like swimming events, which I had never swam in like the sea and the waves were huge. And the second one, you had to carry an object with you. Yeah. And then you're not going anywhere to carry an object with you. Yeah. And then you're not going anywhere.

It was like across my body. I was like, oh my God, like I can't even dive into the wave. It's just bringing me back. It was annoying. Then the third event, I got heat stroke in the desert. You're going from Toronto winter to, I went to, I got to Dubai like two days before. I ended up having heat stroke, got IV, which that never happened before.

That only happens to Canadians, by the way, that doesn't happen to anyone else. It was just a, but then I continued to, to compete. Yeah, that was a rough start to the Dubai comp.

What's heat stroke like? What happens? I just got blurry. So at the halfway mark of this, uh, weighted vest desert run, you got to take off your weight vest. And when I looked at the field, like I wore way too tight of pants, like compression pants, and they were just too tight on my stomach. Like, I don't think the circulation was right. Um, and I just started getting dizzy. And all I remember was like, there was no one in the desert. Like if I collapsed there, I was by myself. Like there

was no media, no, no one there. So I was like, I need to make it to the finish line because that's where help is. So like, I literally, like there's a video of me, like just like stumbling and I'm like, no, like the finish, like I need water. I need, I like, I got to get to the finish line because that's where help, like there was no one in the desert like you're just by yourself so if you collapse you're done like you're dead there and so when you cross the finish line you were they knew right away people come and grab you there yeah and then they try to put me in this tent in the desert I'm like it's like 20 degrees hotter. I'm like, get me out of this tent. Take this clothes off.

Yeah, it was quite the adventure. Yeah. Did you feel delusional at all? Like I was going to like, I felt like if I got up too fast, I was going to puke. Yeah, like long distance running is not necessarily like a bad event for me uh like it's like decent like most of my sports are more power sports growing up did you have family or friends there with you just my coach and did he did he come to you when he saw you go down yeah he actually walked me to the finish line because he was like to the left to the left no your other left

he's like leaning towards towards the finish line. That'd be scary to be alone. But this is, it's great to hear these, these insights and these stories, because this is the difference between getting to know an athlete and looking at numbers on a spreadsheet. Because if you look at the numbers on the spreadsheet and you've done well in all these competitions and that Dubai one stands out as an outlier relative to your performance everywhere else. And it's also the one that in my mind is most similar to the CrossFit games in terms of duration and longevity. But in reality, there was other stuff going on that more than likely won't

happen on the first three events of day one this time around. Hopefully not training, so it doesn't happen training hard. And it, and it, you know, and then that makes me think, you know, as I'm, as I'm looking at the field of women and I see what you've done against a lot of them in other competitions, like I'm really, you know, I'm not, I don't think anyone is surprised to know that like the 2019 games was underwhelming for me in a lot of ways. And especially because of athletes like you that just didn't get the chance to see the test out. So I'm happy that you guys will get to this time. That, yeah, like that was a, that year just wasn't fun. You just didn't get to like, enjoy any of the events, like really go hard. Like you just didn't know what was the next

event program. And at that point, like, if that's not a good event for you, you're getting cut. So it just it was very stressful. Yeah, it was it was not that fun. And then you finish the weekend and you just don't know. Like you're like, yeah, I finished this high. But you still had the whole weekend. I mean, you finished it was Saturday morning. Yes, but I actually got rhabdo for the first time in my life on the Mary workout.

So that was probably the best case scenario that I didn't move on. You got, you got rhabdo on that workout and then you got second on the sprint workout the next morning. I could not move my arms. Wow. Uh, yeah. Um, yeah, I didn't, I didn't post about it or anything because I didn't want to like talk about that. But I've only talked about it, I think, in one more podcast. No, I was in the merry workout at that point. I was close to the finish, you know, getting cut. And I was like, I'm going to hold on to the bar because I just wanted to get to the money round, which was top 20. And I knew that I thought top 20 was going to go the whole Saturday. Right. I just want to get to the money round, which was top 20. And I knew that I thought top 20 was going to go the whole Saturday. I was like, I just want to get to the top. I was like,

I just want to get to the top 20. I just held onto the bar. And I just think that training in the heat, five out of the six events were outdoors in the sun. And I just wasn't good with the sun. I wasn't good in Dubai with it. And I just didn't drink enough water. I had done that much volume in my life of pull-ups, but I think when you mix in dehydration, heat with the sun and then high volume pulling with the Mary, like I, I just, I couldn't extend my arms at all. Like the next day, like I I'm going to sprint and i have no arms like i'm here i also like on one of the pull-up bars so the second part of the pull-up bars on mary you got like you you adjusted your mat underneath the pull-up bar for the first 10 rounds the second 10 rounds the mat was already there and i fell a little bit forward and actually hurt my calf and had like a strained calf i didn't

warm up at all for that sprint event i didn't even know I was going to do the sprint event. I thought I was going to have to withdraw because I had no arms, couldn't use my arms for the sprint. And my right calf or my left calf was strained. I couldn't walk on my tippy toes, but for some reason I could jog in the warmup area. And I was like, you know what? This is my last event.

I'm a good sprinter. I'm just going gonna enjoy this last event i'm probably not gonna make the cut but like three two one go and you don't feel too much um yeah like i i wouldn't have been really able to to carry on because like that net like the saturday morning like my arms were stuck like this like if you press like you like it stuck like it was so painful i'd never had that before and like i said like i've press, like you, like it stuck, like it was so painful. I'd never had that before. And like I said, like I've done that. I'm not, I had done that volume before, but I wanted it so bad that I just like, was like, I'm going to just keep holding onto the pull-up bar. And

during the sprint three, two, one, didn't feel it, but right out, like I would be done and I couldn't even walk. I couldn't move my arms. And during the event three two one go and i had to go again and i was like but like sprinting is is good for me like that would be a good event so i was like mad that i wasn't at a hundred percent it sounds like that's the same the same mental switch as when you fight though like once the once the buzzer goes you're just in the zone and you just block everything else out and get the work done. So mom seven, I don't know if you hear, but she despite all that stuff, she took second place in that workout.

I was P I was peeing. Sorry. I was peeing. I'm going to kill the lawn right outside my podcast studios is fucking. I need to find a better place to pee. Sorry. Go on. What did she say? Well, I was just, she ended up getting second place in that event despite everything she just said. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, but I don't know

how it would have felt the Saturday. I think the next event was a clean event. Clean? Or maybe it was a pegboard one. The next one was the pegboard. The part I fixated on. For me, that was the double under event. I guess I'm not good with the sun. Yeah.

Well, that's one of the reasons I wanted to go to California and get in the heat train outside. Cause I don't get to train outside anytime when I'm in Toronto. So I need to, I need to. You never will again, by the way, Canada is permanently locked down. Canada and Australia and Britain. You guys have no exit strategy. You guys are fucked. You guys, you have no, there's no exit strategy.

It's so like, this shit's going to be here forever. The virus will live on the planet forever in harmony with us, but not, and you guys will live indoors in Canada. You guys are welcome to come down here. She's here. She's already here. It's not great right now. It's all fucked up. I am here.

That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome, welcome. Yeah, the trip actually wasn't bad. No, the North, it's great driving across the United States. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome, welcome. Yeah, the trip actually wasn't bad. No, the North, it's great driving across the United States. It's awesome. The highways are good. The people are cool.

The gas stations are plentiful. Besides you, there are three other Canadian women at the games this year. Do you know any of them at all? I met Emily in 2019 at the games. Sydney, I don't know.ily emily emily abbott no role oh emily roll she's from out west i just heard emily and that's that's the only emily and there's another younger girl sydney uh i haven't met her either and then i'll and then what was the question brian girls from where

other canadian women sorry and then the other one's alessandra pocelli who's listed as canadian What was the question, Brian? Girls from where? The other Canadian women. And then the other one is Alessandra Pacelli, who is listed as Canadian, but she's living in California also. Yeah, we were supposed to compete on a team together, me and Sandra and Street Horner and Alex Smith, for a Mayhem competition last year. But then it got canceled with COVID. Yeah, Sandra. Yeah, there's four Canadian girls. Who's going to win the fight Saturday night? Gilbert Burns? Have you

looked at any of that? The Gilbert Burns-Steven Thompson fight? I think Thompson's going to win that one. And you're biased because he's a kicker. I'm biased because he's just cool as shit, but you're biased because he's like a karate guy, right? I think and then the McGregor fight, like I connor i think dustin's more well-rounded but i think connor's gonna adjust he's got to adjust his leg he got smashed in the leg last time with cat he's so lead he he

has a little bit of a type 1-0 stance like boxers are a lot more forward, kind of more like he's, well, he's southpaw. He's more sideways and he leans along his front leg and he just got destroyed on his calf last time. So he's going to have to make adjustments. I mean, he hurt us. He hurt him in the first round. You must love watching one. Yeah. You must love watching Wonderboy fight though, right?

I mean, it's just incredible, isn't it? His kicks, his punches, his... Yeah. I mean, I just like watching fighting in general. I think you can appreciate different types of fighting. GSP was my favorite, though. I think he changed the whole UFC. Just with how well-rounded he was.

That was before my day. Yeah. I didn't watch fighting back then. I was a civilized young man. Wasn't fight gone bad? Like a GSP story? BJ Penn. Wrong.

I can. Did you – Ryan, great job on this podcast, by the way. I'm glad we did it live so you could put in lots of videos and shit and like graphics. That was really cool. You really upped your... That was amazing as we wind this thing down. Brian's the one running the

live stream. I'm just picking on him. You're welcome. My face is red. I got sun today. A little sunburn. You should have seen the few times you got angry. You turned like a radish and then it went back to ryan started talking about like your 38th place and like went three shades redder um can you sit down on the couch at three o'clock and with uh and watch the pre early prelims and then the prelims and then the fights and just not get off the couch

like do you like fighting that much yeah i can watch it depends on the card so you can watch from three to ten yeah like you can watch from three to ten and just throw your feet up a little yeah i mean i'll go and do things here and there be on my phone here and there but um yeah just like it'll be my my dad used to always like uh record the pay-per-views in order to the pay-per-view. So I, we'd watch the whole card. Maybe, maybe less the undercard, like more when it got to like the pay-per-view part, we would watch.

I always commit to sitting down at like for the early prelims. And of course, just my house is crazy. Cause I have this three little boys, but I always tell myself, okay, I'm going to sit down at three and I'm not going to move till 10. And I always get up like a thousand times,

but it's always the goal. Well, I mean, it's better. I'm happy that I'm on West coast down at 3 and I'm not going to move until 10. I always get up like a thousand times, but it's always the goal. I want to just watch it all. I'm happy that I'm on West Coast time because when you're on East Coast time, the good fights don't start until almost 1, 2 in the morning. At least here, it's bearable. I like to go to bed pretty early. Brian, where did you go? Brian, where did you go just now?

Did you get disconnected? Me? I don't think so. Yeah. Yeah. Your image was gone. No. Ryan, did we record all that or was it?

Yeah, no, his it's, he just stopped recording his video. Just be, or he didn't Riverside did just because his internet. Oh God. Okay. That makes sense. Just because his internet. Oh, God. Okay. That makes sense. In all fairness, 50% of the problems we've had have been my fault, but Brian gets blamed for all of them, and I'm okay with that. But if you want to know the truth, at least half of them have been me doing something wrong on my end.

We're still figuring this out. We're only 68 shows in. Just figuring it out. Brian, when I get up to go pee, you get scared like oh shit who's gonna talk and fill the dead space or b are you like thank god that fucking guy is time to shine brian me me and carolyn can have a fucking conversation with that i'm interrupting which one is it a or b probably d all of the above so there's a little bit and the mysterious choice c that couldn't be picked up disclose um um who does who does your instagram who does who makes the videos for you who puts music to them who does like the the videos that have multiple cuts

who does oh that was um just the last couple that I posted. I don't know. I dug through your whole account last night. Normally it's just two and a half hours. Normally it's just me. Like I don't really have anyone that does like the Instagram, but there's like this lady at the gym, Carmen, and then her husband that does like all the like drone stuff. So they've gone to the park a little bit here and there on my train sessions and then put together a little video. Uh,

but other than that, it's just kind of like, yeah, it was the park. It was the park one. There's a park one with like, yeah. So they,

they did that one. Uh, but for the most part, it's just, that's just me. Nothing too special or fancy. What are your goals? What are your goals at the games this year?

What is the, what's the mission? So normally when I go to comps, I always have like a bronze, silver and gold goal. So it's like bronze is like, what are you, you know, you're satisfied with. So like leaving the weekend. So like for me, like I'd like to finish top 20 as like the bronze gold. Then my silver goal is like that's like you can say that you that was a good weekend which would be like top 15 and then the gold is like best case scenario like things are going well and i would be making it into the top 10

it's like i just kind of approach stuff like that like a bronze silver and gold i love it it's uh i was talking to seven I was talking to seven earlier and I, I, I said, you know, it's the women at the top of the sport are very well entrenched there. They've been there for a long time and they're continuing to perform well. And of course, slowly they'll have to fade, fade out, but they're still very good. But I do think there's a group of women and you're amongst them that are certainly capable on a given weekend of cracking in there. Yeah, I mean, it depends on, you know, certain programming. Like you look at the 40 women, like there's the women's field, in my opinion, is much deeper.

Maybe I'm biased than the men's field. But it's just it's so it's so good. There's so many good girls and it really depends on the programming. I can see different athletes being almost 30th. And then they can also be close to top 10. It's a lot more. There's a lot more girls kind of going between each other, I find. I think people.

Can you win an event? Can she win an event? I think so. I think definitely. But I think that you're exactly right about. Like if you won an event and took 20th, what sorry brian hold that thought for a second what if you win an event but you take 21st so you're kind of like out of the bronze but you fucked up all these other chicks are you like okay i mean i mean at the end of the day if i did if i said the other day if that was

like if i did good execution on my workouts and i performed well and, and I did what I could and I finished 35th, like 40th, like it is what it is. Like it just, those girls were better at me at those, you know, you had 15 events to prove yourself. Like if that's where I finished, that's where I finish and you work on what you need to work on for the next year. Um, you know, you want to have good execution and do well. Um, but like I said, if I, if things are like unfold well for me, I think I have a high potential at the games to do well and to mess up some parts of the leaderboard for some workouts. Cause I think there's, there's some holes in my games, but there's also workouts that

I can, I can do well in. Yeah. And we've seen it in the past. And I think we will see again this year that there's going to be athletes like you that will have several top finishes, maybe a couple not as good, but that ultimately is probably better than, um, you know, just having a bunch of middle of the road. Yeah. Yep. Just because of the way the scoring system is. And I do think you're also right on track with the women's field being very deep. I think sometimes people get confused or misled by that because T is such an outlier.

So there's just Tia, but behind her, you have to realize that there's like 15 to 18 girls that I think are all, you know, like I said, on any given weekend can really have an impressive performance. Yeah. You definitely don't want to take 40th

because that means you withdrew from the competition. Someone will withdraw, right, Brian? How many people? Let's say there's going to... How many people on average? Do you know that stat, Brian? How many people last year on average withdraw from the games?

Two to three every year. 2018 in the women's field, five. The year prior, three. the year before that only one three so that's going back a few years yeah two to three i'd say yeah so you definitely don't want to be i think this year i'm just going to go i'm going to say three women are going to drop out for a variety of reasons either they drink some of that pond water and madison things can happen i mean that water's gross they get it is a different for a variety of reasons. Either they drink some of that pond water in Madison and shit their pants. That water is gross.

That water is gross, right? No one ever swims there in that part of Madison. And you have to cross the game. I guess that's to test your immune system. No one really goes in that area of Madison. It's pretty dead. They turn that area into theison like it's pretty like dead air like they turn that area

into like the games but like where everything is is like camp randall like the football field like cole center which like the hockey field or the hockey stadium or basketball like downtown like where they do the games it's like oh i've never been to that part of the campus really and i and i went to school there pour in i heard they're gonna pour in like 15 000 gallons of liquid covid there and you guys are gonna swim through it to see uh to test like it's it's an event that you won't know it's the 16th event test your immune system brian is there anything else you want to bomb the wonderful Carolyn Prevo? God, I can't believe we did this.

This is so awesome getting to talk to you. I don't think so. I think we got a pretty well-rounded perspective of who she is and what she can do in this sport. think that makes me excited that this format's back and that we get to see these men and women for an entire competition on a stage that a lot of them have been prepared to or capable of showing out on and just the last two years haven't haven't provided that opportunity yeah i'm excited to do a full weekend um a competition versus like like you said like the five or six events that you often see at the regional or semifinal level. So it'll be fun. Thank you.

Thank you. Hour and 37 minutes. Damn good. Ryan, can you hang up so we can have a real conversation? We went by fast.