The Sevan Podcast - #723 - CrossFit Mayhem 2023 Tell All w/Facundo and Brian Friend

Episode Date: December 28, 2022

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Can you do me a favor? Yes. Can I say, bam, we are live myself?

It's done. We're live. Good. That's it. I can go now. That's it. You're the first person who's done that besides me in 700 shows. Thank you.

You see? I'm trying to ease your mind that besides me in 700 shows. Thank you. You see? I'm trying to ease your mind a little bit. Assimilate. Thank you. Yes. Is it really 700 shows? I think so. Caleb, are we at 700?

We're well over 700 now. Ah, yes. I'm very humble. I like to keep the numbers low. I like to keep the numbers low. Very humble like to keep the numbers low. Very humble. You know, it's about quality, not just quantity. True. So they say.

I was looking at your Instagram. Do you know who Justin Trudeau is, the Prime Minister of Canada? Of course I do know, yeah. You're like, if he was a man, he would look like you. I recognize you're the male version of Justin Trudeau, I realize. Okay. I mean, as you well know, I already retired from politics, so otherwise I could have been the new

Prime Minister. They need you. They need you bad. Yeah, well, that's me. Hey, Facundo, do you remember when you were on the show hi brian morning brian meet uh facundo facundo meet uh brian mr friend nice to meet you it's an honor i would say the same do you remember when you were on the show last time and we were talking about um i think i was talking about who you were married to and i just made the assumption you were married to a woman and then i realized you were married to a

man do you do you think i played that off well like i wasn't shocked like i was just casual or was i just like well i have to correct you that one knows the last show that was the before to last show okay two okay two two shows prior yes uh yeah i uh i don't think that i don't think that there are many things at this stage that surprise you seven okay good because i was thinking about that this morning i was i wonder if i played that off good like i was just like cool just like chill no but i mean it's a good note to start on you know very already yeah surprising to many many yeah i just wanted to i just wanted to see like how like am i able to because in my brain i was like oh you really fucked that up, Sevan.

But I have to hide it. I have to suppress that. Does it happen to you often that you think that you fucked things up? All the time. Already right now twice on this show, I think that. Do you think that people see that? No, I think I hide that shit good. Yeah, I think so too thank you thank you look

at this holy cow happy birthday to me 499 to my favorite charity podcast wow we never get money this early thank you facundo and tony are we sharing that or it's just for you no no okay just no i mean um facundo where are you? I'm in Germany. I'm in southern Germany, my mom's house in Grosse Nuremberg. We came to spend Christmas here, part of Christmas here, actually. And tomorrow we drive back to Brussels, Belgium, where I live. How long is that drive? Oh, six hours.

And raining, snow, mountains? No, it's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day. And I also want to say that one of the things that we have in Germany that is amazing, that the highways, you know, the freeways, I don't know, they are free speed. So if you drive well enough, you are free to go as fast as you want. So it makes it quite, you know, simple. Germany also happens to be the host of a semifinal this year.

I know. I know. And in the competition, as long as you move well enough, you can go as fast as you want. Very nice, Brian. Very nice. Look at you keeping the show together. You know, I admire you, Brian.

I really do. But, yeah. I really do. Some people call that autism. Some people call that autism, Facundo. Some people call that autism. No, look, before going to the dirt, I have to say that I'm very proud and very happy on how well our friend Brian is doing. I think that he established himself

as the main analyst of our sport. And I think he does that with a lot of elegance and a lot of loyalty. And I remember when I first met him, I was working for CrossFit back then at the Games 2018, I think. 18, right? And, you know, there was a boy who knew everything about everybody. And I thought that I was that person, but, you know, that's not the case. And the other day I was watching the dubai championship and i was very happy to to have him you know commentating on the on the broadcast i'm not

sure i would was going to be able to see it all without brian there hey i i agree facundo and i also think that brian um sort of transcends the sport in his this is probably making brian uncomfortable but transcends the sport in his um you know, presentation, meaning, you know, there's people like Howard Cosell, like they could do football or they could do boxing or they could, I feel like Brian could do anything. It's not, it's not just CrossFit. Yeah, well, I think he works very hard. I think that, you know, he's never unprepared when he has to do something.

He puts a lot of his time, a lot of his energy, you know, and he takes responsibility of ownership of whatever he's given to him. Are you OK, Brian? Are you still doing well? Did you open this by promising you're going to dump the dirt on me afterwards? No, I just said let's start nice and then go into the dirt. And Facundo, I will also say this. Brian really likes a lot of people in the space. And he is sort of the I seem as sort of the the united nations he likes to keep the peace with people and but that being said i do also think that he holds you to maybe a slightly higher tier than other people and he's

always been extremely fond of you and i would even say proud of his uh relationship uh with you so well i think it's a mutual feeling. I think we saw each other grow in whatever we decided to go through. Because I was working as a very low-rank media person at the Crafted Game. He was starting there and throughout the years we see each other

grow and it's great to see that when you have that kind of companionship and you see someone that you admire doing well and getting to whatever they want to go. But I think that he's getting blushed now. So maybe we'll change subjects and we'll talk about somebody else. Just so you guys know, also, that's not an understatement what Facundo is saying. what uh facundo is saying um these are two guys who started at the very very very um bottom you know holding people's bags taking out the garbage fitting in where they could can fit in and brian

brian was like that everywhere in his life but so he didn't have to humble up much but facundo was But Facundo had an alternate life where he was a very well-respected individual, and he bowed his head low and came in under the crack under the door and built himself up to probably one of the most prestigious and highest positions in our cult. So congratulations to both you actually thank you thank you um so what what do you have a title over there so you you are strictly a mayhem person um i i want to think i want to think so yeah yeah. The Mayhem Empire, that's your court. The Mayhem Empire is your castle. That's home for you. I'm not sure it's my castle, but it's the castle where I like to live. Okay. I think it's Rich's castle more than mine.

Right. Fair, fair. And then within that castle, what are your duties? What's your position, obligations? So my obligations, I take it differently, but what I do is I coach. So there's Jake Locker. Jake Locker is the director of online programming for Mayhem. And, you know, he's maybe the most underrated coach around because he's responsible for most of Mayhem Athlete success.

So me and Jake and me and Rich, of course, we create the program, in my case, mostly for elite athletes, for games athletes and individual programming. So that is what I've been doing for the last years, year, year, years. I'm trying to find Jake Lockhart's Instagram account. Is it? Jake is a very shy person. He's very low-key, you know, like good people should be kind of.

No. And you will find him. There he is. Oh, okay, okay. There he is. Let me see this guy. Oh, yeah, I don't even recognize him. Yeah.

So Jake is the director of online programming and for Mayhem Athlete. He's extraordinary as a coach. He's amazing to work with. He's amazing to work with. And, you know, it's a person who was there since the beginning of Mayhem online programming. And he's the guy there. So me and him, we work, me mostly on individual athletes, on elite athletes.

He does most of the Mayhem programming with Rich. And that is what I'm doing at the moment at Mayhem. Caleb, will you send me that? At some point, I'm going to invite him on the show. Let's get to the bottom of this. So your job, along with Rich and Jake, is in the biggest picture, is to give the athletes adequate preparation for their goals. That is correct.

And the goals of your athletes are? Well, some athletes will be very happy if they make it to regional this year. Some of my athletes, a couple of them will be very happy if they win the games. Okay. So anyone else, do you coach anyone else do you coach are there any like you know um do you ever coach any classes or anything like that yeah yeah there was a time that i was coaching like maybe 20-25 hours per week next to my work at the parliament i was the whole time of the box i loved it it. But I think that, and I say it really with a little bit of heavy heart,

you know, I've been working so much with a type of athlete that I think that I lost the capacity to coach a different kind of athlete. You know, every coach has a capacity. They explore that. They have more tricks and more, you know, more elements underneath their, you know,

as their capacities capacities and I lost I would love to coach a class but it's not something that I do very much at the moment and mostly that's just time constraint issue right? well nobody hired me to nobody invited me to coach a class

maybe I gladly go people seem to be scared of me somehow i really don't know why are there athletes that water fair fair um are there athletes if you were russian i wouldn't believe you are there athletes who um specifically fall under your umbrella so like if they want to call someone, they would call you first and not Jake or not Rich? Yes, they are. And can I start guessing some of them who they are? You may want to try.

Okay. Is Roman one of your athletes? So there's not much guessing, right? It's just a go for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just go for it. Yes. Roman is at Mayhemhem at the moment he's been there for a month uh yeah so out of the blue out of the blue uh this workout is this workout is insane by the way he's been at mayhem for um for a month now kind of a little bit yeah for a month and i kind of, a little bit. Yeah, for a month.

And I think that, so I did work with Roman in 2018 when I was working with Chris Hinshaw. Hinshaw was doing his aerobic capacity and I was somehow involved there. Chris was always very generous and, you know, let me work with some of his athletes. And then, well, back then Roman had a different coach and I was starting to change into just overall CrossFit coaching not just aerobic capacity and we stopped working together but we always stay in touch and you know um so for this last month he's been in May at

Mayhem he's been training there we've been working together. And I think that we are seeing if we are a good match to each other. So there's a courtship going on, whether it's unofficial or official. You're in proximity with him. You interact with him regularly. Yes. with him regularly and um okay and and it may would it be fair to say that you also don't want to step on anyone's toes you're you're cognizant of his the other people around him who participate in his training and you're there as a tool if he wants to use you and if not you're you're fine with it um well you know i mean i i i if an actor comes to me, I never ask, why do you leave your former coach? That's not my topic. I respect enormously my colleagues.

So I respect enormously, in that case, whoever worked with him before, which we already know who that person is. And of course, that person did a great, great, great job. Otherwise, Roman wouldn't be where he is now. great, great job. Otherwise, Roman wouldn't be where he is now. And I'm very respectful about Roman's past and whatever he was able to build with another coach.

And, you know, everything has a time. Maybe tomorrow I find myself in the same role which I found myself in the past. So I think that we all... You mean maybe like Proven would start courting you and we would start seeing you over at Proven and you would be torn between...

I don't think that me leaving Mayhem is an option at the moment. No, okay, okay, okay. I'm very happy there. And for me, it's a dream place to work at. And, you know, it's really... I don't think that I could ask for more. The environment there is extraordinary.

We have as a leader, well, Rich Froning, who is an extraordinary person, an extraordinary leader for all of us. And there are many, you didn't ask me, but I'll tell you anyways. There are many things that are, for me, unrivaled at Mayhem. We, you know, we're very proud of each other.

We're very appreciative of each other's work. Every time that I'm there, you know, we have an extraordinary media department with Scott and Bennett and Benjamin. And I'm really, you know, surprised on how good they are. And if I move somewhere else at Mayhem, that level of excellence is everywhere there. And I'm very, you know, very humbled to be part of it somehow. So I think, hope that it's a lot of mayhem for me in the upcoming years. There's a healthy peer pressure there

because of the standard everyone holds themselves and others too. You know, that is in the country. I think there's a lot of humbleness. Humbleness. If you're an athlete, right? And you know, you go for the workout of the day as a whole group

and the workout includes a very heavy barbell. Well, you do know that there's a big chance that Guy is going to take that workout. If you do a workout that lasts more than 15 minutes, you do know that Hale is going to take five minutes of you. If you put a machine or whatever, Roman is there. So there's no day that you can go there and say, I'm the best. I'm here, and I'm here to show that I'm going to win the CrossFit Games or whatever. Everybody is really good.

And on the other hand, whatever you're doing, training-wise, you have Rich Froning breathing behind your neck. And he's waiting for you to make a mistake. Boy, that was the lecture you need to learn today. So I think that nobody there is very egocentric or hold himself very high in the standard. I think we're all quite humble. Isn't it interesting to paint that picture versus how someone like Colton

Merton trains? I do not know how Colton trains. On a pig farm in a shack with an uneven floor with no other athletes and five of those little wiener dogs that he's trying to start a dog breeding farm. What a contrast to running at night. Negative 32 wind chill.

I wouldn't do that. Yeah, for sure. I mean, but you remember uh seven you are as old as me almost uh the miko salo times where he used to train in his garage with looking at his fridge without music and just worse in the closet i i saw a closet where he he stored all his old furniture that he was supposed to repair and the rower barely fit in there and it was a six by six room and he would say i would be in there for an hour rowing yeah crazy cold finland yeah for sure so yeah and he rode his bike to the gym in the snow and yeah yeah and and it's and it's not to say

that rich hasn't been there either by the way i mean he had some you know he used to train just in that one barn outside his dad's house yeah well. Well, I don't know if you've been there, but yeah, Rich did, Rich did whatever he needed to do to, to go to wherever he wanted to go. And I think he did it quite well. Facundo, will Roman win the games? If they pay money, I'll have to ask the question. If they pay money, I have to ask the question. Okay. And if they pay money, I will answer whatever they ask. Thank you. Thank you.

Teamwork. Well, certainly Roman has the potential, you know, that's clear to everybody. He has the potential and he, you know, it's,

I, you need to be at the games to understand the amount of pressure you are when you are there and especially the first time, especially when you wanted to be there for five years in a row, and that chance has not been given to you. When the language that is spoken there is not your main language, so you need, for whatever you do, your translator, in order to tell you whatever you need to communicate. I think that

Roman has proven that he has the capacity, and I think that I can tell you that he has also the work ethics to go further in whatever his goal is. What happens, like you said, obviously he's got the capacity to do it. So he goes to the games this year. I think he has an incredibly successful games run. People were loving him. He was embracing the moments. And he obviously did very well and came close to winning.

Then he goes to Rogue, another big off-season competition, and doesn't necessarily go as well. Where do you think mentally athletes of that level, does that result that Rogue affect him at all going into the next year? No, I don't think so. I think that for these athletes, of course, Rogue is an amazing competition. Of course, they always want to win. I think that for these athletes, of course, rugby is an amazing competition. Of course, they always want to win. I think that there are athletes that,

not the only thing, but the main goal is the CrossFit Games. And everything around it is, okay, I can make some money. I can confirm to myself how good or where are the points that I need to work on. But I think that in Roman's case, most of his attention is at the crossfit games yeah i guess i was just thinking like you know maybe you put it in a in a comparison to someone like chandler smith like chandler obviously didn't have the crossfit game season go very well for him this year but he shows up at rogue ends up taking second i have to imagine that from a mental

perspective that's a huge positive boost for him. So I was just wondering if maybe the opposite was true for Roman, where he's like, man, I went from second at the games to fifth at Rogue. Well, you know, Lazar had a great games, a great games. And then he started Rogue 500 meters into the run. He, you know, hurt himself, goes to Dubai. He was very unhealthy, very, very more than what people think that he was. And, yeah, there's a point in which you said, oh, man, I mean, I wish the things would have gone better. I don't think that that defines his fitness.

I don't think that now he's lost facing the new season. You know, he's an extraordinary athlete, had a couple of bad events. And, you know, as I said before, I understand that he will not believe that the outcome of these competitions make him believe, oh, I'm at this stage of my career. I changed. I finished eight of the games,

and now I finish whatever at Rogue or at Dubai, right? Yeah, I mean, and Lazaro said, you know, it's an extremely amazing circumstances that have affected his competition results in the offseason. But the opposite could be true for Roman too, is that he could look at, come off the games and feel pretty good. And he might go to Rogue and say, you know what? Maybe I'm not as good as I thought,

and it might motivate him to close up some of those holes even more. I think that clearly we work, we see those results, we see those performances, and we take notes on things that we believe need to be improved, whether they're for the games, whether they're for Rogue, right? There's no doubt about that. But, you know, I say it again, I think that both, in this case,

Roman and Lazar's main goal is at the CrossFit Games. Whatever happens around it, you know, could be great, could be less great. But there are also two athletes that do better at the Games than a two-day competition with six workouts divided into two days. Well, Lazar did win the semifinal. In fact, sort of Roman.

Because Lazar, when he's fit, when he's feeling well, he's an extraordinary athlete. And me as a coach, look, I will be honest, hopefully somebody pays more money because I'm going to say something very honest. Me as a coach, I tell Lazar, when I see the money thing, I will say what I told Lazar. No, I told Lazar, you know, you don't have to finish

because I know that he was not at his best. At which event did you tell him that? Both. Oh. Both. You know, I was there at Rogue and his ankle was all swollen. I said, how can this guy keep, it was the first event, keep moving at this competition how he was?

And his mindset and his conviction of whatever he wants to achieve was stronger than him to say, no, okay. I think that is very remarkable that he managed to do whatever he did, the way he did things. So, but yet again, I think that these two artists that you mentioned, they are more focused on the CrossFit Games than anywhere else. Is, is, is, is this a harsh question, but is, is Lazar maybe cursed? We have, we have the bike incident at the Games, then we have the ankle incident at Rogue,

and then we have the stairs mishap at Dubai. I'm starting to think like he's sort of picked up some sort of evil spirit. No, no. First of all, you like Lazar a lot. I love Lazar. I love Lazar. I'll send a Catholic priest to his house and get that shit exercised. Second, you know, it's funny.

Catholic priest to his house and get that shit exercised. Yeah. Second, you know, it's funny. Lazar splits during that bike would have actually given a better result if he were to continue one more lap. He would have finished two, three, fourth, right? And if you see the kind of athlete he is, you know, push himself to compete even where he's not at his best, believe me, one round of biking would have not uh give him you know

much travel and therefore he you know that was a a very um unfortunate thing but uh those were i mean those are some of the three biggest injuries from the biggest athlete in the history of the sport i mean it is it is uncanny that he's had three incidents like that. Well, I mean, the bike was not a health incident, right? Right. But I remember Annie having a heat stroke at the Games. Right. She finished 17, coming back next year and finished third or second that year, right?

After eight or nine years competing. Maybe Brian knows by heart which year those were. But there was a year that I remember Annie at Murph had a heat stroke. Right. Had to, you know, continue a little bit more, then had to, I don't remember if she finished the competition, but no, went back the following year

and she finished at the podium. Kara Saunders too. Yeah. A year in which, you know, remember, you remember how she fainted. She fainted across the finish line. Yeah, she fainted. She doesn't even remember finishing. So, you know, remember, you remember how she fainted across the finish line. Yeah, she fainted. She doesn't even remember finishing.

So, you know, there are moments where the health doesn't go with you. And the things are, you know, difficult to foreseen, to predict. But yet again, I mean, even with the fight. What about Lazar's ankle at Dubai? Was it, you know, we were struggling to believe that it was 100%, but he swore that he'd gotten back to training after Rogue and that he competed. Was he 100%?

He took a little bit of time off after Rogue, as he would have taken despite the ankle after whichever major competition. But then he started working very, very hard again for Dubai. I want to tell you something. At the end of the day, it's remarkable because

yes, there were these two competitions and I think that that, knowing Lazar, is going to give him much more element for himself to work even harder to show next year, you know, or actually to keep showing to the rest of the community what kind of athlete he is.

He's the first person who actually finished that high up at the European level after that few years competing. Björkvin has been the king in Europe over and over in semifinals, in regionals,

at the games, and comes a guy that, you know, once when he didn't feel that he was fit enough, said no to the CrossFit Games. He got an invite and said, no, I'm not ready for this. I will know when I'm ready and I will be, you know, doing my best when I'm

ready. Yeah, I actually wrote an article about Lazar and Jeff Adler, who both of them have made this ascendancy within their own continent, in Lazar's case, and country. In Jeff's case, it's BK and Jona. They've been the only two guys from Europe that can crack the top 10 since

2015. And Lucas Hogbert, no? Yeah, consistently. There's been some guys that come up once. Adrian Muenweiler was in the top 10 once, dropped out. Hoogberg once, dropped out. And now Lazard's done it twice in a row. And in Canada, it was the same.

Where, you know, Pat and Brent come to the top. And then these guys come and go. Vigneault's been close. You know, the Calderon. But Adler's now done it twice. Lazard's now done it twice. What I wanted to ask was... Sorry, and some Cornwalle is coming, huh?

Well, Cornoye had, you know, two years ago was somewhat unfortunate. He wasn't able to necessarily compete at his best, it seems like. And then last year, obviously, went team. But, of course, I have my eye on Sam this year, yes. I think Sam can win the games. I believe in him. He's an extraordinary athlete. He's working very hard yeah i thought i was i'm sorry i think that the best thing that he could have done last year is to go uh and be with

rich for one full year training because the the his learning curve as an athlete you know improve exponentially when you are training every day with Rich Fron. So he's a very mature athlete. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see him do an individual event this offseason. I know things didn't work out for him with Rogan and Dubai. And he's doing team at Guadalupe and not individual. So I would have liked personally from an analytical perspective to have a data point, see him in one of those competitions. So I have a better idea of if he's a podium, a top 10, a top 20,

like what's realistic for him this year. But it is also kind of fun to have someone that's that good with potentially that much, you know, expectation that we don't actually know too much about. I mean, that's basically what we got with Ricky and Roman last year. We just weren't sure where they'd end up falling. And Sam might be in that category this year. But after next year, for sure, everybody

is going to pay much more attention to him. I mean, look, before we move on, he's going to go to a semifinal in North America, and if he wins it, people will be paying attention to him. How does that work, Brian? How does he go to the semifinal in North America? He lives in montreal area so he'll be in the i think north america east down in florida competing and you know he won't get to go in that semi-final against maderos velner quant

uh fukowski but there will be you know jeff adler jason hopper some other guys from the top 10 in that semi-final so we'll get a good opportunity to see, you know, where his level of fitness is a couple of months prior to the games. Facundo, is he getting when you when he does that, when he does teams with Rich, does he get a ton? Like, does he I don't know what to call it, but does he learn the nuances and the swagger and, you know, details that maybe no other person could get unless they actually like you couldn't even get from a coach that you would actually have to be on the floor with Rich Froni? Yeah, in some case, without any doubt, because he's a clever guy and he knew the opportunity he had in front of him and he used it 100 percent. And also Rich is a very generous person in the way he trains. He shares all his knowledge, and especially to a team partner, right? It would be silly not to.

But yeah, I also work with Sam, and I can tell you that I'm looking forward to seeing him competing this year do you get that feeling like you help build this car and now you're it gets to go out on the racetrack is what's it like for you to to put these guys out there um you know i i know you're more humble than this but it is sort of like you're bringing your toys to the games and racing them against other people's toys yeah um it's uh it's it's not easy for me it's not easy i'm a kind of person who who somehow builds uh an emotional link with my athletes it's not just you do that that or no uh i'm not that kind of coach and i'm not the kind of coach who says, I'm the beholder of the truth. You do whatever you need.

You know, there's a lot of communication. There's a lot of listening from both sides and a lot of compromise. It is very hard. It is very hard. I mean, after the games, this year, I think that I slept for three days in a row. I was typing, and I was falling asleep. And emotionally, I was very, very drained.

We had like 50 athletes competing this year at the Games. How many? More than 50. 63, I think. 65 with Mayhem. Crazy. Crazy. Yeah.

From teenagers to masters teams, individuals. And, you know, Jake and myself, we do whatever we can to be with everybody. We knew there was also going to be reaches last year. So for me, it was very, very complicated. It was very

heartbreaking because he's going to be my brother. And I knew that... Did you cry at the games? Did you cry at the games? Did you cry at the games? I want to see the money showing on the picture. Yeah, I'm going to have you on more often. I like this.

I tell you something. I did shed a tear when I saw Rich winning for the last time. Not because he won. It's just because, you know, it's been an incredible journey with him for everything he did for me and the opportunities he gave to me. And it felt like, oh man, this is the last time that I'm going to see him at the top of the podium at the Coliseum. And it was like, yeah, you know, it was very beautiful. It was very moving. But I was, to my defense, not that I needed, there were many people at Mayhem that were crying on that moment.

It was not just me. Because he's a great person and we all admire him and love him very much. And of course, some of us had it hard to accept that he was retiring. But yeah, it was a hard moment for me. But, yeah, it was a hard moment for me. Do you remember that feeling when you were a child and you would get giddy, like if you went to Disneyland or something, and you were pulling the car in the parking lot, and you would start to get giddy? Or you show up to class, and the teacher does a new seating chart, and your best friend sits next to you,

and you just think you won the lotto. Do you remember? Is it like that going to Mayhem also? I get that feeling from looking at your Instagram that you were just beside yourself. You're giddy and humbled by the fact you get to go there. For sure. I mean, I think that anybody who wants to work as a coach in the CrossFit environment will be very humbled by Mayhem.

It's a great opportunity. And it's also not just the opportunities, the chances that we are given. You know, if you come to Jake or to Rich with a proposal that is interesting, say, okay, we trust you. Let's go for it. You know, my heart, we talked about it last time

that I was at the show. I'm from South America. I'm originally from Argentina. And one of the things that I- Congratulations, by the way. Oh, thank you. That's a massive achievement for the country. Thank you for...

Saban was one of the biggest supporters of the World Cup in Argentina. It's true. I'm not sure about that. I don't follow soccer at all. He had a show during the final. Yes. I missed that one then. No. So I'm from Latin America. Yes, come on. I missed that one then. No.

I'm from Latin America. I'm from Argentina. One of my dreams is to see people from South America be given the chances that people from North America or Europe have. When I went to reach into JECA, I said, I want to build this in

Spanish. I want to start taking more and paying attention on South American athletes. Can we do that? Oh, brother, if you think that is good and you are going to be happy with it and the people that you want to involve are going to be satisfied, go for it. And I went to Argentina. Guy now from Brazil moved to the States. There's a contingency of South American athletes that are going to come to Cookville now in January, preparing for the Open. So this bridge into the rest of the world

and being able to train at Mayhem, I hope that it's been broadened by what we are working on. How many years have you been with Mayhem? So I work with Rich maybe since 2017. And what I'm doing now is maybe for one, two years, maybe. So you're crazy invigorated. By the way, there's a great leadership lesson there, by the way. If someone who works for you wants to do something, this is the way it works with raising kids too.

If they're into something, let them do it. Don't start bombarding them with too many questions. Don't get in their way. If you sense someone like Facundo is like, hey, I'm going to bridge this gap between this country and this country, get out of their way. Give them the resources they need and they'll do it, right? Well, I think so. I think so. And I think that, you know, this encouragement and this sense of support when you want to create a project, it's also very important.

That's what I feel. I feel that every time that I want to do something, they are very supportive and very understanding and very like, you know, yeah, yeah, go do that. We are here for you. We got you in case, you know, things don't go as expected so far going very well, but you know, I, I feel, I feel very happy doing that. And, you know, so I got lost on whatever I was going to answer, but that's what I'm doing now. You answered it. You answered it. Perfect.

What happened last year with South America? There were five, like five, I'm making this up, but there were like five South American teams. They were all attributed to one gym. Then there was the rumors that I heard is that that gym didn't really exist, or it was really just a shell of a place. And then, and then somehow CrossFit found out. And is that what happened over there? No, um, that's certainly not what happened. What happened is that, um, we have a team of three or team of four people who actually moved to Buenos Aires before the date.

And they all register to a box that is even today the affiliate map. If you go to affiliate maps, you know, but you know it very well. That's the way you look for an affiliate box, right? Yes. It's a very, very small box, very, very small box with very limited material. However, you know, the truth is that in Argentina, there are only now in the whole country, four boxes in the whole country, affiliate boxes.

Because, you know, the annual fees is impossible. It means like maybe 15 to 20 salaries to pay for one year of membership, right? And I don't know any box in Argentina that has four rowers, four bikers, four assault bikes, four skiers, and one warm, not three warms or two, one warm. There's no...

So you need to, if you have a worker where you need to work with a bike, you need to go somewhere else. If you need to work with, you know, with four sets of rings, you go somewhere else. The reality of that country is that people are doing the best they can to provide material to their members and, you know, hold classes the best they can. But it's very complicated

financially impossible to have a full equipped box so so there were what's the term uh maybe caleb knows excruciating circumstances extenuating extenuating what was the word i used excruciating extenuating extenuating extenuating what's excruciating what's excruciating that's like it like if it hurts a lot like it's painful excruciating i think it's more related to pain excuse me english is your second language please don't correct me it was excruciating and extenuating thank you oh okay fine it's one of those big words uh excruciating uh oh painful like it'd be excruciating too i i wonder why crossfit didn't um you know there's these there's these there's these situations especially when the sport is

going through uh growing pains and there's this interest to have it grow i wonder why they didn't look at that and give this a pass just like they would maybe give uh roman a pass for like not having to go back and forth in and out of a war a country that's at war exactly and i think that is correct i mean many athletes during coffee didn't trap tia didn't travel to australia to go to compete fair yeah that's fair i i embrace that crafty the decision the champion and you know it's not a lack of willingness that she said okay i don't want to travel 20 46 hours to get to australia i prefer to do it at home and then quarantine for a month on both ends yeah exactly of willingness that she said, okay, I don't want to travel 46 hours to get to Australia. I prefer to do it at home. And then quarantine for a month on both ends.

Exactly. Yeah, we had a lot of discussions with CrossFit. And yes, but you are not training most of the time in that gym. You should be training most of the time in the gym where you have paid your affiliate fee. As soon as you say there's four boxes, Facundo, I don't really need to hear too much more. Your producer there can put the affiliate maps.

As soon as I hear there's four boxes, I got to give that country some... Okay, so seven there, but if you go in, I think there's some of them in Uruguay. If you start to close, now it's five. And if you go to close, that's five. It's five boxes.

No, three. Zoom in, make it dead, take it down to one. No. They might be five. Two of them belongs to a seminar staff. So they are not paying boxes. Like I said, they have the right to right right they get their yearly fee waived exactly um so uh three sorry five boxes in total yeah and they're all there let me see this country argentina this is a big country right seventh biggest country in

the world and there's only there's only a handful of boxes there if you if you uh zoom out yeah i think that's it you see see? There's nothing else. Wow. Go down to the bottom to where it gets cold? Even less. That's the goal for CrossFit. How is there no CrossFit down there? Yeah.

Yeah. Wow. You know, these are, as you would say, excruciating circumstances. Yeah. are, as you would say, excruciating circumstances. Yeah. You know,

I hope that CrossFit reviews that. We did have a lot of communication with CrossFit on that topic. I thought, I really thought back in the day that they would say, okay, we understand the financial reality of Argentina nowadays with us having passed from how many boxes they have had five years ago to whatever we have now, certainly, you know, it's not a lack of will, which is something that identifies very much the efforts of the American continent.

It's just the lack of financial means. How are other athletes about that? How are other teams about that how are other teams about that are the other teams is it like is everyone looking for reasons to kick out other teams or is it are the athletes more you have any information that i don't have simon and no i don't i don't but i'm just thinking like if you're a team let's say out of miami i just make that up yeah and and you find out about this situation. Are you supportive of these guys getting in? Or are you like, you're just looking for everyone to get booted who can get booted?

Look, I've heard a lot of things about whatever happened, who came to CrossFit with the news that the team was training in different boxes. I don't have anything confirmed. And on the other hand. But there are, so you're saying there's tattletales out there? Yeah, there is for sure. I just also don't want to be the person that identifies a continent by saying, yeah, they sneak into each other in order for them not to have a rival. This happened all over the world last year.

There are teams saying this about other teams in their regions, whatever. And you can't... I mean, CrossFit's it's a tough position for cross like they're going to send a representative to investigate in all of these situation where someone comes up how do you handle that but if it's starting to happen then they like that's something that crossfit should be talking about i think that the fallout of what happened last season is the reason for some of the changes that we see with the team structure this year which is a lot less barriers to entry a lot less regulations and rules and makes it a lot easier for whatever group of people to come together and and do a team without putting that stress on crossfit i agree with you but now that person who is responsible to relate to that you

know situation should not be the owner of a box because that puts him, that person, in a position of advantage. Right, right. I hear you. I hear you. You get to do some home cooking. You have a biased opinion if you have a team competing. That's what happens there as far as I understand.

But anyways, you know, we turn the page. They are preparing themselves this year the you know, the best they can. We do have extraordinary athletes besides Guy. We have Agustin Richelme, who is an amazing Argentinian athlete, who was very unlikely this year because he got the invite to go to the games Thursday before the games would start. So the guy went without any preparation whatsoever because he didn't think he was going

to go. So he finished third in Copa Sur. The second person in the podium got tested positive and he was backfield in English? Backfield, right? He received the backfield invite very late on and I think that

again, CrossFit has learned from, it seems to me that they've learned from last year that the timing of when they're doing certain things throughout the season was not really good enough, you know, taking over a month between quarterfinals and semifinals. So they've adjusted things. And I think that the rosters were semifinals, we know much earlier this year. And I hope that they have a similar plan for something like that because it isn't right for people to be getting, you know, invited to something, you know,

60 days after someone else. You're telling me that Augustine Raquelme was invited the Thursday before the CrossFit Games to come to the CrossFit Games? That is correct. And of course, I'm his coach and I'm his friend.

And when he didn't qualify via Copa Azul, of course, he took some rest, which is what he needed to do because he opened quarterfinal, semifinal. Then there was a chance of the lessons qualifier. He left that on the side. So he was like, OK, I'm off season now. I'm going to take some very well-deserved rest, going to eat a lot, a lot of ice cream and dulce de leche. And in the middle of his holidays, it's like, hey, bro, buy your ticket. You come to the games, you start on Sunday. Wow. Wow, that's crazy. And keep in mind that we still don't know what the ranking process will be for the worldwide rankings next year. But there are circumstances like that. If they weight the games highly,

and you have athletes like Augustine, who's getting an unfair advantage in terms of preparation for the games, and he's only one of two athletes that get to represent men in South America at the highest level, which might get the highest weighting, that's just another reason why I believe that the worldwide ranking system should not be retroactive. There's too many circumstances like this that could have too high of a weight that we're not an even playing field.

Anyway, you know how I feel about that. Well, Brian, what do you mean he had an unfair advantage? You mean disadvantage? Yeah. I'm just saying if you're going to, if weighting system is going to factor the games significantly, in the case of South American men, there are two from last year, Guy and Augustine. Augustine had four days, five days to prepare for the games, whereas other athletes that he's competing against had up to 60 days to prepare for the games.

Right. Okay. And that performance is not just a negative performance on his resume at the games finishing almost last. It follows him. In the new system, it doesn't just follow him. It could potentially affect the number of qualifying spots for his entire continent next year. You're so clever, Brian. That's why we like you so much. Are you Haley Adams' coach?

No, I'm not. Can you tell us how Haley Adams is doing with her strength games? Yes, I can, Julian, because you made a very generous donation to Seban's Children's University Fund. Thank you. She is working really hard. I mean, Hayley is a person that always works really hard. Maybe of all the artists that I've ever seen, the hardest working of them all. Oh, okay.

Thank you. Boy. Your heart just flutter a little bit seeing how handsome you look there? No, I mean, I just enjoy spending time with her. She's a very, very, very good friend of mine. By the way, that's the nicest restaurant in Cookville they're in right there. Notice the lighting and the roof. Well, that is not a restaurant.

That is a wedding venue it's very yeah maybe the picture doesn't make justice to it but it's a very cute it's a very beautiful place all right we'll take care of it look at her look at what she what happened to her she bit some bad food there were feathers on the pheasant she just ate she's spitting out a feather so it was a beautiful wedding for my friend scott's andheasant she just ate she's spitting out a feather so it was a beautiful wedding for my friend scott's and uh what she's doing she's working very very very very hard and um you know somebody asked me the other day how i see athletes i went to i went to to to rogue i i saw dubai um doing television and i i'm not, Sevan, you might remember those years, 10, 12, 11, you were too young, Brian, you were still in high school, in which an athlete showed a very, very clear weakness. And it made it to the following year.

So here I am back. So Rich with a legless, of course. I don't know, George with a deadlift, whatever that was, right? I don't see at the moment that many athletes are coming back to the games year after year and have solved many of the very, very fundamental problems that very often refrain them to be on the podium. You know, these elements, these weaknesses are constant

and are there the whole time. And I'm not sure whether it's the relationship of the athlete and his slash her coach or you know a lack of interest of the athlete in in uh there's a big there's a there's another major difference in the current competitive landscape compared to back then which is there's a lot more opportunity and temptation to compete in the off season if you're good enough back then, which is there's a lot more opportunity and temptation to compete in the off season. If you're good enough back then, 2010 through 15, you're suggesting that there wasn't as much opportunity.

There weren't two. You're suggesting that interrupts training. It could interrupt training. I think that in many cases, and I think there are very few athletes currently that have the discipline to do this, that if, you know,

if you're, if you're finishing somewhere between sixth and 20th at the CrossFit games, there's likely a reason and to solve the problem. I don't think it can take a year in some cases. I think it might be a two, three year process for some of these athletes, if they really want to make the jump, because it's hard to move up the leaderboard, the higher and higher you get. But if you choose to do that, you're giving up a lot of other opportunities in terms of competition, which could mean sponsorship opportunities, opportunities to travel the world while you're at an age that you could still do it and compete. So I think the decision is not necessarily always that easy. Whereas back 2012, 13, 14, there weren't as many temptations and opportunities like that.

My dear Brian, I'm not saying that it's an easy decision. Yet again, 2010, 11, 12, those athletes had a job which many of the athletes that are at the CrossFit Games don't have now. I mean, they finish training and they go back to the office,

to their whatever. So there was still an investment of time somewhere else than CrossFit. But the problem is what do you want to do? Do you really want to CrossFit Games or do you want to be a good games athlete but never win and still do competitions? I think in Hayley's case, she's like, no. My goal is to be at my very best at the CrossFit Games.

I'm going to stop having, as you call, distractions defined by off-season competitions. And I'm going to, you know, redial on my nutrition and I'm going to redial on my programming and my training. So next year at the games, I will show, I will be able to show an amount of improvement on that area. And that's, you know. And even if she does that this year,

it might not be enough to completely close the gap. She may improve a little bit. She may improve a little bit more the year after that. And even if she does that this year, it might not be enough to completely close the gap. She may improve a little bit. She may improve a little bit more the year after that. And it may be a three-year project to get the prerequisite strength that she needs to contend for the title of the CrossFit Games. We don't know. That is correct. But I think that still, I mean, I'm very biased here because I love that little girl. But still, Hayley has something that very few athletes,

still those who were placed above her, don't have. And she's a very clever athlete. And she's been clever since she was 15. The reason why Hayley has been always hailed as that extraordinary athlete is not mostly because of her physical condition, but with the type of athlete she is. She's a girl that understood the sport very, very well from a very early age. And, you know, when she competed here last year as a teenager,

there were 11 events. She won nine events, and she finished second on the other two events. You know... Crazy. We are talking about a girl who has an understanding of a sport, on the other two events, you know, crazy. It's, it's, we are talking about a girl who has an understanding of a sport, but not many other people have. And the fact that, you know, she, she's been now trying to find out what's best for her.

And I think she did. And she's back at mayhem, you know, says a lot on, on how consistent she is in her decisions. So I think that, yes, it might take her maybe more than one year to get her strength where she might need to take it. But I also say that there are moments where her intelligence is going to be, you know, the turning point into her performance. When you say she's back at Mayhem, it opens up the door that maybe she was very close to leaving or she left. Do you know how close she was to leaving?

There were obviously so many rumors. There were all the Instagram stories and pictures of her with Mal O'Brien. They're very, very very very good friends that's nothing to do with me they were they haven't been very good friends for for a for a while now they you know they speak like i don't know 17 times a day it's really really good friends and they admire each other very much no i think that you know when you finish a CrossFit Games every year it is very important that you take a step back and reflect and see what have you done where did things go as you expected them

and what are you know the the path you need to take in order to improve those and it is very clever to step to not just just take a step back and said okay well I don't want to be to not just, just take a step back and said, okay, well, I don't want to be influenced by anybody.

I just want to take the decision for myself and what's best for me. And that's what she did. But I think she, she actually, Hayley, when went back home, she took some time off some long time off and see, well,

I need to reevaluate this, this, this, and that. And that's what you did. I know you're on here and we're asking you questions about so many people and you're fielding them so well. And I know it's a difficult landscape to navigate because, you know, you're speaking for other people. And so I appreciate that. That being said, let me dig in even deeper and ask you a harder question. When I got this sense that Rich Froning was – I feel like I saw something in one of his talks about Haley that maybe – not that he takes his athletes for granted, but the thought of her leaving would have really bothered Rich. That he sees – he's very close to her in his mind, closer than maybe most. And he seemed like invested, almost like he's her dad. Like it would have gutted him.

I just saw some sort of chink in his armor that would have gutted him. I just saw some sort of chink in his armor that would have gutted him. Like, oh, this man who's so used to just focusing, you know, on winning. It seemed like there was some sort of like, holy shit, this would, I would not like this. Not for any other reason, but like he let his daughter down. Look, as I said before, when we talk about Sam,

Rich is a very generous person. Now, you, everybody who trains at the barn, the barn of Rich is at his house, so you need to be at his place in order to train there. And you build after how many hundreds of hours a friendship with

people that are training with you, whether you are the coach or the mentor or whatever that is. And of course, if things don't go as expected and you lose that friendship, I think that nobody wants to have that feeling. You know, I've been trying myself to find out,

you know, ups and downs of this 2022. And it's been an amazing year for me. I have nothing but great things to be thankful for. Still, I do have an amount of, a very little amount of disappointments with some people here and there. And I think it's part of our job. It's part of our, you know, our environment.

And I think that, yeah, if Hayley would, whoever, Guy Hayley, whoever that is, one day decides to leave Mayhem, everybody's going to be very sad that that person is leaving because we appreciate each other's company very much. Maybe, Seban or Brian, you need to come to Mayhem soon and see it for yourself. I would love to do that. love to do that you know there's a very beautiful moment i remember at the capital uh when i think was a page that uh crossed the you know the line and both bailey and angie were waiting for her and escorted her because she was feeling bad and you know you know very well there are many athletes that you finish a workout.

Oh, no, no. I need my rest, give my water, my shake, whatever. Not many of them will wait 10 more minutes after the workout waiting for your training partner to be over to help that person. You know, I have very funny memories of, you know, the fridges that you have at the very end of the of the line. Athletes put their hands on the ice pack and say, said don't it's my eyes get out of here you know uh and uh no no no it's it's a very there are very deep friendships there and i think that if one day we will lose one of them it's going to be very sad for for all of us uh nick uh at gilbert's I heard Rich is doing CompTrain. Now, this question here, I will not ask you because

they did not pay money. So I will not ask you this question. Javier Banda, who is Haley Daly? That question definitely needs at least 99. That costs three digits. And you need to spell her name correctly. Yeah. I've been to tennessee i've been out there a handful of times i like it there yeah but you used to be a little tougher than you

are now i definitely um when an athlete's making that decision to leave i'm guessing that it's difficult because you have you there's two competing thoughts and correct me if I'm wrong. One is, do you stay with your friends or do you do what's best for your games career? Yeah. And I'm guessing that that's sort of, that was also like a tough position. That's part of the reflection process, right? I don't know whether Haley thought I'm leaving and then came back. right i don't i don't know whether hayley thought i'm leaving and then came back you know i thought that she took a step back and saw the whole picture again and needed to see whether her

decisions were um you know hand in hand to her goal and uh as i said before she's a very clever girl and you know she she of course changed some stuff stuff. She changed all her programming and however that was given to her and a lot of elements. And she's doing great. I was in Cookville, I don't know, maybe last month. Yeah, last month. Yeah, last month. And she was doing great.

I've never – I think that I've never seen Hayley so happy and so focused on her job as I saw her in November. Does Roman speak English? A little bit. Could he come on the podcast? Could he have a conversation? You can try. You can try. I really want to have him on. I'm up for trying. I want to try.

There is this friend of ours. Her name is Rosa. Rosa is a person that she speaks Russian. She's not Russian, right? Rosa speaks Russian? Rosa, Rosa, Rosa, yeah. And she's been actually helping Roman a lot in order for him to find a way to come to the States. So she's kind of a family member for Roman.

And she is Roman's official translator. So if you convince Rosa, you have a chance to help Roman. He responded to me in English on Instagram. Yeah, I think he writes well he he takes his time and you know but he he well he could put it into a translator you know yeah and then i asked for his phone number and he stopped answering me oh okay um when the athletes when the when the female individual athletes hear that tia is um taking the season off um to to birth a child um does that chum the water does that is everyone like these highly motivated people who think they're already at level 10

for their motivation do they do they go to 11? Brian? You'd have to imagine, yes. I think someone sent me a message the other day, like all top 10 games athletes immediately stop eating Christmas dinner and go to the garage to train. Right, right. I mean, it's very likely that it's not very likely. Clearly, it's a podium space that is open now. You know, and we'll see.

I think that there are girls that have shown that have the potential to stay at the podium. I think that there are girls that are working really, really hard. And I believe that it's going to be a very fun year to see athletes performing. It would be fat. You remember there was the year Catherine was at the games and then she didn't make it one year and she came back and won the

games. Yeah. 2014. She didn't make it. Yeah. And so she, and she wasn't there last year, right?

She wasn't there last year, I wasn't there last year i think and now i mean the the clips that i'm seeing she looks absolutely amazing she looks back to her her fighting her fighting you know look you you you you actually uh you were you didn't put uh you didn't bet that she was going to make it right if i remember correctly a very heated argument between you and brian regarding katherine in the episode 544 oh yeah wow uh yeah i think it was 544 or 543 you're right brian was saying she would make it and i said she wouldn't i think that was the case yeah yeah i'm right a lot of times that i don't get credit for i think i think it's amazing i mean catherine is an amazing athlete you would never ever discard her yeah these are these are

amazing stories and something like hayley not that she's not already a superstar in the space but if she wins the games her star catapults um yeah i mean i mean i i think i think more so than than um most and she's so young so when someone like her if she were to win the games uh the whole landscape in front of her opens how old is she she's 21 22 i think she's 22 at the moment yeah it's crazy yeah she's been uh this she's been, like, seven times to the games? Eight times? Seven? Are there, is Cara Saunders, do you know anything about her training situation? Is she, what is she doing?

She's, she's, do you know anything, Brian? Wow. A lateral pass to Brian. That was good for kundo that was solid i mean i haven't talked to car in a while i did write an article about her after rogue i thought it was just a good appropriate moment to acknowledge her career i've been 10 years she had a great she won the last event at rogue she won her final heat at the games this season it seems to me like she's spending time with her family i think she's very much in her DNA is to

always train. I'm sure she's training. I saw some stuff from her at the beach recently. She still looks great. But I think for family and I mean that ass shot you saw her ass shot and you're like she looks great. It's a video. Yeah.

Oh my god. But I think it seems like she's a video. Oh, okay. Yeah. No, look at me. Look. Oh, my God. Yeah. But I think it seems like she's enjoying herself. She looks like she's in fighting shape. She looks like she's ready to go. Yeah.

I think that, you know, as you would know, Cara is a mayhem athlete, and she does our programming. And I think that she knows herself very well, and she knows when to do stuff, when is a good time for her. well and she knows when to do stuff, when it's a good time for her. I mean, she was basically saying she was going to retire, but for some reason I'm having trouble believing it. I mean, she was so good at Rogue that I'm not sure whether she's ready

to retire. But the jury's out. You have no official word. Announcement. Nothing you want to announce for 99 cents. Someone pony up 99 cents. Brian? You have no official word, announcement. Nothing you want to announce for 99 cents. Someone pony up 99 cents. Brian?

No, I think that Cara is thinking on what to do in 2023. If she wants to compete, she will certainly be as extraordinary as she always is. I mean, it must influence her too also a little bit that Tia is not competing. It must, you know, at least get her antenna moving. I think that Cara does her thing. I think that she's very unaware of not just Tia, but she just does what she wants to do. And that's her drive. She doesn't need opportunities to open for her to decide, oh, I'm going to do it because now I know.

I think that, I mean, Tia's amazing. There's no doubt. And Cara was extraordinary last year at the regionals. And, you know, after one year after being a mom. So there's, I mean, honestly, honestly there's like if you just look at what cara has done since giving birth with the exception of the 2021 games where she was sick and unable to really compete it i mean she's she's still right in the mix i feel like if anything she's you know she still could get better from last year like than last year going into this year if she wanted

to i just don't know if if she wants to i, I mean, I think she's had, like I said, had a very great career. She's done almost everything seven. You're not wrong though. When you've done almost everything and you've come two points to winning and the woman that beat you that year and has won every year since steps aside. And you look at the people ahead of you and you're like, man, like, is it worth it for me to give this one more chance? Like, you know, could I do the last thing that I haven't been able to do? I would put her, I would put her as the closest to, first it's obviously Rich Fronian against Graham Holmberg. And then, and then, and then Cara Saunders, at least,

at least one year, maybe two years, you could say, then she holds the second and third spot for just games that were just slipped out of her hands. So, and then, and then Mary, maybe after that, it's Sarah Sigmund's daughter. Or Matt and Ben. Yeah, Matt and Ben, right. But that has to be in Kara's mind. She is a proud person.

That's for sure, but I can tell you that she's very much in love with his daughter. Right. Is she pregnant? Is she pregnant, Facundo? No, Scotty. She's two years now, the daughter. Yeah, I know, but is Kara Sa now, the daughter. Yeah, I know. But is Cara Saunders pregnant again?

Not that I know. All right. Just checking. Not that I know. But I know that Scotty, her daughter, came to Rome. She didn't look like it in that video. No, it didn't. Unless the baby's in her butt.

No, no, no. And I think that she's having a great time being a mom. And she loves that. And so I'm not sure whether she wants to dedicate more time to fulfill that, you know, those two points and see what she's able to take into consideration that will take precious time away from, from her daughter.

So, you know, it's like rich, rich wants to be with his children. The main reason is just like, I really want to spend more times. Is that a donation? It's just a, no, that's just like i really want to spend more times is that a donation it's just uh no that's just because then we do share

you can ask me whatever for that amount yeah you can ask me whichever question and i'll answer no no rich rich wants to be with his family he just it's just a real reason i mean it's fair it's fair. It's fair. Speaking of families, did you just have another daughter? Yes. That's what they say. Yeah. Congratulations.

Thank you. So you have two kids now. Yeah. I just want to be like you, Seban. Yeah. One more. One more. Listen, by the way, someone in the comments was like, how do you get, how can you share your beauty secrets with Seban?

This guy is 10 years younger than me. Don't fucking get it confused. How old are you, Seban? This guy is not years younger than me. Don't fucking get it confused. This guy is not my age. How old are you? I'm 50. Well, I'm not. So when are you turning 51? March, March 16th.

We are three and a half years apart. Oh, shit. All right. Maybe I will. Maybe after. Maybe I will get some beauty secrets after the show. Yeah. Yes.

Facundo, are you familiar with an Alabama wipe, that term, Alabama wipe? Nope. Don't worry, I'm not either. I'm wondering if you guys do this in Tennessee as part of kind of the recycling. I'm going to read this to you. The Alabama wipe is when you blow your nose in toilet paper and then use it to wipe your butt, you know, in order to conserve. I was wondering, is that a practice? I heard that's a practice at Mayhem, a common double down on the toilet paper.

Nothing goes to waste. I never heard anybody. I mean, if they do something, they will call Tennessee with wipe, but not Alabama. The Cookville wipe. OK, that that wouldn't be, but no. Never heard that term. Okay. I'm just wondering how assimilated you are with the Southern culture.

No, no, no. Okay. In any case, I do know that crafters are very resilient to showers. I mean, they can do 15 workouts and then have one shower at the end of the day. So, you know. Very eco-friendly. I like that. Yeah. Save that water. i'm sure that's a big concern out there in cookville a facundo for two dollars anthony please put a profile pick in

please please um will rich froning win master's division now that's a loaded question i guess the first question is is he going to enter the Masters? He doesn't know himself. I don't think he has decided that. I think he's enjoying having not to think about competing next year at the moment. He's just in his head, as a team at least. Well, I'm the wrong person to ask, guys. I mean, if you ask me which one will win, I would say which one will win whatever he decides to go. He goes playing sport and he's going, I know football is going to win golf and he's going to win because he's

that kind of competitor. He will prepare himself as much as he can to be at his very best when he goes. So if he goes masters, I think he will win. Coffee pods. He's the one who, you know,

who is the analyst here. We'll ask Brian in two seconds, coffee pods brian he's the one who uh you know who's the analyst here we'll ask brian in two seconds coffee pods and wads i will be going on that podcast by the way in 48 minutes um i will be joining uh pedro over there in france they do it the other way around they wipe their nose second well i'd heard that about the french. Very interesting. Thank you, Pete. Okay, where are we? Where are we in the show? Mr. Panchik. Which one?

There are many Mr. Panchiks. Let's talk about the one that is closest to you, Mr. Spencer. Is Spencer one of your athletes? No. No, he's not. Was he one of your athletes? No. No, he's not. Was he one of your athletes? He was. We worked together when... That's Saxon.

Oh, whatever. Pretend like it's Spencer. Don't ruin my story. That's Spencer. Thank you, Caleb. Sorry, Caleb. I set you up for failure. Sorry about that. Stefan sent Caleb two pictures. He goes, pull up one of these and let's hope it's the right one. If not, switch over real quick.

Maybe no one will notice. We worked together for a while up to I think it was maybe it was Brian who was better than me. They opened last year. This year. This year.

Then we I think one of the... Didn't Spencer come to Cookfield before the games this This year, this year. And then we... I think so. I think one of the... Because wasn't Spencer... Didn't Spencer come to Cookfield before the games this past summer to train with a lot of athletes? And then we did...

I mean, Spencer had qualified to go to the games and he needed a good place and a good environment for him to prepare for the games. So he spends a couple of months at Mayhem, you know, doing that, preparing prepare for the games. So he spends a couple of months at mayhem, uh, you know, doing that, preparing himself for the games. Sort of in a similar situation, maybe that Roman's in now it's a play. If, if you're homeless, if you're a homeless athlete and you're good,

you go to mayhem. No, I think, no, no, no, no. I think for the games last year, we, we, you know, we, we provided a specific, uh, uh, games training for those athletes that qualify for the games. During that time Roman will fall kind of in a different category because he will be spending apparently

most of the season up into the games, not just a month of preparation for the game. So a bit of a different relationship. Jay Ruffner, Facundo is so damn mysterious.

Like what does he do and how did he get there? Brian? I would keep saying Brian every time that I would. No, I mean, I think he's been pretty clear about that today. Actually, you know,

he's working for mayhem now he's had a background in politics. And as far as what he's done to clear about that today, actually. You know, he's working for Mayhem now. He's had a background in politics. And as far as what he's done to get there, you know, he's been around for a long time. I remember 2000, I think, 15, 16 time period, I was just starting to learn more and more about the CrossFit landscape when talking to some friends. And we would just see this guy randomly show up in pictures or at events with a lot of prestigious CrossFitters. And it was Facundo, Facundo, Facundo. And I was asking that question back then. Who is this guy, Facundo? It's funny that when people to me said, you know, like appearing.

So I had the luck. Everything started. And I want to say it every time that I've said it over and over. Everything started when Dave Duranteed the you know the great coach gymnastic coach invited me i i i ran into him at the games and i told him you know you are amazing to me you're a great inspiration and so on and so on and then he said oh if you think so then you know if and if you want to learn i'm giving a couple of seminars he was what year was that facundo what year? 13 And he said to me

Oh, well, if you want to learn, I'm giving a couple of seminars You can come and be A bit of assistant, a bit of In person, like, you know The people that just sit there and look So you can shadow me A bit of a shadow and so on To have a guy like that

That you admire so much Say to you, if you want to have a guy like that that you admire so much say to you if you want to learn i give you this chance you know so i've chance yeah and you're very thankful to start with and then you take the chance and you try to prepare yourself to be up to that chance as best as good as you can so i did a lot of we did a couple of years with dave uh we we traveled many continents i was his demo boy. And I can tell you something, gymnastic demo boy is challenging

because you're hanging there for like five minutes while Dave shows all the physics about being hanged, dead hang and these and hollows and arches. Would you be sore? Would you be sore after being the demo boy? Yeah. Yeah. My grip.

Because, you know, you're hanging there and Dave is like, yeah, now Facundo is going to show you how to retract. Now pull this, do that, do that. And I felt like, you know, my arms were shaking. I can't anymore. And he was like, and now he's going to do this. And so that's how I started.

And then I had the chance to work with Hinsha for three more years. And we did maybe 60 seminars together throughout the world. Wow. And then I met Rich Froning, and he invited me to be part of his Mayhem family. I'll give you my perspective, too, of so i always saw facundo around i had no idea who he was um but i would always see him wherever like uh in the um athlete warm-up area or i would see him you know under the venue uh at that great venue in carson i'd see him under there and he would always smile or we would nod each other there was everyone knew everyone even if you didn't know them, I'd be running by

with my camera or something. And I knew who I knew of him, but I didn't know his name. But like Brian said, he was always with high profile athletes and you have to also, there is an aura about Facundo where he looks more manager than coach. So when you see, if you, if I'm running by him, I'm going to notice him he has a different aura about him than other people even if he's the water boy he's going to stand out so i was the coffee boy sorry yeah so he always he always he always uh if he was there even if he was you know standing next to three athletes it wasn't like it wasn't like it was just like someone's husband or wife standing there.

Like you would see him and you'd be like, okay, this, he held himself like he belonged there. And yeah. And you were, and you were very smiley, man. You were, you were. I'm a smiley man. I like to believe so. But yeah, you know, at the end of the day, manager and coach, you just guide the athlete to whatever, you you know your input says they need to go and wherever they want to go it's not just about the technicality so far you do three thrusters at this

amount of weight and you're going to win but you know you journey with them but you look you look more banker than um uh you know max el haj who's like sitting next to his athlete and sweating more than his athlete, even though his athlete's warming up. I mean, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm just a firm believer that there's not much that I can do in a competition. Most of the work needs to be done before the competition. And by the time they get there,

I hope that the athletes know how to understand perfectly what they work, how to warm up, how to play around, whatever is going to be thrown at them. I'm not a coach that is like, Hey bro, now you're going to do 10 double unders, 10 burpees, you warm up, breathe 10 times. And then you, you, I'm going, you're going to the competition, do a, I don't know. Did you say you have more during the competitions, you maybe have more of a mental and emotional influence on them?

I want to be present with my athletes, but first of all, in the competitions, you maybe have more of a mental and emotional influence on them? I want to be present with my athletes, first of all, because I care for them. And second, because there are circumstances that might happen in which they might need me despite the work that they're going to do, the event they're going to do. And that's why for me, it's very important to be there for them. I don't sweat. i just sweat my hands because i'm stressed and nervous for them the things go as expected but uh then uh yeah uh someone wrote here what was this uh uh plot twist seven intentionally uh avoid no i never intentionally avoided anyone i was i'm very nice at those events yeah that is true if i have one second i'll talk to someone savannah has always been very um i mean not not as charming maybe as brian no because

it's very oh my god it's very hard to but you've been very generous no because i remember i remember bullshit i'm twice as charming as brian that is no. I remember you working on the behind the scenes. I mean, this is one of the best things CrossFit ever did. The behind the scenes of games. Thank you. And you did it really, really well. And I remember you seeing who's coming in, who's coming out from the check-ins. Who I'm going to pick on now or whatever.

And you were always very, very kind. Charming. Very kind. Let's say, um, when, when you're at the, um, at, at Rich's house, um, what are the rules with, um, like going into the house? Like, can, can you go in, let's say you are, could you just go in there and get a snack? Could you make a, and if you could like, how like how deep could you go in the snack like does it just have to be grab a cracker out of a box or could you actually sit down and make a sandwich okay would you open the fridge there i live at the bridge's house oh shit so i i hope that i can open the fridge wow okay you're in the house you're not like in the back where fikowski is? No, no, no. I live at the house.

Yeah. So that person there, it's one of my best friends in life. It's Hillary, Rich's wife. And we are very, very good friends. One of my favorite people. I think that Rich likes me because she pushed him to like me. Oh, wow. Wow.

Is there a little bit of truth to that? I hope to, hopefully not. Okay, good. Okay, good. But yeah, so I live there and I like to cook. I like to cook a lot. So when I'm there, I like to cook pasta because Hilary is a very big pasta fan

and I cook for 15, 20 people. We do pasta for everybody. So yeah, I'm allowed to open the the kitchen the fridge wow and and um and what about the other um are there rule are there spoken rules about about the house like who can come in who can't like hey don't bug them or is it more unspoken like hey make sure you give the front of their privacy everybody's invited to come in everybody's coming people respect it very much you know because the children are there the dogs are there but it's it's it's it's an open place uh everybody's very welcome and uh yeah it's it's if you came in with muddy shoes do you interact with the buffalo much well yeah i mean i'm can you see me next to a buffalo no but uh um uh yeah yeah well i

from the bathroom that i stay i see the buffaloes in the morning it's the first thing that i see do you have your own bathroom i do have my own bathroom um when Luke, if Luke Parker, if you were in that kitchen with your apron on, do you wear an apron? No. If you were in, I'm going to put you in an apron. If you were in the kitchen and you were cooking pasta with an apron on and Luke Parker were to come in and you noticed his shoes were muddy, would you speak up to him? Oh, yeah. Everybody speaks to Luke. Everybody says, hey.

You'd be like, hey, buddy, take your shoes off. You're like, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah. Okay. What are you showing now? Okay, yeah. Yes. Everybody is.

But Luke is just a heart. It's a heart with a boy attached to it. He's just very gentle and a great, fun guy to be around. But I'm also a very big fan of Crackle Barrel. So we tend to go there and to have a lot of food, a lot of food, a lot of food. One of the things that I'm the most proud of in the last years, I have been featured on the Crackle Barrel Instagram page. Oh, shit. As one of the most faithful customers.

Are you kidding me? He eats more Cracker Barrel pancakes than anyone. How do they track that you have a Cracker Barrel? Because once there was a time when I was in Cookville, I think who was with me? I think well, Spencer and Saxon were there with me part of the trip. And I was

there for two weeks. And I went to crackle barrel 13 times in seven days wow plus seven don't forget you just had every meal there and don't forget what you said no matter what he's doing he stands out you you acknowledge you notice if he comes 13 times in a week you can't miss i think that even the people there on different shift is like hey bro were you here yesterday were you here't miss it. I think that even the people there on different shifts are like, hey, bro, were you here yesterday? Were you here also before yesterday? And I think that somebody contacted corporate and said,

this guy, we need to pay attention. Whether he's very specious, whether he's very good or very bad for us, but this is a guy that is having his life changed. That's extremely impressive. I had a personal record of going to chipotle 13 times in a week in high school one time and but it was also kind of daunting to do that so it's a bit healthier than crackle barrel no yeah but the point is 13 times going anywhere to eat in a week is impressive i think i think one time i went to five guys like six times in three days with Greg one time.

It was just a restaurant right near where we were staying, and we just ate two hamburgers every day for six days. And that seemed like a lot. Sevan, if you have to go on holidays with a former colleague of yours from across the world, who would you take? He wouldn't take anyone. All of them would take him. No, if he's obliged to choose one. I'd go with Dave. Okay.

Yeah, I'd go with Dave. That's a good question. I'd either go with Dave or with Greg. There's so many. He's crossing that question off his list for later on. There's so many good ones. I have another question for you both. Because we're ending the year.

And I'm a fair believer that you need to look where you've been in order to aim better where to go. What was the favorite moment so far for you guys, 2022? Personal, professional, or otherwise? Maybe you can have both. Silence doesn't sell, guys. So you need to speak to me. Every moment I spend with my kids every i mean every i mean yesterday i one of my my oldest son kicked my youngest son in the chest

so hard it left a mark on his chest and my youngest son was so excited he's like look it left a mark on me and i was just like this is just incredible and he was proud of you, bro. He was so proud. Yeah, I'm proud of you both. You know how it is with kids. Anytime with my kids, anytime I see my wife interacting with my kids, watching someone I've been with for so long transform into a mother. Yeah, it's all kid stuff. It's all kid stuff. Since I have no kids, mine are very selfish probably.

From a personal perspective, I would say probably snatching 185. I've been trying to do that for a long time and I did it at the quarterfinals workout last year. And then also getting the broadcast in Dubai. Oh, that was cool. I've believed to myself that I can do that at a high level or at a high level competition for a while. But you have to have the opportunity and those guys gave it to me. And it was the very first thing that I did with Derek there was to record a little

recap on top of the Burj Khalifa. And as soon as the cameras turned on and he switched on to his TV personality voice, and I just felt really good about the weekend and having a chance to do that with him. So those would be two for me. Okay.

Does that mean it's your turn? Yeah. Well, no, you cannot ask my, my own questions. You know, you get your,

get your own answer for you though. So what, what, what, what would be, what would be your goal for 2023? Brian is to get you to answer one of your own questions, not get kicked off of youtube

well i've i had just had a child so i mean no nothing can compare to you know to you had a pretty actually if you were going to try to choose one moment from this year having a child argentina winning the world cup rich's last championship i mean you've had some big moments this year yeah it's been an amazing year yeah yeah um uh of course my child and and and my family and i i feel when i'm in cookbill especially uh at rich's house i feel home you know it's my second family and uh i i celebrated very much uh that rich uh had that outcome not that i did not think that it was going to be the case, but yeah. How long are you going to do this for?

How long are you going to keep traveling for? Is your relationship made for this? Yeah. I think that we, I think that it's very important for, for us both to, you know, to be able to be part of a very, very close family because we're very united when we are together, but also we have our, our goals and our dreams and our objectives.

And we see travel as much as you. Yeah. Yeah. Holy shit. So there'll be times when what's the longest you'll go without seeing him. Will you ever go like you're gone for a month and you get back and he's gone. No, no, no. I, I no i i i i when i go when i travel i try to make my my the longest of my trips in between within seven days okay wow at but i i fear that uh i have to go to orlando to rio and to berlin back to back uh during uh regionals because i have a lot of athletes in these three locations. What about relocating?

What about relocating to Cookville? You got lucky that none of them overlapped on weekends. I know. I know. I know. I talked to Adrian. No, no, no, no. I wish that would be the case.

No, I'm fine where I am. Actually, you know Actually yesterday we were Having this talk about retirement Already And we decided that I would love to retire in Salzburg Which is two hours from where I am now In Austria

But I think that I'm going to be able to do it as much Salzburg is in Austria now? No, Salzburg Salzburg I think that I will be doing as much. Strasbourg's in Austria now? No, Salzburg. Oh, Salzburg. Salzburg. I think that I will be doing as much as I'm happy with doing it. I don't get so much disappointed, so upset, because

I'm very passionate and I get to disappoint sometimes. But I hope that people keep calling me and say, well, I will. Yeah. So, well, I, I will. Yeah. So yeah, there.

Thank you. I thought you lived in Belgium for some reason. Yeah. I live in Belgium, but I have a little house in Salzburg in the mountains. What do they speak there? You speak that language? Yes. That's German. Yes.

German is my, my third language. My fourth language kind of. let's see in terms of in terms of when i learned my fifth language but my third language because it's the one that i speak the most maybe at the moment at the time next to english you speak five languages none of them well but yes wow there's i think there's a word for that like we went over last time he was on the show oh we did okay yeah there's a word for that. We went over it last time he was on the show. Oh, we did? Okay. Yeah. There's some unique categories. Anyways. So I would like to, I know that we are getting to an end here, but I would like to know, is it tax haven? No, I wish. Nowhere in Europe is a tax haven. No, no, no, no. I mean, especially, especially Belgium. Belgium is really, really up to 55% of your salary goes for taxes. Good stuff.

Yeah. Can I ask you, because I think that people would like to know, what are your goals for 2023, both of you? I just don't want to get kicked off of YouTube. My goal, that's it. Are you satisfied with your job, Simon? I think your podcast. Very.

Yeah. Well, I'm satisfied by it because, um, like I am so excited to wake up every morning. I'm so excited. And a lot of times, like this morning, I was really nervous. I hadn't talked to you in a long time. And I, and I like that. You know what I mean? I like that.

Um, yeah, I love it. I do. I do wish that it was. But but do it's weird. It's a double edged sword, because on one hand, I wish I had like 10 million subscribers. And on the other hand, I think that I need to work up to that pressure slowly. It already you know, someone said in the comments the other day, there's only 72 people watching the show live. And I'm thinking, well, for me, that's still a lot of pressure. I take that pressure very, very, very, very seriously. And so, yeah, but I love it. Yeah, I absolutely love it. I'm so happy. Thank you for asking. Brian? I have a really different take on this than I think most people do, but I don't really have any concrete goals written down.

My goals are very close-minded, which is basically day-to-day. I just keep laying the next brick and see what builds. Yeah. Okay. That's nice. It's like right for Kundo, good habits, discipline, and passion. And so if you don't have goals, at least if you have those – yeah, I know. I went down below 20,000 again. I know. Tell me about it. I can almost – I put a gun in my mouth last night. Yeah, I mean –

Discipline, passion, and habits. And then if – and I think that if you know and i think that um if you have those even if you don't have goals like you know shit's gonna get good shit's gonna happen yeah i i agree with you okay thank you okay you're welcome so uh brian uh you have any other wait wait wait let me give this wait well hold on you built the greatest community thank you you. Thank you. Okay. Yes. Go ahead. That's true. That's true. It's funny because I've been watching some podcasts now that was on holidays.

I was traveling. And very often people said a lot of Seban Posca, Seban Posca, you know, and it's becoming really kind of a reference, you know, in the CrossFit world, what happens and what seven says in his podcast in his podcasts well good i hope so thank you yeah especially your your friend andrew andrew hiller he always mentions you he's a very good dude i adore my friend andrew hiller that's actually that's one of the crowning achievements i'd say for my 2022 is cultivating that friendship i'm not really i don't i'm not a i feel like my life is too full for friends but i actually made a friend in andrew and that's

really cool and brian brian's an old friend i've cultivated that one a while ago that one's in maintenance mode yeah um okay so last question for me to you, at least to Brian. Who's going to win the CrossFit Games this year? At this point, I will still pick Justin Medeiros to win every competition he shows up to and still someone can beat him. But I do think that Roman has a realistic chance to do that this season. And obviously with the news of Tia not being in the field this year,

my focus immediately goes to the other two podium athletes from last year, Mal and Laura. My gut is telling me that Laura is going to pull it up, but we're a long ways off. How about you Facundo? Do you have any thoughts? I think Richard's running with the games.

Yeah, me too. If he ever wants to go to the games. I don't know. It's complicated for me to to say because i really i see my i see the athletes and i see not just mine other athletes you know and i also see this last month at rogue i i could you know speak a lot with my colleague coaches like with justin and with nick and with John. And we had very nice talks. And they are doing a great job at what they're doing. So, you know, there are great athletes around.

There are great coaches around. And I don't know what they're doing. So I would never be able to discard anybody that has the potential if they work with these colleagues, with these friends. Diplomat. Diplomat. Sorry?

What a diplomat you are. No, no, no, no, no. Because on the contrary, at the beginning, I always felt that, you know, we are rivals because we are coaches and, you know, I want my attitude to win and you want your attitude to win. But then, you know, you are there and you are with Justin Cotter, which is a super fun guy. And it's impossible not to be, you know, you are there and you are with Justin Cotter, which is a super fun guy. And it's impossible not to be, you know, hey, let's chat about this,

let's chat about that. And you get to know these people better and you get to know how clever they are and how hardworking, how inventive they are as coaches. So if somebody says to me, oh, I'm an athlete of Justin, name it again, Justin, oh, man, that athlete could have a great year because he has a great coach so um this is honestly is a great perspective and if you see one of his athletes succeed in an event and justin's really happy you're happy for him because you know because you've been in the trenches too how much work it takes athlete and coach together to achieve something like that.

I feel the same way about the media landscape. I don't care if Morning Chalk Up or the Barbell Spin or any of these media outlets put out something that's great that I didn't think of, that's original, that's new, that's accurate. I want to repost that because I want people to see it. Not one coach or one person is going to be limited to all of the good ideas and accomplishments.

So I love that you have that perspective. You need to come to Mayhem to see our incredible media team. I know some of them. I think it's funny that you call him Benjamin. Well, his name is Benjamin. I know. I call him Ben. Ben Bennett, Scott, and then you have Jen, and they are amazing.

So, yeah, I don't know. I think that there is a lot of extraordinary athletes around. There's amazing coaches around. And I really don't know what they're doing. You know, social media for me doesn't tell me the real picture of whatever they're doing. But you know that they're working hard and you know that they have a focused objective just like you do. Exactly. So, you know, Sam is an amazing athlete.

By the way, our listeners' favorite word that you say is focus. Why not Samuel? Why don't you call him Samuel? Samuel. Sam. Samuel. Actually, Samuel, because he's French. Samuel.

Samuel. Samuel. Samuel. Samuel. He's there. Guys, Guy has been training very hard again lately. He's back in mayhem. That's the South American guy?

The Brazilian guy, Guy? Yes, that's the... I think Guy could have a bounce back here at the Games this year. Yeah, Guy is Guy. You can never... He's an extraordinary athlete. He's, well, yeah. You know, that boy knows how to move.

He has a power and a speed that are almost unrivaled. I can't believe we didn't talk about him. Crazy. Yeah, I did. I brought him in. No, no, no. It's just like you asked me and said, well, how can I know say nothing about about gee we talk about roman about lazar about sam yeah it's my fault i'm not putting any of that blame on you it's uh it's how how difficult is

it to to have multiple athletes that have top five podium potential under the same roof training um uh very easy for you or for them or you are for them under the same roof training? Very easy. For you or for them? For you or for them? No, no, no, no. I think, you know, these people work together very often and they work very well

and they are very aware of the advantage they have to have each other when they train. And they're also very, very, very aware that when it's three, two, one, go, I don't know you and I'm here to, you know, I want to win. I'm not going to slow down just to, you know,

give you a point because you paid dinner last night. So they are very clever. And I think that the most clever thing is that Rich was able to build that environment. The most clever thing is that Rich was able to build that environment. And he set the structure to it. This is going to work like this. This is what I want to work.

That's why mayhem maybe is not for everybody. Mayhem is for hardworking people that have no ego and they are there to win some workouts and to get destroyed in other workouts and to work really hard. you know, to win some workouts and to get destroyed in other workouts and to work really hard. But there is this sense of, you know, of friendship that was very common back in the days in CrossFit when Jason and Josh and Dan and Rich were working together. And, you know, they were spending a lot of time together. Two to one goal, I'm going to, you know, bring you down because I want to win. And it's pretty much very similar to to those times

he built he built he built the place where he wanted to train in the environment he wanted to train in and and that's the if you build it they will come right yeah and uh yeah so uh i i think that uh everybody needs knows that all my athletes of my athletes need to work very hard. And if they do that, they're very well taken care of and they stand a chance to do better every year. Brian, I'm going to close this and say something to Facundo unless you have any other questions. I'm excited to hear what you have to say. In all honesty, Facundo, if people like you didn't come on the show and didn't trust me

my words not yours this show would be fucking nothing so when someone of your caliber comes on the show and you trust me to be live face to face it means the world to me it means the world to the listeners but most importantly like I said it means a lot to my entire family and people who don't have extended

who don't have kids, who don't have kids and families probably don't understand that, but I know you do. And, uh, and so I really appreciate you, uh, coming on here and, uh, and, and opening yourself up and fielding all these questions live. So thank you from the, from the bottom of my heart and the whole heart, not just the bottom, the whole heart. Okay. I thank you. I mean, you are every time you need me, I'm going to be here. You guys do a lot for all of us, help us, you know, many things that people don't know.

Brian is also very, always available to help. And without you guys, what I will work wouldn't be exposed. And so really, I, I appreciate very much being here. And,

uh, I also from my whole heart, wish you both a fantastic 2023. And hopefully we'll get to see each other very soon. Awesome. Thanks, buddy. Take care. Congrats on the baby again.

Can't say it enough. Thank you. Bye-bye. Bye. I only prepared for that for an hour, and I could have talked to him for three hours. God, he's easy. I thought that you were going to cut the live, and we were going to have a chance to talk to him in the back, but he left.

He was still live. I'm trying to build a format to the show now, slowly. At the end, I almost cut you off, too, where I always do a debrief with Caleb. Oh, you want me to go? Talk a little smack about the guests and stuff no you're fine no you're fine you're you're you're almost regular enough to be in the uh circle ken walters great show uh head over to woods and pods see savvy sweat yeah so i'm going to go over there and i'm going to do the podcast with uh

peter at coffee wads is it up already can you see like can people go over there and um let me check and get notified my goal is just to beat the podcast the number of views the podcast he did with frazier uh last week had if i do that i can i can rest well if everyone that's watching this goes over and listens you're going to be basically there. Yeah, all of you. Yeah, that's up. Hey, can you guys push me over 20? Oh, cool. Okay, there you go. Oh, it looks just like me.

Hey, so it's 8 p.m. his time, but it's 9 a.m. my time. Is that your favorite picture of yourself? No. Can you guys is that your favorite picture of yourself no um can can you guys you dick uh can you guys um all just subscribe to the podcast now if you're listening make sure you're subscribed don't accidentally unsubscribe just subscribe and get me over to the 20 000 hump so i can jethro cardona likes the picture too. What did he say?

You need to tear me a new one? Where is it? Pull it up. I can't see it. The fuck is that? I know. That's what my mom said. That's what my mom said.

That picture's everywhere. It's haunting you. It's your shadow. It's my fault. Hey, did you see this? Did you see this thumbnail i made for this uh this show that facundo was on yeah it was great thank you he posted you know he posted it he said he was going out about 30 minutes before the show we put the thumbnail up there tagged us did you see that that's nice no is it in his story or just on

his uh oh that's cool can you imagine if we were organized enough to like before everyone came on we gave them like a little like media packet where they could celebrate oh yeah look at that yeah i was gonna put like roman's head and rich's head and all the different heads of the athletes on the lines but then i thought that was over the top this was good enough the lion it's awesome thank you i'm so proud of it i need some head everyone needs some head uh seven getting on canva is going to be a gift to everyone uh thank you i appreciate it uh nick uh i would love to uh talk with you today i i saw your text

last night um i don't want you to think i'm shitting on you i don't want to hold you back at all i want to be a good soundboard for you um so you can explore some of those ideas so don't i'm not i'm not hell-bent on any one decision i just want to explore with you seven after uh talking to facundo for an hour and 40 minutes, was there anything he said that you want to ask me about? Is he really Roman's coach or not? What's going on? Just delicate politics, just not hurt anyone's

feelings? I believe what he said about the courting process and the feeling it out. I think that he obviously believes very strongly in what they're doing there at Mayhem, but he recognizes that it might not be the optimal environment for everyone um i think that for hopefully for all of their sakes that like whatever that process is comes to an end kind of soon and that they can you know move forward if roman is is uh training under mayhem and with

facundo i think it'll be me, it'll be very exciting, curious to see how this season unfolds for Roman. You know, Facundo alluded to the fact that he'd been coached by someone very prestigious and well-known and experienced in the space with Nick Fowler for a long time. Oh, okay. I didn't know who that was. Okay. That's the brute strength guy.

Yeah. And you've been with Nick for, as far as I know, since at least 2017, five, six years together. Obviously, they got second place at the Games this year after all the struggle that it was to get there and compete. I know from talking to Facundo over the years that he's not intimidated to coach any athletes. So the fact that he'd be taking on someone who was second,

whose only spot to go up is to first, is not something that's daunting for him. It's something that he would like to, he would, you know, like to be a part of that challenge. And it would be, if that's the case, then I would be, you know, very eager to see what they're able to do. Um, can you pull up that workout that Roman did the Instagram clip, Caleb? Um, I have to go here in a minute cause I want to pee and make another cup of coffee and I haven't eaten in probably 36 hours. I should eat something before I go on someone else's podcast. Are you going to have some beef jerky?

No, I'm going to have a persimmon. I picked it off the tree yesterday. Convince me that Roman – can you convince me that Roman is going to win the games? Based on this? Look, I mean I'm not even kidding. Like he says his goal per interval is three minutes, 30 Cal ski, 25 row, 20 bike. Uh, if you can do that 10 times. Oh my God. I don't know if I could pick even, I don't know if, I don't know if there's any other

crossroads that could do that. If he actually did that. Um, I might be able to do the row one time like that's and we know we obviously we know how good he is on the machine like uh i wouldn't ever want to interrupt their training or whatever they're doing to find out but like i would be curious if jason hopper could hold that those paces like that so so that's a um that that also is a 90 minute workout right basically i mean it's it's it's if you have three minutes it's eight minutes around it's 80 minutes it's an 80 minute workout am i missing are we missing uh uh right i mean i mean that that's a long time to be at that

hurry right it's it's uh it's eight minutes around basically right with three minutes to do it five minutes of rest it's five minutes per round. It's three minutes on two minutes off at that pace. Oh, okay. It's not five minutes rest. Okay. Okay. No. So it's still a crazy long workout. People could complete the workout. It's just, if I was doing this workout, I would just barely be completing it and then just starting again. Cause that's, Hey, if I, what if, what, what if I wanted to, what about that workout? If you just took off the ski 25 row, 20 bike. Now, now like normal people could actually do the workout. The 30 Cal ski is, I mean, that's like, that's really hard.

If I wrote this workout, I would have, cause that's a biker. I would have 30 Cal bike, 25 row, 20 ski because I'm the worst at the ski. He has got it as the one that demands them the most in this workout where the biker is a recovery for him here i think wasn't it a couple days ago so i brag about my math skills every day i don't even know what you're talking about a couple days anyway if there i know there was a reading skill that was a reading skill thing geez louise not math i was reading someone else thinks they can do that workout holding three minutes per round for 10 rounds on a five minute interval clock i want to know about it yeah but in a vacuum

no that's not enough evidence to say that he can win the games he has to be able to do a lot of other stuff better than he was able to do this year too it's giving you opportunity to jerk him off and you just fucking let his cocks up right out of your hand uh caleb thank you for running uh the back end you look like you have a filter on your skin is so nice i don't know i don't know if you need to get in the sun or you're just moisturizing nicely brian thank you for coming on uh guys i will see you guys in nine minutes over at coffee pods and wads um all you have to do is click through once The goal of the show is to just get past the Matt Fraser views. And yeah.

Bye-bye.