The Sevan Podcast - #739 - Paige Powers | Rich Invited You to Italy??

Episode Date: January 8, 2023

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and watch me eat yeah yeah so people can judge you bam we're live ryan good morning morning okay good morning good morning uh hey i i was um looking at the numbers this morning from all the guests we've had on and i just wanted to thank you guys in the comments i was just thinking about how much you guys helped with Dave and Danielle. I mean, you guys help every morning with your comments. It's funny. It adds to the show. But with Dave and Danielle and Rich,

you guys have been just off the hook. So thank you. I appreciate it. Don't you think, Caleb? Definitely. It's been really awesome. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Oh, it's been really awesome sorry i didn't mean to interrupt you oh it's okay

okay uh we are getting close to uh wadapalooza brian is your brain getting uh crowded at all like with too much information or any any you know overwhelmed or it's a lot of athletes about 40 in the elite divisions and about 40 teams in the elite division. So that's, uh, uh, 300 and what was that? 360 athletes.

So, uh, there's a lot. Hey, there's so many good athletes that, um, we're kind of destined to neglect people this year, huh?

Some people are going to get lost. You don't deserve to get lost. Yeah. So, uh, but the articles I've been writing for Bar Bend, I'm trying to diversify my picks a little bit. So I've kind of self-imposed a rule.

I'm trying not to pick anyone more than twice so that people can have a little bit of understanding for some of the other or lesser-known athletes that might have a good workout on one of these, one of these events may not do great overall. I think that's one way we can help you putting people in to win the events, even though you don't really think they're going to win them just to introduce them to the people. Yeah.

So I might, I might call it like a pick the click instead of a pick to win. And this is like, this might be the best workout of the weekend. They may have a top five finish, you know, I'm not just gonna pick uh if there are six events i'm not just gonna pick gee velner roman and ricky to win every one of them like i

might pick them one each if i think there's a workout that do good on and then i'll try to pick someone else who may do very well on that workout maybe it's a third or fourth but you'll be honest you'll say hey gee's not gonna win this but he's gonna look the best doing it yep exactly page hi good morning hello good morning good morning nice to meet you i'm seven and that's brian that's right nice to meet you guys hey page i watched uh have you guys met before uh i don't know that we've actually had uh been in a lot of the same competitions at the same time. So I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so. But it's nice to meet you.

I watched three or four of your podcasts yesterday. So I feel like I know you. Maybe more. Me? Yeah. Oh, nice. Hey, do you watch, if someone invites you on to a podcast, do you watch one of their podcasts before you go on? Yeah, sometimes.

Yeah, kind of just to get a feel of what I'm signing myself up for. Do you watch before you say yes? Typically, no. Yeah, I'm guilty of that too. I invite people on without sometimes fully vetting them. Yeah, that's okay. You ever been on without like sometimes like fully vetting them yeah that's okay you ever been on one that you like afterwards you're like yeah maybe i should have done that one um probably not oh good okay well shoot i hope i don't screw your perfect record up then

oh thank you well there's definitely things that like i've said before that i'm like not that it was bad but it was just like kind of like stupid to say like i remember i did a podcast with um jared um um graybeal yes yes okay that's how i was gonna say it but i didn't want to butcher it um but i he asked if there was an animal that i'd like to talk to what it would be i said a pig and i got a ton of crap from my friends on that one so what did they want you to say shut up that's a stupid question next question i guess well they were like pick something like more like a lion where they're aggressive. And I was like, no, I want to talk to a pig. I mean, they have movies on pigs.

So I feel like it's a fair answer. Yeah. It is amazing, though. Sometimes I'll do one of these or I'll do a broadcast or something. And I know that a majority of it was good. But there's one thing that maybe no one else even notices it and i reflect on it for like a month and i can't believe i did that yeah for sure brian are you from working on this podcast and then working on something that's more polished like um hosting the um what was the one in the desert called?

Are you talking about Dubai? Dubai. Yes. After then the commentating for Dubai, do you ever like feel like, Oh, this better not come out of my mouth here. Like, like, do you think I've corrupted you on this podcast? No, no. I think I know how to handle you. Just at least adequately. I agree. I think you do handle me adequately. Paige Powers, 25th at the Games in 2022. That's your debut. Not your Dubai. Your debut.

It's another D word. Your debut as an individual. Man, you stand out, man. You are a special person when you take the field. You do some really cool stuff. You took third place twice as a team. Yes. In the 14 to 15 and then the 16 to 17. And then was that – were you 16 when you – look, Brian is so proud of me. That was like a proud father the way he was smiling.

When, when you took that third place in the 16, 17, were you 16 or 17? I was 16. And then, and then what happened after that? Then you were kind of off the scene for till 2022. Was that COVID stuff or what happened? Yeah. The next year I was 17. So it was my last chance to compete as a team and it was canceled because of COVID. Okay.

And then following year was my first time out like in the open division and I didn't qualify. And then this past year was my first time. You made semifinals. It was my first time. You made semifinals in 2021. Yes. Those are online. Yes. So I was like, yeah.

Yeah. Hey, did that hurt? What's the deal? What's the deal with that? So you're this great teen athlete. Well, we'll talk about that here in a second, too. Whether you were a great teen athlete or if whether the competition was just junk. But and it may not have been. I'm, I'm, I'm open. I'm open. Um, uh, but, um, was that hard in 2021 or was that where you like,

Hey man, this is already crazy ambitious of me. Um, no, it was hard. I actually, I definitely expected to qualify to the games or at least have like a good shot and then like coming in 21st on top of that I was like wow okay like I have a lot more work that I have to do that I didn't like realize that I wasn't you know like on the same level but like going from quarterfinals where i was like that year i believe i was with him like a pretty good spot of qualifying like if we went based off of that and then just being like so completely knocked down at semis was it was pretty tough but basically

basically what she's referring to is that she was 23rd in the quarterfinals that year. And that's out of all the women in North America. After the semifinals were split into four distinct semifinals, she was 21st in a field of 30. So it was a significant step back in her mind from her quarterfinal performance. Yeah. Wow. You put some crazy pressure on yourself, huh? Yeah. Or you have high expectations.

You have high expectations. Yeah, for sure. But really, that's her first year. pressure on yourself huh or you have high expectations you have high expectations yeah for sure but really it's like you know that's her that's her first year and if you think about it you know because what she's thinking is that 21st is like a 84th if you multiply by four or the four semifinals and so that's like four times worse than i did in the quarterfinals but really it's an opportunity i think so she can look and say why did i I do so well in quarterfinals compared to semifinals? Now I have my focus for the next 12 months. Yep, for sure. And by the high expectations, I mean, it's a pretty, it's insane to think that you're going to go from teen and then in one year or just two years go to individual.

But you put that demand on yourself. I mean, don't get me wrong. What were you going to say, Brian? We've seen it. For the men, it's insane because it hasn't happened. For the women, she can look at other women that have had similar finishes to her. Mallory O'Brien's best finish as a teenager at the CrossFit Games was third. Now, she had this similar situation happen where she missed a year because of COVID that she might have won.

But it's been done before. So not an unrealistic expectation in the women's field compared to the men's. But still freak of nature. Of course. Maui O'Brien didn't come into the CrossFit Games and take 39th place. No. Right, yeah. So nuts.

But you're doing all sorts of unrealistic stuff. You're only two years or three years as an individual, and you're already just completely, if the videos true that i watch you're completely entrenched in the in the mayhem empire yes getting at it every single day with some of the i mean what you've put on yourself is absolutely nuts um the caliber of people that you're rolling with and hanging with yeah yeah, I really do enjoy it, though. I mean, like, whenever I first moved here, it was definitely like, I just took ego beating day after day. Like, I just got absolutely crushed in training every single day. But it like, pushed me to, like, keep up in ways that I wasn't pushing myself before. So like,

I've been here for a year now and like to see my improvement from like last year when I first moved here to now is like pretty crazy. So I'm super grateful for it. You think you picked up a little swagger in that year? Like you got a little more pep in your step? Maybe. Yeah. I think like I was put around people that like made me like know that it's okay like show a little confidence here and there um especially

like people like gee he loves to perform and like that's where he's in his element so kind of just like taking little like tips and like watching him and stuff so it was interesting i watched an interview when you were 16 years old and you seem supremely confident then i watched a couple of interviews of you from a couple years ago and not that you weren't confident but you were uh more shy and then i watched a more recent interview with you um the swolverine one and you were back to the 16 year old version of yourself that one was just like four months ago i was like oh wow she and she went through like a confident 16 year old then kind of a humbling period right she got her first you got your wings you went from a strong caterpillar to kind of like a new awkward

uh butterfly and then now it's like you've been flying with the big butterflies for a year and i was like wow she got her swagger back yeah her 16 year old swagger back yeah i think it was like a lot easier for me in the teenage division to like have a ton of confidence because like i made the crossfit games within the first like i wasn't even doing crossfit for a year and i made the crossfit games so do you know this story Brian that story's crazy we're gonna go to that sorry go on okay that story's crazy um but yeah it was like I mean kind of just like having that expectation of like always making the games um and then like whenever I did turn 18 I was was thrown out with the big girls.

There was this part of me that was like, oh, well, I'm just not good enough, especially getting 21st at Granite Games. I decided to use that as fuel and moved down to Cookville. It's been good ever since. I feel like I've gained that confidence back of like, hey, I do belong in this field. Gymnastics is your first sport? Yes. How old?

I did it basically until I could walk to 14 years old. Okay. So 10 or 12 years of gymnastics. Was your mom a gymnast or your dad a gymnast nope neither of them were but they just started taking you to like the 18 month old class like us crazy parents do as soon as you yeah yeah yeah hey when you do gymnastics that long don't you get to like the weird stages like the part that that's like where the eating disorders are and the coaches hit you and like they the practices are eight hours long and like just the weird,

the weird parents and weird kids. Like now you're in that kind of like, yeah, it did get like a bit crazy, whatever, like eyes towards the end of my gymnastics career. Yeah. Um,

things definitely like I was constantly in the gym. If I wasn't in school, I was doing gymnastics and, um, it wasn't in school, I was doing gymnastics. And it wasn't really, I didn't think it was the healthiest environment for me towards the end. But, you know, I'm glad that I'm out of that. And it brought me to CrossFit. It's a common theme on this show. The girl who's in her 10th year is like, whoa, shit started getting weird. Yeah.

But you know something? Maybe you're aware of this. Maybe not. But in the past year or so, there's been some conversation about if it's appropriate to talk about the bodies of the athletes that are competing. I feel like that also exists in gymnastics. Yeah, for sure. And it's similar. It's like your body is your

product. Like you need to, you need it to do that. And, um, you can certainly tell me I'm wrong, but I would imagine that relative to other girls that were doing gymnastics that eventually you got probably to be bigger than some of them. And so you probably did well on certain things and had harder time on other implements. Yeah, for sure. It was like, it was really crazy, especially like going throughout your teenage years. If you literally like grew, if you had a growth spurt of like an inch, it would mess up like your whole bar routine or like your beam routine. Like you felt all wonky and weird for a period of time. So it was like, it was really crazy. And those like final years i was like doing

gymnastics there was so much change during it and it definitely created a lot of difficulty for it i mean even think of the dudes um you have to be absolutely the skinniest you can possibly be while still working on the rings like how starved can i make myself and maintain all my everywhere other than the shoulders you have to have massive shoulders yeah but i mean you but i mean right that that's the thing it's the nature of that sport i'm saying nothing negative about it but you're trying to move the body through these crazy positions and through there and it's basically hey how skinny can i fucking get but still be strong as an ox yeah and it's also like it's pretty crazy because it's like such a subjective sport where like other people are really like telling you like oh your point or your big toe is crooked so like i'm

taking a 10th off like and a lot of the times for like bars like if you're i don't know just like with the different body types like if you were kind of leaner and taller like your lines looked prettier so you get a higher score whereas i was kind of like shorter and stockier and i maybe didn't look like pretty all the time so it was like i don't know it's kind of it's it's judge number three isn't attracted to you so he docked you uh i mean sure i'm not even i'm not even talking shit about it i'm just like yeah it's just humans it's just people but this thing she's talking about where the angle of your big toe or whatever maybe that's a minutiae but some it's just having immaculate control of your body and in the coaching development that i've done it's called

motor control i think this is what one of the main reasons why gymnasts can translate over to CrossFit so well. How many times have you seen someone in gym and say, okay, now reach back with your hips and someone, some people can do it. Some people cannot. I think gymnasts in particular are very good at that because all of the cues from their coaches at some point are okay. When you're finishing this thing, make sure you do this extension with your elbow, not this or with your finger or your toe or whatever. Yeah. Yeah.

Everything's like down to the last detail and gymnastics. So we're going to, we're going to talk about that too, by the way, there's a, I remember gymnasts coming in and there being some difficulty in abandoning some of that composure and control for speed. But we'll get to that.

And I want to talk about how you had to let maybe some of that go to get times. Are you comfortable talking about any of the weird stuff that happened? Like was it around food or just around just how many hours you were there? Was there anything in particular that like for parents out there like, hey, be attentive to this. This is too much for a kid 10 years of this shit or hey don't be a sissy push your kid through yeah i guess it it really depends on like the gym that you're at um but like i i'm not sure if you guys are familiar with like any of the like nasar stuff oh yeah i have that athlete a documentary yeah

that guy's and that's the crazy doctor that was hurting the girls yes yes that was nuts i lived with him like an hour and a half from him so i like my coaches always sent me to him whenever i had any injuries and like thankfully nothing ever happened to me but it was like I don't know just like that kind of like whole area in there like the coaches closer to Lansing wherever he practiced out of like they um I mean one of them like was um I don't I think he had like a warrant out for his arrest and then he ended up killing himself. But because he knew he was in deep trouble, but that guy killed himself. Nassar killed himself.

No, not Nassar. But one of the girls that was like, oh, oh, who was doing the same thing to the girls, molesting the girls. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think there was like. So there were warning signs. Yeah. Yeah. And did you know he was a creep when you went to him? I'd say like in the moment, no, like he definitely,

I feel like now whenever I look at him and see pictures of him in jail, I'm like, yeah, you're a creep. But obviously like after knowing what happened, but like it's a doctor, you're a creep. But obviously, like, after knowing what happened, but like. It's a doctor. You're supposed to trust him. Right. Exactly. And like he like, I don't really want to give him any credit because I absolutely hate what he did, obviously. But he was super smart and like really good at what he did as far as like doctoring goes.

really good at what he did as far as like doctoring goes um so it was like such a shame that he literally wasted all that talent for no reason to just end up in jail for the rest of his life but i like i remember whenever like he first got arrested my mom like called me i was like what the heck like it was before school and she was like hey must have scared the crap out of your parents must have scared the crap out of them for sure yeah and like they were always in the room with me like they never left my side with um i love hearing this yeah with like any doctor i ever went to and so i it the scary thing to me is that like now that the stories are coming out like girls are saying that he he would do stuff even with their parents in the room i heard those stories right i heard the girl telling the story my parents were right there yeah yeah which is like

crazy to me but brazen? This guy's a maniac. Yeah. It's yeah. It's very unfortunate, but. And it shows you how easily people can be duped. It's not like the parents were allowing it. They were just kind of awed by his doctor in his role too. Right. Oh, you must know he's the doctor. Yeah. Yeah. Which is like crazy to me. Like, I mean, I guess like for my parents, they always taught me from a young age they're like if you ever feel like uncomfortable by like a stranger or even somebody that you trust like if they touch you in a weird spot like immediately tell us because it's not right but like I think people are just like so willing to like take that risk in a sport if it's going to make them better and like just push it to the side.

But it's it's crazy. Weird stuff. Yeah. So my takeaway from that is you had great parents. Yes. Please, kids, talk to your parents. Someone said to me the other day after we had Garrett on here, someone sent me a DM and they said, Hey, all parents need to tell their kids. You should never have a secret with another adult. There's no secret that you should,

if any adult ever wants to keep a secret with you, that's the tell your parents right away. Yeah. There's no, there's no one should be having secrets with your kids. so the takeaway for me here is is um that means you were an extremely competitive gymnastics program if you're by uh you know mr uh uh mr olympic gross doctor yes yeah yeah it was it was super competitive like yeah especially like, in and around my area that I was, like, training in. And it just, it definitely got to be, like, too much for me. It was, like, way by my last season, I was dry heaving, like, over garbage bins before every event, like, crying. Because of anxiety? Yeah.

Because you sound like Matt Fraser. I was going to say, yeah, you sound like Matt Fraser. What's wrong with that? Don't be a sissy, Paige. Yeah, it was, it got pretty bad. I was like going to see like a sports psychologist, literally just to get me through my last season. And like I had, fortunately,

throughout my whole career, I never had any major injuries, just like kind of small minor stuff and lots of aches and pains. And then just before my last season, I dislocated my knee, like fractured my femur bone, had a giant bone bruise. And like like somehow it healed up within like three months so I was still able to compete that season and like after my first competition I kind of knew that like I was done with gymnastics and I told my parents and they're like you know just like stick it out through the season and like it's probably not gonna be that bad and um like we just don't want you to regret it if you don't if you just quit right now um and that that season was like I mean we were doing all that I could just to like get me through there but it's like before every event just like dry heaving like

so anxious so nervous and even for like, I was like starting to get like, work myself up to like stomach aches. And like, it was pretty crazy. Hey, what's the, what's the feedback you have for parents out there that your, your parents are put in a tough spot. Cause I get where they're coming from. They're like, man, she's put 10 years in, uh, we, we want to support her to do the right thing. Do you think that they, do you think that they handled that right in hindsight? Like, are you glad you had that experience of all that anxiety or do you wish that they would have let you off the hook? Um, I do. And by the way, that takes strong parents. They didn't like doing that. I promise

you they hated it. They hated it. Yeah. I still have conversations with them today about it um like I think for my dad especially like he was a competitive swim coach so he like he gets the like mentality that you have to be in to be like a super competitive person in anything and um like I think for him especially he was like he just didn't want me to regret like quitting and then maybe later in the season being like, why did I do that? I should have finished out or even like wanting to go back to the sport. like you know are you gonna have a problem with like people asking you like well what are you doing now that you're done with gymnastics and like for a period of time there it was like nothing I was like I don't really have anything lined up um I had an idea of a couple things I wanted to do I was like I I was so like down for gymnastics at the point I was like I don't even care if I'm like doing nothing right now I just want to be like out of the sport um but I mean they were super supportive of it and like also

supportive of trying to find things for me to like fill that time gap because I mean like I said earlier it was really like school gymnastics and then go home, dinner, shower, homework, and sleep. So there's like no wiggle room in my schedule to like a whole bunch of free time. And they're like, we have to get you in something because you're like going crazy. So that's when we started like exploring swimming and diving for high school and um crossfit i was just trying to think if there's anything in my life that's ever been like that like you did something that you were so committed to and then had to and then decided to quit it and it's like most people don't even ever put themselves in that position i mean the only thing i could

think of is i had a job at crossfit for 15 years, but I didn't quit. I got fired. And like, I was doing it for money. Like you act, you had a hobby that was so intense that you at 17, you're like, nah, how old were you when you quit? 16? I was 14. 14. Okay. 14. Yeah. What a crazy already life experience to have a psychological journey to have to already throw away one, a 14. Okay. I'm done with that identity. Yeah.

It's a good lesson though, is, is how critical the, the adults surrounded in that, in that environment are for her, you know, and I had this exact same experience with swimming as a really good swimmer. You did. I was a really good swimmer. It did? I was a really good swimmer. It was taking most of my time. I was one of the best in the state. I had been picked to select our region in a national competition.

But my coach was negligent of her responsibilities, and it pissed me off to the point that I ended up quitting as well. Yeah. Yeah, that's like, I mean, my coaches were like, whenever I told them that, I was like, hey, I think I'm going to be done. My coaches were kind of like, well, you know, you can maybe just cut it down to like Tuesday, Thursday, Friday practice. And like they would like hop on the phone with my parents and they're like, your daughter can literally like go to college for free if she keeps doing gymnastics and there was just like literally nothing that was gonna get me to go back into it i was just done yeah good on you hey um another

thing on there too which is interesting is we kind of heard that story from rich yesterday and we've heard the story from um which was kind of crazy to hear from rich rich basically went away to college to play baseball, but wasn't happy. Wanted to come back home to his family and his girlfriend. We heard that story from Jason Hopper, went to Clemson with football, just 18 years old, just wasn't mature enough.

Just didn't like that feeling of being away and came back and got, God, thank God Rich did that. Yeah, for sure. Thank God baseball didn't get him. Yeah, for sure. It's crazy't get them yeah yeah for sure it's crazy how like everything works out in hindsight how do you become so this is the part that tripped me out so with that you're able to parlay um i'd like to hear like that first crossfit workout you do to the fact that like you when you talk about it it, you almost feel like, yeah, of course I'm going to the CrossFit games the first year I, at 14.

So like, I would say the first month of doing CrossFit, I actually didn't like it. Um, because it reminded me a lot of conditioning and gymnastics, which I like, that was probably my least favorite part of gymnastics. Um, but like, I remember my first workout was, um, assault bike and rower. And that was the only two things the class was doing, like an all barbell workout. So the coach at the time was like, that's not obviously something that somebody on their first day needs to hop in on um so it was like for the first month I was kind of like and like it's okay I'll I'll do it because my mom paid for the membership and um why did she why did she um put you in that was she crossfitting no no my um my friend Michaela she she went to the CrossFit Games twice as a teenager,

and, um, she was working out at that gym, and, um, she, she was doing gymnastics with me before, and I think she, um, quit gymnastics a year or two ahead of me. Yeah, that's her. And she, she was like, hey, just like have her try it. And like, a couple other of my gymnast friends were like, kind of dabbling in CrossFit. So I was like, all right, I'll give it a try. And then shortly after, or I believe it was shortly after I joined, Mikayla went to the CrossFit Games and competed. And I kind of saw that process. I was like, okay, if I know I can compete in it, I don't know.

You missed the dry heaving. You missed the dry heaving. You missed the dry heaving. Yes, for sure. Yeah. I missed just like absolutely torturing myself. So I was like, sign me up. So you want it. So, wow. I'm trying to think if I ever, I'm sure I've heard it before, but I just don't hear very often. So you came to CrossFit and the appeal for you really is the competition. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm a super competitive person in like everything I do. So if there's like something that I know I can be good at and there's a competition in it, I'm like, sign me up. And so these gymnastic skills just translated seamlessly to all the things you had to do the clean and jerk to snatch the toes, the bar, the, the ring muscle ups, the burpees. You were just like, yeah, this is my, this is easy peasy. At least learning the movements. Yeah.

I think I definitely pick things up a little bit faster than like other people might, if they don't have a gymnastics background um just having that like bodily awareness and I remember like snatching that was super hard for me to like first do it felt so foreign it honestly like all the lifts did um but like as far as like ring muscle-ups and bar muscle ups went, we never really did those as like a female gymnast. But just like having the bodily awareness of like knowing where you're like how to kick or like where your feet have to be and whatnot definitely helped out a ton. In the gymnastics facilities, obviously there's rings there. And the women are training or the girls are training.

Is it just like, no, that's for the boys just don't go over there yeah pretty much um i remember there was one gymnastics coach that we had that was a male and like he was our strength and conditioning coach and occasionally he'd have us like play around on the rings and he taught us like strict bring muscle ups he taught us how to use the um parallel bars um but it was um we stopped working with him once we got into like the higher levels and he actually ended up moving away so it had been a while and I had put on like probably 100 pounds between like, just being like a small seven year old to like a 14 year old. So. I mean, it's kind of like that in CrossFit gyms, you know, there's always the rings there, but like, there's only a small percentage of the

gym population that uses the high rings. Everyone else just kind of looks at them like, I wonder what it'd be like one day. Yeah. What a great perspective you just put on uh that you put on 100 pounds while doing a sport yeah actually i mean that's wrong i know i know but what it's great i mean like hillar's doing steroids and trying to put on 10 pounds you just happen to be a you know five-year-old kid to a 14-year-old girl and put on 100 but yeah it's crazy yeah yeah it yeah so that was that was definitely like a big battle too and gymnastics was like your weight is obviously naturally as you get bigger you're gonna get heavier and um i think whenever i quit gymnastics i was like 120 pounds and then when i started crossfit i put on like 15 pounds of muscle within like the first like probably six months of doing

it so wow hey if if you could go back and talk to your gymnastic self younger knowing you were going to be doing crossfit would you i mean did you guys do any running as gymnasts? Those 15 pounds are just because she started squatting. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Another thing that gymnasts don't do, right? You guys don't squat and you guys don't run?

Not really. I remember doing – so, okay. so okay i remember we did our running was um a mile on the floor which is i believe it was something stupid like 36 or something i don't know like laps around the floor so you're literally just going in circles and like getting dizzy and every step you get a nice little spring that's not natural yeah yeah and then um like running for like vault but gymnasts also aren't taught running form so we like run like chest way back like arch back and it's honestly i still like somewhat. The antithesis of the pose method. Yes. Yeah.

And yeah, sometimes I'll like catch myself when I'm like doing sprints. My chest will be like back and like my back's arched. I'm like, wow, this is so wrong. But that's just the former gymnast days coming through. If you could talk to the younger version of yourself knowing that you're gonna do crossfit would you've just done more running or squatting or no maybe but also like probably not because those were probably my two least favorite things um so i don't know if i would have had like the will to do it younger.

How are they now? Do you still not like them? Are you still not or is running and squatting your least favorite? I'd probably say they are my least favorite. I've definitely grown a time with like how much I like them, especially in the past, like a couple months since the games, I've been hitting squats like crazy and running like, uh, two to three days a week because those are probably my two biggest weaknesses. So, um, I'm learning to love them or just telling myself that I love them and

tricking myself. I don't know either way. So, so when you're 14, um, so, so basically you do CrossFit for a year. Basically you start a month before the games, you see your friend go to the games and then you go around the full calendar year. And now you're, uh, the gate, the open happens and you enter the open. And do you start telling yourself that you think you're going to make it? Oh, for does your what do your mom and dad think about your new crossfit obsession i'm guessing by then you were going five days a week yeah yeah they like it was the place that i did crossfit in was like just like a beaten down little plaza it had like a car shop a like marble marble shop. It was so, it was definitely like really sketchy for my parents to like drop me off there. Like a dirty strip mall with a CrossFit gym in it?

Yes, basically. I like it. Yeah. And we would like be running around the parking lot. And, um, my parents were like, okay, is this literally a cult that we're dropping our daughter off to? And, I mean, obviously we all joke that CrossFit's, like, kind of like a cult. And, you know, you drink the Kool-Aid, whatever. But, like, I think by the time I made the games, they were starting to understand CrossFit a little bit more. But even while they were, like like at the CrossFit games, my mom had no idea what was going on. My dad probably didn't either, but, um, they're like,

what the heck is this? And it was like, so foreign to them. But shortly after I got, I got them both in the gym. So. Um, were they worried about your physical safety at all like you know overhead squatting these 135 pound bars or or was it they'd already seen gymnastics this was already like hey this is safer than gymnastics um i think i think my my dad's kind of like more like and whatever you know she's gonna do what she's gonna do But my mom has always been a little bit of a worrywart. And, like, I think she still kind of is where she's like, oh, my God, it's, like, so crazy that you're lifting all that weight.

But now that she's, like, kind of doing it herself, she understands that, like, I know how to do it safely. And, like, I don't know. Jethro says Paige certainly seems older on the competition floor i keep forgetting how young old this generation of athletes is yet there was an interview where she's saying she did she had to go back to figure out who rich was because she was too young to watch him uh compete that's that that is just that's amazing how old are you now you're 20 22 um 19 19 turn 20 you were holding a champagne bottle in one of those pictures shame on you in italy

is the drinking age there 18 probably right you see her face after she's like oh yeah they let the kids in the club at 15 there so yeah drinking age is not really applicable in Italy at least from what I saw so so then you make it to the games your first year and is it before after that point that you're um hooked um it was it was definitely before um i think like the probably from the open the first open that i did i was like kind of just like hooked on like even just like making the games it was like it was it was the taste to it that was like i loved it um and then to like make the games on top of it i was like okay like yeah i want i want to do this for as long as i possibly can brian how can someone who's only been doing crossfit one year

make it to the games how is that because it's possible in the elite division uh but but but division and especially even at 14 i know but yeah and i think um in mind, what year was that? The first year? 2018. Which is only, I think, maybe the third year, fourth year at most of Teenage Division even being around. So it's kind of like put on par with like a 2010 or 11 CrossFit Games, Savan, where you could have someone like, you know, I'm trying to think of who, like a Josh Bridges. He showed up in 2011, took second place. It's less and less likely to happen as time goes on. Yeah.

And also like it was top 20 in 2018, whenever I qualified. I'm not sure what it is now because I think it's changed like five times since I've like started CrossFit. It's true. It's twice as hard. There's only half as many spots now. Yeah. So I remember like I qualified in 13th place from the age group quarter or age group qualifier. And then I ended up placing like third at the games, which is exactly why. And I understand from a logistics

standpoint, why they do it, why I've been a proponent of keeping it at 20 and actually Chad traders written articles about how many athletes like that there are who've qualified 11th through 20th not just in the teenage divisions but also the master's divisions and have gone on to place in the top 10 top 5 podium and in rare cases even win the games so you're not really casting a broad enough net through the online qualifier to get the the best results uh for the those divisions at the games with 10 that's my opinion i think yeah she's nodding like yes yes yeah i think i think that's fair i think like so the next year the my my first year in the 16 17 it was top 10 and it was definitely like there's a couple people i remember seeing on the leaderboard

that is like oh like i thought they would have had a chance at like the podium or like at least top five had they made it um in the 16 17 division but oh wow so you're saying you saw people who didn't even make it to the games where you're thinking like hey if they would have been here they would they'd have done really well. Yeah. Yeah. What's wrong? That means the tests aren't right to get to choose the right people?

I don't think so. I remember like the age group qualifier, qualifier workouts being pretty well rounded. I just I don't know. It's it's so different with like. um I just I don't know it's it's so different with like all the teenagers are still like in school and it's like games training like you have the whole summer off so you can just like train as much as you want and then like the results are like different at the games I don't I'm not exactly sure i do think like top 20 or even like top 15 i feel like that'd be like a little bit more reasonable than top 10 but so you're not just saying that just to get in more athletes

you're just saying hey the the games for teens uh specifically they need more people because for some reason the the the choosing process to get to get to the games isn't dialed in enough to pick the fittest. Is that what you're saying too, Brian? Well, yeah, kind of. But basically I'm saying there's a lot more that can be tested and will be tested at the games and even more so in the age group divisions because none of the previous qualifiers happen live or in person. So you're restricted by what you can test online. And therefore, there's a lot of unknown elements that will show up at the CrossFit Games. If you've got 20, I think you're much more likely to find out who actually has that kind of next level of fitness that the Games is meant to test for. Right. If you have 10, you might miss out on a few of those athletes yeah um is when you look back at the competition now does it look way harder

like when you look at these 14 year olds like have you seen the growth since when you were there when you were 18 already like oh my god i can't believe they're doing this already yeah for sure i feel like the people that are like from hayley's age range to like mine and younger have definitely like changed the age group division. And like the girls are so fit now. And like even Olivia Kerstetter, she's like on the up and rise. And like we've seen it, you know, in the past two years with Mel, I'm a carry, I'm a loss in this year. So it's like, it's crazy to see like where they're taking not only the teenage division, but like pushing through to the open division. Yeah. Um, you just named off a bunch of girls that you might be

spending the next five or 10 years, uh, competing with. They may be the only names that anyone knows in five or 10 years. What a great crew. So your 25th place finish, are you? Let's pause there for a sec. Okay, please. We can talk about that, of course, but I've been thinking about this the whole time and I didn't know if you were going to find the pattern.

So two years ago, excellent quarterfinals, less than excellent semifinals. This season, excellent semifinals. If we can pull up the semifinals from Atlas games, I don't think that this gets talked about enough with regards to Paige. I mean, these were Emma Lawson's finishes, second, first, first, sixth, third, first. And these were Paige's first, seventh, second, third, first, second. It's almost identical. It's a one spot off, eight points off. But Emma won and Paige got second. And then you go to the games and Emma had a great performance there.

And you had a less good performance than you did at semifinals. So it's almost like the same pattern repeated itself just one stage later in the season. Yeah. Yeah, I guess I haven't really noticed that. But now that you say it um yeah I look at that they're so far ahead of everyone else it was it was a bit of a shock to me um like going from second place in semifinals to uh 25th place in the games um i i'm like god you have such crazy self-belief i

freaking love it um yeah i think i mean i mean just like the competitor in me i'm like i always want to win everything so it's like i want to get as close to possible as winning like it and it doesn't matter like what the competition is like. I mean, at the end of the day, if I like do everything that I can and like, I perform the best to my abilities, I'm happy with that. But there's always like something inside of me. Like even at Atlas games, I had a great performance, like probably one of the best performances in my life. And I was still like, first place was so close. It almost like kind of hurt a little bit. Brian,

what were you explaining there? I didn't, I didn't get what you were saying. What was the pattern? The pattern went complete. You guys 2021. Yeah. Good quarter finals performance. Yeah. Good quarterfinals performance.

Yeah. Relatively bad semifinals. So she goes and processes that and prepares for the next season. She comes back the next season. Oh, semifinals performance, relatively bad games performance. So I would assume that this year she'll go back and try to see, well, where did I, why did I do better at semifinals at the games? Put another year of work in. And so then we'll see what happens in season three. Yeah, for sure. Can you pull up those semifinals at the games put another year of work in and so then we'll see what happens in

season three yeah for sure can you pull up those semi-final scores is she really are you really that um competitive with emma lawson or is it really just that you guys were just the two best so so you beat her in the first first workout uh second workout there's a 36 seconds, third workout, uh, only six seconds. Uh, next workout, uh, you beat her by three places. Uh, workout after that, you beat her by, holy shit. I, excuse me, by almost a minute, a minute, uh, uh, workout. Can you believe I said, excuse me? I know.

I just keep thinking her parents are listening. I just want to be a good boy um uh workout six uh uh second place you guys basically leave the field in the dust uh she beats you by 13 seconds let's see workout seven so you really are competitive with them okay that's so you really are you're wow and what place did emma lawson take at the games there's just seven eight oh yeah You should be ashamed of yourself, Paige. I'm sorry. I know. I am completely 25th. The fact that you made it to the games is absolutely nuts. Can we look at your, can we look at the games?

Competition. Can we look at the leaderboard there? Caleb, what was the best you did at the games page? Um, I believe my best event was the echo bike and, um, while facing strict handstand pushup, which I think was like six. How happy are you that you have handstand pushups? What a nightmare it is for the people who don't have that, right? Yes. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. I was like, what a dark hole to fall into. If you're a CrossFit games athlete, if that's your whole man, that's just a bummer. Um, yeah,

I am really glad that handstand pushups are something something that I'm good at and then like it was kind of fun this year with like the um wall facing and deficit it was almost like I I love bench pressing and it was almost like um like a inclined bench that like your shoulders were like put into that position so i really enjoyed that event because i didn't really like struggle that much on the hands like i surprised myself i was i was struggling in the warm-up area but out there i was like oh okay this is kind of fun so do you notice that with uh any other workouts or other athletes i feel like i hear that all the time at the games like we were back in the back we're trying this thing out everyone's kind of struggling with it we go on

the floor everyone crushes it yeah so i remember specifically the sandbag clean one rep max event it was like it was insane to like watch it all unfold because in the back in the warm-up area people were barely hitting the 150, 160. And then you have girls out there going, like, I mean, obviously, Danny Spiegel with the 250 was insane. But, like, the other girls hitting 240, 230, it was, like, crazy to watch. And, like, it was kind of funny, too. Because, like, you'd see them, like like inch the bag up and like get another bag and they're like you could see the surprise on their face too so you guys do that at all at mayhem did

you guys mess with those at all before the games no i think the heaviest sandbag i had touched um before that event was a 150 and honestly we didn't really do it that often either so and has that changed it's rare even that a an event will show up at a programming where the women have 150 pound sandbag like most of the stuff is 150 and 100 yeah yeah we typically use the 100 pound and like we do sandbag cleans quite often and like cycling the hundred. Is that a hundred right there? Yeah. God, you're savage.

I cannot believe how easy you picked that off the ground. Yeah, we just do a lot of them. So yeah, it was like the 150, if we ever touched it, it would be oh there bill goes um but 150 would typically be like a sandbag carry and like um some sort of like strong man workout so it was like the difference between like getting it to your stomach area to like your shoulder is pretty big when it starts to get heavy so god there's a there's a video in that event, like at 1826 or something in the sandbag event. Um, I was, I saw it last night when I was looking for some footage of you and, uh, free a Moose burger. Basically she gets the bag up and it

basically just spits her out to the side. Oh yeah. Cause the bag's so heavy. I'm like, what? Oh, I thought it happened to you when I was looking for it, but I only found free is, side oh yeah that because the bag's so heavy i'm like what happens to me too that did oh i thought it happened to you when i was looking for it but i only found freya's oh hey yeah because i saw this look on your face like i'm like did she get spit out by the bag because i saw this look on your face like someone slapped you like you looked insulted when you look back at the bag i was like what just happened it was like the most wild thing i think think it was with the 170. Like I remember I was struggling with it. And then like I finally got it somewhat up to my shoulder. And then the next thing I knew, I was literally just like on the ground.

I was like, what happened? Yeah. I don't know if you can find that hers, Caleb. It's got to be before 1826 because I think at that point they're doing the 180. And you did the 180 pretty well. You did the 180 pretty good. Yeah. The 180 I struggled with less than the 170.

Yeah. It was weird how it was spitting people out. It was like literally like pushing down on them and then they would just go flying out. Like, wait, what happened now? Yeah. Yeah. I know. Like, I saw it happen to a couple of girls before me.

I was like, oh, like, that's not going to happen to me. Next thing I know, i saw it happen to a couple girls before me i was like oh like that's not gonna happen to me next thing i know i pick it up it spits me out it was somewhat of an unpredictable event i remember you know i tried to watch the group of four or five whatever it was and i'd be like okay i think this in that group this might be the next person out so the next time i'd watch that one and then out of the corner of my eye i'd see someone else yes across the floor i'm like oh man just engine it up. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have, do you have time to be embarrassed out there page? Or it's not like that at all. It's like, you don't give it. It's like, um, there was definitely like a split second of embarrassment when I got spit out. Um,

but after that, it was just like, I was so focused on the next bag that it didn't really matter. Yeah, you can't even be right. Yeah. You can't indulge in that at all. Yeah, I forgot about it until like somebody brings it up or I don't know. Right, until you're on a podcast and someone shows you the video of you getting spit out. Yeah. Also, like in the 2018 games, the last event I blew off the bar on the, on toast bar,

it was total bar sandbag cleans. And I flew off the bar on the last set. And, um, I was still able to like gather myself together and like when the workout, which is what got me on the podium. But that was also something that is like highly made fun of for like until this day so uh toes to bar on your grip gave way because you were pushing into the red zone yeah did you know it was gonna happen were you like was that a calculated risk or just completely unexpected honestly it was unexpected wow i yeah i mean my my grip was, but I didn't realize how shot it was. And I was just trying to hang on to, like, get the podium spot. And, I mean, it was a relatively, like, quick, like, I fell. My judge still no-repped me even though I fell, which was, like, hilarious.

You're laying on your back and the judge is like, no. Yes. Yeah, it's like, thank you. You're laying on your back and judge is like, no. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, thank you. Um, and then we just like got right back up and finished my like three or four toes, the bar and sandbag cleans.

And I was that. Paige, is, is there, is there a part of, of being a great CrossFit games competitor? of being a great CrossFit games competitor. Like when you guys look at someone like Matt or Tia, do you guys just think, wow, they, they, they must hurt more than us in practice. Like, is there any simple equation that you can just put there? Like, wow. Like when I was on the assault bike, I did, I didn't go, I, I did have half a percent more and that's where t is not holding

back like is there any equation that's like yeah they just hurt more in practice um i do think that like yeah that has a part to do with it and then like training volume itself like they're you know probably doing more um and then also i think like genetics are a huge component to it. Um, I, I was actually, I don't want to believe that really it's, it is, it is a lot genetics. Um, I do think so. I've had this conversation quite a bit recently, um, with my friends, but like, I do think that genetics, like you can't beat genetics and hard work on top of it. Like you can, if you lack the genetic component

and then you're still working as hard as you can, you're never going to get to like the point where I believe like Tia is, where she has a strong genetic component. And then also that like ability to like work hard and just like grind and go in a dark space all the time. But I don't know. Like we had, we had a, we had spray gone here the other day and he said like,

it had been three years since he had done a max row effort. And we just all made the assumption. right it's it's a freaking nightmare yeah right but then you hear about people like matt who every morning claims he did that to himself on the assault bike every morning and the thought of that i just don't think one in a million men can do that yeah i mean i tell myself i'm gonna go as hard as i can and i I watch my body say, no, you're not, and pull back. Now I'm just a little old dude in a garage. But the hurting thing is really huge, right? Yeah, for sure.

I think that's something that I've tried to get better at this offseason. get better at this off season I think there's like some people in CrossFit that they literally like they just enjoy that kind of pain whereas like other people kind of like me I have to like tell myself this is what's gonna like make you out on the assault bike or like, I mean, that just like, right. Doesn't sound, you know,

that appeasing to me, but it's like, for the adaptation might be like, gets me to that place. And training is like thinking about my end goals and like how it's going to better me. But it's not like, Hey, like, and like how it's going to better me. But it's not like, hey, like, you know, it's a great day. The sun is shining.

I want to black out today. Right. And there's totally different styles of suffering. I'm pretty good if you go 15 plus minutes. I can just kind of get to a threshold and stay there. But if we have a two to five minute workout, I'm going to lose to a lot of people because I'm not willing to go to that sixth gear for three minutes or whatever. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

I just think that I'm convinced that's where the most of the adaptation happens in that horrible place. That's why Fran is such a famous workout. Is this the… Oh, are we going to get to see her get spit out? Look at Caleb laughing. I can see caleb laughing what she's dead center she's in the middle lane yeah okay no more than seven seconds at a time these people hate me they would love to fucking get ding me seven seconds at a time oh here we go

a dead center right in the middle is the great page powers in a rookie year at the crossfit games yep oh there i go oh my god oh no were you drinking before that event how much did you take a shot of whiskey what were you doing yeah i don't i don't know what i was doing but got a little wobbly there for a sec and just look at look at your look at your surrogate mom back there bailey rail she's like what yes I wish you would have come out there and kick the bag or stabbed it with a knife how dare you do that to Paige yeah yeah she literally is like my mom sometimes she's like a sister and a mom and I just remember like in that moment like her being behind me I was like she's probably so stressed out right now, but I'm going to get this thing another go. I was like, sorry to do that before TV before you're about to

go. But Kayla, one more time, let us watch the great. This is a amazing microcosm of sport in general. Like if you watch this, you think she's completed the lift. No, it's not quite done. And if you fast forward to the men's final bag in two instances, I think with Fikowski, or it's definitely, it's the same thing. You thought he had it and he didn't. And the next thing you know, it's, it's over and you've got to stay focused all the way through. Tell me more, Brian.

What, what do you mean? What do you, what do you mean? You think she has it? Cause, cause she got it up, but she didn't look at it. Like from this angle, it looks like she's going to finish this lift for sure. Yeah. But I, you know, and it may just be, it was beyond the physical capacity. It may be that she had that mental thing. I got this, it's on my shoulder, but you got to stay focused until you get the call from your judge.

And if you lose focus for an instant, then you lose out those points. For sure. Here we go. Okay. It's up. Yeah. Yeah. She got it. Yeah. Oh, so just a little bit on your head. So basically you leaned it on your head and your head went that way and your body went that way. Yeah. Yeah, I think I was like already so like unstable. Sorry, look at that shot.

She's like she's got it under her arm like a football, like she's a running back there. Yeah, just peak athleticism right there. That's lovely uh hey do you play any other sports do you do like when you go out there like do you do at the with mayhem do you play flag football with rich or uh volleyball or do you do baseball or do you do any pickleball or you're doing any of that stuff not really i um i'd actually love to get more into like athletic and like specifically like ball sports because i'm really good at like

using my body for things like snowboarding i can do wake surfing i can do but like when it comes to like that hand eye coordination or like eye foot coordination I lack that quite a bit so I'd like to like get better at that I have been like occasionally shooting basketballs in the gym and just like try to get better at that but that's kind of like one of my like outside crossfit goals because like again I'm super competitive so if like people invite me to play just a fun game of softball with them and I'm not doing good or I can't hit the ball as much as I want to, I start to get pretty mad. So, yeah, I'd like to get more athletic this year for sure. Do you actually live in Cookville? Yes.

Yep. And I think I heard you say your brother lived in cookville yeah he actually lives with me um for at least another couple months until he graduates um how did he end up in cookville does he have a games aspirations also no he does not he ended up here for college at Tennessee Tech. That's not even a real college, is it? Yeah, surprisingly it is. Golden Eagles, I believe it is. But him and my mom drove down to Tennessee, to University of Tennessee, to look at that college originally when he, um,

was that's where he wanted to go. And was he a CrossFitter? No, no, no. Him and my mom weren't both weren't actually, it was only me at the time I was doing CrossFit. And, um, they said that they were going to pass through, um, Cookville to look at Tennessee Tech. And I was like, oh, hey, that's pretty cool. Can you, like, stop in CrossFit Mayhem and grab me a shirt? And so they, like, went in there, and it was so foreign to them. Like, it was – because obviously, like, it's a huge gym, and they're like, what are we doing here? They didn't even know what Mayhem was. they're like what are we doing here they didn't even know what mayhem was and um they met darren hunsucker there and um he was like basically just like hey like i'm from michigan and like

he i mean darren's like a people person so he was like chatting it up with them and they like kind of immediately like felt like a homey feeling there. And Tennessee Tech was, like, quite a bit of a smaller school than University of Tennessee. So I think that was, like, more attractive to my brother to come down here for his degree. But, yeah, it was, like, they came down here before, like, I mean, I had like just started CrossFit and like, obviously I knew Mayhem is there, you know, one of the biggest gems. And yeah, the weird synchronous synchronicity here for people who aren't following the story is that Darren Hunsucker is, you know, jokingly, but arguably one of the greatest coaches ever of any CrossFit games athlete. He was Rich's cousin. He coached Rich through all the years.

Now he's the programmer for the affiliate programming for Mayhem, a rich, whatever rich talks about him, rich lights up. You can tell there's an immense respect for him. But the weird part is this guy, I think lives 30 minutes away from page in her hometown of Michigan. But then here's her parents or your brother and your mom visiting

mayhem. And he happened to be there and they ran into him. And is that how then you started working? Um, did they mention you to Darren and then you started working with Darren up in Michigan because that was your first coach, right? Working with, uh, he wasn't my first coach. Or first, you know, sort of games coach, maybe. No? Sort of. I had, so the original coach that I was working with, he owned the gym I was going to, and he coached Mikayla to the CrossFit Games.

Oh, okay, okay. And then he also got me and another teenage girl to the CrossFit games. What was his name? Sorry. No disrespect to him. What was his name? Adam Paulson. Okay. And then, um, so whenever my brother decided to actually go to Tennessee Tech and like, um, we moved, we all came down and moved him into his dorm. And of course, like I wanted to come to, you know, be supportive sister, but also to check out Cross and Mayhem. And so that's where I met Darren and Jess, his wife. And Jess was working for, or she still is working for M2 Performance M2 Performance Nutrition. And, um, I was working

with Mike who owns it and he was, he kind of like connected us together and like told Jess I was coming down. Um, so like we instantly hit it off and she was super sweet and she was like, Hey, we're moving back to Michigan like in a couple of months. And I think we're like right in your area. I was like, oh, my God, that's like great. And at the time, the gym that I started at was kind of like on its way out. And the situation wasn't super ideal. And obviously, when you get like an opportunity to be trained by a CrossFit, like Rich Broening's coach, and like kind of somebody that's like been with him throughout his whole career, you take him up on that. So I started training with their cousin,

JJ, who was like a half hour from me in Michigan. And then whenever they eventually moved up to Michigan, they started coming in, um, working out with us and Darren started coaching me. Crazy, crazy, small world. And at that point, did you know that, Hey, someday I'm going to end up down there in Cookville? Um, yeah, sort of yeah um i i wanted to like ride out being in michigan with them as long as possible um because it was such a great environment up there and they're all like a second family to me now so it was like they were a big part of like them and my family were a big part of me wanting to stay in michigan and then um jess and darren were like hey we think if you know you really want to make a splash in

the individual side of things that the best thing for your career would be to move to cookville so uh be sure wow very generous thank you the future of the sport is bright. I know. Isn't it? I gets crazy talking to page. The future of the sport is bright on the elite women's side with athletes like page. I know I'm telling you, you say that all four podcasts, you've been on, you are the star. You save them. Those people should, uh, you're saving this one too. I've never said that. I've never even offered to share any money with Brian. Now I'm thinking I should send you 25 bucks.

That's great. you're in you're a special athlete and you can tell you work hard just from all those videos and it is really cool going back to the bailey rail thing it's very obvious that uh bailey needs a child because uh the way she treats you and talks to you like she's like she she wants to mama you which is cool your parents must be pretty are your parents happy are they concerned like hey what are you doing with this this rich froning and this gi and oh thank god for bailey um well i mean they know that like like whenever i was in michigan darren and jj constantly gave me crap like brothers so it was kind of a similar situation down here where like you know like you're with all the boys and they immediately just start giving you crap their newest thing is like um the ropes are in the um athlete space are apparently my face so whenever they um i irritate them or i'm

in their presence they look at me and then punch the rope um yeah yeah so they they really like to cookville it's okay people this is tennessee it's different it's different don't anyone get stressed out yeah i'm like i swear well i hope they love me but they also like to give me some crap so bailey is like she's she's mama sometimes and she stands up for me and like we'll kind of like make our own jokes together. And I mean, we think we're really funny. Rich, maybe not. But, you know, we secretly think he's laughing inside. He goes back home and he smiles and thinks about it.

You're a young girl. He's an old man. He's turning into the grumpy lion and you're the puppy. How did you get on that team for Italy? the puppy. How did you get on that team for Italy? So I believe originally Haley was supposed to be

on the team with Bailey, Tyler, and Rich. What was the team? Tell me. Explain this to me before you go into it. The one where she was drinking champagne. And what was the team and where did you compete? So it was me, Bailey, Tyler, and Rich.

Oh, you're living the dream. You're living the dream. Yeah, it was such a cool opportunity. I'm super grateful for it. It was such a fun time. But basically, I mean, they had had it planned out for like months in advance. And after the games, I'm not exactly sure what happened, but Haley was unable to compete on the team.

So Rich texted me like two days after the games, and he was like, hey, Italy, you in or you out? I was like, hey. That's how he says it? That's how he says it? Yeah. And like it was so funny because, I didn't know any details. I didn't know the exact dates.

I just knew it was like sometime within the next like month. I was like, shoot, sign me up. Personal text from Rich. Are you going to Italy with us? I don't have to ask any other questions. I'm in. Yeah. Sign me up coach.

Yeah. So how old are you right here in this picture? 19. Do you have to, do you have to ask your parents if you can go? Um, not really. They've actually been pretty like they actually, they've, they've been super supportive of like whatever I choose to do. And and like they're not afraid to give me their opinion and their advice but like i definitely well i was in michigan at the time i was like hey rich just like texted me if i wanted to go to italy and they're like yeah like do it so oh okay do you have a chaperone or is bailey the chaperone like like is this your first time overseas

ah facundo was there everyone was taken care of oh that's nice that's nice um yeah facundo came in clutch that week because none of us speak italian so he obviously knows like a crazy amount of languages italian being one so that came in very good use um but yeah it was like with her, with my parents, like knowing that I was going to be with like such a great group, rich included and their family and Hillary and the kids were there. She was like, she knew I was going to be taken care of. But, um, I have been overseas before. Um, never like on a trip without my family. Um, so it was a little different,

but it was, it was really fun. Um, yeah. Good times. Yeah. What, what a journey.

And, and how long was that trip? It was, I think it was close to two weeks. Wow. Okay. So it's just a couple of days of competition. And then you got to like,

and then do you just roll with Bailey every day? Like you wake up in the morning, you text her like, let's go, let's go get a coffee. Let's go walk around Italy. Yeah, sort of. There was, we actually had like, we were a group for most of the trip. like maybe the Monday after competition where um there was like a small group of us like Bailey and I and probably Tyler tagged along um and we kind of like took scooters to like the you have that skill you can ride a scooter yeah Bailey and Tyler are dating but Tyler was the one tagging along. Yes. So it was like Bailey and I came up with the plan and then Tyler, yeah, joined in. Yeah.

Sometimes we do that to him. Hey, any Italian boys chasing you around on that trip? Yeah, but yeah, that didn't really. But they're there. They're like flies. They're like flies. They're like flies. They're chasing you around. It's flattering.

It's nice. You can't go to Italy without some Italian boys chasing you around. Yeah, it was a little bit of an ego boost, confidence boost, a little bit. Yeah, of course. The Italians, definitely their culture, they love love. And they'll do anything. love love yes okay i like this yeah like they yeah they they will do anything for true love which is kind of like cute but it's definitely very different do you did you eat pizza in italy did. I eat a pizza every day when I'm in Italy.

Yeah, it was really good. But also, I have celiac disease, so I can't have gluten, which presented some challenges in Italy. But they were also very good with gluten-free pizza, gluten-free pasta. But there was a couple of days where I was getting a little hangry. Ah, Caleb. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Celiac disease, sometimes called celiac sprue or gluten sensitivity enteropathy. Enteropathy. Enteropathy. It is an immune. immune wow that was weird i thought caleb came on and helped me for a second enteropathy is an immune reaction to eating gluten why can't they just say that in the first sentence it's an immune reaction to eating gluten a protein found in wheat barley and rye

if you have celiac disease eating gluten triggers an immune response it makes you want to protest in portland wow okay uh how do, how do you know you have that? What happens? You just get, you start farting a lot. Actually, no. Um, for me, it was like, it was actually around the time that I was, um, quitting gymnastics. Um, I, that whole year I was, it was like super weird. I was super lethargic all the time. Like, were you falling asleep in class? Anytime I'd like, I'd get in the car on a five minute ride to gymnastics.

I'd be falling asleep. I was constantly tired. And my mom was the like, first one to notice. She was like, this is not right. And your mom's a nurse, an oncology nurse. So she knows some shit. Yes. And she was an ER nurse for like 16 years.

So she's definitely been in the field quite a bit. But she was like, yeah, something's not right. So we're going to get you checked out. And I went to so many different doctors. And a lot of them, well, actually all of them tested me for like depression. And I was like, I swear, like, I'm not lying on these tests. Like I'm not depressed. Um, that wasn't the case. And, um, finally, uh, one of my doctors was like, okay, let me ask you this though before you go to the

climax of the story was there was there a chance that they could have told you you're depressed did you when they start telling you that is it like crossing the border you know with mexico and they're like looking for drugs and you're like shit do i have drugs were you like were you like starting to be like am i depressed like what's going on am i may i don't know no after like the fifth time of being like tested i was like i mean i swear i'm not but maybe like if yeah maybe i am i don't know but like i passed all their depression tests with like flying colors so i was like i don't like obviously something else is the problem i was tested for like mono um like a whole kissing disease that's the kissing

disease is it i don't know that's what they used to say in high school i had mono and i never it's that and i'd never kissed a girl before i was bummed but oh i don't never heard that you learned something new okay um but yeah so they like one of my doctors ended up testing me for celiac and she's like, it's probably not this, but I'm going to test you anyways. And then like the blood work came back positive for it. So I had to get like a scope down my stomach to take like a piece of tissue. And they ended up finding like a giant ulcer. So I was literally getting like no nutrients whenever I was eating

um and I there was like quite a few things that like I realized um were like wrong with me as soon as I went off of gluten um like I was having rashes on my arms that went away. Obviously, like I was more awake and alert. And it's, I actually found this out like quite recently, but like gluten can make your brain like foggy sometimes. Something about the protein itself. And so like, I found once I went off of it, I had a much better time like concentrating in school. Yeah, it was it was pretty, pretty wild. And then like stomach pain started going away. So, hey, was the ulcer. Do you think that was related to the anxiety just with gymnastics and the throwing up and all that?

I think that did have like something to do with it um so is that and the gluten it was like a and then and then what and then you said you fractured your femur or something do you think that's from not getting enough nutrition um no that was an accident oh um yeah i i dislocated my knee on the beam um and like i i just like missed the skill and whack the side of my knee and just like popped out. Um, but they do say that like, um, celiac disease, like the symptoms of it can sit dormant for years, but if something like traumatic happens, it can spark it to like start flaring up, which is like right after I dislocated my knee, I started noticing like the symptoms of it happening, which was pretty like wild. But so no gluten, you're done with gluten. No gluten. Yeah. Is that hard?

Um, it's definitely easier nowadays because eating gluten free is kind of like trendy and people like to think that it's healthy. So there's lots of gluten free options. Now, it was a little tougher whenever I first started, especially because I'm a huge sweets person. But like naturally, with starting prospect, I wanted to start eating healthier to optimize my performance. So, you know, my diet pretty much started looking like chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, So, you know, my diet pretty much started looking like chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, beef, just like plain stuff. But it's like whenever I have to go out to eat or like taking the trip to Italy, it was a little bit harder to deal with it. Because you can't just like eat something and like, you know, it could even be like chicken and rice and just like what they season it with has gluten in it so do you accidentally eat it pretty often like when you were in italy you're like yep got a little

gluten i can tell um actually in italy i couldn't tell um but they also i've seen like certain things where like people with celiac can literally eat like bread and like real bread and real pasta in it Italy because something about like the harvesting process with the wheat, rye and barley, like they don't use the protein, uh, gluten to like, I don't know, something like that. That could be totally wrong. That could totally be false. No, no. Some, some people were mentioning something about this in the chat that there's a different, the grains are different in the North America than in Italy. Yeah. So, um, I, I actually felt like so good in Italy. I felt like not bloated at all. And, um, I like was never tired from like eating gluten or like being exposed possibly. But as soon as we came back to North America,

our layover was in Boston and I got food there that was like, probably like cross-contamination bothers me. And like, I got sweet potato fries, which were probably fried with the same and the same oil is containing things. And immediately I had like a sharp stomach ache. So, Oh, that sucks. Yeah. Yeah. But it was, is there anything you can do when that happens or you just have to let it pass? Um, you can take,

I've noticed that like Pepsod helps, um, or like Tums. But if I don't have anything on me in the moment, I kind of just have to like sit there in pain. And be like, I knew better. I knew better. Yeah. Yeah.

You're competing at Wadapalooza still? Yes, I am. Yep. And why? how come i just feel like it's a fun off-season competition like i've enjoyed it in years past so now that this year it's like only two days and i kind of get to enjoy the rest of my weekend um that was a little bit more attractive for me to sign up for it it's cool that you guys get to go first sorry go ahead brian were you tempted to do both competitions or maybe the team instead of the individual um i i was tempted to do both

um i there was like talk about maybe getting a team together, but I just felt like doing four days of competition in January would just be like too much for my fun and to like, see where I am and yeah, get a tan. I mean, there's a lot, there are a lot of athletes doing, doing both. I think it's, I don't know if it's the best decision or not. You know, we'll, we'll, we'll have to see. Yeah. Yep. Personally, I don't, I don't think that would, but super smart and healthy for me to do. What do you think you're going to place there? You think you're going to win this? You think you're going to be top five? I'd love to be top five.

I think that'd be great. But, I mean, I don't know. We'll see. $75,000, Paige. Yeah. Yeah, that's a pretty pretty penny so um yeah i i've been working super hard on my weaknesses this off season so like love to see how it applies to competition and what's that look like what's that look like when

you're uh when you're when you say that, we could just say, you know, or maybe long running is one of those weaknesses you've been targeting. You talked about running three times a week. Are you hoping a long run shows up at this? So you're like, I want to see in competition. Yeah, kind of. That, like, between that and, like, squatting, like that ring muscle-up squat workout, that's, I mean, that's pretty heavy for me.

Um, and I did test it earlier this week and already I could tell that I can handle that weight so much better than I could like last year. And then as far as like running goes, um, it's, I feel like I've improved like a ton on it. So I'd love to see like where I stack up on it this year. And like, I feel like offseason competition is the perfect place to be a marker of like, hey, I still need to do like I need to, even if it's like a shorter run and like rounds in a workout, like, just to see where I stack up and like, hey, I still need to work on this. So like, let's keep hammering it. Yeah. And it's, you know, sometimes you train something and it's like, this is the thing I'm targeting. Then you go to competition. It doesn't show up at all.

Like, yeah, I would really love to see if I've gotten better at X or Y. I think also when you're talking about the running and how you stack up, are you, because this is what I felt when you talked about the squats, are you talking more about how you stacked up compared to what you used to feel like doing a similar event or compared to the field or maybe a little bit of both? Yeah, definitely a little bit of both. I think in years past with like heavy squat volume or like weight or a combination of both

and workouts, I haven't really done as well. And like doing a lot of heavy like lactic acid like workouts this year, I feel like that's kind of like, helped me with that stimulus and competition. And then also like, going over to like the clean and jerk, like seeing how I can handle like, like, for me, my pull is great in my clean, but like, it's like getting the bar up from the bottom and the squat that's like harder for me so seeing how I will be able to handle that um relative to like what I've done in the past and compared to the field how do you how do you feel about the parallette hold I I actually really like it and I think it's very interesting that they did a one um one max attempt like that's

all you get so it's like it's really kind of fun to like see for the kick up like I feel like that's gonna be a huge part of it because if you like kick up slightly too short and you fall like that's you know like your time's one second so um i think it's really like interesting to see how people are going to handle that and for me myself like i know i've been practicing it like quite a bit since it's been released and um just seeing how i'm going to be able to handle it on the competition floor i'm excited to like put myself in that situation and kind of high, high stress, high pressure. I like it. Yeah. And there, and you know, there were a lot of events or parts of events that had that element of high stress or pressure of execution at the

game. So you got a good chance to practice that there. There's not a ton of games athletes in this field. So maybe a little bit of an advantage for those of you that are competing. Yeah, for sure. i think you're gonna do great i can't believe you're so likable too you're you're oh thank you yeah you're you're you're an amazing kid your parents must be so proud of you yeah they they are yeah yeah yeah you're you're so cool and the way you've assimilated to that team speaks volumes um also i'm you know as much as it looks fun and games from the outside i know that those are a lot of intense competitors that you're with and you seem like you've assimilated great

and the fact that rich would um it screams volumes that he would invite you to italy he sure as hell doesn't want anyone around him he's too old of a dog to let anyone around him who's gonna bug him you know yeah and uh yeah i'm just so excited to meet you. I hope throughout the weekend, I want you to know that we'll probably try to bug you and get you on. We never take events to athletes go see us during the week. We know you guys are super busy. So don't ever feel like you have to respond.

But we might have an advantage this time because for people like Paige that are doing the individual, they'll be done by Friday. They'll still be there Saturday, Sunday. We can call her up. We can say, hey, Rich is getting his ass kicked out there. What's going on? Yeah.

Yeah. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you for coming on and sharing details of your life. I really appreciate it. Thanks for, it was really cool to hear, you know, the upbringing. And thanks for sharing us the story about Nassar. I know that's not a fun conversation, but it is definitely interesting to people to hear about what it takes to be an

elite athlete and kind of the trials you guys go through. Yeah, for sure. I appreciate you guys having me on. Yeah. Anytime. You're always welcome. You are, you're, yeah, you're, you're a gem, man right thanks page have a uh have a have a great weekend thank you you guys as well and we'll be watching you awesome okay all right bye bye thank you you think that was too abrupt of an ending no okay when it's when there's like 45 minute guest and then another 45 minute guest you're twice as abrupt as that okay good i'm just i thought it was gonna rain and i wasn't gonna

have to take the kids to tennis but i but i i have to what's this that's all right i think 90 minutes good it will be interesting to see your improvements this year hey man i think uh i think we're looking at in the next few years at top if she stays healthy which i think she will i think um oh i know i should have told her to stop by for a shirt darn it keep screwing that page stop by for a shirt uh at the uh at the um paper street coffee hey i think i think i think she might be a top 10 athlete in the next couple of years, a regular top 10 athlete at the CrossFit Games. Yeah, I mean, you just have to think about what's in the way of that, right?

And so if you just look at last year's top 10 to 15 athletes, Mal O'Brien's going to be there. Laura Horvath's going to be there. Daniel Brannon's going to be there. Brooke Wells will still be there for at least three more years, I think. Emma Lawson will be there. Gabby will be there. Haley will be there.

Alexis Raptus will be there. Then there's a bunch of athletes that she can probably pass by. Ariel Lowen's a little unknown. I think also half those athletes have a three-year life expectancy that you just said, by the way. Maybe. But then you also look at athletes like Lucy Campbell, Ellie Turner, Karen Freyova. They were also ahead of her and our, and Alex Kazan.

So there's a, you know, those are just from the games last year, assuming that no one new enters the fray, like Olivia Kersetter or something like that. So it's, she certainly has a potential, but it's difficult. There's a light, you know, it's difficult. There's a big group of athletes in that 17 to 25 age range that are already towards the top of the sport uh pedro from coffee pods and wads i'm so fickle i hear page immediately to say hey dude i already think she's gonna win the games next year i'm totally on board like i talked to i have proximity bias so bad

sevens you're you're in uh oh well we'll see if you have any say in the matter but the roster of athletes you end up drafting is just going to be whoever you interviewed right I'm not going to say shit I'm gonna let JR do it all I'm just gonna be like good job JR can I get your cigarette you mean like that one glass of whiskey like I'm not doing I'm not saying nothing screw it up all right guys I don't think we have any more shows today. I do think that Matt Souza is – okay, okay. Here I come. Here I come. I do think that Matt Souza is going to come today,

and we're going to start looking at some of the – we're going to try some new fancy equipment at Guadalupalooza this year for the live feed. So I think he's on his way to the house. Oh, I am. I am going to schedule a live call and show this evening. There will be some sort of live show this evening. So much to talk about the first week of super crosses going on.

Yeah. Is it really? Yeah. God, you're such a sports enthusiast. Sorry. We will be competing with us. We will be competing with Supercross this evening.

All right, guys. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Mr. Beaver. Paige Powers, you're amazing. All right. Stay for one second. Okay. Okay. Can Caleb stay?