The Sevan Podcast - #99 - Hobart and Friend, CrossFit Games Review

Episode Date: August 8, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 111 - Hobart & Friend, CrossFit Games Review @JamesHobart @BrianFriendCrossFit @SevanMatossian The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.

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. Where's Brian? Setting up his new computer. And we're live.

I see it on YouTube. What's up, James? Ryan, will you text? Good. Ryan, will you text? What's that guy's name? Brian. Brian Friend at Brian Friend CrossFit and ask him to come on the podcast.

Yes. How nice of him. There he is. How nice of him to come on the podcast. Yes. How nice of him. There he is. How nice of him to join us. Were you nervous? No. What are you taking, Savan? Echinacea?

It's this stuff. Oh, damn. Was that like, does that help like. Yes. Turgidity. I don't know what that word means, but – I don't know if turgidity is a word. I think turgid is.

Oh, no, it is. Basically, Jeff Evans started a company that sells this, and I got a bottle, and then I got addicted to it. It has cayenne pepper in it. Oh, I love that. And you put it under your tongue and swish it around. And I'm just – I take this podcast crazy serious, you guys. You know how serious I take it? I get all wound up in crazy anxiety before I come on.

I almost always try to ride the assault bike for 10 minutes, 120 calories before I come on to clear my brain. I always brew a fresh cup of coffee. I've always done my research. I've always thought about what I want to say, what I don't want to say. And then on top of that, when I get on here, I try to just to be as free as possible. And I try to elicit the most real conversation I can with my guests while still keeping the conversation moving. I don't have a problem with space and silence. I actually love a lot of space and silence. And I'm actually really, really, really happiest when I'm alone. That being said, I've become addicted to not only the podcast interacting with you guys, but to Brian Friend and

James Hobart. It sucked that he went to the master's competition. It was good that he took second place but we did miss him um but this podcast probably isn't for everyone and i want to address a couple things here um someone said in one of the comments the other day um oh you you've hitched your cart to the athletes have on it and you're like using other people's success to build your success. And I was like, yeah, well said, perfectly well said. And then last night at around 11 o'clock, I went on and I started watching all the YouTube content out there of all the other content creators, all the big names, all the biggest accounts in the CrossFit world that went to the CrossFit games. And they are not hitching their carts up to the athletes. They've hitched their carts up to themselves. These videos are videos of them hugging people that they haven't seen in a long time, taking

pictures with the fans, and it's everything except CrossFit content. Is that okay? Sure. It's fine. Is it real? No. Does it scratch the surface on anything? No. Are there in-depth interviews with the athletes? No. Is there anything that makes me feel like, hey, I've gone deeper into myself and know myself better after watching it. No, they're jack off sessions. Do I have a problem with jacking off? No,

I think it's great. It's a great activity. I mean, it shouldn't, you shouldn't obsess on it. Um, but, uh,

so yeah, so there are two kinds of content out here. There's the people who are jacking off on themselves and stroking themselves. And it's all about their star power and what they did at the games. And that was all I could find and then there's me who's just using the athletes and using hobart and using ryan jevney and using um uh matt susan using brian friend and using everyone to get ahead so you those are your choices the guys who jack off on themselves or someone like me who hitches my card to other people to make myself famous sorry i wish i could say that there was other choices but there's not

so that was me jacking off on myself now uh i want to switch over the comments real quick brian what's up dude oh can i say a couple things sure i uh so last night i went to a dave matthews concert oh here's my 42nd dave matthews concert i put a i played one of my favorite songs as the opener it's called one sweet world it's good speaking of jacking off on yourself anyone who's been to the same concert 42 times jesus so i just put this little baby yeah there we go so i just put this little little 12 second clip up on the story and i was amazed or fascinated or something with the number of CrossFitters who like Dave Matthews' band, including Matt O'Keefe,

who actually saw him play at a little bar in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the early 90s before anyone knew who they were, which is not surprising if you know Matt O'Keefe. He seems to always have little stories like that. But it was actually pretty cool just to get that response. So if there's any of you guys out there, that's cool. And I'd like to say something about Matt O'Keefe. I'm reading this book, Bounce, and it says that if you're not failing, you're not getting better. And I totally, totally agree with it, that you need to be getting pushed way, way, way, way, way, way, way outside your boundaries. You need to be struggling no matter how good you are at something.

And I'm concerned for our dear friend of the podcast, Matt O'Keefe, because this fucking guy only knows how to deal with winners. All the athletes he deals with are winners, winners, winners. And so I think Matt O'Keefe should reach out to Colton Mertens, who didn't do as well as Justin Medeiros. Mertens, who didn't do as well as Justin Medeiros, and he should learn to work with Colton Mertens because he's going to get fucking soft bouncing back and forth between Matt Fraser and Justin Medeiros. They're slam dunks for him. And if he's going to be a world-class agent, he needs to work with people. Let me tell you, Colton Mertens is a good piece of clay.

There's a lot to work with. But I challenge you, Matt O'Keefe, to work with someone besides these greats because they're making you soft, O'Keefe. I'm really disappointed Hobart didn't flinch at all. I thought that was pretty good. Thank you, Hobart, for a last-minute flinch. I had to beg for it. Hobart looks like he's about ready to captain a plane today.

Yeah, these headphones are so big, and I already have a giant, stupid head. You have a beautiful face. Don't ever say that about your head. You might have a giant, stupid head, but there's a beautiful face on there with impeccable skin. Which brings me to my next thing before we get to what you guys are all here for is to hear Brian talk about the CrossFit Games. I want to tell you guys about something that someone said.

These four comments someone made in a row. First of all, if you make four comments in a row, I get it. You hate me. You're watching the podcast because you hate yourself and you're using it to irritate yourself. You're like the guy who scratches yourself until you bleed. I get it. I have some – I've done that to myself before. But this guy's name is Aaron J. Mett, and these are his four comments in a row.

Andrea Nistler, too good for Sevan podcast. Okay. I have no argument there. None. Zero. I don't know if anyone i think ever i'm so thankful that everyone comes on the podcast i'm and and brian and i are actually in shock every time we talk on the phone that people come on it's kind of we're uh maybe shocked isn't that word very excited like i was titillated when i bug bugged James today and he said he would come on. The only person I take for granted is Brian.

I don't take him for granted. I don't take Ryan or Matt for granted. Then this person posted, And that's very revealing of yourself because I don't hate on the United States, and that means you have your radar all fucked up. That means you have your radar all fucked up. I actually care about this country more than you could ever imagine because I have three little boys that are going to grow up here, and it's been an amazing place where I've been rewarded for insanely hard work.

So you should check your radar. That means you're one of those people and there's a lot of them out there who hear something and then spins it around in their head even brought then this third comment even brian is uncomfortable with seven's constant politics he injects into these conversations and then someone replied i'm fucking uncomfortable too and i don't know know if Brian's uncomfortable or not uncomfortable, but I'm uncomfortable too, guys. So we agree there. And then we get to the final comment.

Sevan talking about girls' looks. And then it's like some sort of emoji, like a sad face. I will talk – if you don't like someone talking about girls' looks or boys' looks or penises or vaginas or if you're disgusted by the human anatomy or if you're not into booty shorts or if you don't think working out is cool or if you don't think nutrition is cool, if you don't think anything that makes human bodies better and perform better and live longer and be able to wipe their ass longer into their twilight, then this podcast is not for you i have no problem saying that ghee is hot as shit and that reagan huckabee's a fucking 10 although i don't like to use numbers sorry i retract the 10 like this podcast is not for you then we talk about people who work on their bodies 24 hours a day their sleep their nutrition their movement their mindset is everything so their bodies perform if you don't want me talking about people's bodies and the shapeliness of it, my wife was ecstatic when she started CrossFit and her ass started getting bigger. If that offends you, this podcast is not for you.

Don't listen to us. I love all of these people's bodies. Brian, how did you do in your pics, dude? Moving on. As usual, better on the women's side than the men's side. Say that again? As usual, better on the women's side? Yep, that's pretty much always the case. Well, you kind of had a slam dunk with Tia, right?

Yes, but even excluding her. Okay. The list I'm seeing, I don't know how to use spreadsheets. I only see the men. There's a tab on the bottom that says women. Oh, yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. I see it. Don't be a dick.

Don't be a dick. You could have texted me that on the side. I wanted to put that comment in there for that guy who was giving you so much love earlier. Which guy? You know the guy. YouTube comments? Yeah. Paul Luis, hey Rod, $44, $45 of my favorite kind of money, the silver shit from the UK.

Thanks for the amazing content these last few weeks and months. This should be used once Brian asked Danielle Brandon on a date. Woo! Woo! He don't got the balls he don't got the balls do you guys see that road trip she's doing where do you think she's coming chicago damn she's driving back to vegas isn't she because she probably doesn't want to get on a plane and wear a mask again well there's different routes to get there Hobart do you think you could beat Kyle Kasper Bauer in an arm wrestling match yes

well you heard it here would you guys rather watch them arm wrestle or would you rather watch them get in the boxing ring like Josh and Josh and Mr. Hepner dude do you know Jacob Hepner Hobart yeah well not terribly well but yeah like if we saw each other we're like hey Jacob hey James he sucks

I didn't like him and then he came on my podcast and just fucking charmed the shit out of me yeah that's devastating. Devastated. Devastated. He's a really smart guy, which is, I always like, I think he's like math smart, and I always like learning those things about people. Yeah, he's a clear thinker. He's a clear thinker for sure.

Do you want to start with the women or the dudes? Doesn't matter. Okay, let's go with the women since you did better there there and then we'll end the show with you on a bad note and then you can go play frisbee golf or Conan board game or whatever you play. The Village of Conan. Okay, I love it. You play board games?

Oh, go get them Hobart, get them. I do. Are you a Settlers of Catan guy? Well, that's what he was referencing, but he called it Conan. That makes a lot of sense. I hate it that you know that game. How do you know that game, Hobart? Because I'm just situationally aware.

Actually, somehow it came up with Andrea Nistler, and she mentioned that her and her fiancé like to play board games, but they don't play that one because it's only a three-player or four-player game. And I mentioned to her casually that I actually created a version of a two-player game for it. And then a bunch of people on Instagram DMed me asking for the explanation for that game, for the two-person version. That was great. Yeah, get them. I was trying not to say anything. I was trying was trying not to say anything he's trying so hard i'm saying hey ryan what's that thing it says jason miller 10 bonus followers if you what is that like

you see that and i can't what's weird is i essentially he's just saying that if you grow man bun savant, that you'll get 10% more followers on everything. Oh, and someone pinned that to the top of the comments? Thanks. Asshole. Okay, I'll grow a man bun. I'll do it. Elisa Papa, $10.

You guys stop giving us money. We can't get this show done. And it makes me always want to kind of cry a little bit. Brian would beat the shit out of me. Are you kidding me? You guys, I am 49. I'm the least fit. Brian's like a good crossfitter.

I'm like, I do muscle ups and ride the fucking assault bike and take Sarah Flo. You think he would beat you up brian yeah yeah easily i don't know about that easily easily easily james i'm like a cat i'm like a cat i'm like a cat though james he'd probably lose an eye or something like it wouldn't be worth it yeah but but in the end you'd pull out a lot of hair or something oh crazy shit like that bite off a finger i'm no shit that's so good he's like gollum from lord of

the rings that's how he fights oh that's a what a great reference i like to think of myself as more like the tasmanian devil but i but i i see your okay enough of nonsense. We're too far into the show. Now we're doing exactly what I was complaining about. Those people were doing the other guys. Not complaining. You're answering questions from the people. So do you want to start at the bottom or do you want to start at the top? Top.

Okay, Tia Toomey. Not much to say. was as as advertised maybe maybe her most dominant performance yet i mean it's it's difficult to assess that because of the different seasons that we've had the different structures to the games and the fact that and this is something that we're like we have to address when we're talking about the women's field is it's it's it's arguable and maybe even not that arguable that six of the 10 to 15 fittest women in the world didn't do this competition. Sarah Sigma Zotter, Jamie Simmons, Kara Saunders, Carrie Pierce, Brooke Wells, and Bethany Shadburn all either were unable to start the season, unable to start the games, or unable to finish the games. unable to start the season, unable to start the games, or unable to finish the games.

And I would say that if you extend that number to 15, it's pretty difficult for you to tell me that those six women are not amongst the 15 fittest on earth. And the only reason why that matters, like, hey, a sport is a sport is a sport. It can happen to everyone. It doesn't degrade anyone's place. The only reason why Brian's bringing this up, I think, is for justification if any of his spots were off. In either direction. You couldn't foresee, right? In either direction. think is for justification if any of his spots were off.

In either direction. He couldn't foresee, right? In either direction. So, you know, we'll get to some examples of that both ways. Like if Tia's pregnancy test would have come back that she was pregnant two days before the games and she couldn't compete, that wouldn't be your fault that she didn't take first place. Of course not. And neither would it be anyone who predicted who predicted her, uh, anywhere on the leaderboard really. Laura Horvath, number two. Yeah. So obviously I picked her second and,

you know, I got a, a lot of messages saying that that was a bad, a bad pick and that she's over hyped that one year was a fluke and whatever. And I should just start off the bat here by saying pretty much every person on the list, women and men, someone out there messaged me and said, you messed that one up. She's going to do way better than you thought or he's going to do way worse than you think or whatever. And obviously some of those people will be right and majority of them were wrong. And majority of them were wrong. But if you hit your cart to one person in the field and say, hey, man, love your picks, but this one, you're way off the money. And someone saying that about every single pick, there's going to be some that are right. And we can talk about that and why I think some of the athletes, I did misgage the potential for some of the athletes so dramatically. In the case of Laura, she looks very dominant. I mean,

she loses to Tia by 250 points or something, but then she's, what, 180 points, like 80 points clear of Annie. It's a pretty significant margin. I was not expecting Tia's margin of victory to be so big. I think I'd said like 100 to 120 points. But again, a lot of the women who could have snuck up and taken, like she took a couple of fifth, fourth, third seconds. And maybe those are six, seven, eight, ninths if the full field of women, you know, Carrie Pierce's, Bethany Sheppard, Kara Saunders were healthy and able to compete. Anyway, Laura did great relative to the field, but Tommy Marquez and Patrick Clark and I put up an article on the morning chalk up today. And James, I'm pretty interested to hear what you think about this.

And we were just doing takeaways from the games, kind of big picture stuff. And one of the things that I had written about was that despite a depleted women's field, the competition was very compelling and sets up for an even brighter future. And I just, as a, as a bullet point in there mentioned that Laura Horvath reasserts herself as a force to be reckoned with and dominated the field other than to me. And this guy responds to me and says, she is a phenomenal athlete, but how can you expect um you know hayley adams kristin

holt and christy aramo to compete on the same level when you have events that involve pig flips one rep max lifts back-to-back heavy lifting events hold on hold on james just hold on i can't believe you're reading this no no it's because it's an interesting thought the the totality of the thought is interesting peg boards he references her her background in rock climbing heavy deadlifts heavy yoke carries and then bar heavy barbell lunges and at the omission of he includes things like mary atalanta legless rope climbs stricter deficit handstand push-ups all of the things that he considers horvath's weaknesses. Where do you begin? I'm biting my tongue, James.

Go. I just, I don't know. Where do you begin with that? I just think one of the most impressive things now is Laura's been second across two essentially different events. And, you know, the games can't test the same exact things every year. But obviously, I think the games does a really nice job of covering a lot of bases in terms of testing fitness for the world's fittest and i feel like when you say that like oh how could you expect to do well you know so and so to do well when there's pig flips well so and so

should be fitter or stronger or whatever i just think that's such a bad argument do you know why the decathlon is so cool because there's 10 events events. Do you know why CrossFit is so cool? Because there's 10 million events. We just slap them across the face with our dicks. Not in a mean way either, but that has its place and this has its place. That's crazy. Okay, then what's his excuse going to be next year when everything's running in the games and Tia still wins? Exactly. next year when the one that when it's when everything's running in the games and tia still wins it's just exactly and what yeah what's his explanation for for a tia or a matt or a rich or an annie thor's daughter you know like you know when you see that's why it's so impressive when

you see athletes who are repeat podium top 10 winners um because they've succeeded across a diversity of tests constantly i mean that's get's... Get him back to level one. Hey, yeah, and this is the thing. I'll try to be nice. I've already been a dick for 15 minutes of this episode. I get what he's saying. He's looking at it, but he's just looking at this one CrossFit game.

So you have to look at the totality of what CrossFit is, the methodology, the training, and just the fact that we are... This is a GPP program, general physical preparedness program that is for people who want to live a long time and who want to not be caught off guard in life. And especially for first responders who possibly their fitness could be the difference between life and death. And when a stopwatch was put to it, we turned it into a sport and, and that's what it is. And so you have to be ready for everything. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously I, um, I agree with you guys. This guy,

he loves putting comments up like that, that I think are like first blush responses without really giving a more broad thought to the picture that he's trying to paint. I just, I just feel like that argument and I do get what he's saying. I just feel like that argument is like, how do you expect me to succeed in life if I have to do things that I'm not good at? It's terrible. James, is there anyone in the world – you're broader scope of understanding about the far outer reaches of competition versus what the roots are of CrossFit than you? I'm sure there is.

Understanding and experience. I'm sure there is. I've been very fortunate to compete a long time but also train and coach everyone from teenagers to my 60 year old mother and everyone in between. So I think that's really helped me have a much broader perspective of CrossFit and all of its applications. But I'm sure there's someone out there who has a better understanding. You live in the games world, but your tree is in the games world, but all your roots are in the training program.

Is that hard? tree is in the games world but all your roots are in the training program do you do you is is that hard i mean like you know like you know stuff about crossfit that people who only watch the games can't even imagine and so they're missing like they're missing so much of the picture is that hard for you do you just do you try to unfuck every person you cross that doesn't see the totality of the picture no i don't because think even for me, it took me a long time to really understand what the breadth of CrossFit actually is when we say, hey, it can be for anyone. It might not be for everyone. And then how broad CrossFit is an application in terms of relative intensity.

And I didn't realize that until my mom started doing CrossFit in her mid-50s. And I had already been doing CrossFit and competing and on seminar staff for five years. But when I saw it change her life, that's when I really understood like, again, just how broadly applicable it can be. And that the games is the tip of the spear. And I think it's really cool if the games allows someone to dip their toe in the water and start to ask more questions about CrossFit and be curious about it. It's interesting. I don't remember what year it was, 2016 or 17. Greg started basically pulling all the members of HQ together and he would say, hey, we have 100,000 trainers out there who've taken their L1. And I'm not sure if even the majority of them know that they have the cure for type 2 diabetes. And when he said

that, I realized, fuck, half the staff here don't know it. And probably the only of them know that they have the cure for type two diabetes. And when he said that, I realized, fuck half the staff here don't know it. And probably the only reason I know it is because I was so close to Greg and I was hearing it always pelted into my ear. So I, I see her, I see your point. Like it does take a long time to realize that,

Hey, it's cool that it crowns Justin Medeiros as the fittest man in the world, but really it's a more potent tool. It's, it's so interesting. Um, Haley Adams's a more potent tool. It's so interesting. Haley Adams, number three. Yeah, had her third.

She finished fifth. The thing about Haley was we'd seen her compete twice at the games as an individual, but it was the 2019-2020 seasons. And in 2019, she made the top 10, So the worst she could do is 10th. She ends up finishing sixth, takes Rookie of the Year, is a very impressive rookie season. The next year, she makes the top five after seven tests on the online version of the games.

She goes to the game, she finishes fourth. And it's a great start to her career. She's got a sixth and a fourth in two very different formats. So now we're coming to this year where we're wondering, okay, against a deeper field and a deeper test, you know, 15 events instead of, um, seven and six to get to the final five and final 10 that she had to do. Um, how would she do?

And so, you know, I thought she would have the potential to finish on the podium. I still think she has a potential to finish on the podium and I'm pretty happy with a fifth place performance for her relative to a third place prediction. Hobart, we were having a podcast in, uh, the night before the, on Saturday night and, um, Brian was saying, I can't, I think Brian was saying that Haley could still make the podium. And I said, there's no fucking way. Um, uh, someone commented in the comment section, um, fucking way. And someone commented in the comment section under the name Rich Froning, yeah, she will make the podium. And I looked at the picture in the avatar and I couldn't tell her in the profile picture and I couldn't tell what it was. And so all the people in the chat go, oh my God, Rich is here. And people are like, Rich isn't here. That's not rich. It's a fake account.

And then the person posted, hey man, I'm sitting in an ice bath right now. This is me. And so I interject and i said hey you fucking knuckleheads there's no fucking way that's rich froning if you think that's rich froning i'll eat my sock so the podcast is over and i'm i walk back into my house and i pick up my phone and i look and there's a text from rich and it says start eating your sock boy well and and um he and i were both wrong in that regard, and you were right. She did not make the podium. She didn't do as well on the workouts on Sunday as I had expected that she would do.

And she finished where she belonged relative to the field this year again. He probably thought Hobart was going to win Masters too. I tried really hard. You did great. Thank you. You made it exciting. Number four, Kara Saunders. Withdrew due to COVID.

Okay, so that was your pick, but she withdrew. So what do we do here to score you as any good at this? Do we move everyone up one? Scroll down. Okay, I see it. Number four, Katrin doter david david doter katrin david doter yes i'd originally ranked her fifth with removal of car from the competition she would bump up to the fourth spot she ends up finishing 10th so i would consider this a miss this is her first time not being inside the top five in six years. And so for her, it's a question is, is that potential to have a top five finish against the current caliber of women something that she's going to be able to do again?

And like we mentioned, there were still potentially six other women missing from this competition that you could see beating her. So a 10th to 15th place finish this year um she's going to need to to improve some things relative to the rest of the women if she wants to get back into that top five in the upcoming seasons uh uh i i wonder we don't have to get too much into this if if we've seen if we're watching her twilight if we're watching her just decline or if she had trouble training this year or if just the competition has gotten that steep. It is uncharacteristic of her to finish 10th. Similar, I mean, to that guy's point, and it's not an excuse, it's just a fact.

She's similar to Hayley Adams in the fact that certain strength elements, she's not up to par with the best women in the world. And so she's going to take a hit on some of those events. So if this was a relatively heavier games, then it's not that surprising that she'd do a little bit worse compared to some of the, some of the other years. Uh, Renata Novotna. I'm guessing that's Indian. James, you're going to compete. Are you going to compete next year? It was awesome to watch you. I appreciate that. I plan to.

Awesome. And Casper Bauer moves up, right? He does, which I wish he didn't because I would like to compete against him again. But we had an awesome time competing that weekend. Would you say you're friends? Yeah. Do you, would you say your friends? Yeah. Do you have his phone number in your phone? I do.

Oh, all right. Um, number five, uh, someone that Hobart, um, this Hobart gave,

uh, Brian, a few eye rolls when he placed Kristen Holta in this list and the all time top 40 list. Kristen Holta who retired at 35 the all-time top 40 list. Kristen Holta, who retired at 35. First of all, we will update the top 10 lists at some point relatively soon based on this year's results. But yeah, so I originally had her ninth. Four of the women that were ranked ahead of her,

Kara, Carrie Pierce, Brooke Wells, and Bethany Shadburn, all didn't finish the competition for whatever reason. So she ends up fifth amongst the people who did finish the competition. She finishes fourth. Obviously she's incredible that, you know, she's, she's been getting better into now her mid thirties. You know, she was obviously very close to podium, making the podium for the second time in her career. I would still say that the one, making the podium for the second time in her career. I would still say that the one knock against her resume, I guess, is that she hasn't podiumed in a year where there was the full breadth and depth of tests.

The only time she ever podiumed was in that 2019 season, which we've talked about a lot. But that doesn't take away from the other four or five finishes she has of seventh or better at the games, all in a row, by the way. So you, sorry, you predicted Christian Holter to take what place Brian fifth, originally ninth of the remaining competitors.

Fifth. Oh, right, right. Okay. So you only missed that one by one, according to my rating. Sorry,

Hobart, go ahead. No, I was just gonna say, does her finish make you reevaluate, um, 2019 and its impact on athlete performance? What do you mean?

Like, I feel like you've been really harsh. Like if you did well in 2019, Brian friend kind of thinks you're a chump. And so, so I just, I'm just curious to know, like after this year, does this year and seeing how some of those 2019 athletes performed, does this kind of change your view of it? I mean, we look at the 2019 women. Tia was first. Kristen was second. Jamie Green was third.

She didn't compete this year. Katrin was fourth. We know she's had a string of top five finishes. Carrie Pierce was fifth. She's had a string of finishes up near the top. Haley Adams has had nothing but sixth, fourth, and fifth now in her career. Amanda Barnhart's last three years, 7-7-9. Bethany Shadburn, that's an outlier year for her right now, but we didn't get to see her compete this year.

And Terri Helgedotter, who had her best finish that year, but her second best finish this year at 13th place. And then Danielle Brandon would have been 10th, and she was 11th this year. So the thing is, none of those placements are that far out of character relative to some of the other performances that we've seen. But when you look at the people who just barely missed the cut, and it's Annie Thor's daughter, Laura Horvath, Brookwell, Sam Briggs, Sarah Sigmund's daughter, all who also definitely have top 10 potential, and we didn't get to see them do the second half of the test, I wonder how many of those women would have been able

to push some of the people who that's their only or their best career finish or their only top 10 finish down a little bit as the weekend wore on. I just want you to know I asked you that question just so you could look really smart, and you did. Nick of Time says to Hobart nice headset hobart thanks thank you nick for the five dollar uh i think that guy's donated five dollars a hundred times good dude uh daniel brandon originally i had her ranked 10th. She finished 11th,

but when you omit all of the people who were ahead of her, I would have had a rank sixth. And therefore I feel like I kind of missed on this one. And then she did a little bit worse, um, in the same way that, uh, you know,

uh, Dan that, uh, Catherine David's daughter did, but Daniel Brandon's completely different. I think that, um, unlike Catherine,

she's still figuring, like trying to find out how good she can really be. And she has some be and she has some potential and room for growth obviously the week was very challenging for her in some different ways because she was forced to be separate from everyone forced to take all those tests which i mean that's to me that seems very stressful to just like have to show up every single day and take a couple tests and not know if this test when you know that there's such thing as false positives out there is just going to end your season out of the blue. She's seen her two best friends be sent home. One of them actually sick. One of them

tested sick. Um, so it was like a lot weighing on her. I think that this is about appropriate for her this year and it's a good building block, but I think she has potential to improve upon it going forward. Do we know that Carrie Pierce never had, it was, was, do we know that Carrie Pierce never had it was was do we know she was asymptomatic as far as I know interesting we should find that out I'll DM her and see if she'll respond uh number seven Mallory O'Brien finished seventh I mean you know so kind of right there oh sorry sorry there's a good question here. Back to Danielle Brandon. Where does she rank in Brian's heart? Number seven, Mallory O'Brien. I don't know if that list is ever coming up. That's the list we need to see.

Number seven, Mallory O'Brien. Yeah, incredible. She was the rookie of the year and, uh, in her, um, presentation of that. It's, you know, we recognize that it was obviously amazing to make the games at 17 years old, but to have a top 10 finish, regardless of who's in the field and, and who's there, like it's still, if you just look at her finishes across the week and some of the performances that she had, I mean, the, the wall walk thruster performance that she had maybe get outshine because it was earlier in the week relative to some of the other storylines that developed

for the women. But that was incredible. Um, and that's the kind of, um, just mental toughness and grit and willing to suffer and hurt that I saw from her at the granite games when she was stringing off three straight event wins. Um, she's now one of the thruster workout at the granite games and at the CrossFit Games. And to me, if you're going to, like the reason I'm not any better at CrossFit than I am is because I never do thrusters because I absolutely hate them.

She's basically saying she's amongst the best, if not the best in the world, at the one workout that nine times CrossFit Game Champion Rich Froning has said, if you're ever going to, just going to do one workout, one movement for the rest of your life, make it the thruster is that true he said that

yeah hobart do you agree coming from the crossfit training space i think it's a good that's a good pick what's second place hobart how about the burpee i mean i'll say honestly if you're going to thruster yeah maybe burpee or deadlift, but if you're thrustering and you're taking it from the ground, you can kind of get like a twofer. Ah, so I'll give you burpee. Um,

someone said, uh, interceptor 11 said one of Carrie's posts suggested she was feeling sick. And thank you interceptor for the way you worded that, you know, sometimes he's not, not on this podcast, which is kind of crazy how nice everyone is, but that's like the kind of thing in the comments and YouTube, Interceptor, for the way you worded that. You know, sometimes these, not on this podcast, which is kind of crazy how nice everyone is, but that's like the kind of thing in the comments on YouTube.

Someone would be like, hey, dipshit, get prepared next time and look at her Instagram. She was sick. So I appreciate the participation like we're all equal instead of I'm a dipshit. Mallory O'Brien, when I see her name I just think of Jacob Heppner's chick Olivia Kerstetter yeah did you see this this young lady uh Mr. Hobart

this is the young lady who snatched 202 right yes sir and won the event yeah that's crazy it is crazy right yeah James will I ever snatch 202 yes Yeah, that's crazy. It is crazy, right? Yeah. James, will I ever snatch 202? Yes.

We're going to get you there. Hey, and I don't think I'm going to say it. That's good, though. I'm excited to see what's going to happen to her. Hefner is saying that she's going to do teen one more year. I think a lot's going to change this year. The great Annie Thor's daughter. Holy shit. Mama.

This whole season for Annie has been just an exploration of the unknown. At every stage of the season, her and her camp have... That guy who just donated is a cool dude, by the way. He looks like Conan, the barbarian, Butch Elgin, Elgin. What a great name. He was, uh, he was very helpful for me at the games this past year. Um, cause we were doing a lot of stuff in between events and he would just post up at one spot on the rail by the, uh, North park so that I could get into a good vantage point.

Just showing up a minute before the events, a lot of that time. So thank you, Butch. I'd like to ask his mom and dad how they came up with the name butch like how do you name your kid butch okay um annie so annie every stage of the season she's kind of exceeded her own expectations and surprised herself and obviously that was the case at the games too i mean we saw the um look of expression of surprise on her face when she hit that snatch. And we heard some of her interviews where she said, I didn't know. My chest-to-heart pull-ups are one of the last things that came back for me.

I wasn't sure how 90 would go. Ended up doing great in that event and just great overall on the weekend. So she did better than I had expected. I almost, and I hate when people say this, actually, but I almost wrote an article called The Four Women That Could Podium Besides Tia. And I would have included her on that list for the same reason I included Hopper and Medeiros on the men's side is that I just didn't know. We just didn't know how good she could be less than a year removed from pregnancy. And so obviously it was very, you know, the community loves Annie and for good reason. And so it was really cool that she was able to do this well this year.

And I think basically surpass and exceed everyone's expectations and redefine what is possible after giving birth. Go back to what you said about her saying her pull-ups were the last thing to come back. Was it pull-ups in general or just chest-to-bar pull-ups? And then I got something to say about that. She had said that the chest-to to bars were one of the last things, but like even bar muscle ups right before, I think I remember it was a quarterfinals or semifinals, maybe semifinals. Um, was it quarterfinals? Anyway, she had said like, there's just things that she wasn't like, she wasn't comfortable doing them yet. And then she was forced to do them in whatever stage of competition it was.

And she was able to do that. Um, I asked because, um, when my wife was pregnant with the kids, she would set PRS with like power cleans, squatting, um, snatching. But one thing she stopped doing when she was pregnant was pull-ups and it totally caught me off guard. But she said that she would feel a tugging at her stomach and it created, I think the word is diastasis, but it's basically a separation of the stomach muscles. And she said that pull-up movement, she would feel a tugging at her stomach and it created, I think the word is diastasis, but it's basically a separation of the stomach muscles. And she said that pull-up movement, I guess it's when your feet come in front of you when you're doing a pull-up, you know, and your core tightens, she would feel tugging and separation of those muscles. So she stopped doing pull-ups during her pregnancy, which is not one that you hear a lot, at least, you know,

usually it's like, hey, don't go upside down or don't do double unders or don't do burpees. But my wife pretty much flourished in everything. But pull-ups are one of those things that she gave up during pregnancy, too. Emma Carey. You know, I think Emma Carey is one of the athletes in the women's field that gets overlooked a lot this year for what she was able to do. I mean, if not for Meryl O'Brien, everyone would be talking about Emma Carey being 17 years old, making the final cut, having a third place finish at the games and a couple of top tens. In addition to that, I think of this games for her was very similar to Jason Hopper, where she had a few good workouts,

but overall it was frustrating for her. She wants to be better. She thinks she should be doing better. And she, you know, she had some workouts that really challenged her and left her considerably behind the top women in those respective events. Um, I think, uh, what she ended up finishing 16th year, um, is a, is, is a pretty good, I mean, an incredible finish at that age. And she showed a lot of, I think she showed a lot of mental toughness over the course of the weekend. And that one workout that Mal O'Brien won, she was third place in that workout. Only Tia Kertoumi and Mal beat her. So again, I would consider that a pretty impressive performance against that field of women. And I think that like Mal, she's got a very bright future ahead of her and a lot to build on coming out of this week yeah i agree i agree and disagree

like i i guess maybe you agree and disagree with what you said too with the way you worded it she would be she would have gotten a lot more attention if it wasn't for the fact that mal o'brien was also a younger lady who's in the mix and tearing shit up um but that being said she still did get a lot of attention she got more got more attention than Travis mayor, uh, Gabriella McGaw, wah. So impressed by her. Yep. So this is one of the, um, athletes on the list that did a little better than I projected. I originally had her 14th.

If you drop out all those other women, I would have had her 10th, but still she improved on that and finished sixth, um, it was a very, very good, uh, week for her. Um, she's pretty strong for, for, especially for her age at only 22. And so, you know, I'm, I'm still kind of wrestling with, you know, with that notion that this was a heavy games. Like there were a lot of heavy implements. The weird thing about that is that, you know, when we talked to Hopper, he, he mentioned that a lot lot of heavy implements. The weird thing about that is that, you know, when we talked to Hopper, he mentioned that a lot of the heavy implements were paired with high skill things like big volume of ring muscle-ups or chest bar pull-ups or freestanding handstand push-ups or pegboards or rope climbs. So you had to, you really, if you want to finish in the top six, like, like Gabby did, you had to be more than strong. Like you had to be good at a lot of other things as well.

So I think that, you know, and then when you're thinking about someone like katrin davidstutter and can she get back to being in the top five and we've already mentioned laura horvath hayley adams uh mal o'brien and gabby magawa that are all you know very young and still getting better being in her way of people who beat her this year and will still be coming back next year and then yes, there's people like Emma Carey that are, you know, obviously didn't do as well as her this year, but also still be getting better. You want to finish in the top five in the women's field in upcoming years, it's going to be really difficult to do. I agree. Sorry. I, you have

two lists here and you're very organized and I kind of fucked up your organization, Brian. I'm sorry. I seriously am. Cause I jumped from one list to the other list. So I just want to go back to three people that, that we overlooked. And we, we touched on Carrie Pierce, uh, greatest American CrossFitter ever. Is that female? It's either her or Kristen Clever. Okay. Uh, and then, and then, and then we skipped over Brookwell's. And that would be another one that's going to cause problems for anyone who wants to be in the top five, correct?

Assuming that she can come back from that injury, we don't know when that will be, but I think she'll be able to come back. And yeah, she's top 10 in the world for sure. Hobart, is she coming back? I sure hope so. I didn't hear much about it. I just think it's amazing. She still finished 20th, you know, and withdrew. Oh, by the way, someone on the YouTube comments. I said that the doctor that rushed out to her within seconds of her injuring herself was a world-class orthopedic surgeon who went to Harvard. And this person said, no, he didn't.

He went to Tufts. Big difference. And I want to tell you two things. First of all, you're fucking wrong. He did go to Harvard. And he went to Tufts. So I'm right and you're wrong. Harvard's a shithole. Go look at all the fraud that's going on at Harvard in their medical fucking department. Start with their fucking stem cell research in the cardiology department. They have the fucking godfather of fucking stem cell research over there. He's published 31 papers, and they've all been retracted and been considered fraudulent.

Don't fucking tell me that there's a big difference between Tufts and Harvard and imply that this fucking shithole racist college is, is, uh, better than Tufts. Uh, Bethany Shadburn. But the last thing I want to say about Brooke Wells is, you know, she was,

I think she was pretty disappointed in her finish last year because she did, she finished fifth, but she was fifth out of five at the stage two of the game. to lose you basically lost the rest of the women once you made it there and she barely had lost to hayley adams carrie pierce beater catrin beater and she was set up this year to to definitely beat catrin and to possibly beat hayley um and and you could have made an argument that if she'd finished fifth this year or six this year that it was actually a better performance and finish for her than it was last year,

taking five out of five after getting into the top five. So that was really, I think a bummer for her and James, she finished 20th because at that point in the competition, there were only 20 athletes left. Okay. But I still think that's, that's her points.

Even after we're having to withdraw, what a place to either 12th or 13th. That's crazy. Seven 92. She would have been yet 13th place behind them. I'm equated with those points, but that's how CrossFit's always done. It is once you're,

uh, once you have to withdraw and you just drop down to the lowest placing of the remaining athletes. James, have you ever trained with Laura Horvath? Um, a little bit. She came out to Reebok for a little while.

Um, a long time ago. And what'd you think? She's super awesome. Fit person. Super nice. I'm really happy to see her back in second place. I don't think she's a fluke athlete whatsoever.

Um, yeah, there you go. I mean, did you know when she came out there, were you like, oh fuck. Yeah. Cause I'm pretty sure we did some workouts where she used men's weight and beat us. Dude, that's an important part of the story. I threw you an alley-oop, and then you fucking missed the dunk, and I had to come fucking hand it to you and let you get a free throw. It was a little build-up. All right.

Tia Toomey, have you worked out with her? I have not. All right. So one of the greatest females that you've ever worked out with is Laura Horvath. That's cool. Matt Souza, although we are not worthy of Carrie Pierce, Brooke Wells, and Bethany Shadburn, it would be awesome to have them on the podcast, by the way. It'd be great to pick their name. Pick their name. Pick their brains.

Danny Spiegel. You had mentioned Bethany Shadburn before that. Okay. And Bethany, you know, I think of, obviously you never want to see anyone withdraw, but I think of all the athletes that had to withdraw or miss this competition this year, this is the one that people were maybe most bummed about because the hype around her was really big after beating Carrie at the West Coast Classic. A lot of people who know her well know she's competed at the games before, but not always healthy. She seemed to be healthy, physically healthy this year,

her body, her joints, things like that. And a lot of people were expecting her to threaten for podium top five. I'd ranked'd ranked her i guess eighths eighth um and i think that she had every every potential to be that or better uh this season but we didn't we didn't get to see it so um i hope obviously that she'll come back and be as good as this next season as she could have been or was poised to be this year but i think that was probably the one that bummed people out the most since you guys have listened this far into the podcast i'll tell you something that i didn't want to say in the beginning i think this next week coming up we have lined up on the podcast uh along with uh at least one ufc fighter on monday morning we have

bkg rich froning and sarah sigmundsdoter all in the queue. They will not be better than James Hobart, but together, all three of them together, maybe. Okay, so sorry. I apologize, Bethany, for skipping over you. Danny Spiegel. Yeah, again, you know, I don't know that she's necessarily in the same tier of athletes based on her performances over the past couple of years as as a car carry Brooke and Bethany or even Sarah and Jamie.

But she's she's a relevant female in the field. And again, she had to withdraw before the cuts this season. So we didn't get to see kind of the full capacity of her. We know she has some lingering foot injuries and she had a you know a couple injuries during the sanctional season i think with her shoulder so we just are waiting for her to to get healthy enough to actually finish the season and see where she falls amongst the rest of the women and we didn't get to see it this year brian jessica dades dade mash said i think brian should do an update with how close he was with the predictions for the outcome of the games in athlete order.

Hey, Jessica, that is what this show is trying to do, but I have jacked it all up. I've jacked it all up. You need paper and pencil if you want to put it together and follow along. I jacked it all up, but that's what this show is. Number 16, Amanda Barnhart. Go ahead. I had her 16th. Originally when you bump out all the women that withdrew, she, it would have been, she

would have been 11th on my rankings and she finished ninth. And I, this is actually an athlete who I got probably the most flack for about ranking her this low coming into the, the games. But, um, I would just, wasn't sure seventh and seventh, the last two years, those tests, those seasons were different. And I felt like, uh, you know, I wasn't sure if she was a top 10 athlete in the, in the field this, this year. And I think that if everyone had competed, she would not have been. So I feel, I feel like I probably wasn't that far off here relative to what she did. I mean, two spots when we take out all the withdrawals and there she is.

Some people have been telling me that she's going to be top five. You just wait and see. I don't see the numbers to support that yet. So maybe she has the capacity to improve on some of her holes at the games. She's obviously won a couple events at the games, but she also always has some really bad finishes and just her overall average finish hasn't been good enough to warrant a top five ranking at so i think that that's just a little bit of wishful thinking maybe um and of course she's going to train hard she's very motivated to do well but uh you know this is just about where

she is um do you care if now i skip around a little bit now that we did 15 do like two or three more and then um do you want to choose two or three more and then we'll go over to the men or else we'll be here all day yeah we should at this point i gotta get ready for the fight tonight dude derrick lewis is fighting tonight can you guys believe it do you watch fights hobart no not really i should get more into it. I have a friend who runs another, not called dojo studio, but he's really competitive into it. I just never got into it. Insane UFC fight tonight. Jacqueline Robertson, always supportive. $10. You're the best. Thank you. So what do you think, Brian? Can we skip around a little bit? Yeah, I think there's four women that we have to talk about and then everyone else, whatever. Okay, go. You choose them.

women that we have to talk about and then everyone else whatever okay go you choose them um so i think we should start with the women that that far exceeded my expectations which are ariel lowen and bailey rail and we have talked about them before and i did and i gave them an acknowledgement and i've just been trying to think about after the games like why were these women so much better than well all the women that i that i like have been to the games, like why were these women so much better than all the women that I, that I like have been to the games before that they just basically crushed. I mean, Ariel finished 14th and Bailey finished 18th. So not only did they make the top 20, but they weren't the last two in the top 20. Like they still continued to fight and move up and 14th place finish for Ariel Loewen. It's just like, it's really, it's just blowing my mind. I'm not sure how she got so

good this year. She's competed in the past. People have reminded me of this, but we did talk about and write about in the morning chalk up as well as she used to compete as Ariel Armstrong and her Instagram handle is Ariel arm. And she was a regional level competitor and she was, you know, just wasn't good enough to get to the games and she has some competition experience for sure. But she had said as much that she wasn't coming to the granite games to win it. She was coming there to participate and she ended up winning. And I think she came to the games. I don't know what her expectations were coming to the games, but she far exceeded mine.

And I give her all the credit in the world. She was very consistent and, and she looked like she was having a blast doing it the entire weekend. And it's a lot of volume and she's a mom and she has a full-time job. And I think that her performance this year is incredibly commendable and has to be recognized. Yeah. And it was a definitely a feel good story the entire week. And every time the camera went on her, I kind of smiled inside. So that's Ariel and then, and Bailey rail. I mean, we talked about it before the, um, the week began. She's, this is her first time ever doing a live individual competition and she plays 18th at the CrossFit games. And I mean, I really can't think

of anything else to say about that, except that she was training with the mayhem crew for the last couple of months in Cookville. and obviously they prepare their athletes really well for something like this uh what what about um well let me ask you this uh who who really shit the bed who didn't get the ranking and fucking drop the ball and made you look bad she already already apologized to me. I hate, I feel bad saying it. But on the women's side, the one that I missed by far by the most in this direction was Carolyn Prevost. Ah.

Yeah, that breaks my heart too. Phenomenal athlete, tough competition, but like we said, a lot of people dropped out too so it could have been her year uh what about what about sam briggs 39 year old sam briggs yeah i mean when i when you remove all the people who dropped out she would have been 20th on my rankings and she finished 21st so she was right there kind of in the middle where i expected her to be um she almost got it did enough to make top 20. She won that event or she got second in that event, that event number 10, I think. And it just was barely not enough, but she, I mean,

at 39 years old, make just making the games in the elite field is we've said it before is pushing the boundaries beyond and beyond. She wants to do it as a 40 year old next year. And if there's anyone who can do it, I think it's her. Fantastic. Uh, Hobart, um,

do you mind if we, you and I have a little powwow real quick, Brian, if you, if you have to get up and pee, you can go pee or do it. Um, on the count of three,

um, based on what you've seen of Brian's work for the women, um, his predictions and, and how it turned out and just figuring all the factors on the count of three, do a thumbs up for the camera if we keep them for next year and a thumbs down. If we don't, we'll do it together at the same time.

Do you need any time to think or do you know? Let's do it. I'm ready. Okay. One, two, three. Wow. Wow. Dude, he was sweating balls. He was sweating balls he was sweating balls hey that doesn't get you in the clear though we might bring someone in for the men so let's switch over to the men you might bring someone over for the men this is not not nearly as good you actually did really amazing for the women what a fucking – isn't there some fancy line that you athletes use, like trash can fire or dumpster fire?

That was a real dumpster fire. Or a soup sandwich, yeah. Yeah, that was a soup sandwich. Just all the pull-outs and mask wearing. Man, what a soup sandwich. Who came up with soup sandwich? I've never heard that one. Solid. I actually think I heard've never heard that one. Solid.

I don't actually think I heard that from Pat Sherwood. Wow. Hats off to Patty. Where is Pat this year? Did he participate in any of the games? Hi, is he retired from the CrossFit scene? What's he doing?

He's doing a podcast with them beyond the whiteboard. He and Boz do a little podcast. Wow. I hope they're not taking it. Ryan, can you bleep that out? What Hobart said? I think we're on a 30-second delay.

Yeah, sorry. But it's definitely not as good as this one. That's all I know about it. Hey, and if you want a clean podcast where guys are like two civilized fucking gentlemen who aren't going to comment on sports bras and whether Josh Bridges' shorts were so tight that you could see his cock and balls,

yeah, don't come to this one. Could you really? No, I don't know. But so many people sent me pictures come to this one could you really no i don't know but so many people sent me pictures of his ass and the shorts he was running the competition and man his ass was hungry good for him yeah i know i kind of like it too um for many reasons it's it's mostly because it's fun to make fun of fun of 2021 CrossFit Games men Brian friends predictions with James Hobart and Sevan Matosian deciding whether

we're going to keep him for next year's predictions we're reviewing his predictions he's presenting his case whether he stays on the show as a Nostradamus Ryan Jevning on the graphics Matt Sousa I don't know what the hell he's doing. Probably running his gym. Number one, you predicted

Patrick Vellner would win the CrossFit Games this year. Just before we talk about the men, we'll just set the stage same as the women, which is there were four withdrawals in the men's side of the competition, but none of them were as significant as the women, which is there were four withdrawals in the men's side of the

competition, but none of them were as significant as the women. Whereas four of the top eight that I projected had to withdraw on the women's side, the highest projected withdrawal was Adrian Munweiler, who I had originally had in 17th, then Sean Sweeney, who I'd had in 21st, and also Sam Stewart and Alexander Illen. So there were some withdrawals on this side, but it didn't really affect the overall landscape as much as it did on the women's side. So for the women, you have a valid note from your mom and dad of why you're sick at school this week. But for the men, you're, you're on your own. That's right. Okay. To make your own excuses.

Yeah, I projected Pat to win. I thought he was going to win. And I actually thought he was going to win all the way up until I saw Justin Medeiros' capacity to do freestanding handstand pushups. And Dave had said that in the moment in event number six, when Vellner and Fikowski ran to the barbell and missed their clean and Medeiros ran up behind them and hit that to beat the buzzer by less than a second and steal that event win, that that's the moment that Medeiros ran up behind him and hit that to beat the buzzer by less than a second and steal that event win that that's the moment that Medeiros won the games but I disagree with Dave on that I do think it was a very significant moment but there were a lot of significant moments that came after that that deadlifting freestand and handstand push-up workout was a home run for

Vellner and he needed to make up 30 points in the last two events or 37 points in the last two events to do it he went on and won the event, which I thought he would do. But Medeiros was clearly the second best in that, in that workout across all the heats and all the men that did the workout. And at that point for me, it was like, this is game over. This guy is the fittest this weekend. Hobart has something to say. No, I was just at that point though.

I thought even if Vellner didn't win, like Medeiros basically haderos basically had to in terms of points could velner have caught him in points like maderos had to take like a last in the final two events or something like that right no not necessarily i mean uh 37 points it was a five point margin so let's just say that velner wins the wins the event number 14 and um and maderos finishes seventh which is that i thought he would finish like six to tenth in that workout and that velner would make up 25 to 30 points and that it'd be within 10 or 15 points going into the final event now i you know i didn't know that medeiros was going to absolutely obliterate everyone on the final event also but um was that his only event win of the weekend the final it was what a weapon yeah how about that guy finished

event 13 in third place event 14 in second place in event 15 in first place that to me is like the reason why well but look like there's no question that's why i mean i thought pat velner was going to win too especially going to the last day i thought he was going to come back i agree with brian i think that handstand push-up workout like the fact that maderos was able to do what he did there and basically neutralize velner in that workout um not just that workout because the the four workouts prior to the final velner's finishes were fifth third second first he did that third second first on the events 12 13 14 and then maderos did on 13 14 15 so velner was doing everything he could to try to claw back after having his really bad event one and a terrible execution of event eight.

And, but it just ended up that he'd given away too many points to a guy who was not, was not giving away anything from beginning to end of the competition. Number two, Jason flopper hopper jason hopper hey you don't know how hard that was for me to say that you don't know how hard for me it was to do that joke but you did i know i know that's all right that hurts that's like it's like making it's like making fun of one of my family members jason hopper sorry uh r, edit that part out too, please.

Jason Hopper. That should just be the clip. Jason Hopper. Well, first of all, we had a chance to talk to him a couple of days ago and he went through his thoughts and what I think is a very honest, humble and realistic evaluation of the weekend from his perspective. And a lot of people have recognized that and reached out to us and said, man, I mean, I was being pretty critical of him about his performance relative to the hype,

but this is a pretty honest and humble reflection by a rookie. So if you haven't heard that one and you feel whatever you feel about him, you might want to listen to it. Hey, I disagree with you. You disagree? You don't think people should go listen to it? No, that part.

Well, that part, yeah, you should definitely listen to it or just at least play it on YouTube so we get the money for it. You don't think people should go listen to it no that part well that part yeah you should definitely listen to or just at least play it on youtube so we get the money for it you don't have to actually watch it just push play and walk away from your computer but um listen we i like jason hopper a lot i think um i i'm courting we're courting each other to be friends um and and and i'm and i'm flattered that he wants to be friends with me that being said compare him to colton mertens colton mertens is like i fucked up and going home fixing this fucking shit done jason hopper's like got some other jason hopper has some of that in him but he's got some other thoughts too he's got some analysis of the game that that i'm

concerned might not be relevant he's like that guy who sent you the um the horvath adams thing yeah yeah the email like i i i does like i don't think hopper needs to worry about if there was too much skill or too much swimming or too much running or if the workouts were for him or not for him and i do hear him talk about that a little bit and i and i and i i on the complete opposite end i see mr merton's like just like you know he went to a gunfight and he lost and he's going home and practicing shooting and adding two more guns to his arsenal i mean he's he's sorry horrible horrible analogy he He's, but he's, he's, I just hear, I don't want to say excuses, but I, I, I feel that there's some leak. I feel there's a leak, a leak in the commitment, a leak in the focus. To say he's making excuses would be too harsh, but I sense a leak and I, and I don't like that.

And, and, and let me ask you this Hobart. Let's say, let's say let's say he's just being honest with us what should an athlete do should he should he not tell the the podcast that or and push it down and hide it like i would push that shit down and hide it i mean i don't know i think it's fine if you share that kind of stuff it just depends what he does in the next 300 some odd days right like so if you go back home and now you're, your whole job as an athlete, excuse me, your whole job as an athlete just becomes analyzing events and looking at,

well, what was it that about that event that I didn't do well? There's that next step of like, great, here's why I didn't do well. And then here's all the things I'm going to train to do better next time. So he might be doing that. Like, I don't, he's a really successful athlete outside of CrossFit. Like I imagine he's someone who's going to go back home and get to work. It might, that might suck him in as far as like, Hey, I'm a really successful athlete. So maybe something about this weekend wasn't me, but I don't, I don't know Jason terribly well. I think he had an awesome season. I imagine you'll see him come back and fix a lot of his issues if he wants to. It definitely sounds like he wants to.

Yeah. Did you, when you took second place this weekend, you fought back and came hard. You know you had a really, basically you pulled a Patrick Vellner. You came out and just shit the bed and had to fight your way back all weekend. Did you at all, did those thoughts creep into your mind? Like, hey, Dave, fuck the programming up on this? No, not once. But I saw a four and a half mile run and i said i'm gonna do shitty at that and i know why i'm gonna do shitty at that and um i saw the one rep max snatch and i actually

outperformed on that but i was like i don't think i'm gonna do great but i did better than i thought i would and i know why i wouldn't do great and i know if i want to compete again what i'm going to do next year you know uh put x lax in casper bauer's coffee no i no well he's not my age division anymore and i and i think everyone's beatable i wouldn't compete if i didn't um but there's a reason he was the champion this year and i wasn't well that hopper does have that he does think everyone's beatable so um i also just want to just just point out a couple things is um bkg 26 his first year at the games everyone knows his resume since kristen holt 17th the first year at the games five straight seven place or better sent recently katrin davids are 31st and 26th their first two years at the games comes back and then and then it's a a huge fucking thing

that catch her into two then she missed the games right and then came back as a dominant force i mean that's fucking impressive what she did that's crazy impressive so there are people like patrick velner who shows up at the games and gets third his first year or even in noah olsen shows up at the games and gets eighth his first year and go on to have very impressive careers. But it's not unprecedented for someone, very talented athlete, to come along and have a below or sub, you know, an average to below average finish at the games as a rookie, especially a young rookie, and learn a lot from it and come back in a year or two later, be right up there in the mix.

So I have people sending me things on Instagram. I'll bet you $100 Hopper never placed his top 10. And I'm like, that's a, that's a pretty bold thing to say. I mean, he was very raw and unprepared this year and made it, made it through to the final cut.

Despite not, I don't think he had a single good workout this weekend. Um, Betsy double Oh seven, blaming the program programming rather than addressing the weaknesses and easy out. I don't know if you're saying that Hopper did that, but I don't want to go on record as saying Hopper did that.

He didn't blame the programming. He didn't go that far. Just saying I heard something in his voice, in his description. I wish I could quote it, but that – Blame's too harsh. Let me just say that. I didn't get the fact he wasn't like fuck dave he's an idiot and i've heard games athletes say that like i mean i haven't heard annie say that and you know i think in one of the years like when they had the softball toss

or something she's like that's not crossfit it's in the behind the scenes and it's like yo yo yo like that is not that's probably not where you want to go. I think there's something you have to remember too. So Hopper wins his semifinal. Same thing. We know he has the ability to win. And he shows up at the games and gets 19th. It's easy from the outside looking in to look at greatness. And I think all of these athletes in terms of competitive CrossFit are great.

And so he's top half in arguably a really talented field, maybe one of the more talented fields we've seen. And so it's like, I just think it's so easy when people are like, well, he's just whining and complaining. Yeah. He probably had really high expectations for himself. So he should be fucking upset. You know, like he should go home and be like, wow, man, I thought I could get top five or brian friend said i was gonna get number two and i let him down and it just depends on what he does with it next and i think it's fine for everyone to criticize him but i just don't think people really understand what it's like to be in that kind of position of greatness and look at all the time we're giving him yeah brent fukowski yep i project him 30 finished third Brent Fikowski. Yep.

I projected him third. He finished third. I mean, he was very consistent on the weekend. He had one really bad workout, the running toe-to-bar workout, and he was pretty impressive otherwise. He didn't win as many events. Actually, he won four events his rookie year. Since then, it's been five years competing at the Games,

and he's only won three. But he still had several solid performances i think he was you know i know that uh bkg was kind of closing in on him towards the end of the weekend but i think he was like pretty clearly the third best guy that that weekend man right where he belonged he was scrappy he was scrappy uh so so uh lindsey sneed says can we talk about him having a full-time job until maybe a month before the games lindsey so that's like our point like like you're talking about hopper right yeah hopper like it's it's one thing to say that okay but it but it's it's another thing to say that and use that as an excuse so like i mean col mean, Colton Merton had the hardest job in the world and made

it to the games. You know what I mean? And slept six hours a night or whatever. And he was up at four in the morning and training at midnight. I mean, like an area alone, we talked about has a full-time job and multiple kids. Yeah. So I hear what you're saying, Lindsay, but go ahead, Hobart. Go ahead. Yeah. Just neither of those guys won the games. So it doesn't matter. Jason Hopper wants to win the games. And people always ask me, they're like, not always, but at seminars, I want to be a games athlete. What do I do? And I'm like, do you have a job? Yes. Quit it. You know, it's the truth. You know, like Matt Fraser wasn't bagging groceries. I mean, maybe that's what Jason needs. Like, I think you can look at it and say, Hey,

yeah, well, he had a job. And in light of that, he did great, which I agree. But I said, if this guy wants to win the games next year, he's like, Ooh, maybe if I can not work that 19th becomes a podium. Well, it's going to be more than that. But not only that, you just, you can observe it as something you have to fix, but I don't think you can use it as an excuse. I agree. I just like, there's, there has to be a distinction there because it's the kind of mindset that uses it as an excuse that that is indicative of a bigger problem in the head.

So that's that's my thoughts. But what do I know? Although I was the best best cameraman at the game. So I guess I was the best at something. Number four, Noah Olsen yeah I had had him fourth he finished 10th so I'd say that this was another miss on my part um didn't do as well as uh as I thought he would do this year and um just in the little bit that I've heard him talk about it since then I don't think there's any real uh excuse that he's giving

or reason or anything is just that's where he fell this year let me i want to say this about no i'm curious what you think james all of these other mistakes that brian's made have been his fault he fucked up and didn't look in his crystal ball clearly he should have sprayed some windex on that thing and shined it this one is all noah's fault noah has no fucking business taking 10th place if he lives next door to me i would fucking put him over my knee and paddle him. He's too fucking good. It's fucking unacceptable.

That one is not Brian's fault. I'm trying to see where he got tripped up this weekend. He's too fucking good. He's too good of a guy. He's too good of an athlete, and he's put too much into it. I don't want to say the word deserve. I hate that. But he does need a spanking roger that he just had a lot of middle of the pack finishes

and you you know when you you'll see some of these other guys that end up placing ahead of him they had some home runs he didn't have really any of any of those this year okay dingus health lifestyle 20 burpees buddy don't don't write that shit in the comments flopper jason's gonna see that and gonna hate me you're in big trouble buddy 20 burpees no one else write flopper in there again uh number five the great scott panchik who i god he could have been the podium though everyone's lucky his knee was fucked up you think he could have been the podium though. Everyone's lucky. His knee was fucked up. You think he could have? Yes. I don't think he could have been podium. I think he could have been fifth.

Um, no, he, yeah, he finished 11th. I'm counting it as a miss here, but I really don't think it's much of a miss. It's, uh,

if he was able to run, I think he would have been in at six, that worst. Man, dude, he, even the commentators are like, um like um man look at him shake on those thrusters when he would lower the bar and it would land on his clavicle or whatever that is

because that one leg just was not holding up i mean it was like a broken coffee table leg and uh like the kind you had in like your coffee table in college and your living room and like you're like don't set the bong there. That thing was fucked up, man. Yeah, I'm going to say Scott with a podium. I'm going to say Scott could have won the games. Hey, he was in the right mindset. He was in the

right mindset. Thank you, Dingus. Well done. Anything else you want to say about Scott? Did he deserve the Spirit of the Games award? Yeah, in context to everything, I think so. Again, I've always been a huge fan, and I know it's like the games just test fitness,

but I don't know. I'm always a huge fan of anyone who's active in the community. And Scott has been active in the community, affiliate owner, started a competition. He's invested in it. That's very, very cool. I say and just he's invested in that's very very cool i like i say bullshit that he's gonna retire i think he's gonna i think he's at home right now being like holy shit if my knee would have been better i could have fucking won that thing i don't know i don't know either, Hobart.

That's what this show is about. Well, I disagree. Bjork. Carl. What? You say his name. Say his first name. Say it, Brian.

Bjorkvin Carl Gudmundsson. Bjorkvin Carl Gudmundsson from the great country of Iceland. 300,000 people. More CrossFit gyms per capita than anywhere in the world. And you could look at their family history and everyone on that island is related to each other. That's always kind of weird. Remember I mentioned that 26th in his rookie year? Yes.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, five six seven straight years of eighth or better now he's got two podiums this is his next best finish fourth place he wasn't 100 healthy coming into this week and i knew that um and he still almost chased down fukowski and got on the podium i think he surprised himself a little bit based on what i had heard from his camp prior to the weekend but guys amongst the best that we've ever seen. And, uh, when you talk about consistency over time, so incredible performance for him and just add it to the list. He's he's top of the sport. I mean, he's right, right there with all these guys. Uh, this next one, um, this is the one that puts Brian's job in jeopardy. This next one.

This is going to be a tough pill to swallow, people. Everyone sit down, relax, maybe take a bathroom break. Justin Medeiros, the 2021 CrossFit Games champion. You had him ranked. Brian's video just went out. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, Justin Medeiros. Oh, no, I don't feel bad about this at all.

I mean, I had included him in my list of four people who could win the games, and I basically said I don't know enough about him yet. Obviously, people can say, well, what do you mean you don't know enough about him? He was third place last year at the games. But, yeah, he was third last year. It was a very different test. We talked about how he'd had some success at sanctionals when winning the filthy one 50, almost winning the granite games minus not really understanding how to use a sandbag

that year and that he had a ton of potential. He was, he was better than I thought, you know, across this entire test, he did not have a single bad performance. 15th was his worst placing and the events he was worst on are some of the events that I'm least concerned about. Like the run, like the 550 yard sprint, which is I think in kind of a specialty specialty type thing. And I'll always take the generalist, like the generally awesome guy over the guy who excels in one or two things. Um, so, and I, and I said, I think you asked me a couple of weeks ago or a week ago or so, you know, this is the guy to beat right now.

And I said, I think you asked me a couple of weeks ago or a week ago or so, you know, this is the guy to beat right now. He's, he's young. He's very fit. His midline is super strong. He's got all the skills and the tools and he's still getting stronger. Like he's, he's been getting stronger and he's going to continue to get stronger, I think. So he's going to be a tough guy to unseat.

Um, and, uh, he earned, he earned this victory. I counted as a miss ranking him seventh and having him finish first. But I don't feel bad about the fact that I had him seventh on the power rankings coming into the weekend. I think what happened was Jason Hopper beat him at the MAC. He did? And that fucked you all up. That got you all scrambled. Like a pretty girl smiling at you from across the room

and you thought she liked you, but she didn't. She was just being courteous. I think that scrambled your brain a little bit. Speaking of pretty girls, if we could take a break in the show real quick. I'm looking at this. Danielle Brandon is taking a really long drive right now and someone asked her,

who is the best podcast host. Oh, boy. Did you listen to it? Did you listen to it? Fucking boy. No, I didn't listen to it. You have to listen to it. You have to listen to it.

Otherwise, you're going to be wrong. Look what she put. She can't tag you. She lists you and then me when she speaks, but she can't tag you she lists you and then me when she speaks but she can't tag you brian friend hey buddy i just have what i have i just have what i have you can say all you want but i just i'm a guy who goes by the facts maybe i'll check it out later but best podcast host brian brian friend from daniel brandon and her eyes are closed i want to imagine you could, if you could see what she's visualizing right there, by the way,

I like her hair. I like, I'm not a fan of like weird colored dyed hairs or nose rings or like big old hoops in the ears or any of that, like the big old gauges. Ryan's a runaway freight train. So, so going back,

I, I, I think that you got confused by Hopper and beating Medeiros at the MAC. I think you disrespected Matt Fraser. That was his horse that he picked to win the games. And you're on the Dave Castro bandwagon, and he picked Hopper, so you picked Hopper.

And I think you've been misguided and bamboozled. Okay. Hobart? Yes. Thank you. That's rare. Timestamp that 1220. Hobart agreed with me and not Brian.

Number eight, Cole Sager. I'm shocked at his finish, actually. Well, he barely got into the top 20. He was the last guy in, in 20th place. After one event, he moved all the way up to 10th place, and then he just kind of ended up in the mixer in 14th. I would say that this was underwhelming games for him relative to the expectations.

I'm counting it as a miss for me. And I think it's similarly to the Noah Olsen scenario. I don't really think there's any excuse here that I've heard from Cole. This is just as good as he was this week. Hobart, have you worked out with Cole Sager? I have not. Oh, that actually shocked me. Have you worked out with BKager i have not oh that's i'm that actually shocked me um have you worked with out with bkg hobart um no i don't think we have worked out together but we competed together in 2014 you like him huh a lot yeah i think he's um i think he's got all the right stuff to be a podium athlete and he's a good dude yeah he is a good dude right he's probably i can't wait to get him

on the podcast um the little bit that i've hung out with him, he's funny. He's enjoyable to be around. He's a gentleman. Yeah. You know what we forgot to ask Medeiros? Medeiros doesn't have any tattoos, does he? We didn't forget to ask him anything. We just couldn't hear him.

Oh, right. Thank you. Right. We're perfect. The technology failed us. Thank you. Chandler Smith. The technology failed us. Thank you. Chandler Smith, you picked him to be ninth. I think that's another guy who's got an insane body and got a lot of hype behind him,

but I think that you made a mistake picking him as ninth. I think that's the only time I've said that. I've liked all your picks, but I think picking him at ninth was a mistake. No, I mean, and look. He finished 21st, by the way. He did. him at ninth was a mistake no i mean and look i i he finished 21st by the way he did he missed he cole sager bumped him out for the last spot inside the top 20 and maybe he moves up a few spots if he gets into the top 20 maybe he doesn't who knows but either way yeah i would say that once again this is a miss and you'll see on the men's side relative to the women's there's a lot more misses

i think it's and this is like this every single competition I've ever done this for. It's a lot more difficult to, to pin down the men. There's a lot more. I think there's just a lot more guys who on any given weekend can upset the balance, can make a top five or a top 10. Whereas on the women's side, it's pretty consistent over the last five to seven years. Um, so Chandler didn't have it this week. He didn't have it at the Granite Games, in my opinion. I thought that he would use that interim time period to improve or whatever. I mean, that's what Bergeron usually does. Usually his guys are okay and good enough at the regional or the semifinal level and excellent at the games.

And now we've talked about Cole Sager, Chandler Smith, and Katrin David's daughter, who all underperformed, and Amanda Barnhart, who did what I'm going to say is about what I expected her to do. So none of them exceeded expectations this year, and that's why there are questions. Some of them, I think, even in the comments today, but I've gotten a lot on Instagram about what's going on with Bergeron's group.

How come they're not doing as well at the games as they usually do? I don't like that talk. Okay. Do you like that talk um people blame whole camps well i think that there's a in general there's just a a big question mark this year about and we've briefly talked about it about is this training camp method effective for producing the best results at the crossfit games based on on this year, the answer is obviously no. But it's also the first year that a lot of those camps have been in existence, and I think that there's a lot of opportunity for them to improve

on how they're running those camps over a total time of a year leading into next year's games, and that that might change next year. Look at Rich's camp look at the look at the mayhem empire a bunch of athletes shit the bed a bunch of athletes dominated you're talking about from rich's camp specifically some did well some did not yeah the mayhem empire yeah okay who uh who shit the bed uh samuel well he was literally shitting the bed i think he was right right literally he had one of the most impressive performances of the entire weekend and event two and i was like oh shit maybe this guy's as good as he says he is and then he basically was a shell

of himself at like two events later and the rest of the competition as he claimed he was very sick yeah he drank the water in the lake. I think something's wrong with that lake. That's just a rumor, but I think something's wrong with the lake. Haley Adams didn't perform up to expectations, right? By two spots. Okay. I'll be wrong on both those.

But you guys are just helping my argument. I'm about to pivot. Royce dunn exceeded expectations and we already talked to a bailey rail exceeded expectations aha so camps are good that's my point so so none of those none of those people corn y a ba, or Royce Dunn, live and train with Rich all year round. Okay. They come to the camp two weeks or three weeks before the games and start training there. I think that that is the more effective method, is to do a majority of your training all year long on your own or in your own setting,

of your training all year long on your own or in your own setting and then to have a maybe a more focused games prep with a couple other competitive athletes leading into the games and that's what Bergeron has done in the past they've had that Cape Cod camp thing where the people would come in for a couple weeks at a time and train instead of having Samuel Quant and Amanda Barnhart and everyone move to New England and spend the whole season there with Katrin. Oh, that's a catchy Cape Cod camp. Cape Cod camp. Camp Cape Cod. I would go with Camp Cape Cod.

That's catchy. Janikowski. He's probably going to hate me for saying this, but I thought he did fucking amazing. He probably wanted to win, but man, I thought he looked amazing. I had actually, I'd had him ranked even higher i had him ranked seventh even ahead of maderos i think in my original rankings but i just had a feeling he wasn't a hundred percent he is having like a ton of tape on his shoulders and all his videos leading into the games so i dropped him down to 10th um i think he was phenomenal i'm with you you. I was very impressed, but he's a great

athlete. I think he's got finishes of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 10th in his career in the games that he hasn't had to withdraw. That's an incredibly impressive resume. I have him inside the top 20 all-time on the fittest men to ever compete at the CrossFit Games for a reason. When he's able to finish the whole test, he's very, very good, and he was very good this weekend again. James and Austin should start a camp in Boston. Dave Honeycutt. Thanks, Dave. I don't live in Boston anymore though.

Hey, those are just, that's, that's, you're not, come on, James. Those are just details. Okay. James. And how about, let me reread it. This is what Dave Honeycutt meant. Sorry. I fucked it up.

James and Austin should start a camp. How's that now respond that's better no austin's the enemy he uh he ages up next year i'm trying to convince him to do masters so the enemy yeah the frenemy. Samuel Cornway. We should have him on again because I say his name so well. We already talked about him. It does seem like he was sick relatively early on in the competition. So I don't think we got to see the full capacity that he has to offer. And that's unfortunate, but that's how it goes sometimes. And I bet you he's going to be better next year.

It feels that way. It feels like he has the potential to be. Yeah. Number 12, I mean, this is just a brilliant pick on your part. This is another reason why you probably keep your job for another year. Lazar Djukic. I don't know how the hell you picked him, but man, what a stud. I don't know how the hell you picked him, but man, what a stud.

Azar, I mean, I knew he had the potential to do well at a high-level competition because he's done it before at Dubai. But I think, I mean, getting to talk to him when we did, that was one of the most refreshing parts of the week. Those guys are very fun, but they're also very, very good. And he, in particular, stood out to me on, um, on a lot of events that I think are pretty, like pretty tough events. And I was like, Ooh, I got to see if he can hang here. I got to see if he can hang here. And he was still putting together top 10 performances, a couple of top fives, a first and a second on back-to-back events.

I think he has a lot of the kind of in an intangible skills the running and the swimming but even like the capacity to um what's this workout he's really struggled on event 13 so like getting under the heavy yoke i think was it was that that was i think event 18 was a yoke wasn't it 13 13 yeah yoke so he struggled with the yoke. Um, and so maybe he can stand to, to me, that just telling me that he can, if he maybe just builds up the midline a little bit more this year, that this ninth place finish can actually maybe be even a lot better than

that. Um, uh, Ryan, how much, how much more of your time do we have? Okay. That's perfect. that's the awesome answer uh number 13 saxon panchick yeah so i mean that's another one that i would say i missed on here um he finished fifth and it was incredibly impressive and i think that people should be concerned about him as a,

as a threat going forward. He seems to have all the tools he's got. He's a great lifter. He's got great midline stability. Um, he's, he's, you know,

he lacks a little bit of power relative to some of the bigger guys, but that's only going to come out in one or two events. I think that one of his worst finishes was in that, uh, was it that biking event? Event nine. Yeah. 29th place,

the biking power snatch. Um, so he can work on his maybe, um, like power output on machines type stuff to, to even improve a little bit more. That was when, when I worked out next to,

uh, Matt Fraser at the granite games, that was something I was really blown away with was how powerful he was on the machines. So I think that Saxon can stand to put in a little bit of work there, and it's not unprecedented for a guy of that size to be able to hang with some of the bigger guys on the Echo Bike or the Rower or whatever, especially in shorter time domains.

But overall, incredibly impressive season for him, a winner of a semifinal, fifth place at the CrossFit Games. All the credit to him, and I will not be underrating him in the future. Hobart, talk to me about increasing your power output on the bike. I mean, I know the easy answer to say, I was going to ask you, is that possible? I know the easy answer is yes, but I'm kind of a dummy. I don't want to believe that. I want to believe that that,

like that is really hard to do, especially in the shorter time domains. Um, no, I don't think it is. And I think, um, this is one of the things I think might struggle with the training camps is that you get used to beating the same people on the same events. And therefore you might not be tapping into some levels of fitness or intensity that you need to in order to get better at those things because you're just better at them with your surrounding training partners. So Matt Fraser is a really good example of this. Like Matt got much better at rowing and on the bike. And when he would get on those events, especially for someone who's shorter, like bike rower, equal level of fitness typically is going to go the way of the bigger guy. I mean, Fikowski smashed that event nine,

even though he has to move that barbell a further distance. So short answer, I definitely think it's something you can get better at. Unfortunately, it's just a really painful thing to get better. It just sucks. Like, I don't think I've ever beat my two KPR because the first time I did it, I was just, my body was so stupid. It, but now I know what that pain is like, and it's so hard to go there. Hmm. That's interesting. So if you're the best guy in the gym, that's interesting. That's very interesting that you say that about, about if you're beating everyone in your camp. And not only that, you could take it one step further and you could know if you're

going to do three workouts, you know which one you're going to win so you don't feel as bad for losing the other two. And I think it's really hard to self-regulate and be like, well, I know I'm good at this one, so I'm going to, you know, and I'm bad at the other two so but I'm gonna go really hard at the other two because I want to get better I think it's really hard to fight that temptation to not play to your strengths it's so hard especially when there's like you know when you win your coach is like great you beat everybody nice job like you really need someone to be there and be like hey that was that was good but you should try harder than the ones you suck at, even if it causes you to lose. I don't know if this is true.

Bestie007 said, Saxon is with Mayhem now. Is there truth to that? No idea. I also don't know. Well, oh, no, actually, I do. He's coached by Facundo, and Facundo is taking over the programming for Mayhem Athletes. So I guess via that route, yes. Wow. Well, then that's a yes.

Wow, wow, wow. And Scott was on the team one year, right? He was. So they definitely have a relationship there. Wow, that's interesting. I wonder if he'll move to Cookville. He's got two kids now, right? I don't think he'll move to Cookville because him and his brother own CrossFit

Cliffside, and I think they're pretty happy training there and living there. Jason Miller, Dave knows the lake is bad. One of his tests is adversity. He's a true taskmaster. That's why he's a SEAL trainer. All right. Make them swim in a bowl of diarrhea and see who comes out alive. All right.

Fine. Number 14. One more thing on Saxon Panchick. Can he be a threat to Justin Medeiros? When I say that I'm not going to underrate him in the future, and I was just actually thinking about this, I still don't think I can rank him ahead of any of the guys who beat him this year because they've been so good for so long. So until I actually see him in a competition,

beat Medeiros, beat Vellner, beat Fikowski, beat BKG, I just have to have him in the tier right below that. But do you think Vellner is a threat next year for Medeiros? Yes. A serious threat? Yes. Number 14, Jeffrey Adler. Picked him 14th, finished 13th. I think that's about exactly where he falls relative to this field. Boss. Number 15, Travis Mayer.

My dues to Travis, um, 12th is he's had some finishes around there in previous years at the games to still be doing it as he's getting older, as his family's getting bigger with the other things he has going on. He has a high level of commitment to being great in this sport. Um, and he's, uh, you know, like I said, he's not in that top tier, but he's in that next group of guys. He's flirting with the top 10 regularly over his career. Very impressive, um, to be able to do that, especially with everything else he has going on in his life that a lot of these athletes don't have. So good game this week for Travis.

But yeah, again, like Adler, this is kind of where he falls relative to these guys. I'll let you pick. I have two that I'd like to talk about. There's obviously a bunch more. Anyone else you want to talk about in the men before I bring up the two random guys? Similarly to the women, I just want to give the accolades to the other two guys. There's three guys that I really missed on here who did way

better than I thought. We talked about Royce Dunn and we talked about earlier how I think there was actually a good balance in this test between strength and skills. And Royce,n and we talked about earlier how I think there was actually a good balance in this test between strength and skills and Royce for a big guy has both of those things in a really good kind of a balanced way so um you know I I had picked him to make it out of the Autorium Pro and a lot of people that they were being critical of me for that but he obviously showed his merit here at the games by finishing 16th and he was higher than that for a lot of the weekend. So excellent weekend for Royce Dunn. I'm very happy for him. Henry Kepa-Leinen, didn't know much about him coming into the games, makes the final cut, finishes 18th. Curious to see if he can parlay this into future success

in the sport or if he's going to be kind of a one and done type of guy. So definitely we'll be looking for him in the next year or two to see if he can have another good season and good run at the games. And then last is Guy Maeros. I mean, basically I had him ranked last. He ends up finishing seventh. He has three event wins in what I consider to be very specialist style events, 550 yard sprint. It's not going to show up every year at the games. And if it does, maybe it's one event. The next two events were lifting events or like a lifting and short-distance running event. So he's very good at short-distance running, and he's very good at Olympic lifting.

He was obviously good enough at the rest of the stuff to have an incredible performance, earned the seventh place, earned the Rookie of the Year. I don't know if he'll ever have as high a finish at the games again as he did the year. I don't know. I don't know if he'll ever have as good of as high a finish at the games again, as he did this year. Um, and I think that a lot of people probably can get on me for that, but I will certainly not rank him this low going forward, but I don't know that I would rank him this high. And, and then a little bit of a, just putting things in perspective, no, no person, no from south america has ever finished

higher than like 33rd or 34th at the games prior to this season i knew it i knew it what i knew it so there's racists those are people i don't know what the word is there's racist those are people like if like they judge you by the color of your skin. Like they make, I guess they, I don't know. But they look at skin color. Then there's ageist. They look at like people's age, right? Like they determine shit by people's age. They may have preconceived presuppositions.

Then there's sexist and they judge people by like their capability based on their vagina and their cock and balls. And then I don't know what this one is, but it's what continent you're from. And Brian judges people from what continent they're from. He didn't let me finish. Okay, fine. Go ahead before I fucking accuse you.

And by the way, can someone figure out what that word is? That's, that's probably a great word. Go ahead, Brian. Sorry, finish.

Um, you were talking about him being from South America and and i knew it we've been so we've been waiting for someone who's not from europe or north america and it could be asia or i should say or australia it could be or oceania someone from asia or africa or south america to break through and have a top 10 type performance at the crossfit games and we thought we might get it with roman krennikoff but he's never been able to come. Jason Smith has been kind of the flag bearer for South, South for Africa,

but he hasn't had a performance this good. And now we have Guimayaros who is, you know, basically saying like South America is now on the radar in terms of having a high level competitive CrossFitter in the men's field. And so, and so, you know, if he's able to have, uh, another year like this next year, then I will take serious note of this guy as someone who can challenge some of the top men in the sport. And will that change your whole perception of South America and you'll stop being a continentist, a continentist?

No, I mean, i think that james can acknowledge this too it's like savann do you need another coffee or something no no like there's there is uh such a thing as as training age and you just can't make up for it in a short amount of time in some in certain ways so the sport is newer in those parts of the world than it is in the aforementioned parts. And it's only a matter of time between the men and the women there get good enough to be relevant at the top.

And maybe we're starting to turn that corner. Yeah. Well, it makes you feel any better. I'm a continentist too. I don't think anyone from Africa or South America is going to win the games for a long time, but I do think that Guy's going to do extremely well next year. He's so young. Jason Smith, we got to get him on the podcast. And this guy on YouTube is right. Jason did have a 10th place finish at the games. Yep. Who, Jason Smith did?

Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. I don't see his name on there where where how did i miss him event two i think no i don't see his name on this list 30th 26th oh okay thank you um i wanted to ask you about oh i wanted to say something so uh someone up here said why do you guys have a hard-on for travis mayor why does everyone have a hard-on for Travis Mayer? Why does everyone have a hard-on for Travis Mayer? The problem is no one has a hard-on for Travis Mayer. That's the point, Bug.

He's so freaking good. He's such a staple in the community. And the events that he does well on, you don't want to get me started. I've talked about it in other podcasts. It's fucking insane. He won an event, and they didn't put the camera on him once during the event once think about that some of the broadcast was like imagine if you were watching a football game and the quarterback threw the ball and they didn't show you where the ball went and they just kept the camera on the quarterback and then the commentators didn't even tell you it was an

interception run back for a touchdown that's how the fucking broadcast was and travis mayer paid the price for it so those of us it it's constant it was like that in the semi-finals it's always like that with them you have a super soft spot for parent athletes though true yeah i'm biased i'm biased 100 totally biased just a couple a couple of ones I saw in the comments. I should give a shout-out to Andre Houdet also. He had a great game. He finished 15th. I project him 24th.

So he should be included in that group for a commendable and excellent performance with a bright future, I think. And then someone was asking about Wildis Upenex. I'd ranked him 31st. He finished 25th. Wildis has a lot of potential. He just needs to get a little bit more well-rounded. He's very good at all the stuff that it takes to get to the games, I think.

But then when he gets there, he gets exposed a little bit on certain implements. So tremendous. I've always been a huge Uldis Upenix fan. I've been paying attention to him for a few years. a huge ULDA Supernext fan. I've been paying attention to him for a few years. He's just missing that well-roundedness that you need to be in the top half

of the field at the games. Alrighty, guys. I have a bunch of questions, but we've been doing this long enough. James Hobart, thanks for coming on. I've never seen you take so many deep breaths. I hope I didn't get you too wild up.

I hope it wasn't my two cups of good dude's coffee. No, it was great. Ryan, thanks for running the YouTube. You killed it. Brian. Oh, sorry. One quick little bit detail to take care of. James, are you ready?

I'm ready. Okay. Shall we keep Brian? A thumbs up as we keep Brian for next year to do the mail? What's it called? Nostradamus stuff to predict the males and a thumbs down as we don't. One, two,

three. Wow. In sync. Wow. Bring them back. It feels like gladiator. It's very nervous. That's how I wanted you to feel

guys thanks for tuning in uh we have an exciting week coming up ahead don't miss monday 7 a.m pacific standard time uh jason witt if you want to watch his last fight with the ufc it was uh two weeks ago it's an incredible incredible fight I don't want to tell you who won, but it is a bloodbath. He'll be our guest on Monday. And like I said, I think we have Rich, Sarah, and the great Bjorgvin, Carl Goodmanson also lined up. Wait, we need Brian to tell us how to play two-person Catan. Heidi. I'll tell you. I'll reach out to you on Instagram, Heidi.

Heidi, don't. Heidi, Heidi, don't. Brian also has a solitary Catan rule sheets too, so just in case. That's how I make sure I always win.