The Sevan Podcast - CrossFit Games - Dave Castro Update #1

Episode Date: July 25, 2021

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Let's do it. Let's do it. I've been doing it. We are, we're. Okay, go. We're one minute into my show. Your show just started. so my show has covered it covers more territory than your uh whatever you're doing your instagram live where are you

i'm in madison wisconsin and you're at the hotel already yeah yep uh the way you have your camera positioned you're a little bit dark but it does show off that you have a premier room with a lake view. So I like that. Yeah, I got a nice view. Does your room have workout equipment like it had in the past years? Not yet, but it will not today. And what will your go-to piece of workout equipment be in the room? The C2 bike. Not, not, why not? Uh, the Echo bike or the Assault bike, something with arms? Those are too hard. I just like to get on the bike and just spin it out, chill, relax. How is your mood?

Your lips look loose. Usually when I had the pleasure of working with you for many years, you would be all pursed up and shit from the second you got in Madison. No, I'm good. I'm good. My mood is good. I'm really excited about the event. I'm excited about what we have in store and how it's all developing.

I feel prepared. We are maybe. So last year, those games, we were more prepared for those than any other games ever in the history of CrossFit. And that was for two reasons. One, with the pandemic and all, we kept pushing the dates, and so we were able to start it much later. And two, because it was at the ranch, we were basically able to test every event and everything we were going to do multiple times and kind of have everything set.

Here, it's a little different. We have new things we have to play with, new venues, new things we're not able to test until we get here. But that being said, we're more prepared going into this one than any of the other Madison ones we've ever done before or been prepared. We're more prepared than ever for this event. That's impressive. And CrossFit is still working closely with Rogue. They're the ones who are there setting up all the stuff and taking stuff down. They're the guys.

Yep, spent a long time today with Bill and team, testing workouts on the floor and just refining some stuff. How is the secrecy this year? Have there been any leaks? I haven't heard any rumors of any leaks this year. I don't think there's been any leaks now. Not that I know of. nothing that i've heard of i just went online to buy tickets for the coliseum and it is completely sold out is that accurate or is ticket master screwing you

no yeah yeah that's accurate it's the stadium sold out i'm really happy about that um were there any events that you were not able to do this year that you wanted to do yes and and what were the what were the limitations the test there's only so many things new or so many things outside the box or so many i don't want to say gimmicks but so many things you should try in a given year. There was plenty of things that had to be pushed. So I got a list already of 2022 events, items, things to play with. And there's always tension with like trying to include too much, trying to include new things. And there's always a fine balance that I'm very aware of and that I pay close attention to that I respect. So it's not like you're and that I pay close attention to that I respect.

So it's not like you're disappointed that you weren't able to include them. This is just common. Every year there's a lot of things that don't make it, that just get pushed. This is normal. Okay. What is this Husafel, am I pronouncing that right? Bag? Good to see Dave and Savon hanging out today. Someone commented. What's a Husafel bag? So a Housafel stone is this strongman item. I think Bill said today that it weighs 400 pounds,

and it's a big famous stone that they pick up and do strongman stuff with. He's made a bag called a Housafel bag, so it's the same shape of the Housafel stone, and you can make it lighter. I don't know the history beyond that in terms of in the strongman world, we had to make it in orange. And so now it's a chunk of cheddar, kind of like we had the cheese curds a few years ago. I have a chunk of cheddar. Right. And I saw you posted on your Instagram. Have you announced a workout with it or is that just more like a clue? Yeah, you can piece it together what it's being used for, but I'm not going to piece it together

for you. You need to figure it out. Okay. I'll ask Brian. I'm not good at that stuff. Have you seen my boy Brian yet? Uh, no, I wouldn't know what he looks like either. I couldn't, couldn't find him, point him out. Okay. When you see him, um, will you say hi to him and be kind to him and give him extra access? Yeah, for sure. Thank you. You're a good dude. You announced cuts, and I thought the cuts were – they didn't seem out of the norm. People – there's always this – I never hear anyone saying that CrossFit needs to be more open or more participatory.

I mean, shit, you have the open and everyone can enter. It's a super wide net. And then you're allowing all the athletes to compete the first two days. And then there are cuts that cut it down to 30. And I noticed right away at the top there was a comment from my boy Brandon Luckett. What did he say? He said something along the lines, like, I thought you weren't going to screw the athletes again this year. Did you have any hesitancy making these cuts?

What did you – do you think about that? Do you see this as a participatory event at this level, or do you see it more as what I would call – and I know it's a presosition but as a professional event hey man you're here get in where you fit in I skew towards the ladder and what you said I don't appreciate that comment that you just said he said only to create this narrative or to create this perception that the mechanism of having cuts at the games is a way to screw over the athlete athletes I think that's unfair of him to say or insinuate or to plant in people's heads. So I don't really, it has nothing, cuts have nothing to do with screwing over athletes. Cuts have, there's a, we're testing for the fittest alive. We're testing for the top athletes in the world.

And as you make cuts and when you go deeper in the field and narrow it down, you're able to have a little more flexibility and get a little creative and do things that might be time impossible or restrictive with gear to do with larger fields. We've done it before, but also cuts have been something that's been in our DEA DNA for the games for a very long time. So there's a point in the competition. So our first cut is after nine events. All day Wednesday, these athletes get to compete. All day Friday, these athletes get to cut. And after nine events, there's 10 cuts. So basically a quarter of the field gets cut.

There's a point where you're no longer there to contend. There's a point where you're no longer there to make an impact on the top. And at that point, it is entirely participatory. And at that point, you're just being drug along. And, yeah, frankly, at the end of the weekend, maybe we should give you a participatory award. But I've always been an advocate of cuts. There was a year we went away from them for those reasons I just stated. It gives us the ability to get a little more creative on the schedule.

It doesn't have these knockout dog or dick dragon days that go from nine to nine every day because we have a full field of athletes and because, you know, frankly, it's more inclusive in that area. At this point, we're testing for the fittest alive and you had your chance. You had nine events to prove that you can advance and then you advance to 30 and we give you a chance to prove that you can advance to the next stage. And then we're stopping at 20. And honestly, frankly, there was a version of this that cut down to 10. And the final day had 10 going through for the last few workouts. Some of our team, for a multitude of reasons, didn't like that. So we went back and forth and we're settling on cuts of getting down to 20, which is totally fair. Plenty of opportunity to make it in advance. And again, I take offense

to this narrative that that's a mechanism for disrespecting or treating the athletes poorly. It's not at all. You have plenty of opportunity to prove and to advance. And I mean, man, look at this. And this is hilarious. People will travel to Japan this year for the Olympics. And in eight seconds, or actually not eight, call it 10.5, 10.4. In 10.5, 10.4 seconds in their first heat of the 100-meter dash, their Olympics are over. And so this notion of people traveling and then, you know, getting cut, they're traveling and then they're getting cut after nine events. So it's not really there. So that narrative, I won't stand for that narrative. I won't stand idle or silent for

that narrative of this is a way of treating the athletes poorly. Also, I'll tell you this much. The first year, so 19, when Greg did all the major changes to the format and we had all those country champions there, same thing, man. Like there I had no way. So there, here, if we were cutting 40 athletes after one event, I would listen to that and I would hear that argument a little more. But that's not the case here. There, even cutting 150 after one event, I was comfortable with because so many of them didn't belong there even after one event. And that was kind of the statement there.

It was one pretty well-programmed event to narrow the field down a lot. And in the Olympics, you could actually be pulled even quicker than 10.5 or 11.5 seconds. It's just the length that it takes to swab your nose. You could be out in two seconds. I mean, that same might be said here, right? nose, you could be out in two seconds. I mean, that's saying might be said here, right? Right. Do the athletes get tested there or do they have to show up with some proof that they're, that they're clear of the virus? Um, worked as tested. I think that I imagine they're tested. I haven't, that's a good question. I'll find out. Did you get your results back? Yeah, I'm good. And if you would have tested positive, you would have just run the games from your room. I would have just chilled and I would let the team do it. I

wouldn't just, I wouldn't even try to run them. It's just been like, all right, you guys got it. Do your thing. You know what we're looking for. You know what to do. That's the thing. So much pre-work has gone into this that it's just ready to flow. It's just ready to go. And everyone knows what to do. How many trips did you make to Madison between the end of the games in 2020 and today, including this trip to Madison you made yesterday or the day before? Prior to this, two trips. So this is your third trip out there? Yeah. He got me for four more minutes.

Okay. So I want to go back to the cuts thing. You bring up a really good point. 40, you said nine events before you cut down to 30. And you have to think so if you're in. Well, hey, take it this way. Regionals or semifinals this year, you do six events over three days and you're gone you're done the event's over you go home this event you have nine events over three days i say over three days because there's also a rest day and then the same applies then you a handful of athletes go home or don't even let me rephrase that don't even go home have you announced the number of total events yet

because people keep saying it's 15. Yeah, so I don't think formally we've announced that, but I've even tagged 15 for 15. Do you know what that represents? 15th year, 15 workouts? Yeah, exactly. You bring up a really good point. So the thing is that if you're in the bottom ten, which get – then there's a very good chance you won't even – by going into day three, if you're in the bottom ten, you're not going to make it into the top ten anyway mathematically. There's only six events left. Yeah. Do you have a prediction for who's going to win the games this year, man or woman?

Nah, I don't play that game. I mean on the women's side, it's easy to say Tia, right? I mean, that's how anyone could say that. But I don't really dive into that world of like trying to pick the podium. I have an idea of who I don't think will be on there. But I don't really play with like trying to pick who's going to win or second or third. Are you excited that Matt's gone? That it mixes up the men? That there's a big unknown for the first time in a while? Yeah, absolutely. It's good for the sport. It's good to see some new blood get highlighted,

see a new male champion. I'm really excited about it. In a podcast I did with Samuel Cornway a couple days ago, he said that Rich Froning is the fittest man walking the planet right now. He still trains with Rich. Do you think that there could be any truth to that? I think there might be something called proximity bias. And I've seen it in coaches.

I see it in athletes a lot and coaches. You're so close to these athletes, these really good athletes, and your whole world is around them. So you instantly think because they're better than you or because they're really good, that they're the best in the world. Is Rich the fittest man in the world right now? I don't think so, but I guarantee you he's really up there. And I mean, look, so I say that from a place of like practicality. I look at the open numbers and like, hey, man, he used to win the open and he was he was top 20 in the open this year, which is amazing. But that means across those tests, there were 18, 19 guys ahead of him. So by just that simple data point, I mean, I would say no, but I yeah, he's one of the fittest guys in the world. I doubt he's the fittest. And again, proximity bias is kicking in because he trains with him,

and he's probably fitter. Rich is probably fitter than this guy. And what do you think that says about Samuel's mindset? You would never hear Matt Fraser say, even if he was training with Rich, that Rich was fitter than him, right? I think it just says about his mindset. He's realistic in his abilities relative to Rich, meaning he knows in his world and with his abilities and how he performs, Rich is fitter than him. I think that's exactly what that says.

What's funny is if he wins the games, then he'll only be the second fittest man in the world in his eyes. Yeah, I got to go. Are we going to do this nightly? Yeah, that'd be great.