The Sevan Podcast - Dubai CrossFit Championship - Lazar Đukić
Episode Date: December 19, 2021Lazar Đukić, 2nd place at the Dubai CrossFit Championship. Together with his younger brother Luka, Lazar Đukić highlighted Serbia on the map in the sport of CrossFit. He is among the top 10 fittes...t men on Earth. The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Find this episode on YouTube https://youtu.be/6TbI5ZRluwQ Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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some people say my name's savon and other people say it's savon and the correct way to say it is
savon and the other day someone said that i say your name the same way wrong that other people say my name wrong,
that it's Lazar, not Lazar.
Well, the second thing you said, no one says.
Most people call him Lazar, but I think it's Lazar.
Now you chime in, Lazar.
He's frozen.
Oh.
I'm like, damn, this dude is staying still.
And we're off to a good start.
Oh, my goodness.
Oh, my goodness.
Did you guys ever see him move?
Yeah, he made a joke about you.
Darn it.
Darn it.
Darn it.
Darn it.
I'm late because I have this camera, and it's a Logic Pro camera that's supposed to be the best of the best of webcams.
And it's supposed to automatically adjust my exposure.
Well, if it does automatically adjust it, it automatically adjusts it to ass.
It's set, right?
Should we bump him out and bring him back in, Susan?
Yeah, I'm going to try that now.
Ma'am.
Should I try to fix my exposure, or should I pay attention to the show?
If you're clever, you can do both.
I suck at both.
Hey, anything?
Oh, I see him now, but he's frozen again, I think.
Any updates on the event, Brian?
What do you mean?
You know, like they've realized someone cheated or the Crown Prince's prize checks bounced or, you know, just anything.
Just something fun sarah sarah actually we found out was holding back because
uh she she so unbribed her to throw the event i don't know
none of those things um i i slept 14 hours yesterday oh dude wow how many times do you pee on a trip like that
on a sleep like that hey guys there he is look there he is hey could you hear us before
lazar yes come on can you say my name correctly once? No, I cannot.
Help me.
Help a brother out.
Help a brother out.
It's Lazar.
Lazar.
Yeah.
Lazar.
I was teaching you before.
Lazar.
I know, but I'm old.
Dude, what do you think about this whole thing with the working out for the prince?
This is some prehistoric shit you guys did
like we were some kind of gladiators yes he was watching yes it was nice yeah it's cool did you
did you get to see him yes and did you shake his hand yes is he beautiful he looks beautiful on
his instagram like all like a prince out of the movies.
He looks like a normal dude. He's just really important.
Uh-oh.
Oh, that's him. Was he ever on the floor?
He usually comes on the floor for the um the podium picture at the end okay so that was so that was saoud on
the floor the other times that i was mistaking uh it as the prince oh shit saoud's in the white
he's the competition director yeah man what josh bridges is like where are you at oh because it's
eight o'clock his time yeah it's eight o'clock his time? Yeah, it's 8 o'clock his time. Awesome.
I'm on my podcast.
Have him jump in.
Lazar, yeah.
You can jump in.
He can come replace me.
I can go play disc golf.
Sorry. Did we lose?
Oh, wait, we lost.
Wait, I'm here.
Sorry.
Internet in hotel is not very good.
That's okay.
I was taking care of some domestic duties.
I was texting some friends when you vanished.
Oh, no.
This is the second time we fucked up the podcast with Josh Bridges.
See what happens when you guys just go rogue scheduling without me there? and i put him on the invite too but the calendar invite so that hurts my feelings
he said he wants to kill me check your calendar invite check your calendar
calendar do you get a lot of messages daily about people wanting to kill you? No.
It's the old daily death threat.
That's all.
So let's start at the beginning.
How do you end up, Lazar?
Hey, I will think.
Someone else needs to say his name a bunch of times because I need to learn to say his name perfect so people think we're friends.
So tell me how this whole thing starts.
How do you get the invite? How do you up in dubai what what happens email i mean it's impossible to get a hold of you well it's an email and i think this year for dubai was
they didn't want to invite like maybe the biggest names but they wanted to make it
like a reunion
of friends
of the competition
I think all the guys
that were competing
that were invited the first time
were competitors
in the years before
so yeah
that's about it but then some guys declined their invite and then
some other guys got invited so yeah that's that's are you are you in the first round of invites are
you that important or do you have to wait until some people decline i was the second invite just
behind the ricky oh awesome how was Ricky? Did you get a chance to
talk to Ricky? Yes, yes, yes.
He was a really nice guy.
He's pleasant to be around, huh?
Yes. He can take a joke,
he can give a joke, and
yeah, he's a really nice guy.
That's a good quality.
When you get the invite, do you accept
right away, or do you have to think about it?
Or is it just like, you see it and you just write back, invite, do you accept right away or do you have to think about it? Or is it just like you see it and you just write back?
Yes.
Thank you.
For me,
it was just,
yes.
Thank you.
I'm coming.
He's already put out on his Instagram.
See you next year.
Oh,
nice.
You did.
He's proactive.
Lazar,
Lazar,
Lazar, Lazar, Lazar. Thank you, Matt. Lazar, uh, um lazar uh lazar lazar lazar thank you matt lazar uh
why why do you think that what we're hearing basically is is if they invite you and you say
no you don't get the invite again is that correct not you personally but we heard that like that's
why tia and justin didn't get invited because they one time said no,
and therefore they won't get invited back.
He froze again.
He froze.
It's pretty amazing when he freezes how good he looks.
We haven't caught him freezing in a weird spot.
That's right.
He looks good.
That's actually true.
I was on a phone call with Matt O'Keefe yesterday, and he froze up,
and it looked like – have you ever seen when the blood vessels are all popping out of your face?
It looks like he was deathly sick.
It's the most unfortunate one.
I hope you screenshotted that.
I don't know about with Justin Medeiros, but I'm pretty confident they didn't invite Tia because they knew she was going to be training for bobsled at this time of the year, which she's pretty much fully committed to.
And sort of how this – did you hear the question, Lazar?
No.
Basically, if you say no, do you not get invited back again?
I heard they're pretty strict on that stuff.
Or if you offend them even a little bit, you're toast.
That's about how it goes.
Yeah.
Because I had a friend who was a world champion jiu-jitsu guy.
He went there.
He won the world championships.
He said the event was the best event he had ever been to.
But then afterwards, the prince invited him to dinner.
I don't know if it's the same prince.
And instead, he went out with some friends. And then he wasn't invited back ever again because he didn't do the
dinner and i was like wow that's actually tried to come back to the country one time was turned away
is that you is that your story no no i'm just saying i act when when, when I flew into, did he freeze again? Damn. Yes.
Well, whenever he comes back, ask him about, uh, we had to ask him about his brother's
invite because I think that Luca was already committed to competing or had planned on competing
at Wadapalooza, but then when enough people had declined, they invited him to come, which
I thought was great.
And, uh, he had to then make the
decision that we've been talking about and for a month or so if you know how will people do both
wadapalooza and dubai this you know when they're only a few weeks apart okay so i got to get that
question in like right away like soon as we see him we only have like 30 second windows to talk
hey why don't people just start blaming me in the comments for this? Jackasses.
They will.
Stand by.
So, Brian, overall, now that you've got a chance to sleep on the competition,
any new feelings pop up?
Any thoughts?
Oh, no.
You don't get to say anything.
I heard the question.
Okay.
And, yeah, a couple of people declined.
And Luca got an invite.
And from my stories, he heard this competition is very good, very well organized.
And he just accepted right away.
Yeah, we hear they treat you like rock stars, that it's top quality.
What? The competition, the director, the host, that they treat you like rock stars that it's top quality what the the competition
the director the host that they host you guys very nicely yes they they treat us very nicely and
it's perfectly organized and workouts are nice and they try to make it special so i i like it very much uh go ahead ryan go ahead when you and when you and luca are
competing in the same competition i'm just gonna put this in context like when i play disco with
my brother i always i pretty much know i'm gonna lose but i always tell him i'm gonna win does he
do that to you no no we don't do that to each other.
It's really stressful, even though...
He was going to say it's really stressful.
Do you want me to answer for you, Lazar?
Lazar?
Lazar?
Is there a Lazar in the Bible?
Lazarus. Lazarus. is there is there a lazar in the bible lazarus lazarus can we just call him lazarus is that who he's named after this is lazarus lazarus you say his name brian do you even try to say it let me hear you say it
the emphasis is on the first syllable lazar lazar lazar i think i think when people
say stuff like that to me i'm too dumb for that like to to affect like people will ask me that
what's when you say your name seven where's the emphasis i'm like i don't know and lazar
lazar but that's hard to know if that was what i was trying to tell you about finnish names this
woman actually took the time to send me a video,
like a voice breakdown of all the Finnish names
and the emphasis on being on the first syllable.
Am I here?
Yeah, you're here.
Like everyone says Jone Koski's name wrong.
It's not Jona.
It's Jone.
Jone.
Jone.
I got my name from my, like, grandfather was had the same name and in serbia you get your name by your
grandfather or yeah that's cool are you the oldest brother then
like the oldest brother would get the grandfather's name yes and then
for luca was it another relative or just whatever your parents wanted? No, I gave him.
I wonder what the deal is with the connection because his picture is great.
It makes no sense that he keeps going out.
Maybe he needs to switch locations, like stand in the elevator.
I wonder what's going to happen with Josh right now. If I'm going to do the podcast with Josh at 8 a.m.
Hey, just send them the link for
this episode lazar uh i guess i could and he could save it let me let me um man this is the first time
we've had this bad of a internet connection problem though usually it works pretty well yeah
what's up hey i'm on the podcast with lazar and and it keeps freezing so you're live on my podcast
right now are you are you really mad at me no i'm not mad no are we still gonna do it in in 45
minutes yep yeah you're good i just was like i was more mad at myself i was like fuck i wanted
i was like i wanted to like woke up at 7 30 for my I was like, I just wish I could sleep for another hour.
You can.
Just count sevens.
Picture punching me in the face.
One.
Sousa, check the most recent comment and post it up here.
It's from his girlfriend.
I have a lot of penetrating questions for you.
What's that?
40 minutes.
Penetrating.
I like it.
Okay.
Bye.
Okay. I'm still on. I think. Penetrating. I like it. Okay. Bye. Okay.
I'm still on.
I think this is his girlfriend.
And they're going to try to relocate to the lobby.
It sounds like.
Anja.
Anja.
Oh, that's the girl in France.
God, this guy lives a good life.
How about her?
She has a dude who just works on his body all the time.
Yeah.
Her Instagram, he always tags her.
It's like ninja, like N-J-A-A-A or something like that.
She's a good support for him for sure at these competitions.
Do you remember when we talked to Sarah about having a boyfriend?
And she was so sweet the way she said it.
She said, basically, I'm paraphrasing, but I'd love to have a boyfriend. I just can't find a guy who can just take zero attention.
Anya, the J is like a Y.
And someone should jump on that.
Someone who just wants to just shower just Sarah with attention doesn't need anything back.
Hey.
Hey.
Oh, that's nice.
Am I good now?
Yeah.
Can you hear me?
We need to ask you something really good since we
only have you in 15 seconds tell me tell me about how you took that huge lead no no that wasn't you
that was ricky tell me about your tell me about your favorite event tell me about your favorite
event no no okay no no sorry tell me this how did the women fuck it up so bad what happened in that
when you were up there at the top, did you see, oh, shit,
that's where Michaela Norman made a wrong turn?
What happened up there?
It's supposed to be a mile race and it's 200 yards.
Did she do that on purpose?
How did that happen?
So which question do you want me to ask?
The last one.
I want to know how the event got all sideways, that girls event.
Okay. I mean, that girls event. Okay.
I mean, it didn't bother us.
We liked it short.
It was funny because you had two left turns.
First one was about 300 meters up and the second one was about 400 meters up.
And they said you go up and you need to go left.
And that was the first logical solution.
And the girls just took it because they said, go to the yellow thing.
And there's yellow thing on the first left.
So I would take it if I didn't know they did it wrong.
So you give her a pass?
Yeah, I would give her a pass? Yeah, I would give her a pass, yeah.
It was very confusing.
Why do you think they didn't walk you guys through the course?
Don't they usually do that at competitions?
It's really steep, and it's uphill.
It's about 400 meters uphill and then 400 meters down, I would say.
So they didn't want to walk up the hill no
yeah because they think it would have taxed you guys a little bit they think it would have taken
some energy off of you no i don't think so it it was just they i thought i think they they thought
it's logical but it it really wasn't so yeah they they then made sure we are going the right way.
And so the first two girls, the first two women's heats, I guess the only two women's heats, they did the shorter course, but the men did the full course?
Yes.
And how was it running out there on that snow?
Were you sure-footed or every step you're like, man, this could be my last, I could go down?
First of all that
i think that event was not healthy like uh mall temperature is around 25 30 degrees
not not that much but around 20 25 and then when you go inside it's like 25 degrees difference.
And immediately when you finish a workout,
you go outside and you start coughing.
Oh, it was longer than 15 seconds. Yeah,'t bad that wasn't bad and what i really like is that he's got um uh uh anya um sent sending us like like she she she uh lets us know what's going on
behind the scenes while we lose connection with him i, it's about the nicest way you can lose connection.
Did they cut checks yesterday? So those people got money. So Ricky, no,
Roman and, and Laura went home with 50 K each.
More than that, because there were payouts for,
for second and third place in events.
I wonder how much that translates
for Roman. Do you know where Roman lives? Does he
live in a place where 50k is a lot of money?
For me, that pays my water bill.
Yeah, I think he's
probably going to get a little bit more out of it
than the water bill.
You know what I think it is?
Yeah, say it.
It's about Dubai video policy. You know what I think it is? Yeah, say it.
It's about Dubai video policy.
We can do Zoom maybe.
I think we can go Zoom for sure, but I think it will keep disconnecting me.
Because you're in a kingdom.
We're almost in a kingdom here in the United States.
Those guys better watch out. No one's going to go to Dubai anymore. We're almost in a kingdom. We the united states those guys better watch out no one's
gonna go to dubai anymore we're almost in the kingdom we got it we got a sweet king and queen
right now they're laying down the law here hey um how how was how was travel there was it easy
easy um and are you baby like me like you like if they tell you to put on a mask you get all like
uptight and shit or you just cool no, I kind of got used to it.
Yeah, you flow.
You're just – you're handling your business.
And do you feel like – do you feel good leaving this event?
Like you can still be the best in the world?
Yes.
It's not demoralizing not taking first place?
No.
You look better than you did at the games.
I don't know how much better
but you look like you're still getting better
are you better?
yes
definitely because
I'm more all around
at the games I was way weaker
my engine was a bit better
but
I need to sacrifice a little bit
to get better all around.
What about that 225 for 15 reps?
Did you plan on attacking that and doing that unbroken?
I'm able to do it unbroken, but after nine rope climbs in a minute,
it's kind of not that easy.
Yeah, we were still, at least I was still really, really impressed with how you guys did on that.
I mean, it was nuts.
I thought you guys would have to do like onesies.
It was really impressive to me that we did sub four.
Me, Ricky and Roman, we did it sub four minutes.
And Adler. And Adler.
And Adler.
Did he?
I think he was, yeah.
Just second behind me.
Right.
I think it's those kind of workouts, and correct me if I'm wrong,
that doing them live really helps.
Like, you know, like if you do that one at home,
maybe you break it up an extra one or two times.
But there, you're like, all right, here we go.
Definitely, because nine rope.
Damn.
All right, so now we know.
If you want to talk to, when we interview the prince, he's got to jump on a VPN.
Yeah, no, this is a real thing. When I communicate with the guys in Dubai,
you have to be very strategic about setting stuff like this up.
Is using a VPN, is that legal?
I'm sure it's frowned upon, right?
Yeah, I'm not sure.
Like he said, when I have had video calls with him,
which is very infrequently, it's on oh you know what we can do we can give him a phone number um
and just have him call in i'll give you a phone number it dramatically decreases the quality of
the of the video so now we have everyone has to look at us but at least we can hear yeah let me see how much of his instagram the whole time how do i do that i'll give him
the seven podcast phone number i don't even know that number no one else better call him
don't call this number you need the number no don't call this number i just have to, it's only, I just got a text that I do. 928-583-3903.
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okay that's that
oh now i can't take that number down you want me to do it sure yeah thank you
oh man
uh yes yes yes ladies and gentlemen if you cannot run a successful podcast on your own
but you probably can because anyone can but if you can't uh you should go to barbelljobs.com
and get a job to over 200 000 downloads last week did you see that yeah just just on just on itunes that's pretty cool uh seven it's going to be very expensive for him as we cannot use
watts app in dubai no isn't it free oh here he comes here he comes here he comes
uh hey i'm now using vpn so let's see oh shit wow you're good wow you're good
Savon why isn't
John on the podcast too many people
too many people
he was groomed enough this week
too many people maybe he is on the podcast
is he in the comments right now I think he's
training I think he trains
what was the last question sorry
about pushing the workout
in training.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Training versus. Yeah. Thanks for getting the podcast back. It was. It was. My prediction was around five, five, six minutes.
Yeah. And we did it way faster. So, yeah.
Like that push from the competition, you can't really do that in training.
push from the competition you can't uh really do that in in training what do you think about this four events on the final day and your times on those events for 421 three minutes 424 and 358
i don't know what to say most of the guys said that there are too many sprints there but uh there were too many sprints in in the games in the road so i guess it's yeah
well i've been um noticing this too and it feels like there's a lot been this year especially a
lot of workouts in the three to ten minute time domain but in your case you know i think people
would think about you as an aerobic athlete like if there was you know if we're going to say he's
an aerobic aerobic specialist gymnast or strength we'd say aerobic athlete. If we're going to say he's an aerobic specialist, gymnast, or strength, we'd say aerobic.
And yet here you are in a competition
where most of the workouts are five minutes
and you're finishing second place.
You got to feel good about that.
Yes, I feel really good about it.
And I think I would have much better,
like much more points
if I did some stuff the other way so uh yeah i feel pretty good about
that second place roman was too good at this time but uh i'll make sure i give him more trouble when
i see him so is the last time you competed against him two years ago in dubai yes did and i mean look
we don't get to see him very
often did you notice anything different about him good to see you can you repeat please yeah yeah
you know i was gonna say we you know we don't get to see him in live competition very often either
did did you notice anything different about him either yes appearance or on the floor. Yes. Last time he had 93 kilos. Now he has 103
kilos. So that's like
25 pounds. And it's
obvious when you're standing next to him, you can see
it? Yes.
He's huge.
Yeah. You know how
Tola is a big guy? Yeah.
He's bigger than Tola.
Tola
has probably gone the other way way he's probably lost 5 kilos
yes he told me he lost
like 5 kilos
can you talk to
Roman at all or there's too much of a language
barrier I can understand a little
bit and he can understand a little bit
of Serbian I can understand a little
bit of Russian but he has a translator
so yeah he's really nice guy and he's really funny.
Even though you have that language barrier, you can see he's nice and he likes to joke.
Did you get any sense that he's really bummed about not being able to come to the United States and compete in the games?
I didn't see that here, no.
So he's still happy that he gets to compete somewhere and showcase his talents.
Yes, and I think this was the CrossFit Games for him.
Right, okay. Brian mentioned that your brother might be going to Guadalupalooza. Are you going to Guadalupalooza?
No, I'm not going and I don't know if he's gonna go so yeah it's too much too many competitions in a
row and it's not gonna be good for me if I continue competing I need to get strong more
strong so yeah I need to focus on on my weaknesses until semiifinals. So, yeah, you're going to see me at the semifinals first live competition, I hope.
So, obviously, this offseason, you've made the switch over to the Mayhem Athlete track.
And so has Guimayros.
But I would guess that you guys have pretty different things that you're focusing on this offseason.
Yes.
Basically opposite things.
How does that work?
Like, do you guys have some programming that overlaps
or is it totally separate?
We have some similarity in our programs.
But now that he's in Cookville,
he's mostly following what Rich is doing.
And I'm doing what Facundo
says so we're
not doing the same thing but I think we
overlapped in some workouts
but not too many of them I think
Will you be spending time in
Tennessee?
Yes probably for the
games prep or maybe
the semifinals prep
depending on how depending on how I and if my semifinals prep. Depending on how
I...
If my semifinals will be live,
then I will probably
not go before.
If my semifinals is online, I'll probably
do it from Cookville.
We'll see. Do you have a preference?
I would
like it to be live.
Even though it would mean you could just come to the United States
and just stay here until the games
that wouldn't be easier for you
no it would be
I'm performing better in live
competition
I think but even
last year I did
solid in the
online
competitions but I think I'm better in in live live lighting and i
mean i just think almost all of the athletes would rather do a live competition i don't think so
really really yeah well it might maybe maybe no no i think i think he just said that wrong i think
he mean do you really mean that you don't think so so? You think they like online? I think some of the athletes like online because online you can just predict the stuff, like the movements.
You're not going to swim in an online competition.
You're not going to run five kilometers. You're not going to do something crazy.
And also, some people do better
on their own
so yeah I think some people
would choose online
over live competition
yeah
I would say the people who would prefer the online
competition are people that I'm not worried about
if they do make it to the CrossFit Games
and I think some
guys made it to the Crossfit games and i think some guys made it to the crossfit
games i i know the name i know some names that would like but i i will i will leave it to myself
it it seems like um by preferring online um competitions it's just weird to me because
it's like this podcast if i knew no one listened i wouldn't do the podcast and so part part of doing competing
is because you want to get out there and show the world your your talents what you've been working
on and it seems like a miss to want to do it online yes and and you have much more opportunity
in live competition to to get sponsors to get viewed by people to earn more money to represent yourself
yeah personality or because everywhere now there there are some media coverages there are
youtube guys coming like there is there is stuff and you you will get uh more recognized more
did you have someone i think Did you guys have someone
specifically following you this week?
Yes.
There was Craig from Team Richie.
He was not specifically following me,
but he was giving media space
to all of the athletes.
So, yeah, he did a good job.
See that comment there?
Hey, coach!
I'm not talking shit, but the leaps the show has made
since the games is insane. Thank you. And congrats
to Lazar, top five
favorite athlete. So that means there's four people
he likes better than you.
When will you go back?
When will you go back to Cookville?
Oh, sorry, sorry. I forgot.
I need to give a
shout out to my very good friend
Josie.
He just said
at the same time, yeah, Josie is the man and he made some sick content. That's what I was just saying. It was at the same time. Yeah.
Josie is the man and he made some sick content.
So that's what I thought you were going to say at first.
And I was just trying to give him a plug.
Almost forgot.
No,
no,
I didn't like they are working together,
Craig and Josie.
So it's that guy's Armenian,
right?
I don't know.
I think he has some,
just say yes. It'll make seven on don't know. I think yes. He has some. Just say yes.
It'll make Savan's day.
Yeah.
I want to look.
Is that his Instagram handle?
At Life of Josie?
Life of Josie.
Yeah, that's the guy.
He's probably not as well known as Craig Ritchie, but this guy grinds hard.
He goes to a lot of competitions and he puts out a lot of content for the athletes.
Yes.
for the athletes yes uh he he's i think he still don't uh doesn't have any uh youtube channel but maybe he'll he will make it or something and for his um like from where where he is he's
he's from belgium belgium but i don't know where his origins are from.
Yeah, he's Armenian. He's Armenian. I'm looking at his YouTube.
Did you speak with
Laura Horvat at all during the weekend?
And what's that like, talking to her in person?
I didn't really
talk to her very much
since we were separated.
The buses were men and
like girls and guys.
It was separated.
And then they were going before us.
And they were warming up when we were not in the warm-up area.
But we saw each other in the hotel.
And she's very nice.
She's always smiling.
She's a great girl.
And did you speak to her um did you speak to her
brother at all christoph uh yeah i know christoph very well uh since belgium throwdown three years
ago so yeah i i was talking to him yeah he's he's also great guy this is the girl we're talking
about this is the girl that you said was friendly she was friendly this one that's the same girl
right there yeah all right just checking i just wanted to verify just wanted to verify um and
that's the first place trophy she got yeah what's yours look like uh same just silver
and by the way this picture was taken by Joseph, Life of Josie.
By Josie, yeah.
What do you call him when you talk to him?
Do you call him Joseph or Josie?
Yes.
All right.
Oh, yeah.
This guy is Armenian as it gets.
Am I here?
Say that again?
Am I in the show?
Yeah, you're in the show.
Look at him. Look at him. Let me tell you. This is, you're in the show. Look at him.
Let me tell you.
This is what an Armenian dude looks like.
Look at that.
That's a happy Armenian guy.
He just ate a plate of baklava.
That's a tired Armenian guy.
Yeah, dude.
Those media guys, they don't sleep a lot during competition weeks.
He's two weeks away from having a full. He slept like two hours last, two, couple of last nights, yeah.
Any soreness?
How are you?
Like when you check your body, you're like, okay.
I'm very good, very good.
I trained twice today, actually.
I swam and I did some bodybuilding.
Nothing crazy.
I just wanted to move.
But I felt worse yesterday than I am today.
Because first day we did this awful, awful workout in the skiing and running.
That took a big toll on our bodies i think and then this 60 sandbag cleans that was just
that took our souls i think i'm actually about to do that workout after this podcast so you
would recommend not doing it like you can do it but um just 60 sandbag cleans it's too much
what weight were those? Were those 150?
70 kilos, yeah, 150.
Just to clarify, I will not be using that weight.
And Luke had thrown a little something to the guys.
He said he will start with 10 unbroken.
And everyone's like,
are we supposed to do unbroken? Are we supposed to do unbroken?
No. No.
Going back to that first event. So basically what you're saying is, is that when you change your temperature by 25, 20 degrees Celsius instantaneously, when you're breathing hard,
that it's not good for your lungs.
You think you may have gotten some condensation,
mold, mildew.
It's just like, hey man, this shit just isn't good to do
this to your lungs. There needs to be
some decompression and some transition.
I don't know, but
it was really...
When we finished those two workouts,
everybody was coughing like crazy.
Even guys like Roman or Kristen Holta who train in cold weather sometimes?
I'm not sure because I was sitting next to some other guys.
He was really not close to me at that time.
But everybody that I was close to either got sore throats or coughing or something.
And really, is there anyone who trains in a colder situation than Lazar?
I was training.
I was preparing for Dubai in minus two.
Yeah.
I mean, I remember when we had you on the podcast,
you told us about the barn.
It sounds absolutely miserable.
My home gym, you mean?
Yeah.
It's really cold yeah um and and how
how is are you still do you have the girlfriend in france still yes she actually i have uh about
35 more minutes uh until 8 15 because i promised her a date so i i only have 12 i only have 12 minutes
because I promised Josh Bridges at 8
so
I'm okay with that
you know
you were saying that
look at this who will jump into the podcast
right now
oh yeah Ricky what's up player
good to see you
good to see you what a. Seven said, good to see you.
What a handsome man.
He's taking his girl to
the day. And his coach also.
And his coach.
We earned some money, now we need to spend
it. His girlfriend
is his coach?
This is another
athlete jumping in. Yeah, Tolo, what's up, player?
You don't need that mask, buddy.
Ditch the mask.
They wanted to do that one.
I said no.
The guys at the reception,
I said no.
Sorry, Brian, go ahead.
Well, first of all,
Ricky's girlfriend is not his coach.
He's being coached by Justin Kotler now,
which is that guy who also
coaches Tola.
They're all going out today.
Yes, they just left.
How long do you get to stay there?
In Dubai?
Yeah, when they invite you there, do they
want you to leave today or are you allowed to stay a couple of days?
No.
For Serbiansians we need visa
and uh it's 30 days visa since the day of entrance so i i can basically stay until um like
13th next month but i'm leaving on wednesday so do you stay in the same hotel room that you're in
or do you have to switch hotel rooms no i i'm staying in the same hotel room we got a good deal from dubai across the championship and uh like the guys that are
owning or whatever they are really supportive and we we have our own menu in the
next in the restaurant next to the gym and like they're moving breakfast because we needed to be in the
ski in the mall around 6 00 a.m and breakfast doesn't start on six until 6 00 a.m and they
move it to start on in the 4 30 so yeah it was their their making outlets very very accommodating for you yes yeah and it's really 150 meters from
the tennis stadium so so between workouts you can go back and forth oh that is nice i like what this
girl wrote we should get ricky on the podcast yes we should you're awesome uh he will say yes i think
so so so basically that's nice so you didn't ever have to get in a car.
No.
Yeah, that is fantastic.
Yeah, the setup there is great.
The hotel basically connects to a tennis stadium.
And then if they ever go off-site, they get buses for the athletes.
So they don't have to worry too much about anything.
Yes, but if you want to go sightseeing or you want to go wherever you need a car
and it's 20 minutes drive
wherever you go
but you don't have to leave
everything you need is right there
everything you need is there but
you want to see something while
in Dubai
you were saying that now Luke
has done this competition and a few weeks later he may not even want to do
Guadalupe Luza but on the other side
you have a guy like Yorgos Kharovic
he competed last weekend and then competed
this weekend in Dubai, is that crazy to you?
No
I think he
saw a big opportunity
to win good money
and he went for it in Madrid
and then he came to dubai
my opinion was that he came just for the reason you you you explained in the at the start just
to be invited next time if it was uh invitations so i i don't think anybody can do. So he did competition Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
He traveled on Monday and rested Monday, Tuesday,
and competed Wednesday.
So no, competed Thursday again.
So three days rest, and he competed two competitions
separated by three days, which is...
And he actually did very well.
He did very well at Dubai, considering that.
When I found out he was competing the weekend before,
I dropped him down my rankings a bit,
but he actually finished seventh.
He was only a few points out of fifth.
Yeah, he was good.
And the workouts were good for him.
And he's a very good guy.
I have kind of a thing with him. He beat
me two years ago in
Atkins Throwdown by one point
and it was
so annoying
to me. So yeah, I'll remember that.
Lazer,
how much is the prize money for second place?
30k.
No tax. Oh, really? That's nice. How much is the prize money for second place? $30,000.
No tax.
Oh, really?
That's nice.
Wow.
And that's really nice.
Like, you're happy with that.
That's like, oh, thank God. I'm happy with that, yeah.
Yeah.
And how do you, if you don't mind me asking, how do you spend your money?
What do you do with it?
I don't really spend it.
I just, I'm saving it for the future so basically just to
give you more runway everything is just to keep chasing the dream and what is the end goal
i don't know retire at 35 and have enough money to start a business or i don't know we'll see
we'll see along the way. And do you end in Serbia
or do you go to France
to be with your girlfriend
or do you come to...
My girlfriend is just studying there now,
but I think she wants to work from Serbia.
We'll see.
I'm not...
I don't...
I'm okay with living anywhere in the world
as long as I'm happy with that place.
She's Serbian?
Yes, she's Serbian. Yes. She's Serbian.
Okay.
You met her in Serbia and then she went to France.
Yes.
I was a coach in a crossfit box and she was the only member coming 9am.
And I,
I didn't really like her for that.
I was like,
I hope I will sleep.
And she comes in,
in a yellow,
how do you call this thing for rain?
Uh-huh, okay.
It was rainy.
And she was coming like,
she looked like a chick, you know?
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, like a baby chicken.
Yes, yes, yes.
Tweety bird, like Tweety bird.
She was cute, yes.
But annoying that I couldn't rest.
So yeah, we became very good friends at first
and then it just evolved into a relationship.
Well, it sounds like it's smart.
It sounds like it's easy.
This is what she looked like here?
Like one of these?
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's good.
Speaking of France, Willy George is back now and obviously he made
a big impact his first year at the games he's had a few setbacks but you know it's pretty competitive
amongst the men in europe is it nice to have him back in there is that like another guy now on your
radar they're like man i have to watch out for him no i'm not really worried about anybody I'm worried about myself I just
I know what I need to do to be
the best in Europe and then in the world
possibly so I'm
not really looking
at that
that way I'm just
focusing on myself but I'm
really glad Vili is back
and I'm really impressed
with what he's done
this weekend,
especially him
beating me
in some workouts
that were really
like my wheelhouse.
I would never say
he would be really close
to me in this running ski workout
and he was just one second behind.
Yeah,
then he got you on the second one.
Then he got me on the second one, which I'm not surprised.
I'm a long-distance runner, not a sprinter.
But then he beat me on muscle-ups with injured shoulder,
which is very impressive.
And, yeah.
Yeah, I think that I put a little post up on my Instagram story about it,
but I felt like he slid under the radar a little bit. was talking about ricky and sarah coming back but this was a big
deal for him too so i'm glad that you uh recognized that and and i and i got a chance when i was in
france uh at my girlfriend's place uh to visit him he's living really close to strasbourg where
where anya is living so, we got to spend some time
together and we didn't train together, but, uh, we hung out and he's really good guy and really
funny. And, uh, he's nice to be around. Uh, but before we go, I got a couple more minutes. Uh,
Lazar, tell me about this transition. Tell me what workout 13, or maybe Brian can tell us what
workout three is. you went from 15th
to first tell me about your your headspace in between that like when you take a 15th are you
pissed are you bummed and then tell me is that what motivates you to get first can you tell me
about that i i wanted i i can't explain how angry i was and disappointed after event 15.
It was lifting event and I decided I'm strong enough. Oh, so that was the clean event and you took 15th place in it.
Clean and jerk.
Okay, yep.
You had to pick two weights.
Yes, you had to pick two weights and it was 50% minimal work requirement
or you get disqualified.
And you then don't earn any money so everybody needed to be smart and i i knew i can i i can open with if it was one year before i would open with
140 and then went 150 now i wanted to take a risk and i thought i i had a i really had a chance of doing that,
145 and 155.
And I opened with 145 and then it was,
I don't know, but I just couldn't go for a 150 bar.
I needed to go 155.
I would do 150, but I wouldn't be proud of myself. I'm more proud of the decisions that I took
to go out on 155 and take a
that big of a risk it could have cost me a podium but i'm really proud that i went for it so
yeah and the headspace between was not good anya was very helpful he he came to me and said, okay, you have five minutes to be sad
and then you move on.
Oh, so she knows that.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, because it was the first event of that day.
So you knew this, of course,
that you had to rally from that
and get back and perform.
But it's nice to have someone
who can give you that advice.
Hey, take a couple of minutes,
but we got to get back on track.
Yes. And what was that event event what was the next event uh cheaper that brian's about to do and and did you and and after you took first in that where you were you when you went back to
anya what did she say to you after that i think she started crying a little bit. Oh, yeah. That's awesome.
Yes. Yeah, I think she's proud of what I'm doing.
And I think we are mutually proud of each other.
So, yeah.
Wow.
When you go to France, do you work out in her CrossFit gym?
Does she go to a gym there?
Yes.
Nero CrossFit Strasbourg.
Oh, yeah.
She's so proud of you.
Damn.
Brian, we need to talk to him for another hour.
Unfortunately, I have to go.
Do you want to finish up?
Do you have a last question for the great Lazar?
I don't think a question.
I just think it shows some of the work you've been doing since the games.
And I'm excited with your finish this year. I think that
I left you off the podium
so that you could do what you always do.
I hope you continue to do that.
Feel the fire.
Because you know what? At Rogue
he predicted me for fourth
and Dark Horse for the podium
and I bombed the event completely.
And for the games he predicted 17th or something and for the semi-finals he predicted the seventh or and i kept proving
him wrong whatever he predicts so i hope he predicts bad and i just do good instead the
other way around you're making it tough it tough. You're clearly getting better.
And it's good to hear that you still have your nose to the floor and you're working hard on the stuff that you think you need to.
Yes.
Okay, last question from John Young from afar.
Are you mad that Luka beat you in the lifting event?
No.
Are you happy that Luka beat you?
I'm happy for his effort and what he's done
because that was really huge for him
because he torn his meniscus a couple of months ago
and clean was, whatever he cleans, he will jerk.
But his clean was very, very risky.
It was a risky moment for him to do.
And I'm proud that he was able to clean it in a competition.
So yeah, I'm not happy that he beat me.
I don't want anybody beating me.
But I'm proud of him for how he recovered
from the difficulties.
Awesome.
All right,
brother.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Enjoy your next couple of days and,
um,
we'll bug you again in the next,
in the next month or so.
I hope so.
See you.
See you soon.
Yeah.
All right.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.