The Sevan Podcast - #232 - Dubai CrossFit Championship Predictions

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

Brian Friend and John Young join us on the show to give their predictions for the upcoming Dubai CrossFit Competition. They give us the run down on their picks for who will finish in the top 10 at the... event.The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.comFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/Episode Videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC59b5GwfJN9HY7uhhCW-ACw/videosSevan's Stuff:https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=enhttps://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the showPartners:https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATIONhttps://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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Starting point is 00:00:58 Bam, we're live. Bam, bam, bam. That was a triple threat. What's going on with High Heidi Brian is that his beard is larger than his top
Starting point is 00:01:14 hair, like this shit up here. And so... Top hair? Yeah, if your beard gets... If your beard gets longer than your top hair... The hair on my head? The beard becomes... You become religious religious you become a religious man when your beard is larger than your top hair you're a religious man you're a like you're a muslim or a jew or something
Starting point is 00:01:35 tell me tell me i'm wrong tell me those are the only religions i mean those are the ones that do the fucked up like the weird fucked up hair shit i mean are just some armenian christians probably do that too but you know what i mean like khabib khabib norma good good gamin off the ufc guys like all those guys like they got the the the muslims got the big old beard in this are you muslim no you're jewy who are you talking to you you're the only dude here with a beard larger than his top hair your beard is larger than your top hair you've turned into a religious man you're either a semite or an anti-semite oh god now i'm gonna get in trouble here we go no one's no one is surprised by the way this has started so so how much money can you win in this dubai fitness challenge because i think
Starting point is 00:02:27 the youtube station is gonna this youtube station can make like 500 bucks is what i'm guessing this week fifty thousand dollars for the first place man and first place woman dubai and it's called i'm looking i'm pulling up that um the contestants now john what's up dude what's up look at your lighting in the background it's kind of got like that brothel reddish it's a wall dubai it's called the dubai crossfit fitness challenge and they can use the word um thanks susan they can use the word that's not what it They can use the word. That's not what it's called. Okay. What's it called?
Starting point is 00:03:08 It's right there. Oh, Dubai CrossFit Championships. And they can use the word CrossFit with that little R next to it because they paid some, some ducats. That's right. And championship is singular.
Starting point is 00:03:19 Brian, do they win money for event wins? I think so. I, I, I think so. you don't know i could check give me a minute i'll find out um and i'm gonna look at the leaderboard is that where i'm going where do i find the contestants did you want the prizes first the prize first?
Starting point is 00:03:47 I just want to have the leaderboard on my computer. When you find where all the athletes are, I found it earlier today. If you find that, Susan, would you send me over a link? Yeah. A link to it? Yeah. And this is the crown prince. I think I saw him on Instagram. Fazaz.
Starting point is 00:04:00 This is his event. He's got 12.1 million followers. Is that the... I don't know. Was that ever confirmed? I don't know. That was just the... That was my investigative skills on the internet. I don't know if I was correct. Brian, do you know any of that? John, do you guys know any of that?
Starting point is 00:04:21 There we go again. There we go. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. There we go again. There we go. I'm telling you. I'm telling you. There we go again. Heidi loves a Muslim. Oh, my gosh. Why did Matt quit the podcast? Seven people with big beards hate Jews. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:04:38 That's a little strong. There's a lot of Jews with big beards. Very true. I'm going to grow a big beard and I love a Jew. I love four Jews. Ready? Wait, Brian, was I supposed to receive something here?
Starting point is 00:05:01 Let's do it. What do you mean? I don't know. Some sort of like a template or list or anything or oh that uh december 16th through the 18th that's a thursday friday and saturday in dubai i believe uh brian told me earlier that the event will start at uh 4 a.m. Pacific Standard Time and end at – go ahead, Brian. I'm not sure of the time for Thursday's events yet. Okay.
Starting point is 00:05:31 But on both Friday and Saturday, what you are saying is accurate. Okay. So let's just – right now with the information we have, we think that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday is at 4 a.m. Pacific Standard Time to 10 a.m. Pacific Standard Time will be the Dubai CrossFit Championship. It's December 2021. It's basically coming up. What's today? Today's Monday? Yes.
Starting point is 00:05:55 Yes. And the plan is, and we've been flirting with the idea of covering this very thoroughly, but most of us have commitment issues, and so we won't know until Thursday morning for sure. But, but I think it's like we're at the 106% line. And basically we'll be watching these events and we'll be telling you our opinions on them and collecting YouTube money off of your views. And then we'll do that three or four times a day and we'll cross the finish line on Saturday, exhausted. And some of our guests who've been on the show prior will be competing in this event which is really cool and in most i guess i'm interested in a lot of them but one of the big things that we're going to see is sarah sigmund's
Starting point is 00:06:36 daughter is going to take uh her body out for a test run for the first time in how long a couple years no no she had surgery eight months ago something like that okay it was during the open right well it was uh during that time she doesn't have a boyfriend and she hasn't competed in anything in eight months so this will or nine months so this will be the first time she's taking her body out for a test run and i am anxious to see um nervous anxious or excited anxious excited anxious excited like it's like like super excited like the big and because we talked to her i've never watched this i've never watched this event i've just seen like footage on um on you know on instagram like dudes running in deserts and just
Starting point is 00:07:21 the beautiful landscape shots and another thing that's interesting are we like you Brian, you gave me some insight where the event's going to take place Thursday. Is that public or is that? It is. So they got this mall there and I've been there and there's a shake shack there. And then right next to the shake shack, there's a giant glass window and you can look in through this window and it's huge. And there's a indoor mountain in the desert and it's snowing in there and there's people skiing down this mountain that's like indoors and i guess the first two events are in that facility do we it was like like it's not going to be skiing so are they going to be like running up that you think i think so yeah so it's ski dubai in the mall of the
Starting point is 00:08:00 emirates and that mall is maxil haj actually posted on instagram the other day that he spent like four hours walking around it and didn't get to see half of the things he wanted to see it's it's a really impressive mall anyway um ski dubai they'll have two events there and i think that there will be some component of running up the hill i know that it's uh about a nine they said they told me 19 grade incline so do we know how big the hill is top to bottom i think it's somewhere between uh 700 and a thousand meters so it's about what they ran in 2020 the hill in event two the five people uh in aromas yeah possibly yeah something like that oh can we get adler on the podcast can we get adler on the podcast like asap wasn't he like like we were talking about that he's gonna ask you about him suza can we can, can you DM Adler now and be like,
Starting point is 00:09:06 hey, can you come on the podcast in 11 hours and 38 minutes? They're in Dubai. Yeah, so that would be perfect for him. That would be 7 a.m. for him. Can you do that? Yeah, why not? Yeah, cool. They actually might be looking for something to do you know
Starting point is 00:09:25 it's like seven in the morning right now for them yeah include like brian or me in that so that like adler like knows who you are he just doesn't think like you're some dude perving on him might be i honestly might be better to reach out to caroline who's that i feel like that's his wife that's his coach wife i feel like i already have his number even better okay so so by the way that mall is not a great shopping experience i've been in that mall and it's like missing some like at least i was there a few years ago and it's like missing some things it's no scottsdale mall let me tell you something it's no beverly hills which is weird because you think it would be it's dubai and you hear all this great shit even the airport there i
Starting point is 00:10:04 think had a better mall that was a better mall than that mall but they did have a shake shack there which was kind of weird okay so in the men's competition uh like a half-assed fan like myself doesn't really recognize a bunch of these names if you talk to brian though and you watch the show you're about to get excited because brian's pretty high on uh roman krennikoff and i think that we're gonna see john young is pretty high on him uh, Roman Krennikoff. And I think that we're going to see John Young is pretty high on him too. And when he says that, I start to get a little excited too. I mean,
Starting point is 00:10:28 listen to the, look at the guy's name, Roman Krennikoff. And we got Ricky Gerard is taking his, um, his body out for, is this Ricky's first, uh,
Starting point is 00:10:36 spin Spinaruski. It's his first competition since 2017. So we're going to see what Ricky looks like when he's not juiced up. And, uh, we got Lazar and Luca, which we love them. We know that.
Starting point is 00:10:50 Hopefully, we're going to try to hitch the show to those horses. You should tag him on WhatsApp too, Susan. Tell him we expect a lot from him this weekend. Yeah, I sent him an email. Okay, cool. They both reached out this morning
Starting point is 00:11:05 actually oh to you yeah okay ricky did no no lazar and luca uh will they make the journey are they together for this kind of stuff brian this is like they'll meet yeah they've been tapering i think together at luca's uh lazar's gym and they'll head out there together for sure. And then Sam Stewart was on the show. The kid from Ireland. Sam Stewart, yep. So is there anyone else on here? Well, how do you guys want to do this? You guys want to do your picks, your top five?
Starting point is 00:11:40 Sure. Oh, now you have me double attacking. I got to get the list up here. How do you want me to display this list? I'm I've gotten more savvy last time, so I won't display the whole thing at one shot. Like I did. Is five deep enough?
Starting point is 00:11:56 It's your show. Okay. Let's do five here. I just put a link to the morning chalk up for anyone who wants to see the list of the male competitors. It's in the. a link to the morning chalk up for anyone who wants to see um the list of the male competitors it's in the uh susan just go to the men's um tab and scroll to the right to column o you can see john's picks and i'll just put mine next to his okay perfect mine look real official next to that
Starting point is 00:12:17 chart i was i was cracking up because it's like it's all these like equations and data then you just scroll over there's just a list of names. Brian, you tell me because the women, I think we should do the top 10. I mean, honestly, the men, there's – We can do the top 10 for both. There's notable names. Okay. Man, I've really come a long way.
Starting point is 00:12:37 I can't believe that just came out of my mouth that I want to do top 10 women instead of top 10 men. But okay, I'll tolerate top 10 men. I used to be a huge men's fan, but I just don't recognize any of these dudes. I like it how there's a Mahmoud and a Ahmed. Mahmoud Shalon and Ahmed El Omda. Yeah, those guys have competed in Dubai before. One of them is regularly the fittest in UAE, and them is um regularly the fittest in uae and the other is regularly the fittest in egypt oh and what what flags are those are they both are those both
Starting point is 00:13:11 egyptian flags what did i just say what are they what i just told you where they're from once one's uae and one's egypt i know but they have the same flag. Oh, is it? Oh, where's the flag? I just asked you that. Yes. No, no. Where are you seeing the flag? Oh, in the morning chalk up. I would send you the link.
Starting point is 00:13:33 My texting is fucking broken on this computer. That's why I posted it in the. Let me see if I can. It's probably. I don't know. I don't think I'm looking at the same page as you, but I think it's probably the UAE flag that's displayed there, not the Egypt flag. Okay. I think they both reside in the UAE.
Starting point is 00:13:49 Did they reach out to those guys when others dropped out immediately? I think one of them was always intended to be invited. was always intended to be invited. I'm just wondering why they didn't just do a drop-down pecking order when somebody bowed out of the games or sanctionals or semifinals, I mean. They have a very different selection process for doing their invites than other competitions. What does that mean? What does that mean?
Starting point is 00:14:21 It means there's 10 names that you know, and then there's 10 names you've never heard of. Meaning it's like the Rogue Invitationalational who's best friends with bill and katie no they like to have some local uh competitors they like to have people who have been loyal to them over the years they like to have some guys that um are young maybe younger up-and-coming athletes uh, you know, it's generally, this is a small field for Dubai. Usually they have 30 to 40 in each division. So a lot of people turned down the request and then they just started, you know, inviting kind of, yes, people that have been part of their organization.
Starting point is 00:14:59 This is their ninth iteration, I think of the, of the event. Hey, is that true that North American athletes are avoiding this because of travel? Yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with travel. And then secondarily is most people are not going to do both Dubai and Guadalupe, just given the timing of both of them relative to the start of the season. And if you don't have to travel over there, it's less interruption
Starting point is 00:15:24 in your training schedule. Plus this year, Wadapalooza has a bigger prize purse available than Dubai. So less travel, less interruption of, of training and more opportunity for prize money. Potentially. I mean,
Starting point is 00:15:35 obviously the counter argument to that as well, if everyone's going to Wadapalooza, then the field's lighter in Dubai. And even though it's less money, you have a better chance to win it. Is there any dude from North America on on this list oh oh uh he doesn't really count he's canadian he just wants to get out of canada so bad he just wants to get on an airplane and eat some food i think that's it then yeah tola and adler and who is Tola?
Starting point is 00:16:05 Do I know this dude? Was this guy at the games? He was at the games on the demo team. He snatched like 320 pounds. Okay. He's probably the only guy who can give Guillermo a run. Maybe he did 330. He did it so – it was ridiculous.
Starting point is 00:16:23 All right, let's do it. Let's get through the – oh, and Houdet's there. let's let's get to let's get let's get through the oh and who days there dude okay let's just say who's gonna win this who's gonna win this you want to go first man well we agree on this one Roman Krennikoff is the favorite to win this competition hands down in my opinion am I sharing the list yeah I just clicked his name and And why do you say that? Do you know the workouts already? Have they announced the workouts? I do know the workouts. I have not announced the workouts. I have, I know,
Starting point is 00:16:54 I know them so that I can prepare for, um, some stuff for the people who need to know about, uh, to, you know, the commentators, MCs, people like that. And you would love to say that Lazar's going to win it, but he is the Patrick Vellner of this competition for Brian. So you must be very confident that Krennikoff's going to win it. Yeah, I mean, Roman, if you haven't read any of the stuff that we've put out this week already, he's won four competitions.
Starting point is 00:17:29 The last four competitions he showed up to, he's won the Russian Federation, the Madrid CrossFit Challenge, Butcher's Lab team competition in Denmark, and the Last Chance Qualifier online. And he's also competed in Dubai before. Two years ago, he was there. Brent Fikowski won that year. Patrick Vellner was second. And nine points behind Vellner was Roman Krennikoff. And he was also 98 points ahead of Björgman Carl Gudmundsson. It's clearly those three guys.
Starting point is 00:17:55 And when you're talking about being in company with Fikowski and Vellner and 100 points clear of a guy who's got six top eight finishes at the Games and two podiums, know if we'd been able to see this guy at the games the past couple years people would know him like everyone would know him because he'd be up there in the top five and top ten he would yeah he was very close to fukowski and velner in 2019 and that's with a major like hole he wasn't very strong in 2019 and he has worked on that a lot so so this is a this is this guy's a phenomenon we've never seen in the history of crossfit we have proof that someone outside of the community is capable of going to the games but he just never is at the games for
Starting point is 00:18:39 whatever reasons well we've seen him compete at the european regional and he won it but yes he's been unable to get to the games in live competition format he did compete not because he didn't qualify but because of other reasons correct okay but he did he did compete in 2020 in the online format and he he won the last chance qual, but he wasn't able to come. And what is he? Is he a strength athlete? Is he an endurance athlete? No, he's an endurance athlete.
Starting point is 00:19:11 He's probably the best endurance person there is in CrossFit. Wow. For the men. For the men, yeah. Power and endurance. So he's a machine guy. You're saying if we see a rower, an erg, a bike, like that thruster bike one, he would have done great at? He would have done really well at that, yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:31 Man. There's not very much he's not going to do well at anymore. Do you know rowing paces at all, Sevan? Kind of. So for 1,000 meters, he rowed a 124. Okay. Wow. How tall is he i'd say he's 5 11 i don't know what his bio says but that's my guess from standing next to him and uh has anyone talked to him does the morning chalk up interview him who interviews him
Starting point is 00:19:59 i don't think he speaks much english no No, he doesn't, but he does have a translator. Armand Hammer did a focus piece on him during the Filthy 150 in the beginning of the 2018-2019 sanctional season. He's actually a great breakdancer. We got to see him breakdance on the competition floor after he won that competition. So we don't know anything about him? Oh, wait, I know that guy right there.
Starting point is 00:20:24 Who's that guy in the maroon shirt right there. Is that the, who's that? Oh yeah. I had this. Yeah. I had this guy in the podcast. Okay. Yeah. This is the Zillow games guy. Okay. Yep. 124 per 500 meters for people in the comments. He hollowed a 124 pace pace not a thousand and 124 um so so so he's gonna win it you guys and you guys are you guys pretty certain of that there's like the one question mark is obviously ricky gerrard he's the only guy that we don't know about relative to krennikoff in this field and so if someone can beat beat him, it's like, it's gotta be Ricky.
Starting point is 00:21:06 But outside of that, yes, I think Roman is, is, I mean, like I said, I don't think he's going to do very poorly on anything that's thrown at him. And he has, he's the type of guy that could win half of the events. Man. It's so bizarre that there's someone out there who's that good, who hasn't been to the games to me. And is he, do we know if he's butthurt? Is he pissed?
Starting point is 00:21:26 Is he like – I think he's a generally positive person. He's okay with not going to the games? And this is the first time we've seen him in a while as far as competition goes, not a qualifier because of COVID. Two years. Two years almost to the day. How old is he? 26, I think.
Starting point is 00:21:47 Oh, man. Wow. He's got four or five years in him. If he can make it to the games this year, he can show up and be a whole different guy. This is a cool thing. Looking at guys in this competition, Roman's 26, Ricky's 27, Adler's 27,
Starting point is 00:22:03 Lazar's 25, Willie George's 28, Kerevis's 26, Houdet's, Adlers 27, Lazars 25, Willie George 28, Kerevis 26, Houdet 27. Like there's a bunch of these guys that are pretty good getting better, and they're all right in that age range, 25 to 28. And in the games, everybody focused on the 30-year-olds, Valner, Olsen, BKG, and then the young guns out there. And everybody here is in that middle section, and they will compete just as much.
Starting point is 00:22:31 Just they haven't gotten talked about. How about these local guys, this Mahmoud and Ahmed? How will they do? Are they top 10? Last and second to last most likely, but it's not for – they're very talented. I mean, it's just probably how it is. And how about this guy, Fabian? Where's he from?
Starting point is 00:22:50 Spain, Fabian Benito Celis. He's pretty strong. He's actually not bad. He was sixth place in whatever semifinal he was in this year. So he was one spot away from making the games. Is this the guy I sent you his Instagram, Brian? And I'm like, who's this? No, it was different Spaniard. Oh,
Starting point is 00:23:07 do you recall who that was? I think it was Dan tie that you were asking me about. He generally competes on a team. Okay. And that, that guy was a beast. Yeah. There's some crazy good Spaniards actually male and female.
Starting point is 00:23:21 Um, no, she's not in this field. Um, yeah, they, and they have a team, actually, that's really good, and they were actually the top-seeded team in Europe this year. And European teams did really well at the games, but they chose to – their best male and best female chose to compete in the semifinals as an individual, so they disbanded their team
Starting point is 00:23:41 after ranking first in the quarterfinals in all of Europe. And Fabian looks, uh, doesn't look like he's used up. He looks like a normal dude. I mean, the normal be yoked, dude,
Starting point is 00:23:51 but he doesn't got like weird, like, yeah, he's, he's good. He was there. Uh, he was there in Dubai as well.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Last time, middle of the pack, uh, some event, some good events, some bad events. I think he's only getting better, but again, I, you know, I think he'll be in the 10 to 15 range in this field.
Starting point is 00:24:09 Okay. And second place? Well, we have a little discrepancy here. I have Ricky and then Adler, and John has Adler and then Ricky. Wow. Okay. So you guys think Ricky still has it, though? Well, last time we saw him, he was the third fittest man in then Ricky. Wow. Okay. So you guys think Ricky still has it though? Well,
Starting point is 00:24:25 last time we saw him, he was the third fittest man in the world. Right. With, with drugs, but still nonetheless. Yeah. No.
Starting point is 00:24:37 And the other thing is that, you know, he was only 23 years old. He was raw. He was reckless, but there was, uh, in 2017,
Starting point is 00:24:44 all of the men and all of the women were able to do all of the workouts. And he had two event wins and eight top 10 finishes as a rookie. And those numbers are pretty impressive. And if you look at the events where he did well on, it's not like he was just like, you know, he was very good on the endurance events, but he did well on a variety of other things also. he did well on a variety of other things also. It seems like he's been training consistently and with intention to come back for majority of the time that he's been suspended. So he does all the workouts. When Rogue's going on, he's always done all the Rogue workouts the same weekends, and he posts his times and he posts his scores. And they're not the best times and not best scores, but they're competitive. It's a lot of stuff that would be like fifth to tenth place finishes against the best 20 guys in the world and if you have a bunch of fifth and tenth place finishes against that field then you're bjorgen
Starting point is 00:25:32 carl goodmanson uh i wish i had a g5 and i could fly colton mertens out there i think colton would do really good Don't you know someone who might? Yeah He hates CrossFit But does he love pig farmers? Probably God it would be a fortune To fly out there on a private jet so far away Hey
Starting point is 00:25:57 I'm surprised that Ricky only has 87,000 followers I just figured that if ricky's like um like uh covid or politics i just feel like he splits the pack like he should have a huge following and like half the people hate him and half the people love him you know are you surprised he doesn't have a bigger following yeah yes and no but i would say yes yeah i mean i am i mean like you look at someone i'm not i don't i know something to get i can't that's really surprising is less than you yeah exactly exactly you would figure australia would be behind him too like all of australia because he's the only guy other than newberry who's done anything from australia
Starting point is 00:26:45 and you and just because i think people like to follow people they hate even so i would give them just a hundred thousand followers for people just hate them plus dave reposts his stuff yeah yeah no no he's not a jerk he's not a jerk he's not a jerk i i've all him and his brother are cool as shit. Actually. There's no jerk in him at all. At least I've never seen it. There's no,
Starting point is 00:27:10 there's no asshole in them at all. I've never seen it in his brother's cool as shit too. I've always enjoyed them. Like they're nice dudes to talk to, but people don't like supporting. I mean, look at a, what's his name?
Starting point is 00:27:23 Who's the guy who rode the bike? Armstrong. Okay. So do either of you want to budge? You're sticking with Ricky? Are you hating on Ricky? I think Jeff's going to win second. You do?
Starting point is 00:27:38 Yeah. And Adler has a lot of confidence coming out of Rogue, huh? I'm sure. What did he get at Rogue? He got third. Yeah, and he made some moves in the final event. And it was arguably a games-level field. And what is Dubai like?
Starting point is 00:27:57 How many events is it? I think there will be eight or nine scored events this year. And why do people call it the beatdown? Well, it's a little bit less this year than typical. No, it has been less. I think 2015-16, it was like 15 events, including like two-hour desert run and like incredibly heavy barbell stuff and crazy skill volume gymnastics. Like it was really, really tough. Fraser went there one year and one, and he was like, dude,
Starting point is 00:28:30 I don't know if I can go back. Like that was, it was, it was aggressive, but they backed off from that in the, um, sanctional years. Now it still was 10 events and it was still a little bit longer and more intense than most of the sanctionals but it was not what you know people who were around back then remember and i think that they've like lingered that that uh that would um whatever stigma about that event has lingered longer than it's deserved to and do they know that and they tried to they tried to get rid of it they actually last season before they had to cancel they were gonna do a an entirely different format for their competition than um than we've
Starting point is 00:29:10 really ever seen before and it was uh it just wasn't able to happen because of you know covid response and is it going to be like that this year oh is that his wife scroll down i know that chick from the games right that is that his wife they're engaged yeah i know her from the what's her name caroline lambre she's awesome yeah she's uh she's you know there's not a ton of female coaches coaching games athletes but she's one of them i'm pretty sure she used to do something. Yeah, yeah. She volunteered at the games going back to, I think, 2015 or 16. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. I recognize the shit out of her.
Starting point is 00:29:54 She's someone I've definitely chatted with in the pit. Was she media? Yeah. I can't remember what her original jobs were. And she was pretty outgoing. She was like pretty like there's a lot of shy people there you know and everyone's trying to stay out of everyone's way but she was pretty like like forthright like hi how are you like you know very open and how what's
Starting point is 00:30:16 he like what's out of like is he an introspective is he introvert yeah he's quiet guy i mean yeah subtle subtle humor. There's some topics that will get him going for sure, yeah. Does he speak English or is he French only? Very good English. Okay. But they won't hesitate to speak French in front of you if you're the only one there that doesn't speak French. So Caroline, his wife's Canadian too?
Starting point is 00:30:42 Mm-hmm. Yeah, I don't think you have much chance with anyone out of Canada if you're Canadian. You should know that. Sorry. You're stuck in that. You're just stuck over there. That's got to be your mating, your breeding pool, your mating pool. We do a whole podcast on why that is.
Starting point is 00:31:01 Okay, so I like it. I like it. I'm excited for Adler. I think I want him to take second i want it to be lazar adler and ricky gerrard those are my oh shit luca sorry it's not your time it's not your time we started savann's list on the side here yeah take roman straight off of it put him at the bottom no i like roman just add travis mayor Yeah, take Roman straight off of it. Put him at the bottom. No, I like Roman. Just add Travis Mayer.
Starting point is 00:31:29 Okay, and so you have – oh, these are the list. I just keep looking at these and I don't even know what you guys were doing. Okay, and then we got Lazarus fourth. We both agree on that. Okay. And, yeah, Brian does like Houdet. Brian was on Houdet's jock at the games, too. I got Houdet right higher.
Starting point is 00:31:46 The left side is – That's my list. Oh, okay. Okay. Why do you have him so high, John? Patrick Clark picked him third. Patrick Clark picked Houdet third? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:02 Well, good luck with that, Patrick Clark. You got him fifth. Why do you got him up there? He is one of the most beautiful lifting technique that I've seen. Everybody is in amazement of Guillermo. Houdet's technique is better than Guillermo's. He's just not as strong. And there's a difference in that.
Starting point is 00:32:24 If you watch him move he moves so fluently and you can tell a lot of work has been put into it and he's just I just think he's kind of a late bloomer and he's on the rise every competition we've seen him do he's gotten better and better and I just I think he's coming does he speak english yeah is it good so i don't want anyone who doesn't speak english in the top five because then like how the fuck am i going to interview them it's bad for our show yeah so put roman six yeah this guy definitely doesn't speak english yeah and you know what's great um i can't who day looks really young too but he's not really young right what'd you say he's 26 27 27 yeah yeah man he looks like he's 18
Starting point is 00:33:11 okay and and and you have tola you have tola up there huh brian and uh john has him pretty low i mean i guess ninth um i have him fifth yeah tola i think is going to surprise a lot of people this weekend i mean he's obviously incredibly strong i don't think he's been lifting at all this year actually still think he'll place you know top three at worst and if there's a heavy lifting event his gymnastics is incredible to begin with he actually won a ring muscle panstand walking workout the last time that there was a dubai crossfit championships and he weighs about 15 pounds less than that now um and he's been just crushing his cardio because he knows that's an efficiency what event are you talking about thank you because i don't i don't think he won the you think velner won the event
Starting point is 00:33:58 velner won and koski was second and tola wasn't even close. Okay. Good. This is what the show is about. And Luca struggled at the games and you have Luca up there too. Or struggled, sorry, not at the games, at the semifinals. Yeah. Didn't he actually fall
Starting point is 00:34:21 apart in one of the events? I mean, just like really shit the bed? I think he just game planned for it wrong. Kind of like Hopper at the games. And, you know, there were events he should do well at that he didn't. And I think that happened to Luka, and I don't think he ever recovered from it. Same thing happened to Taylor Self in the semifinals. It happens to guys.
Starting point is 00:34:41 But I have heard Lazar say Luka is a better rudder than him. And which means his endurance is on par with Lazar's if not better. And I just, I think Luke is a lot better than people think. He's just not as good as Lazar. All right. Hey, where would Colton Mertens be if he was, um, if in this event and would we have heard his name yet? Where would you stick him?ens be if he was in this event? Would we have heard his name yet? Where would you stick him?
Starting point is 00:35:07 That's a good question. Thank you. Go ahead, Brian. 14th. Wow. Oh, really? Hook me up, John. Hook me up.
Starting point is 00:35:23 Man, Colton's taking a beating on this show. He took a beating earlier today when we had Bergeron on. Gosh, that was such an exact placement. I would have him like 8 through 10. I'm going to go with 8. Let me see. Let me see those lists again. Let me see where John got them.
Starting point is 00:35:50 see who where john got him did you like bergeron's brian his uh his kind of like his list about going to the games age height training how fast you adapt dedication mental monster and resilience did you like that yep yeah i loved it too you'd have him 14th we don't you have him like off the list and you would have him like somewhere between who day and luca good on you john you're a good dude all right i'm done with the dudes is there anything else you want to say about the dudes um i do think people wait a second henry hapalappan went to the games how is he not on this up here and and how about oldest? How do you guys not in Sam Stewart? How do you not have games guys? Just like, so like how's Willie George up? Willie George.
Starting point is 00:36:33 Well, Willie George is really good. Willie George is another wild card here because this is his first competition back from a surgery as well. But from what we know about him in the past, he's, you know, this is where his potential would
Starting point is 00:36:45 would place him on this list i think it's a minimum in the six or seven spot and that if he was actually back to you know the kind of athlete that we saw at the games the one year he was there he would be pushing for the top four you know was he at the games yeah he was either ninth or tenth yeah i mean top ten at the games is better than anybody below him have ever done. By a lot. Does Dubai do swimming? They've done swimming every year since at least 2015, and it does not look like they will be swimming this year.
Starting point is 00:37:18 Where do they swim at? In a pool? They have swam in a pool before. In the sanctional years, they swam in the ocean. Someone needs to pull up a map. I fucking know. I forget where Dubai is. Which ocean did they swim in?
Starting point is 00:37:31 You mean the sea? Sea, yeah. Ocean, okay. No, but I do think this competition has almost every single strongman in the CrossFit world, has almost every single strong man in the CrossFit world, except for Guillermo, that has made noise at the games or other competitions. It's got Tola. It's got Bronislaw.
Starting point is 00:37:54 It's got Adler. Willie Georges is very strong as well. It's got a lot of the guys that people don't typically see that have shown out in a semifinal or a sanctional, but not quite the games. You said in the beginning that these guys were all invited. Yeah. It was invite only this year. They did not do a qualifier.
Starting point is 00:38:14 I wonder how they, how they put this list together here. They, if there's any like logic to the order that they put people, they have Alex. Oh, is it alphabetical order by first name? Okay.
Starting point is 00:38:24 It's alphabetical order by first name? Okay, it's alphabetical order by first name. How are they going to do? How are these games guys going to do? How is Sam, Uldis, and Hapalapin going to do? I think they'll all just be outside the top 10. 11 11 through 15 11 that that area not as good as what mertens would do i don't know but actually i think i have sam stewart in the bottom
Starting point is 00:38:54 five but hepa lining and oldest i think could be 12 13 14 is there anyone you guys think that's going to um surprise us at the games next year Do we know who the next Justin Medeiros is? Surprise us at the games next year. I mean, Ricky. Who? Or Roman. Ricky and Roman both if they were to come. But there's no new kid on the block that everyone's like, holy shit.
Starting point is 00:39:21 There might be. There might be. Who's that, Brian? i got some people i've been watching the off season but no it's not time for that oh do you think we're gonna see him on a team brian who this person these these these people you're scouting will we see them creep into the team competition first or i'm not sure i know that there are a lot of teams being discussed in off season as well though we already know who's gonna win the team is mayhem empire's winning again let me know the odds you want on that i might be willing to make a wager
Starting point is 00:39:56 i heard noah and travis are trying to start a team who i'm just making no i said Noah and Travis John's starting rumors over here What if Travis and Colton Merton started a team I'd probably go to the games That would do it right Okay is there anything else you want to say about the men Let's get over to the women There's a lot to talk about there Andrea Nistler, Emily Rolfe, Emma Carey
Starting point is 00:40:22 Oh my goodness Emma Carey is going Can we get her on the podcast Andrea Nistler, Emily Rolfe, Emma Carey. Oh, my goodness. Emma Carey is going. Can we get her on the podcast? Is she old enough to be on this podcast? Real quick, let Brian put his women in there. He doesn't have his women on the sheet. This is fascinating to me that Emma Carey is going. This is the only – oh, her and Andrea Nistler.
Starting point is 00:40:47 Are they not friends? Are they? It's fascinating to me that women are going to this and that the men aren't going. But I'm guessing that they both think that they can win it. God, that would be awesome if Emma Carey won this, wouldn't it? It would be. No chance with Laura and and kristin there uh probably not but if she pulled it off it would make me rethink things and she could do podium yeah i mean i guess there's a i guess there's a lot of um uh dark horses right you got sam br. No one knows what Sarah's going to do.
Starting point is 00:41:27 I guess Thurry's there. She's not really a dark horse. She's proven. I want Sarah to do good. You do? I want her not to get hurt. I want her not to get hurt. I want that too, but I tell you what, if she was Sarah from last time we saw her
Starting point is 00:41:43 in 2019, I would pick her to win over Laura. Sousa, so Emma. Wow, that's saying a lot, John. That's crazy. That's crazy. Sousa, so Emma Carey, Lazar. Was there anyone else?
Starting point is 00:42:04 I feel like there was some other dude we talked about maybe getting Jeff Adler I already sent him a text though okay so will you bang on Emma Carey and who was the other one Jesus
Starting point is 00:42:19 there was some dude Emma Carey Adler Lazar bang on all of them even even if brian's banging on lazar too just keep knocking on his door keep like let's harass him especially because he does that whatsapp shit what's up with these people who say i'm like hey can we text and they're like no it's too expensive you think you could get ricky on savon i didn't oh yeah he actually he actually reached out to the real seven podcast Instagram which I did he messaged he messaged
Starting point is 00:42:48 me last night okay let's get him on too yeah I was gonna try to line it up and make it and be like make it a surprise but uh but I'm oh look at these names people people are throwing down maybe Dallin Pepper maybe something's gonna Dallin Pepper will do something in the offseason that'll be just
Starting point is 00:43:04 crazy hey when I say that, I stare at Brian the whole time to see if Brian's going to have a twitch. Oh, shit. Dallin Pepper is a great person to keep your eye on. Yeah, he's super young, right? 21. 21 yeah it's nuts we had him
Starting point is 00:43:29 we had him on the show right that was probably the most vanilla show he's ever done yes everyone we did oh and we have gabriella magawa oh this this women's event is crazy the women's field is really it's really good even with uh hayley dropping out which would have been fun brian give us like a talk about the women's event like like you know like national geographic ladies and gentlemen we're here at the dubai championship crossfit championships and this is a there's a ton of horses in this race. Like tell us like go nuts. Give us 10 minutes of just barf on us or don't.
Starting point is 00:44:11 Well, it's a, there's, there's not, again, just like with the men's side, there are not a lot of women from North America competing. That's Emma Carey and Emma Lawson coming from Iceland. And then Andrea Nistler coming from the U.S. I think that's it. So they have three, two men. But as we've talked about plenty of times previously, the North American men in general are better than North American women relative to the European men and the European women. So the fact that there's primarily european athletes competing here just inherently
Starting point is 00:44:45 means for what the sport is right now that the women's field is going to be stronger and so we have you know kristen holta who's a podium finisher at the game sarah sigmunds out of laura horwath all three of them have and sam briggs so you've got four podium finishers from the games um all of them would come from europe and then you also have gabby magawa who's obviously just finished third at rogue so there's a little bit of uh it's it's not the um maybe the annies and the catrons but these women are are basically what they used to be in terms of the best of the best from from europe and they're all competing here this week obviously the circumstances for them are a little different.
Starting point is 00:45:25 Kristen Holt is right at the end of her career. Sam Briggs, same thing. Sarah Sigma's aren't coming back from injury. Sam Briggs' career was over two years ago. And Kristen Holt is at the end of her career. Sorry, Sam. Sorry, Sam. I know.
Starting point is 00:45:39 It's not nice. Great book. Check out Sam Briggs' book. It's a great book. And we had her on the podcast and she's wonderful. So it doesn't mean that her career wasn't over two years ago and gabriella magawa let's just be fucking frank she's at when she what she did at rogue is she showed that in that short period of time between the crossfit games and rogue that she got even better no she really surprised that rogue she she's a monster i think she's which is hard because she was great at the games
Starting point is 00:46:11 right but she looked even better at rogue didn't she i will say i've always kind of seen her in laura's shadow and i don't i'm like rogue kind of like got her out of that shadow. The Rogue event? Yeah. Because she's always seemed like just like Laura to me, but Laura was better as far as like what kind of athlete they are. Yeah. And that did not feel like the case at Rogue.
Starting point is 00:46:43 I mean, I was just checking our picks prior to Rogue. You know, I had her fourth and John had her sixth. It's not like it was that crazy that she finished third. She's gotten to the point now where she's regularly in the top five conversation when everyone's there. But before the games this year, you wouldn't have said that, right? I mean, you trained with her a little bit. You saw her a little bit. You were talking about her a little bit before you went and trained with her,
Starting point is 00:47:04 and then you went out and trained with her, right? And then saw her a little bit, but you were, you were talking about her before the, a little bit before you went and trained with her and then you went out and trained with her. Right. And then you were like, yeah, fuck. You came back and you're like, this girl's going to crush it. Yeah. I mean, I've, I was, it was really disappointing that she didn't get to do more than one event in 2019. She was already really good. And she had that season, she'd placed fourth at Dubai, I think. And yeah, fourth in Dubai. And she finished in the top eight in every single workout. And none of the women on the podium could say that. They all had had at least one workout worse
Starting point is 00:47:37 than her. The reason we only got to see one is because she had one weakness and it was legless rope climbs. And we haven't actually seen her in live competition do any legless rope climbs since then so i don't know if she's improved on them or not outside of that she's pretty much solid she's ryan's ryan's rope climbs say that again i said she handled the ruck rope climbs very well though better than people who are good at rope climbs legless rope climbs at rogue. I think it's a weakness she's improved upon. Brian's always got some weird picks. He put
Starting point is 00:48:11 Hopper second for the games, right? It's weird because it makes him human, unfortunately, less Spock. Look who he has at number 10. I don't even know who this person is, but as soon as i saw that flag whatever that country is in that name i'm like that person like knew someone to get into this event
Starting point is 00:48:29 like you're talking about number eight manon and like yeah it's talking about eight like like no or whatever yeah that like what are you doing dude what what you used to date her like what's going on here that you can't have a flag with stripes going up and down place in the top 10 it's belgium that's belgium what you're telling me that's belgium's flag but matt can you i don't believe that can you confirm or deny that that's belgium anganese manon oh i'm bringing her up here it's very good cycling in belgium anganese manon oh and i'm bringing her up here it's very good cycling in belgium that is not promise you ladies and gentlemen that is that is some island next to jamaica
Starting point is 00:49:14 you see this is the flag in question oh shit oh i've seen her i've seen her do olympic lifting it's not looking good for me. I think Brian's got it. See if you dig a little further. Just type in Belgium flag. I had no idea who that was either until we clicked on her Instagram. Oh, shit. Oh, shit.
Starting point is 00:49:43 That's a European flag. Man, that country is confused what are you talking about france has three vertical lines as well yeah but at least they got the colors right anyway um no she's she was 11th in dubai two years ago she competed at uh semi-finals this year and she was in the top 10 uh six she was sixthth in Dubai two years ago. She competed at the semifinals this year. She was in the top 10. She was 6th place at the last chance qualifier. I mean, she's not
Starting point is 00:50:11 a nobody. She's just like that next tier down of European women. And like I've been saying, this is someone who could probably do better than the bottom five American women at the CrossFit Games. But because the American women still get 20 spots and Europe only gets 10, we don't get to see these athletes at the games.
Starting point is 00:50:29 Now, I have a question, Brian. Is she an Olympic lifter who does CrossFit or a CrossFitter who does Olympic lifting? Because I know she's pretty serious in the Olympic lifting world. I don't know. She's a good lifter. I don't know. She's a good lifter. I don't know what she prioritizes. Introducing TD Insurance for Business with customized coverage options for your business.
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Starting point is 00:51:19 Type in Olympic team. Was she the heaviest lifter? Second. She had the second heaviest recorded clean and jerk when we did our uh our we were scouting for the um olympic lifts and she's she's among the strongest women there that makes a difference though because if she prioritizes one over the other then i don't think she's going to be great in crossfit she gets her vitamin d she's working out with the sun on her hey uh not great in crossfit i just told you she was she's did you make the last chance qualifier yes brian's confused i'm going with you he's he's as he just does that to make himself feel human just puts like something in there he knows her let me hear you say her name brian i think it's Magnon Angonis. Magnon Angonis.
Starting point is 00:52:05 French influence on Belgium. But Angonis is her first name, right? Angonis Magnon. Yeah, Angonis Magnon. You have it backwards here. Isn't that interesting? Because you don't want Angonis to be your first name. I don't want it to be your first name i don't want it to be your first name either i want it to be your last name look at you just took like
Starting point is 00:52:28 creative authority do you see that pull up please pull up her um crossfit page no her crossfit page where she creates her own athlete profile we're getting down to the bottom of this brian's like i got her name right we're getting down to the bottom of this brian's like i got her name right why laura third i have an answer for that she lists her own first name as manuel so i you know i don't know anyway why do i have laura third i think that oh let's look at the list again oh that's strong hold on brian look at her picture that is strong is that a real animal what is that animal wow shark that's
Starting point is 00:53:12 a great white shark wow okay i get it belgium wow had you seen that before brian yeah that influenced you for sure that's crazy that's the best that's crossfit that's on crossfit games page wow she's a beast that's tia she's eating right there she's the shark and that seal is tia she's yeah i mean she's been around for a while she's been doing this for a long time she's
Starting point is 00:53:38 she's a good you know she's her number one on seven's list yeah nope we haven't found out about her English speaking abilities. The only prerequisite. Yes, it is the only prerequisite. Do we have any
Starting point is 00:53:56 dudes competing in the female division? I had no idea where that question was going. I'm going to answer John's question about Laura Horvat and why I have her third. The reason why I have Laura third is – You think it's a silly question, but it's coming. It's coming.
Starting point is 00:54:14 I'm ahead of my time. Like Dallin Pepper, he's ahead of his time. I think most of the women here in the top – basically the top four women, when I'm assuming Sarah's relatively healthy, the top four women are going to have a majority of top eight finishes. And I think that Laura is most likely to run into an obstacle. They'll have her score one event outside of the top 12 or 15, and that she won't be able to make up those points.
Starting point is 00:54:44 Okay. Let me, and that one event is going to have some form of handstand pushup, correct? If that, yeah, if that pops up. And the reason why I don't think it'll be a bottom three finishes, because I think there are enough, if that, if a strict deficit handstand pushup shows up, that's the thing that would hurt her the most or, or a parallettes. I think there's other women that will struggle with it too but let me see that list again please sorry keep going
Starting point is 00:55:10 brian and i just think that the points she'll give up in that event have the potential to keep her outside of the or off the top spot of the podium or out of the top two oh john you are gonna fuck brian up at this event gabby Gabby struggles at those as well. Not as bad as Laura, but she also struggles at those. If you look back at Rogue, whenever they had the strict handstand push-up event, Laura was really bad, Emma Carey was really bad, and Gabby was just a little ahead of them. A bunch of women were ahead of her too.
Starting point is 00:55:44 So Gabby being first and Laura being third, I mean, that's a big gap. That's a big placement difference over one event that she also struggles at. Who's Karen Frey? Sorry, John. Who's Karen Frey? Do I know her?
Starting point is 00:56:00 So Karen withdrew. Very sad news for me. What's her Instagram? We both had her top 10. I think I had her like sixth. I don't know where Brian would have had her. Second. Is it Kara underscore Frey?
Starting point is 00:56:19 Does she have 8,100 followers? That could be her, yeah. Oh, yeah. 2020 CrossFit Games. Oh oh she was at the games this year she was not at the games this year she's been at the games before oh last year okay 2020 14th place oh she took second at this event in 2019 no she's she's really good and not known she's the best and not known. She's the best example of a European woman who was, I think, robbed of not being at the games this year.
Starting point is 00:56:53 The five women who beat her, she got sixth place in the semifinals, she competed in it, and the five women from Europe who beat her all placed 13th or better at the games. 13th or better. And she's better in live competition than online. And that's why brian wrote the article that european women need more spots and that's in morning chalk up if anybody wants to check that out european women need more spots uh more spots in his contacts on his iphone um i okay let's look at the list again i i i man this i i'm how does he not have laura higher i do not know how you don't pick laura no matter what is this is this is this the number of events thing again brian that i'm that i always don't understand exactly but but then you know
Starting point is 00:57:40 i just have a grudger for not saving your phone number. Oh. I mean, it's the same argument I had for putting her third at Rogue. And that was right. What? That there just weren't a lot of events? That a big hit. You know, the women at the top, they're really consistent and consistently good. I mean, Kristen Holta if if gabby and laura both have an event that they struggle like holter kristen holter could win this thing
Starting point is 00:58:08 and the field is just not big enough or good enough to middle spots for people like halty this is exactly what i thought katie her profile does does. I did get a Kate Gordon vibe from her. I don't know why. I got that too, though. That was weird. Look at Heidi. Heidi's tapping, Brian. She has to go to sleep.
Starting point is 00:58:32 Bye, Heidi. Okay, so Laura Horvath and Gabby. John has Laura. Brian has Gabby. Then John has Gabby as second, And then Brian has Christian Holta. And then you have Laura as third. And you have Sarah Sigmundsdottir third. And my understanding, and I feel like I'm not getting a straight answer on it,
Starting point is 00:59:01 is that the reason why Brian is putting Laura low is because she is possibly the best crossfitter there in a 15-event competition. But in an eight-event competition, if she takes a big hit on something with the handstand pushups, she won't have the time to come back. Um, and then my follow up question to both you guys is, I don't know how you have Sarah in the top 10. I know she's amazing, but from the interview, I got the feeling that she's just going out there just to, just to throw the old pigskin around. I'm just to see what's going on. Um, do you guys know something? Are you texting with her? Are you's going on. Do you guys know something? Are you texting with her? Are you DMing her?
Starting point is 00:59:27 Did you guys hear something? And she did say she said a PR in her, I don't know what it was, 2,000-meter run or something. Her mile time. Yeah, which is crazy. I just, you know, obviously the weekend could go any direction for her, but I'm assuming that they're wise enough to make a decision that they're healthy enough to compete. I don't think she's the type that can just take the floor
Starting point is 00:59:54 and go through the motions. And so I think if she's healthy enough to compete this weekend, that she'll be out there competing. And I think that when she's competing in this field, it's good enough for a top five. Even for a competition back. John? I wish I did. I agree with Brian.
Starting point is 01:00:14 It was just a hard pick for me. I just want her to do good. If she ended up getting third where I have her, that'd be amazing and I would have called something amazing. That's why I did it. I did the same thing with Annie and it worked out and that's why I did it. I did the same thing with Annie and it worked out. That's why I did that.
Starting point is 01:00:30 I wanted to ask Ben about Annie. Also, when you tell your ACL... I wonder if we can get Annie on the show. I wonder if Annie would come on the podcast. Only one way to find out. I asked James Town town james townsend to come on by the way brian good that'd be great to have yeah it would be great great i got crickets crickets
Starting point is 01:00:54 i'll ask him again i'll wait a few weeks. I'll bug him. I think I've met him before. Okay, let's go back to the list. Where were we? And how about Nistler? Why can't Nistler win this? She got the Empire, Mayhem Empire pedigree. Where will she fall short? uh mayhem empire pedigree where where will she fall short um nowhere it's just she's going against some of the best women in the world
Starting point is 01:01:33 i mean there's just people faster stronger and better endurance but she's still amazing yeah my thing about nistler is she's a monster, but she always goes team and she doesn't do individual. So it's hard for me to say that she's going to be better than women who have done individual and have done well because team is different than individual. I wonder why she's doing that. Does she normally do individual, Like outside of the team stuff? No, she was on team with OC3 before Mayhem.
Starting point is 01:02:09 Right, Brian? With Taylor Williamson. Her and Taylor Williamson both have done team for a very long time. And neither one of them do individual. And they're the best women in team for the most part. But if they're scared of individual it's hard for me to say they're going to do amazing in an individual competition even though they are amazing she she said something and were you on that um podcast brian yeah with nistler i was she said something about
Starting point is 01:02:41 she would never do individual again and then you called her on it right i don't i don't know but she has done uh off-season individual competitions uh throughout her career she's not foreign to that platform she's she'll do really well uh you know it's just like you're talking about the best of the best and like, she's incredible as she is. I don't think she can beat those girls. She, she, she, I think basically what happened was she's like,
Starting point is 01:03:13 Hey, I'm not doing individual ever again. And Brian's like, well, there's a competition in three weeks that I saw you're signed up for. She'll hold you except for that one. And now here she is. I mean,
Starting point is 01:03:20 it's not a dig at her at all. I'm glad she's doing it. That's probably how I would do it too. I would deny that I do that shit and then do it. It's like my kid. It's like, it's not a dig at her at all. I'm glad she's doing it. That's probably how I would do it too. I would deny that I do that shit and then do it. It's like my kid at a jiu-jitsu tournament. He tells me he's not going to do it, and then next thing you know, he's out on the floor. It's like, yeah, that's how I do it too. It's like half the people that walk into the gym, I'm not doing this workout today.
Starting point is 01:03:39 30 minutes later, they're asking me for a good strategy. Benita, doesn't that mean pretty isn't that pretty in spanish no that's bonita bonita okay thank you and does that mean it's what's ca mean they're from california or that's cash what is what's ca benita question ca currency americana Benita LCA. Currency Americana? That sounds good. Benita, are you a girl and are you from California? Nistler finished 10th in the 2020 Stage 1 of the Games, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:04:24 Oh, please don't tell me it's Canadian dollar. Serious? Why? That's that's good oh that's like it's like 650 us girl yeah that's a great name for a girl bonita bonita all right let's see the list again any anything you any anything weird anything that we should all be looking at um for the women's competition? I just think – oh, actually, I even – I can't remember actually which two Canadian women I said earlier, but there's three Canadian women competing here, Emma Carey, Emily Rolfe, and Emma Lawson.
Starting point is 01:05:00 The names are all – the kind of first names are all similar, so it's confusing. But Emily Rolfe is very good, and people don't often talk about her too much she has two event win career two event wins at the games in her career both on endurance based events um so she's someone who could you know have a couple top three finishes on a couple on a few events she's pretty strong she's pretty good she was in the top 20 at the games this year and she was sixth lat two years ago at dubai and the women that she lost to that year, Sarah Sigmundsdottir, Karen Frey, Sam Briggs, Gabby McGowan, and Jamie Simmons. It's not that bad of a group of women to be behind. So look out for her to do pretty well. And then I'm, you know, John's got, we basically have them flipped.
Starting point is 01:05:39 I've got Raul fifth. He's got her seventh. He's got Emma Carey fifth, and I've got her seventh. fifth he's got her seventh he's got emma carrie fifth and i've got her seventh but um you know this is a good opportunity for emma carrie because mel o'brien's not going to be at this competition and in any other season emma carrie would have been getting a ton of praise highlights and media attention because no 17 year old's ever done what she's done except for the fact that there just happened to be two of them this year. And she was slightly worse. Can I see Emily Rolfe's Instagram again?
Starting point is 01:06:09 Now I recognize her. She's like... Matt was actually showing Emma Lawson's Instagram right there. Emma Lawson's the third Canadian woman in this field. She's only 16 years old. And she won the Teenage Division at the Games this year. Emma Carey's Canadian? No, no, that wasn't Emma Lawson. North American.
Starting point is 01:06:24 That's not Emma Lawson. This is Emily Rolfe. Yeah, he had this up. Let me see her. I recognize her. She's like Wonder Woman. Does she have kids? Oh, my gosh.
Starting point is 01:06:37 I don't think so. Yeah, I remember her. She's a freak. Who's the girl we had on the show who was the last chance qualifier girl? Emma Tall. Emma Tall. Okay okay why isn't she doing this i don't know this seems right up her alley isn't she over there in europe somewhere she sweden yeah this i would have expected to see her here yes interesting and and why did karen fray pull? Do we know? I do know. She's pregnant.
Starting point is 01:07:09 No. But you cannot say. You cannot confirm or deny. I don't know. I don't think I'm supposed to say. Doc. Dennis, Denise, Dennis O'Leary wants to ask where would mal o'brien place if she was competing sorry i can't answer that unless you give ten dollars um no just kidding
Starting point is 01:07:33 uh where does someone like that place guys if she's here um i would probably say right where I have Emma Carey. So I would have Emma Carey and Mal O'Brien next to each other, fifth and sixth. I don't know which one I would have in front. Probably Mal, but that's where I would have her. Brian? I was also thinking fifth.
Starting point is 01:08:00 Wow, so this is a fucking group of killers. What's this? I don't think Emmama carrie is going to get out of mal shallow shadow by going to that training camp in florida well matt well mal is training under matt matt who i thought matt who uh she was in a matt fraser post i think she just went to visit him he's not training under him she's with j Townsend. Matt Fraser, Instagram. I'll tell you. Let me see this shit. What's going on here?
Starting point is 01:08:29 Let me see what the fuck. You might have to search for it. Justin Medeiros was there too, I think, during the same time. Meet Matt Fraser. Wow, that's an Instagram account with 258,000 oh shit there's another
Starting point is 01:08:48 matt fraser we never die secrets of the afterlife holy shit oh god i need to have that guy on the podcast suza see that guy no let's have another matt let's have all the matt frasers on the podcast we can let's just go out and we'll keep keep tricking Brian and John that it's going to be Matt Frazer so they come on to him. Oh, that's great. I'm bookmarking that account. Matt Frazer. Okay, so Matt Frazer. It's on a Mal O'Brien post if you're looking for it, Sousa.
Starting point is 01:09:21 Okay, thank you. I think it's like the seventh picture, maybe. Holy shit. Matthew Fraser has 2.4 million followers. That's crazy. Yeah, he's got quite the following. He talked back to me on Instagram one time. Matthew Fraser did.
Starting point is 01:09:43 The one that talks to people in the afterlife or the CrossFitter one the CrossFitter one let me read her bio real quick let's do some investigative journalism here um 18 something about Christ three times CrossFit
Starting point is 01:09:59 Games athlete 2021 rookie of the year 2021 7th for the Sun Earth. Something about Noble. Oh, she's no... There's no bullshit. She's followed by... I don't know who that is.
Starting point is 01:10:18 Okay. Great, great. Yes, good job, Dennis. You're one penny short, though. And where's the picture of... Let me see. Where was the picture of her and matt um one more down okay that falling to the far left yeah that's so that that doesn't mean anything because there was another picture of her and uh catron together what's morning chalk up say is morning chalk up broken a story on Mal O'Brien? Will, what do you know? Will, what do you know?
Starting point is 01:10:47 She trained with him on two different occasions since Rogue. Buttery Bros had Mal doing Matt's HWPO with him. Someone probably spelled Matt with two Ts. That's a good question to ask james when you have him on the podcast i for sure did james who counts oh yeah he's not coming on dude he there's no fucking way yeah do i do investigative journalism everything i'm doing is investigative everything investigating my my thoughts half the time okay uh so let's so let's go back to the to the women one more time or six more times i don't mean to hurt myself
Starting point is 01:11:34 uh laura horvath gabby gabby kristin let me see who's who can you scroll down a little bit so I can see who picks who's, okay there we go you can't make that can you make it so I can see all 10 and their names oh there we go and Thurry, is Thurry at the end of her career? what's Thurry doing? John
Starting point is 01:12:04 I don't know, you probably have more information than I do What's Thurie doing? John? I don't know. You probably have more information than I do. Thurie's good. I mean, I think she has five top 20 finishes at the games now. I mean, it's a very impressive, consistent resume. Unfortunately for her, she's come up and been the exact same age as katrin and sarah sigmund's daughter and they're two of the most you know personable and marketable and best competitors in the sport they
Starting point is 01:12:32 come from the same place as her um you know it's kind of it's kind of like the situation with emma carrie and mal o'brien like one of them's always going to be slightly behind and turi was slightly behind those two for the entirety of her career but it's not to take anything away from the consistency at that you know i mean very impressive level that she's shown and how old is she she at the end though is my question 29 it says 30 on her profile um so she's still got a few more years left. Terry's just always been in the exact same spot. She hasn't ever had a contest where she outdid her previous showings. So her biggest, she's going to be one of those athletes that,
Starting point is 01:13:17 the fuck I don't bench my body weight, you mother, look at this guy. You're a jackass. She probably doesn't weigh very much, Gregory. No way seven benches is body weight you mother look at this guy you're a jackass 20 probably doesn't weigh very much gregory no way seven benches is body weight bench your mama bounce your mama off my lap hey so so she's one of those athletes that's not going to um we're not going to know her until until the day she retires she's she's going to be like a i'm going to burn in hell for this she's like carrie pierce and kristin holta no one's going to be like a... I'm going to burn in hell for this. She's going to be like Carrie Pierce and Kristen Holta. No one's going to care until... and then people are going to pretend
Starting point is 01:13:48 to care when she's like, this is my last event. And everyone's going to be like, oh, the greatest. Oh, good job. Whoa, whoa, whoa. We'll see. She's not as good as most people. Both of their resumes are far superior to hers at the games, and they each manage to get on the podium
Starting point is 01:14:03 at least once by the end of their careers. Who? Carrieristin so you're saying three is not going to be that even even that even when she retires no one's going to notice i don't know by the time i mean she's still four years away from the age that kristin holt there was when when she podiumed the only time okay so you know you know you never know but uh like like she's been doing this for a while so i don't think that she's you know i don't i don't know like i don't know how long and what drives these athletes to keep going but she's been very consistent for the past seven or eight years and she's still pretty good all right all right anyone else you want to talk about Jacqueline Dahlstrom Sam Briggs I think there's only two people we haven't uh
Starting point is 01:14:51 haven't drilled down on a little bit yeah I'll just throw I'll throw out one just one other person I don't know a ton about her yet that's Ev Evie Hollis. She's 24. She's from the United Kingdom, and she placed sixth place in the semifinals, similar to Fabio Benitez and Karen Frejova, just one spot out of making it out of Europe. And on the women's side, we talked about how deep and impressive the women's field is. So I think that she's a bit of a wild card that could crack the top 10 that we don't necessarily know a ton about yet.
Starting point is 01:15:28 Going back to Karen, is whatever you know about her not being here going to stop her from being at the games? Are you like, what you know? Are you like, oh shit, she's done? It's just for this competition. Okay. And are there any other, this may be a little bit of a strong statement but dubai is kind of sarah's second home i mean sarah's been there a long time
Starting point is 01:15:51 right she's been there a month now two months and she's just she's spent a lot of time there in the last five years like some of her best friends have lived and worked there she's you know gone there for for training for extended periods of time um so she's very comfortable there she's won she's won this competition before wouldn't it be cool she like married a prince or something i think she's won it twice or no sam sam breaks one that year that's right never mind and are there are any so my question is there any of the other girls or guys um at home there haven't even been there a month and had a chance to adapt two months uh some of them live in the in the uae but um i want i don't think they're like the the heavy hitters like she is does elliot simmons still live there no i think they're in the uk now you can't call
Starting point is 01:16:47 in on this show what is going on all right since all right let's just see oh so quick if you fuck around john how are you but this better be fucking good i have a question about laura you can't just call in the show this This isn't a call-in show. I know, but I called last night and I fell asleep watching. You said to call back in two minutes and then I forgot. All right, go. Or I fell asleep. Go.
Starting point is 01:17:13 You're lucky you're asking a question about my favorite athlete who ever lived. I know. Shoot. All right, so this is for... Hey, listen, you people who call who tells you the questions for you don't get to decide you throw the question out there we'll field it all right it's my fucking show i'll tell you i'll pass it to who i want to whisper it to me whisper it to me and then i'll pass it on why why why are we still giving laura a pass on handstand pushups? Is it, I don't think it's one of those movements that she can't get better at.
Starting point is 01:17:49 And why does she not get better at? So this is for John and Brian and even Matt as a coach. You asshole. And not Subba. Do not answer Subba. It's a fair question, but we all know the answer that you can could that one's just hard to get back i mean we've talked about this hardest yeah i don't think it is though okay how many you got
Starting point is 01:18:11 how many you got i i mean strict i can do like 20 and when you started how many could you and when you and when you started how many could you do shit a couple oh you couldn't just do 10 because when i first started doing crossfit i could just do 10 easy like like i just had no i couldn't i couldn't well shit okay all right you can do 20 strict now yeah and you only had two and you only had a couple when you started it's pretty yeah but i'm i'm i'm old school i'm like 2010 when i started shit Shit. That's when Brian started growing his beard. I got 10 years of CrossFit experience and I can't... My PR is two. Too strict?
Starting point is 01:18:52 That's your fault. Too strict and second. You don't work at it. Before you answer his question, what do you think about his question? I think we've talked about it before and it's going to be the same answer. Is it a fair question? Is it a fair question or is he being a dick? A little of both.
Starting point is 01:19:12 Wouldn't you agree, Brian? Yeah, I do think that there are a couple of skills specifically that are very difficult for certain body types to adapt to or or improve on um and then this and that's i think that's one of them but in her case the problem is that there's been a couple times where it's where it's also eliminated her from competitions altogether yeah i don't know she she has i mean what john's asking could cost her fifty thousand dollars this altogether. Yeah. I mean, she, she has, I mean, what John's asking could cost her $50,000 this weekend.
Starting point is 01:19:50 Yeah. But I mean, I, that's, I don't think that's a pass. Like she just lost $50,000. Right. You know,
Starting point is 01:20:00 she gets it. Right. And does she look heavy to you guys? She looks really heavy. What is her weight? She looks heavy to me. Well, it's funny you say that. It's funny you say that.
Starting point is 01:20:12 If you want to go there. Boy, now we're fucked. I didn't think I could get canceled. Here we go. You look at the two years that Katrin's doter won the CrossFit Games, and she was fucking thin around the waist yeah like a like like one of those fucking dogs in college that you're like you see at every party like who the fuck's this belong to it's got like 15 ribs showing but man it's a badass dog i went to school in santa barbara
Starting point is 01:20:36 lots of dogs running around and like she was fierce looking and then you see her at rogue and by no means am i suggesting that she was fat. But she looked fucking thick. She didn't look like a fucking runner. And that's how Laura looks. But Laura's an amazing runner. I don't know what to say. Are you saying that Laura loses fucking
Starting point is 01:20:57 10 pounds and then what happens to her? I think if she lost, if she were to lose weight, she would get better at handstand pushups. I think that would actually help a ton, but she would lose everything she's good at. Really? But, John, look at 2018. So I just watched the behind the scenes. When she got second, her body is completely different when she did her best than now.
Starting point is 01:21:24 And it just makes you wonder. I'm willing to bet she's better at handstand pushups now than she was in 2018. I will say a little bit, not much. That goes a long way with when I, I mean, I can only speak for myself, but the difference between me at one 65 and one 55, when I'm 155, I'll do muscle-ups all day fucking long. At 165, the train stops. Right. I'm the same way, Siobhan.
Starting point is 01:21:52 I hit a point, and then it's like, whoa, what the fuck? I also don't kip. But Laura doesn't have that fucking rib cage showing like some of these fucking champions have. Even fucking tia gets kind of skinny sometimes you're like shit hey here's another thing no fucking marathon winner brian doesn't want to touch this brian still wants to work in the space he didn't want to touch this one 10 foot pole no no marathon winner is winning who's not dehydrated and and probably malnourished you don't cross the finish line in first place at the new york city marathon unless you are
Starting point is 01:22:24 dehydrated and possibly a little bit malnourished it's just the fucking way it is the way the human body works no one's finishing who's hydrated and you can even see there's a few years that rich won the games where he's starting to look a little gone his cheeks are sucked in a little bit now matt matt always made it a point to he said he wanted the goal was to gain a pound at the games and i think that was just like the mindset to make sure he ate enough yeah but you but he he also he also bulked up before the game knowing that he's going to come down right uh ricky's looked a little gaunt as he finished the games uh uh i i you know even even velner who's a big dude sometimes his face looks a little um thin it yeah it's a little thin. I don't know.
Starting point is 01:23:05 I don't know. Only she knows. And Noah even claimed that maybe he was too heavy at the games. But for sure, Laura does not have that fucking ribs showing. And you're like, geez, man. And I'm not saying they have to, but she just looks... Man, she has so much potential. She just looks sick to me.
Starting point is 01:23:26 That's just my opinion. Yeah. You guys are awesome. Appreciate it. I'll call back another night. No, don't do that. Thanks, come on. Okay, bye.
Starting point is 01:23:37 No one wants to touch that with a 10-foot pole. Too sensitive. Someone's going to say that, like, hey, we call her fat or we're promoting anorexia or some shit. We're not saying that fucking at all. We're just saying we're just discussing shit. We're just discussing
Starting point is 01:23:56 what is the best way for her to win the games. Maybe it's to put on 10 more pounds. No one would complain if we talked about it like that no no no one's hating on her Teddy no one's hating on her at all I think people actually love her I think people want her to win
Starting point is 01:24:20 she's brooding what does brooding mean she's brooding she's brooding what what does brooding mean she's brooding she's brooding let me look up the definition of brooding definition there's something brooding about her uh the process of sitting on eggs so as they hatch nah not that not that brooding i must have spelled it wrong what did he say the other time ryan? A spinner? Is that what it was? Oh, about girls who are spinners? There's no spinners really in the CrossFit games.
Starting point is 01:24:50 No females who are spinners. Maybe three or... Okay, why did you do that? I don't want to talk about that. That's disgusting. How do you spell brooding? Why am I spelling brooding wrong? Where are you, Colin? How do I spell brooding? Why am I spelling it wrong? You know when someone's like spell brooding? Why am I spelling brooding wrong? Where are you, Colin? How do I spell brooding? Why am I spelling it wrong?
Starting point is 01:25:06 Like, you know, when someone's like brooding. Yeah. Do you know that word? No, I've never heard that. B-R-O-O-D-I-N-G. It's not that. It's like pouting, kind of. Seven, any other questions about dubai here we go uh uh it's um serious and thoughtful
Starting point is 01:25:33 deeply deeply or seriously thoughtful that's not right what did you say sorry brian do you have any other questions about dubai okay let's look at let's look at the list one more time let me see no i think i'm good i really like your guys picks i hope all those people do really great i'm excited to see it uh thursday uh 4 a.m I will be awake if that if that unless that changes. I'll be there should be the the times of the events should be announced tomorrow. OK. And do we know can you is it going to be YouTube or we can be able to watch this on YouTube? Yes, we should be able to. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:18 OK. And and we're certain about Friday and Saturday watching it, but we're not sure about Thursday. Correct. Okay. Anything else we want to tell people? Just make sure to like and subscribe. Ah, yes. Always like and subscribe. Is Dubai more strength or cardio?
Starting point is 01:26:42 Traditionally, it's been cardio. I think the test is pretty well balanced. I think it'll test all the domains fairly well. But there'll be some stuff to talk about on the programming side following the competition
Starting point is 01:26:58 for sure. And when they release the workouts, is there any secret? Like how they kept one at the end of Rogue and how in – in the games, there's all these ones that we don't know until minutes before, hours before. Will there be any of that? I'm not sure. I don't know what their plan is. I think that you can expect some workouts to be released over the next couple of days and for most of them to be known ahead of time.
Starting point is 01:27:25 And why would they tell you the workouts? So that I can prep relevant data and information ahead of time. Also, I do a little consulting with them. So you're on their payroll. Brian made the workouts. No. Who did make the workouts? you know brian i got a couple group of guys who work on it a couple guys but it's no one it's not like the dubai crossfit championship by rich froney no no i don't think so okay um
Starting point is 01:28:02 uh and we talked about the one woman pulling out. I think we got it. Anything else? Any dudes pulling out? Anything hairball? Anything? You have to be vaccinated for this? Okay, never mind.
Starting point is 01:28:15 Well, thank you guys for coming on. We will – I think that probably what will happen is tomorrow Brian will be like, oh, my God, I forgot to talk about this, this, and this, even though he's acting like he wants to get off now. So we'll probably end up doing something tomorrow. Maybe even talk about the workouts. Yeah, yeah, that's what's going to happen. He's going to be throwing
Starting point is 01:28:33 frisbee golf tomorrow and he'll be like, the workout's got out. You want to get on and do something? I'll be like, yeah, I'd love to. I'd love hanging out with you. And then we'll tell you about that too, John. Okay, I appreciate it it i appreciate being included always thanks guys for tuning in thanks guys

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