The Sevan Podcast - #61 - James Hobart

Episode Date: July 2, 2021

The Sevan Podcast EP 61 - James Hobart and Brian Friend @sevanmatossian @brianfriendcrossfit @jameshobart The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: https://www.instagram.com/sevanmatossian/?hl=en https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers Support the show Partners: https://cahormones.com/ - CODE "SEVAN" FOR FREE CONSULTATION https://www.paperstcoffee.com/ - THE COFFEE I DRINK! https://asrx.com/collections/the-real... - OUR TSHIRTS ... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamex. Benefits vary by card. Other conditions apply. Do you have that grin on your face? Because you see I started recording just like right away. No, I just, I just, you always wear the, not always, you wear the money team hats a lot.

And I stayed once my, at that time, I think we were just girlfriend and boyfriend or whatever that stage is. I don't know. Boyfriend and boyfriend. Are you talking about us? Boyfriend and boyfriend. I think it's not me and you. This was, this was after, after us.

Um, now my now wife, we were staying at the fountain blue in Miami and we saw Floyd Mayweather leaving the hotel and he was just like walking out passing out hundreds to everyone the bellhop and the the doorman and the valet and that it was kind of a cool thing to see and then someone came up to take a picture with him and he was just like no way man eat a dick here's a hundred eat a dick yeah oh awesome it sucks i did a podcast with Sam Apple, the author of Ravenous, and it has all screwed up audio coming from his end. I don't know if he had a fan on or what was going on. You told me to check out his book. Oh, it's amazing. You got to check it out. I'm giving you more of my bust this time too.

Oh, thank you. Sorry, are you a huge Floyd Mayweather fan, or is he just kind of like, because he's the best? Oh, hold on. I don't know if I can hear you anymore. Can you hear me? I can hear you great. You guys can hear me, but I can't hear you. Can you hear me but I can't hear you can you hear me Sevan oh how about that now can I hear you

I hear everybody oh shit better ok go on but I was just wondering like are you a huge fan is it just because you think he's the best or Brian you look great what

he asked you a question you do look good I know I'm gonna answer it I'm a circuitous thinker you look great. What? He asked you a question. You do look good. I know. I'm going to answer it. I'm a circuitous thinker. You look great. You look like me with a smaller nose. Very humble of you.

Why don't you just text me what microphone and what headphones to get so I can just buy them and be done with these AirPods, man? Okay. Done. Consider it done. Okay. Yeah, please. I'll just, I'll just get it set up. Do you hear that? Jit Hobart's thinking he's a regular now.

Hobart, he hears, he sees a few positive comments on Instagram and now he's just all slipping in the, slipping in. That's beyond the DMs. It wasn't for you. It's just, since I've been on your podcast, I've just received so many more invites to other, you know, notable podcasts. So I just got to be prepared man hey dude we were joking around and you had to throw something sharp and serious in there not cool uh oh too too true and hurts um so basically one time i was at

the four seasons with the infamous and notorious greg glassman and one. And the guy who was friends with Floyd Mayweather since they were little kids, he ran Floyd Mayweather's store, FloydMayweather.com or whatever. And he was a great dude, such a cool dude. And basically Greg got him into CrossFit, and I think Miranda started doing personal training with him in Beverly Hills or Los Angeles or somewhere like that. I think it was Miranda. Miranda Oldroyd then and Miranda Alvarez now.

The uber successful founder and CEO of street parking. Totally underappreciated street parking. It's amazing. Yeah, who cares if it's underappreciated her bank account isn't underappreciated it is not she's a savage and um and their shit's good and she moved to washington which is cool so go ahead no i was gonna make a inappropriate jab but i'm not gonna i was uh i was friends i i worked with her for, I don't know, 10, 15 years and never really knew her. We just didn't talk.

We'd be in the same room a thousand times. And then now that I don't work at CrossFit and she doesn't work at CrossFit, we're like Instagram buddies or DM buddies. I had her on the podcast and I guess that was it. We're friends now. Once people are on your podcast, they can't stay away from you. I've been,

I've been hitting you up all week now since the last one. I wouldn't say all week, but a little bit more. Yeah, a little bit, but it's also just opened up to have a, just normal conversation. You know,

we've talked about just some other stuff too. Oh shit. There's a third person on this podcast. Sorry, I was reading something. So Floyd Mayweather. So I met him with Greg and then Dave Castro got me into boxing. I was never into MMA or boxing. I don't remember if it was like 10 years ago, but he was so into boxing.

So if I wanted to talk with him, I had to kind of get into boxing. So I kind of got into boxing. He kind of would be like, there's a big fight tonight. So I started watching fighting. Then I got into MMA. And I got like a handful of hats for free. And then I bought a few hats. And I'd never wore them because Greg one time said to me I wore one of these hats out and he said to me how the fuck

do you wear a a hat that represents a scumbag like woman beater like him so I was like all right boss doesn't like these hats but now he's not my boss so I'm just rocking him I like it because it gives me the teenage ninja mutant turtle I don't even think of it as a Floyd Mayweather that's the first thing I think of when I see it. Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles? Yes. Yes, and a lot of people say that to me, so I just go with it. I'm just like, yeah. There's something else we were going to touch on.

Where did we swerve off to? Miranda, your podcast gear, Ninja Mutant Turtles. That was really it. Brian's like jacked up. I can tell he's got a lot to talk about tonight because there's a lot going on. You know what I forgot earlier when we were talking was that article I sent you guys a few days ago about the

semifinal programming came out today. And I was just reading through some of the comments on there. They were kind of interesting. Fantastic article. Best article I never read. Where do I go? Morning Chalk Up? No, you won't find it there.

You'll have to find the one I emailed to you. No, but if I want to see the comments. I don't know if you'll be able to see them. Because it's behind a paywall? Yeah, I don't know if the comments are visible or not to accounts that are behind, that haven't subscribed. No, you can see comments if you haven't subscribed. Three big questions about semi-final programming.

I wonder if you're going to get in trouble, Brian, since I'm not a subscriber to Morning Chalk Up and you let me read the article. They're going to take that out of your paycheck. Oh, no. I think it's okay. Especially if we talk about it here. That's like my way of paying

the membership. This show is sponsored to you by The Morning Chalk Up. Speaking of sponsors, I started drinking coffee again. You know what i don't like coffee again and you you guys have no idea how strong good dude's coffee is and i'm not just saying that because i'm in love with josh the shit is like dangerously strong what do you like right no no it's what i don't like is when i wrote the article it says three big questions and there were three questions and they were numbered one two three so if you're scrolling through the article, it says three big questions, and there were three questions. And they were numbered one, two, three.

So if you were scrolling through the article, you could find the one and see what the question is, and then decide if you wanted to read about that question, and two, read about it, three. And whoever formatted it took the numbers one, two, three away, and now I wrote the article and I can't even find the questions easily. Breaks your heart. Well, to me it's not accessible in the way that I want it to be for people who are trying to read it. What's the article about, Brian? Can you give us a synopsis? It's a semifinal programming one, right? I'm opening it up right now.

Yeah. So I just, you know, the semifinals had passed. You've read it, right? James, you wrote it, read it, right? Yeah. Okay. Sorry, Brian, go on. No, it was the first year of the semifinals, and I thought it would be prudent to take a look back and see, you know, what happened and if there's anything that we could learn from it.

I think in writing the article, I didn't necessarily say that there was or wasn't. I was basically just asking the questions. And the first one was, does it matter if there's six or seven workouts in a qualifying competition weekend? And I used some specific examples to highlight the fact that a couple athletes who participated in a six competition event and did really well on five workouts and really poorly on one missed the games by a few points, and that in another example where there were seven workouts,

athletes who had one notable outlier bad performance were able to make up for it by having six good performances, and that was enough to get them in by a few points. So that kind of sticks with your theory. You've been sort of beating that drum all along in regards to the games versus the semifinals, and here it's even just one workout makes a difference. That's sort of the, we could call that the Fikowski effect, right? He generally will do better if there's more events.

But really what the question is about the semifinal stage is, should there be more consistency? And the first question I wanted to ask was, does it matter if there's six or seven events? Okay. And what's the second? Go ahead, James. I think I talked to you guys about this before.

I was talking to somebody once about the open and I was saying how like I love the open and I know it can be stressful for some people. I wish the open was 10 weeks long. and someone was telling me that statistically the way it starts to work is like after five to six weeks um you basically just see like the top you know whatever one first percentile just start to slowly pull away from the rest of the pack but after that five or six weeks you don't see any like huge jumps in the placing anymore um but what i was thinking brian does the how would they know how would they know hobart how would they know? How would they know, Hobart? How would they know, whoever said that? I think there's – and I'm not a math guy.

I think there's some like – if you're like a statistical whiz or like a math wonk, you can kind of – you have some formulas and knowledge that would lead you to that point. But I'm definitely outthrowing my coverage on that discussion there. Okay. Brian? would lead you to that point but i might i'm definitely out throwing my coverage on that discussion there okay but i'm looking to brian to answer that question we're staring at you right now which question the six or seven yeah does it matter like you would it matter is like they're a magic number like the games has like been always like they've kind of settled on like what 14 or 15 events now yeah so i think that you know i think that if i was going to make a blanket statement about what i'm writing is the real the real question the bigger overarching question is should the semi-finals be the same test for everyone and these are just like you know small

subsections of that question. What's occupying more room in your head right now, Brian, that they didn't format your article right or the comments? Which one is winning? Give me a breakdown of 60-40 because clearly no part of your brain is here on the podcast right now. I'm not sure what to say to that someone i mean i think that that these are good questions and i and i was i was pretty happy with the data that i was able to pull out to paint a picture just to say like it could it could matter and i feel like regardless of what you think or i think it's worth it for crossfit to sit back and say, okay, this was year one of semifinals, and these are questions we have

because we want to see what's going to be the best for year two. Okay, let's say you are right. Let's say there is a lack of consistency in who you get between six and seven. Still, who cares if there's a lack of consistency? Why does that matter? What's the presupposition that I should be making that that matters? When you look back, some of the things people are saying is that if there's something that you're not good at and it doesn't get tested, that's just luck of the draw.

But I feel like we have examples of that from regionals where people would miss making it to the games one year, and they're regular games athletes because of one workout at regionals that they weren't able to do that year for whatever reason. But everyone else who made the Games was able to do that workout. And if you just happen to draw a semifinal that has the one workout that's going to keep you out of the Games, and everyone else who's competing all these different semifinals doesn't have to take that test. It just feels, I feel like it's almost unlucky. So part of me is just like, hey, who cares? All that matters is that we choose the winner. But here's the part where I'll push back on myself on that. Let's say, let's talk about the travel.

Part of me is like, hey, who cares if you make it to the games or not? Like, who cares about the travel restrictions? Like, what do I give a fuck? But you know when it would matter? If Tia couldn't make it. Because then that would invalidate the entire competition. And then from there, I don't really know how to think about it. Then does that mean that it should matter for everyone?

But we have an actual example where this happened. Sorry, one thing. And the reason why I jump over that is because you can say the same thing about six or seven workouts also. Part of me wants to say who cares, but if for some reason it left out the person who 99% of us think is the very best, then we have a problem. Or do we not? No, no, no.

It's a fair point because, like you said, if the 6th or 7th gets in, who cares? But if the person that's the favorite to win the games doesn't get in for one of these kind of random reasons, then you're going to feel differently about it. But in 2014, this happened to Sam Briggs. She was a defending games champion. She struggled on the max distance handstand walk at regionals. I mean, she probably would have been the favorite that year. And that's the year we've talked about where

Cara was close to winning. Camille won that year. And a majority of the women that finished in the top 10 that year never returned to the top 10 in their career. Who were potentially missing the best female crossfit athlete because of one workout. Now think of a scenario where that regional... So that's two things.

So you're saying in 2000 that was 2015 she didn't go to the 14th 14 and that was the year camille won yeah so we have the car sanders injury and we have the sandbergs debacle it's not a debacle if she wasn't good enough at that test and everyone had to take that test to get there and she couldn't do it but it wasn't a test that she wasn't good at that she had to take and the other 30 people who qualified for the games didn't have to take okay okay there's a lot of good programmers out there and a lot of good people are programming the competitions that are in the semi-finals i don't have a problem with the programming. I'm just wondering,

do we want to have a field who've taken all these different avenues to get there? And some people might say yes, but you can, you know, I was very, it was surprisingly easy for me to pull out actual statistical evidence from this year that demonstrated where six workouts got one athlete in or kept one athlete out and seven workouts got another athlete in. And how do you prove, you may have already gone over this, how do you prove that that would have made a difference for the other athletes? I actually don't think that

really matters. Yeah, I don't think that matters. I think your point about just that, it's like, imagine any big sports event. Like one team only has to qualify through a single round of playoffs to get to the Super Bowl, and another team has to qualify through four rounds of playoffs. Like the path getting there is what's important.

I don't think you need to prove statistically that such and such would have happened if the tests were the same. I don't know. And if I was to dumb it down too too i like when everyone has the same test because i just love those cross regional cross whatever you know sanctional um comparisons i think those are so fun to see how all the athletes stack up on the same test and from a from a just a viewer standpoint i think it's way more fun to have all of the same tests. But then, Hobart, I agree with you. Part of me agrees with that, that they should all be the same test. But when they're all different tests, then we go to the games with a little more uncertainty,

which is kind of fun too, right? There's a little more tension. And that's the thing with Hopper. Shit, we don't know how he would have done in the West Coast Classic. It's totally all different workouts. He would have smashed it, man. We don't know how he would have done at the west coast classic like it's totally different all different workouts he would have smashed it man we don't know how he would have done it the granite games but i will say this if you look at the mac and you're like and you were to break it down and be like this is a well-varied test and here are all the elements and jason hopper crush it there and if you were

to say the same thing if you could say the same thing about the west coast classic then you you know you'd have a lot of good evidence to say, yeah, he'd still do great there. You mean if Cole Sager and Noah Olsen had done the same set of workouts? The guys who are at the top of the West Coast. But, I mean, you are right. We will eventually find out, right? I'll get to the games and we'll see what happens. Right. What else about this article brian damn now i'm

kicking myself in the face i'm not reading it well the other thing the next question was just about like a natural movement progression during the season so i use some examples from previous seasons and we know that in these seasons dave would program the open and the regionals in the games and he has you know on his wall he has the progression of movements from every year. And I think that he uses that to evolve movements. In particular, with handstand push-ups, it's easy to track. 2016, handstand push-ups in the open, strict handstand push-ups at the regionals, ring handstand push-ups at the games. You can see the clear evolution of difficulty in the movements.

With the handstand walking obstacle course that one year, we had a handstand walk, we had an obstacle course, we had a much more extensive obstacle course at the game. This year, there were wall walks, then there were handstand pushups in the quarterfinals of a variety, strict and kipping. And then you get to the semifinals, and one competition has 120 meters of handstand walking. Another has 120 meters of handstand walking. Another has 300 feet of handstand walking. Another has 40 strict handstand pushups. Another has only 100 feet of handstand walking.

Another has 42 strict deficit handstand pushups at increasing sets. So now what's the next progression at the games? One-arm handstand pushups. Because you could choose deficit strict handstand pushups. Well, you know, a 5% of athletes just had to do that test. I'm not saying that that's bad or good. I'm just saying that when you're telling the story of the season, it's a little bit less cohesive.

Do you know if there's any plans to keep this up have they announced a format for next year yet no and i don't think they should i think they should see this see this out through the season and then you know have these conversations and and come up with a plan are you part of these conversations no you're just a pundit are you part of these conversations hobart um no i'm not you have any affiliation to the games team right now besides as an athlete i do not this year yeah unfortunately i do not just sitting back and watching it unfold and last year you were a tester i was a a tester last year, yeah, and I worked on the Athlete Advisory Council too,

which really wasn't – we really didn't discuss programming. It was more like logistics stuff than specifics of programming. Are you still on the Athlete Advisory Council? I think they're going to – short answer is I don't think so. I think they're going to cycle out and try and bring in new, um, athletes each season or each year they try and do it. When, when, when I see, um, so is the athlete council, is that the thing is Fikowski the head of that? No, I think that's the end of the, yeah. What is that? What is that Brian? Can you remind me the name? It's, I think it's called the PFAA. I can't remember exactly what it stands for.

I think it's Professional Fitness Athletes Association or something. That's more like a players union, like an NFL players union. Whereas the Athlete Advisory Council was just a group of us, myself, Annie Thorisdottir, Neil Maddox, and Meredith Root. a group of us myself um annie thoris daughter neil maddox and meredith root and we worked with members of the games team to discuss things like competition parody logistics about online format versus in-person format um structures around like qualifying time for example when they do the online formats like should it be a 24-hour window 12-hour window stuff like that formats like should it be a 24-hour window 12-hour window stuff like that i'm gonna keep my opinion to myself on that that and the dei council i have strong opinions about and i'll keep them for now well i will not digress to the pits i would like all the tests

to be the same i would like that a lot, it's fun to see the coolest part about cross the programming is the opportunity, right? The variance of it is so exciting, but I like when the tests are the same throughout the season, it makes it easier for me to follow. It's more exciting, I think. And that's a valid reason. Yeah, it's not super fancy, but that's just how I feel. And Brian thinks it would be more, Brian, you think you would like that too, right? You think it would be more fair. I,

I, I think I'm with James. It just makes more sense to me. Like you want to usually in a season, whatever the sport is like, there's a story and the story makes more sense that way to me. I wonder like if in golf, I don't know exactly how golf works, but I wonder if in golf or in auto racing, there's same ways to get to the championships, but racing on different tracks or golfing at different golf courses. Yeah, there definitely are.

And that's what the sanctional season was. And it was, I mean, look, the sport of CrossFit already is something that if you don't really aren't familiar with it and you turn on the TV to watch it, that it, you have to figure out how to make that happen. So, because otherwise, if you don't have more people watching, then it's going to be hard to grow in the way that a lot of people want it to. So, it needs to be quickly digestible as a sport. You have to understand what's happening on the floor. And then if you say, well, how these athletes get here and you say, oh, they had to go through three stages of competition. It was open, the quarterfinals, the semifinals, and these are the best of the best. Do they take the same test all the time? Actually, no. They had a variety of different

things. Some went to one continent. Some were online. Some had to do these set of workouts. Some had to do more workouts, actually, to get here than these people. I was going to be like, what? What? It's just- Yeah, you bring up a good point. I followed the sport as close as anyone could follow it for 10 years, and then the one year I turned my head to look away, and then I look back, you're right. It's like – and the terminology, the vernacular doesn't help. All the vernacular is changing also. James, did you just hold in a sneeze? Yeah, I was about to sneeze, and so I was like – that's why I was smirking because it was like right on the edge, and then it just disappeared.

I don't think that's healthy, buddy. Why? Because I think that can give you a tumor in that region between your testicles and your anus. If you hold in a sneeze, you could get a cramp down there. My grundle? Yeah, or chode. What's that area called? Chin rest? Tank.

I just don't think you're tough enough. I just think I was like, crush that. God, I never would hold in a sneeze sneezes are great i'm i'm kind of curious about mike g's question here where he says that the sanctional events he says that this qualifying system costs athletes thousands of dollars which i don't really understand his point but um is that the mike g we know no it i don't think it is i don't know he makes a lot of comments on on uh morning chalk up articles though uh and he's one of the things he says here is how come like he feels that certain athletes if they did well enough the year before should be able to skip stages of qualification not have to go to you shouldn't have to go through the open in the

quarterfinals every year. She should just get a pass to semis, have to prove it there. They used to do that. And why I think that shouldn't be the case, I remember they did that once in 2010 because I qualified in 2009 to the Games, and then in 2010 they did that. So I didn't have to qualify at that

sanctionals or sectionals or regionals level i got to go straight from the games and um honestly i looked at the sectionals and i looked at who competed and i don't think i would have made it to the games that year and it was like after that i was convinced like they should continue to do like a quarter finals or a semi-finals event because of that like i don't think i would have made it i agree yeah i think everyone should have to do like a quarterfinals or a semifinals event because of that. Like I don't think I would have made it. I agree. Yeah. I think everyone should have to do it. So he parlays that question into the fact that athletes are losing out on opportunities to compete in competitions that actually could have substantial paychecks because they have to do the Open in February, wait a few weeks, do the quarterfinals, wait another month and a half, do the semifinals.

Is that true? Is that true what he's saying? Can you think of any competitions that are going on at the same time that would make someone a significant amount of money that they'd miss? No, no one schedules their competitions during the game season because no one's going to come to them. So they schedule them in the offseason. So he's saying if the offseason was longer or this season was shorter, then they would have more opportunities to make money if they wanted to. I think I heard something. I think this is a premature comment because we need to let the season play out. And I don't just mean the game season. I mean, after the games, the Rogue Invitational is going to happen in October.

Dubai is making plans to happen in December. Wadapalooza is intending to happen in January. Those are the three most lucrative events from the sanctional season. And they're still going to be a part of the calendar year of CrossFit that people have opportunity to make money. I mean, I feel like athletes have a lot of money to make at the games, too, if they do really well. I mean, I think that's where you have

the most money to make. 100%. And it's not even just the money from winning the competition. It's the recognition, the accolade of being in the top 10, top 5 on the podium, whatever, and then the subsequent sponsorship deals that follow. I feel like hard work pays off if you catch my drift. You know, I don't know if this stat is true. I've said it several times. Maybe someone can fact check it.

But I heard in a single weekend, the golf ecosystem makes more than the entire NFL makes in a system, in a year. The golf ecosystem in a single weekend makes more money than the NFL generates more. The golf ecosystem generates more revenue in a single weekend than the NFL generates more. The golf ecosystem generates more revenue in a single weekend than the NFL generates in an entire year. And at first you're like, wait a second, wait a second. But then you think of all the golf courses all around the world and all the people who play and all the clubs and all the balls and all the shirts.

So my point is this. People, and I know neither of you have said it, but people have always talked about that CrossFit athletes should make more money. It's just the fact that the money is just not in the ecosystem yet. The ecosystem, like, this isn't golf. And even golf, only 150 players, I think, are paid to be on the tour. And the other dudes who are on the tour, the other 150 dudes who are on the tour, however many it is, they have to pay their way.

And it's fucking expensive. I think it costs over $100,000 if you want to cruise around on the tour with the guys and play. I'll be careful here because I don't want to be rude. I get frustrated with that should make more money statement. Just because you're putting in 40 hours a week or whatever, 50 hours a week, that you're entitled to a certain level of pay, regardless of the quality of your, your competitive ability.

Oh, but you know, that's easy for me to say, right. Cause I was, I was a good athlete. Um, definitely not a great athlete was, I knew I was not going to make my living out of competing. So I went and did other adventures and that was my choice so i don't know you know and it's like i look at i don't know again i look at like the athletes who are really successful and they they seem to be doing it very well and i would like money as a as a as a mayhem empire team member to sustain life no i mean i still work i worked you won the games four times with the mayhem empire right yeah uh no twice with them and once with new england okay and did any of those years did you make enough money to where you could buy a home in cookville and chill

and raise a kid from competing no no and i worked seminar staff full time. I mean, every weekend. Okay. I don't want to discredit anybody's effort, but I don't know. Anyone who thinks that they should make more money always has like, yeah, we all wish that they made more money. So, Sevan, your point is a good one is that the money is not in the ecosystem right now. that the money is not in the ecosystem right now. But the point of asking some of these questions is, well, what can we do to make the ecosystem more approachable so that more money can come into the system?

And changing the structure every year is probably not the answer. Now, we know we have a new leadership this year, and I think that people are jumping the gun and assuming that they should have a perfect answer in year one. I think we've got to give them a couple years. I know people don't want to hear that because the last years have been so frustrating, but you can't expect them to get it perfect. They have to figure out how to work together and whatever. This is very much a trial year.

Hopefully, they're asking questions like this and more. They'll come back with a new plan in year two. By year three, I think if it's not smooth and running well, then we can start saying, okay, what's going on. And the ecosystem, even though people think it's just the games, it's much bigger than the games. It involves a healthy, healthy, robust affiliate ecosystem and a training ecosystem for a ton of different reasons for a ton of different reasons yeah and i still think a lot of people forget that i don't think the games exist without fucking robust affiliates yeah if the affiliates are the trunk of the tree the games are the fruit you know

yeah i think i think at least for now and i think it's still growing you know and i think like i will say this. From my perspective, and obviously I'm biased, I've been involved with CrossFit as a company now for 10 years. I've been doing CrossFit for 14 years. But I still see it growing. And it's like the games team has iterated in a positive way more than a lot of other sports associations out there I've seen. Maybe the only one other than that that has done it more and more successfully would be something like the UFC. But it's like the games seem like self-reflex,

and I feel like it's better and better every year, even after like a massive hiccup, you know, in 2020. Right? That was COVID year? 2020. And I totally agree with you. And I think that the games are a crazy beautiful event compared to most sporting events.

I agree with Brian. It can be hard to follow, but it's epic. It's epic. I don't think the games themselves are that hard to follow. Maybe an individual event can be a little bit hard on a live stream.

But for the most part, at the games, they have the scoring system there. The point system is usually uniform. In the more recent years, everyone's taken a majority, if not the entire test. And it's pretty easy. It's updated quickly. It's the season as a whole that's been changing so much. And that's where people are getting lost right i want to talk about travel yeah so building up to us us getting on the air

there was there were all these can you set the scene for before we saw the news that we saw today what it looked like for travel for people sort of the weird bizarre shit that people were doing well of a while ago i mean like you had to to go to Mexico first and then to the United States. Tell us about that. Yeah. I mean, this came on my radar a couple almost two months ago now. The fact that there were going to be certain areas of the world that athletes who had been within people just in general who've been in that region of the world within two weeks of when they wanted to come to the United States would not be able to come. And that was part of some presidential order from January that hadn't been amended yet. And back a couple of months ago, someone asked me

about it and they're like, you know, this is going to be a real thing and no one's talking about it. And I started doing a little digging. A presidential order, you mean from the president of the United States? Yeah. A federal order. I don't know if it necessarily came directly from him, but a federal rule that prevented people from traveling here from these regions. Obviously related to COVID. So, sorry. I should fast forward to the funny part that I just thought of. The funny part about this rule is that some of these athletes are living in countries that their infection rate per 100,000 people is in the lowest five in the world. Finland is number one least infected per 100,000 people. Iceland was number three. Denmark was number five.

was number three. Denmark was number five. And in order to get to the United States, they were going to have to travel to places like Dubai or Mexico, stay there for two weeks, not quarantine, just stay there. So they weren't in these other regions. And then they could come to the United States. They still have to obviously pass COVID test and whatever else. But the funny part is that Dubai or it's UAE, Mexico and the United States are all 50 or worse in terms of infection rates relative to 100,000 people. So they had to go from a relatively safe area. So you had to go to another country and pick up some COVID, leave a safe area, pick up some COVID, and come to the U.S. Well, yeah.

I mean, and someone told me that I didn't go and check and see if those numbers were true, but it's not that hard to believe. Whoever told you that's crazy okay so so so the and now and now what we're hearing as of today is that the athletes have all received exemptions is that true all it's called a national interest exemption travel waiver and it sounds like the athletes, of which I believe there were 20 individuals and something like a dozen teams, which is another, you know, 40-something, 40… 60. Yeah, so 60-something athletes. Plus, and they each get a plus one.

So they can bring a coach or a wife or one extra person with them. And I think that, yes, it sounds like they were all given that exemption to travel to the U.S. for the Crossfit games but they still have like a process of stuff steps that they'll have to go through to do it by process you mean like they might have to be vaccinated or they might have to take a pcr test or they might have to be quarantined for two weeks there might be some guidelines about how quickly they have to get here and what hoops they have to jump through to actually get on the field? There's a ton. They have to do a background check. They have to – some might need a visa. What are you reading off of, Hobart?

What are you reading off of? This is morning chalk up. Okay. And pass a COVID test, apply by all CDC guidelines. And their timeline is pretty tight. I mean, what, we're 26 days out? That's wild. Is there a quarantine in there?

Do they have to quarantine in the States? I don't think there's a quarantine. I didn't see that, Brian. Did you see that? Yeah. No quarantine. But then, of course, each country has their own rules anyways with regards to visas and that process. and that process.

And there was an example that was on our radar last week of the two brothers from Serbia, Lazar and Luka Djukic, whose embassy was not granting visas until 2023. But today they, I think today they posted a picture that they had gone to the embassy and gotten their visas. So something happened, something changed. So I have two points I'd like to bring up about this. One is practical and one is political. The practical one is, can this still change? Is this going to be the thing where we're not going to believe that they're actually going to be here until we see them get off the plane? oh i hope i hope not that would be such a bummer like i hope that i don't know you'd have to go look up what a natural national interest exception waiver if it has like a i don't know what do you call those things they lapse or have like a my brain's dead right now no i mean i know what you

mean i'm with james if that expiration date on them or or some sort of like there's something in fine print at the bottom this can change on a moment's notice? Yeah, like a limitation on it, yeah. A caveat, yeah. But I'm hopeful that that's obviously not the case. I mean, the last week or two when the people I was talking to there were saying like, this is the reality of the situation. This is how much it costs us to have to travel to these countries, stay there, come to the U.S. And it's just a burden and interruption to their training. I mean, this is the most important training cycle for them of the year. You have to travel eight hours this way, acclimate to that weather, that time zone, whatever, then take a 13-hour trip across the ocean three days before the biggest competition of the year.

That was going to be pretty detrimental, pretty detrimental i would think to their performances but additionally it would just put another tarnish on this season if we didn't have that pool of athletes because these are you know excellent athletes that are top 10 podium contenders in some cases and you just don't have the same caliber of test uh the credential what if they're not in the field why does that tarnish the season though like i think that would tarnish the season if this was going to be the last season ever you know and it's like we're going to have another 15 seasons it was just that that's the way the season rolled out you know it's like i don't know why that's like i don't know a great quarterback breaks his wrist i don't feel like tarnishes this season or the defending champs

you know star player is injured and they don't win like i don't know if that like tarnishes the season or the defending champs, you know, star player is injured and they don't win. Like, I don't know if that tarnishes the entire season. I just think that's just how the season played out. I mean, all I'm here. once again,

let me say this. What if it was Tia? What if it was like that? I don't know the details, but what if it was like that college world series where the whole team got that there were, they had dudes on the team who wouldn't get vaccinated. I mean wouldn't you say that tarnished their World Series? It definitely would tarnish the game.

I mean no woman can win this year without Tia being there. I mean it's already weird enough that Matt's not there, right? I don't know. You just don't know. Like any given day in competition, granted, if Tia shows up, is it much less likely that you're going to win if you're competing against her? Yeah, absolutely, but it's like... I don't know.

I feel you. I want to agree with you. I'm just struggling with the Tia effect. When I throw her in there, it screws everything up. I can't be just all blasé about it. She will lose eventually or retire but she hasn't lost in a long time so um and the other thing is this so don't get me wrong i'm really i'll be really happy if all the athletes go there

it's going to be fucking awesome i'm more interested in the games than i've been in in four years thank you brian um and I'm pumped. I'm going to be glued to my TV the entire time. I'm really excited. But why does a CrossFit athlete get to come to the United States and someone who can't come to the United States whose mom has terminal cancer and can't get that exemption. And when you put it in perspective like that, like anytime someone I'm really mad at someone, I'm like this fucking piece of shit.

I want to fucking hit him with a hammer. I think, dude, they didn't do anything to your kids. It's terrible. And then it puts everything in perspective. Like nothing anyone could ever do to me should ever bother me unless like you did it to my kids. What do I get?

Like, like that, like the, like the memes guy made that shirt, um, uh, blocked by seven. That was actually,

actually that's a bad example. Cause that was actually kind of cool. That's the first shirt anyone's ever made about me. By the way, I need a CEO shirt. Yeah. Well, don't just don't make your own,

please. You think that would make me a CEO shirt. Yeah, well, just don't make your own, please. You think that would make me a tool? I have to be nominated. If someone anonymously sends you one, maybe. Okay. But do you have an answer to that? No. About, like, no.

No, it's... So that makes sense. Like, we have to think about it relatively like as as as games fans we're excited that they're coming but this is just this is just to get the games right and that that law or whatever it is from from january i mean it feels like a lot has changed since january why is that still there you mean that that we can't travel yeah i feel like you know variants variants okay well i i probably don't know enough about it to comment one way or the other but i'm i'm guessing that there's been more covet outbreaks in various parts of the world over the last months and hopefully that they would adjust the regions accordingly. But if there's a place that's relatively low COVID exposure,

why is that place on the list? Yeah, and Miko Salo is not dying from COVID. He would stand up and help fuck COVID up. Have you had COVID, Hobart? I don't think so. But you haven't been tested for the antibodies? So you wouldn't know. No, I got tested a bunch because I was still doing – early on I was still traveling for seminars.

And then for a while when like a lot of the country shut down, I stopped traveling for seminars. And then when I started traveling again, Massachusetts still had pretty rigid rules about testing. So I got tested a lot. And I never – But not for antibodies. but not for antibodies, but not for antibodies. I did PCR and antibody tests. Oh,

okay. But I had a really weird, so I had a negative antibody test and then I had a positive antibody test. And then I had a negative, um, PCR test thereafter. And then I never had any other positive antibody tests. So I don't really know.

Wait, did you say your second antibody test was positive? Yep. Oh, that's a good sign. Yeah. That's a good sign. So you've had it. But this is a long time ago. This is like at the start of it last in 2020 yeah like march 2020 did you come out to hq anytime

during um uh december 2019 to just january february uh 2020 in those three minutes three months did you ever come out to Santa Cruz, California? I don't know if I was out there in December of 2019. Because there was a time there, a three month period in there where pretty much everyone at HQ got sick. It was nuts. It was absolutely nuts.

People flying in and out of there like crazy. I was in Argentina, Columbus, Ohio, Madison, Boston, Baltimore, Germany, and then California in the end of January. There you go. January 2020. Yeah, that might have actually been for testing. Was that the testing I filmed? No, that was have actually been for testing. Was that the testing I filmed? No, that was – I think it was a different time.

That was before the second stage or the first stage of the games. Okay. That was a brutal event. The testing for that? Yeah, because I was not as fit as I needed to be for that event. Are you talking about like Friendly Fran and those workouts? Yeah. I did that Nancy workout with the run, burpee, overhead squat was so bad.

I did that workout with scaled weight and it was miserable, yeah. and it was miserable, yeah. So, Brian, you feel confident that all the travel, that we're going to see good games this year with all the athletes showing up? Yeah, I feel very confident based on what I saw today and the couple of athletes that I've spoken to. Plus, I mean, Laura Horvath's already here in the United States. It looks like she's in CrossFit Krypton.

Even though it wasn't from a necessarily restricted area, Kara Saunders posted that she bought her plane ticket. So the athletes are making their plans and coming here. Several others who had recently posted that they were going to go to either Dubai or Mexico or Aruba or something like that posted today and said, wow, we were one day or two days away from purchasing this ticket and putting this plan in motion, and now we don't have to. So they're on top of it. I expect, I expect the ones that are like the biggest

question mark for me are just the ones that are always the question mark are probably the ones from the furthest away, you know, like, like from Russia or, or South Korea or something like that. But I think that they'll pretty much all be there. Or even Jason Smith, right? Yeah. But in the case of jason smith like he's done it several times before so i think he's more likely to to know exactly what to do and make it happen during during the um i think it was like this at the games last year correct me if i'm wrong but during the games last year. Correct me if I'm wrong, but during the games last year, were they testing the athletes for COVID during the week so that you could have done one or two days and test positive and you're out?

Could have Matt tested positive the last day and been out? That would have been devastating. I don't think so. I think that's only in the PGA golf tournaments. Okay. So once you get there as an athlete, you're good to go. So if we see you compete on day one,

the only thing that can stop you from crossing the finish line is yourself or Dave Castro. Well, the reason I say that about last year at the, in California is because they, once they passed that test, they were in a controlled environment. So they had to stay in the hotel.

They had to stay on the bus. They had to eat the food provided for them. And they agreed to be part of that bubble scenario after, after passing the test. I don't think that's going to be the case in Wisconsin, you know, but therefore I don't know if they'll retest them every day or not. I haven't heard anything.

Have you been told about being in a bubble, James? Brian just kind of said Wisconsin with an accent. Are you from there?'m from chicago okay that makes sense yeah you're like wisconsin you could like a thing going on there sorry what did you say have you been told about any bubble like do you have any restrictions for yourself no no bubble we just um they have you get uh covid tested unless you have a vaccine and so every day oh so if you have a vac no no i just think uh upon registration i think was the the details of that email that one was kind of preliminary they haven't like they gave us like our times and we're supposed to show up for the age group athletes. And then, yeah, that's what they said.

You have to have a vaccination proof of or you get COVID tested there. And how do you prove you have a vaccination? You show your vaccination card? Yeah, probably. They didn't – I don't know. I didn't – I don't know if they specified. They probably specified that in the email. I didn't read that too closely.

You still have 26 days. To learn how to read. A couple less for the Masters. They start early. Yeah, that's true. Tuesday. I'm so excited for that. I'm really happy that they made that change.

Do we want to talk about who's going to win the Masters? Are you masters expert? Brian, Brian friend. I know, I know a decent amount about the masters fields, but I haven't looked at the fields for this season yet too closely. I've been,

I finished the men that have qualified to find the women I'm working through the teams and then I'll get to the masters, but I can, I probably know him well enough to give some insight. Well, last time he like, he mentioned a bunch of names and he said, I think James will do pretty well. Well, you're asking about that. Yeah. Yeah. Just, just his division. I mean, if I, if you asked me to pick a winner of the men's 35 or 39 division, I think I have a, yeah, I think I could give you a name. Yeah, let's do it. How do I – before you do that, I want to get to sort by – how do I see that list?

Oh, I go to the games. Leaderboard. And I hit leaderboard. And competition. Division. Okay. Division. Competition. Division.

Okay. So men, 35 to 39. And it looks like there's 10 guys. No, no. Are you on year 20, 21? Yeah, it starts with Jan Honnock. Yeah, there's more than 10. It's like 20.

Well, there should be 20 eventually. I don't know if everyone's registered yet. It looks like 19 of the 20 have registered. And I know that they've at least backfilled one because that guy that trains with Hopper is James Hall. He's right there, the second one from the top. Which ones will Hobart beat? Most of them. He will? Will he beat Dan Bailey?

Yeah. Yeah. I can't wait to beat Dan Bailey? Yeah. Yeah! I can't wait to text Dan and tell him. Will he beat Zach Forrest? Yeah. Yeah, I'll beat Zach. Will he beat Jan Honok? Yeah.

Will he beat James Howell? Yeah. Will he beat Tizell? Yeah. Will he beat Tiziano Corriga? Okay, he's going to beat everyone except for Adrian Conway. You think Conway's going to win? If I was picking today, I would pick him, then you, then Nick Block.

There's no way James is beating Kyle Kasper Bauer. I'm going to go start training. I'll talk to you guys later. That's like a bowling pin beating a bowling ball. There is no way there is. There is. How, how is Kyle Casper about who won last year?

That was devastating. Who won the year before? Uh, no, he was, he withdrew the year before he was, uh, there were 10 people in the field. He's listed last cause he withdrew. He withdrew the year before. There were 10 people in the field he's listed last because he withdrew.

He won the year before that. So he's clearly a coward. This is his last year of eligibility in this division. It's really rare for someone to win in the last year of eligibility in their division. I know, but he's not human. Have you stood next to him? I saw him in Minnesota, yeah. I'll have to help him out of his

seat probably 39 oh dude you've gotta you've gotta do that now you've gotta get your instagram rolling and do an instagram clip of that we're like kyle you need help up kyle or you hand him a cane bring a cane with you james and hand him a a cane. I'm going to just share my Metamucil with him. Kyle, do you want me to beat you? What's my better chance of winning, beating you with this cane or handing it to you? Oh, man. Okay, so you have Hobart as second. Yep.

That's cool. There are some international guys there that i don't know a ton about but um i expect that the like the american guys that you know well that have been done well at the games before will will be just fine meaning meaning like and i'd be shocked if uh if they weren't in the top seven at least, Bailey and Hobart and Conway. What about the women? I actually recognize some of these names. Yeah, I mean, the cool thing about this division is that a lot of these girls, not a lot of them, but 20% or so, have competed multiple times as individual athletes.

But I wouldn't say there's as recognizable names as there are on the men's side. Lauren Gravatt, that's Jordan's sister, huh? Jordan Gravatt's sister? I'm not sure. He was a filmmaker at CrossFit HQ, and his wife was an extraordinary member of the affiliate team. Maybe one of the best, if not the best. Paula.

Part of the reason why this list doesn't have some of the star-studded names is because Alessandro Pacelli, Kristen Holt, and Sam Briggs are all competing in the elite open division still. And actually, Alethea Boone also is still in the last chance qualifier. Do you know if she's doing it uh we have to check and see if she's registered i think she is registered i see kelly i see kelly jackson that's the name i recognize yep um i see chelsea hughes she's the uh Was she the firefighter? She was California Girl? Yeah, she competed at the West Coast Classic also. She was in the bottom heat. Alethebun is registered for the semifinals, yes.

But Chelsea Hughes was competing there. I mean, she was not in the league to qualify for the elite women this year. But she looked really fit and was moving pretty well so i could see her in a top five position would sam have done this sorry how about would sam have done this if she didn't um qualify if they hadn't fixed the leader yeah i think so fixed or adjusted which think so. Fixed or adjusted? Which word should I use? Fixed or adjusted? Adjusted. Brian, do you want to weigh in?

Is it fixed or adjusted leaderboard? I would say adjusted. I mean, I would not have had any problem with the leaderboard being exactly as it is now if that's the original leaderboard that they released. Since it's not, you do have a problem. Even if they had released it and said, this is a preliminary leaderboard, we're still doing video review, then I wouldn't care.

But when you release it and say, this is the leaderboard and these are the people that made the games, then the ruling is over. Now you've made a bulletproof argument. So who's going to win this out of the women? No, better question. Better question. Do any of these women or men in the last chance qualifier make it into the top 10? And if not, what's the purpose of a last chance qualifier? I don't understand the question.

I resent you asking a better question than mine. I think seven was asking me about there. I think seven was asking about the women's masters division and you were asking about the last chance qualifier. I know. I just, all right, I go,

you go, go masters first. Who do I think can win the masters? 35 to 39 women, man. There's a, there are a lot of girls here I don't know. I'm probably going to have to pick someone that I do know. If Alethea Boone competes here, I think she's got a good chance.

I think Whitney Gillen will do pretty well. It's her first year available to compete in this division. And there's an interesting story here. There's this woman, April Payne. I think she qualified 11th this year. She was 11th the last two years also. And those are the only two years they didn't take 20 to the game. So she missed by one spot in the first two years of her master's eligibility in the only two years that it wouldn't have qualified otherwise. And so she gets to compete this year, which is good.

When you say they only took 10, are you talking about for the master's division? Yeah. Because it used to be, and they changed it to 10. And then she was 11th. One year there was 10. The next year she also was one spot out, but they didn't have the Masters division, so it didn't matter. This year she was 11th for the third year in a row. It's just kind of a weird story. God, Brian, you know stuff.

I'm looking at images of her. She competed at the Granite Games. She still competes with the elite open women, too. She competes in sanctionals and stuff like that. She usually doesn't do too badly, either. She's in the top half of fields. So what is the distinguishing character, physical traits, between a Masters and an open athlete? What is it that makes it that hobart can't is it is it that hobart got old or that the new generation is so good both yeah definitely both and there are two men in the masters

division saz soledov and jason smith who both qualified so it's doable but they qualified through the weakest regions you know there's there's not as many men that are the top of the sport in africa and asia and that's how they got in and that's okay i think it would be i think that they would have a personally would have a more enjoyable competition in the masters division those guys where they're going to be in the fighting for the top five fighting against a lot of guys that are similar to them where i think they're going to be in the bottom 10 in the open division i don't know what you mean by more fun i think they'd have more fun in the open competition even if they did like ass well you're probably right because

they're doing that um hobart do you want to ask your question again before i move to 40 to 45 is there money for masters yeah Yeah. How much? It's variable by division. I think they share $6,000. No. The 35-39 has significantly more than any other division. And then it tears down from there where the 65-plus has the least.

As I remember, it was something like they share $6,000 for a bunch of the divisions. First place gets $3,000, $2,000, $1,000. Totally different. That's cool. If you win this $35,000 to $39,000, you get $15,000. Oh, that's nice.

James, go get training. I could buy that jacket and that hat that Sivan was wearing last week. No, you can't. That's cool i love that they're giving money out to the masters that's really are they giving are they giving payouts all the way down for the open uh individual elite athletes i think it's one through 20 wow that stayed that stayed the same for a while yeah one through 20 but it's increased you know what? I think 20th place gets more money than if you win Masters. I think 20th place gets like $8,000.

Is that right? You might be right about that, yeah. I think that the minimum, if you do make it into the money, has gone up a little bit. What do you think about that? That the worst dude in the payouts of the open division gets less money than the winner of the masters i'm fine with i'm fine with that because that person probably put in way more time i think that's fine top 20 in the world is is fucking legit it's very it's very really

when you start looking at like i I have just a preliminary power rankings for each division. And when I start looking at the guys in that range, it's like they're still serious, serious good athletes, guys that can win semifinals. When you say power ranking based on some criteria that you've made up, Brian? Yeah, I haven't spent a lot of time with it so it's just a preliminary like when i first saw the list i just kind of put them in this order uh and i haven't given much much thought since but i will in the next week or so is it mathematical

no this is uh at this point it's just kind of gut when i look at the men 40 to 45 i only recognize two names a lot of i mean and in a lot of these divisions there are guys or girls that are pretty dominant um you're looking at 40 to 44 and and new uh yeah guido trinidad and nuno costa so uh alexander joe levay from france is pretty good uh yeah guido trinidad should do very well i think he's just entered this division yeah he's 40 so he'd be very good and tony kurtz he's 42 he's probably he would probably be my pick to win those three guys would be the that'd be my podium picks for this division he's a unit 70 70 inches 5 foot 10 209 pounds damn i have to let me let me see uh what's his games profile uh maybe this is well he was eighth in 2019 maybe he's not a good pick maybe i'm

thinking someone else it's it says he has a 265 pound snatch imagine being 42 years old like i have friends i have friends who don't do crossfit and i've just turned 35 i have friends who are like i'm like do you want to work out and they're like oh no man i can't work out anymore i got this going on and this going on it's like 35 you're half you're halfway maybe under just under halfway through the game and if you're already tapping out this dude's 209 pounds and he's 42 and he's snatching 265. Imagine you show up to take some girl to prom and her dad is in the garage repping 265-pound snatches. Your head pops.

Have her home by noon. Have her home by midnight. You're like, yes, sir. I would leave her at the door. I'd be like, all right, see you. I would leave her at the door. I'd be like, all right, see ya. I'm looking at the women 40 to 44, and I only recognize two names also.

I recognize Stephanie Roy. Okay, Stephanie was making her comeback this year. She had some injuries and some setbacks, but I think she's very healthy. I know she's already in the U.S., and I think she's a legitimate podium threat, if not threat to win here, but what? How did you pronounce her name? She snatches 175. Savan can't snatch that. That's insane.

You don't know that. You don't know that. Take your camera to the garage right now. Load it up. I can. I can. I can't. I can't. I got 600. I was deadlifting in there today.

I got 600 on that. I know. I know. Max effort there. I've never snatched 175. Never, ever, ever. Hey, how did you say her name, Brian? Why do you got to say it all?

Why can't it be Stephanie Roy? Same way that the hockey player, the goalie for the Rockies, used to be Patrick Waugh. They're from Eastern Canada. But there's no W in there. It's French. And then Rebecca Voigt. Yeah, she should do great. And Kelly Friel should do great also.

Those are probably my three podium picks in this division. Should I know who Kelly Friel is? Oh, when I click on her picture, I think I recognize her. She's pretty good. She qualified into the semifinals for the European women at 43 years old. I think she was qualified

through the quarterfinals in like 7th place overall. Okay, where's the men 45 to 49? The last time I was in London for Strength and Depth, they had a master's division. And I think she won like every workout. She just crushed everyone. Well, shit, we're not even going to talk about men 45 to 49 because I don't recognize a single name. Okay, well, if anyone cares, Jason Grubb is probably pretty good. I don't recognize a ton of the names in here either.

There's a lot of new guys, but I think Jason Grubb is probably the standout here. Let's see if he has any. Look at this. Annie Sakamoto is competing. And he's just moved up into this division, and he won the men's 40-44 the last time he competed in it two years ago. So Grubb's probably a good pick. This division, the women 45-49, is a very—I actually wrote an article about this division. So you have Karen McAdam, Janet Black, and Annie Sakamoto.

And the three of them have competed against each other a ton of times at the games and have had really close battles back and forth a bunch of times. I think that more often than not, Janet Black gets the better of the other two. They're the standouts here and they've been good, relevant Masters athletes for years. Okay.

There's a woman in this division and if you see her, you need to have a talk with her. Allison. She has four conson continents in a row. S-T-R-N. That's what you want me to talk to her about? Is her name an acronym? Allison Strenod.

Say her name for me. I can't. That's not a word. I mean, it should probably be strand. Maybe it's a miss. It's a typo. Oh, gotcha. It's a typo.

Okay, and then let's look at uh philaredi xanthro xanthodoc xanthod yeah is that greek yeah give her a pass greek women are cool holy crap you saw her name no i'm you guys are like far behind i'm over in this age 62 women's and i'm just checking out i'm checking out susan clark with a who literally has more abs than i've ever had and she deadlifts 285 at the okay hold on young age of 62 and that's what we need to be talking about susan. Okay. We'll get there. No, no, no. We should talk about her.

And he has stats. Gosh. I know how to pick them. God damn it, Hobart. I'm the host. Where are we? Women 60 to 64. Susan Clark is undefeated at the games.

She's four for four in the years she's competed. And the last year she competed, she won every single event. Oh, shit. Yeah, you're right. I'm looking at her stats. Susan Clark, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, you're probably working out right now um i'm a fan we wrote it we um god i had uh wait a second she's won the games every year she's gone four four four yeah four four four she doesn't compete every year but every year she's gone she's won i think that i i think year she's gone, she's won.

I think that I, I think that that's the only person for whom that's true. That's like one more than, you know, multiple. By the way, when I was 34, I had those numbers. I don't know if I ever back squatted two 20.

I must've. Oh yeah. I think I back squatted two 65 ones. How amazing is that? Yeah, that's crazy. That is insane. There's some incredible... And how much does she weigh? That's a double body weight deadlift, right?

Over. Yeah. She weighs 123 pounds. And we're the same height. And I weigh 155. My mom once, my mom has never competed at the Games, but she's fit. And she'd probably get mad at me. She's really fit for someone who's in her 60s.

She's fit for someone who would be in their 50s. But she once asked me, she's like, how would i stack up to other people my age like the average person my age and i was trying to find like fitness standards online for people in their late 50s and 60s and it was like do a sit-up it was do one push-up it was like walk it was like do i don't know like a certain amount of steps on a four inch or six inch step in two minutes. And like, I want to stack Susan Clark on a map against the average 62 year old and just see where she would fall. What's crazy is you could literally go into a Starbucks where there's 30

people and put them all on one team and figure out like some competition that she could do against them and they could rotate people in and out all they want, and she would crush them all. Crush them. Yeah, she would win the competition. It's absurd. I would bet the fittest 62-year-old, Susan Clark, compared to the cohort of average 60-year-olds, I bet the gap between their fitness and hers is greater than someone in matt fraser's age range so like matt compared to his age range at average fitness i bet susan clark that gap is bigger for the 60s than it would be for matt his age range oh of course oh you think you're saying because

he's so fit yeah i agree with you i agree with you that that that's an interesting that's an interesting at first i was like no duh but you're saying because matt is so fit he creates a larger gap i'm saying she creates a larger gap well but yeah both of them do yeah that's interesting yeah it would scare most 62 year olds to see her workout like i'm not even joking it would scare them scares me it would say i mean i think that she was gonna break yeah do you have you seen her in person uh uh brian or james no but i can't i'm to go out of my way to meet her this year. Hell yeah, four-time champ. Fuck yeah. Great. Yeah, I intend to do the same.

Does she speak English? Do we have her on the podcast? I'm sure she speaks English, yeah. Dude, she's from Canada. I don't think you can just say that. Okay. She's from West Vancouver. So she smokes weed and speaks English. We're making Vancouver. So she smokes weed and speaks English. She probably...

If we're making sweeping generalizations. I would say yes. I've written about her before, and one of the authors at Morning Chalk wrote about her already this year. If you're really paying attention, you will have known who she is by now, and you should.

It's really incredible what she's doing. So you've spoken to her? No. You wrote about her but didn't call her? Yes. You should get a job at the New York Times. Okay. Why would you write an article about her but not call her?

That doesn't make any sense to me. The article was featuring a few Masters athletes who have had incredible careers. It was just basically putting into a digestible form the things that they have accomplished. I think it was Will Powell. There might be one other woman. And then Susan Clark were like these three that stood out because their careers were so incredible. We'll get to the other. I can't remember.

I'm drawing a blank on her name. But she's made every single game. And have you – did you call any of the other ones? No. And did you use the excuse not to call them as you didn't want to bother them? Because I know that's one of your favorite ones. I just didn't think it was them because i know that's one of your favorite ones i just didn't think it was necessary for the article lynn napman napman is the other woman i was that i featured in that

she's made every single game since masters have been a thing do the dudes have anyone equivalent to susan clark well they had sean ramirez he won four straight years in a row and then got popped for drugs in year number five they have david hippensteel who won three years as a master 60 60 plus athlete i think they've had ron ortiz who's had a bunch of injuries but when he comes back usually wins will powell's won multiple games in multiple different age divisions and there are a couple others as well but four for four and i don't think there's anyone yeah david David Hippenstiel. That name rings a bell. I've met his daughter. Was she a games athlete?

I feel like I've seen his daughter around a bunch. And I see, oh, he's the dude with long hair. Yeah, yeah, I would recognize him. He's got a, he's only got one first place win. No, he has. Oh, no, two. Three. I see 2018 and 2013.

Okay, I thought there were three, but maybe there were two. I wonder if he was hurt in 2020. There was no competition in 2020. So that 19th is open. Petition in 2020. So that 19th is open. It's listed him as 19th at the games in 2020. It says overall rank worldwide.

Oh, and then it says under open. I apologize. I apologize. Oh, shit. I was looking in the wrong place. Okay. So he does have three first place wins. Oh, come on, man. 2016, 2017, 2018.

You guys are right. You're right. I wonder how old he is now. So this year he's going to be in the 65 plus. He'll be the young guy. If he is, he's definitely winning it. He's still incredible. All right.

And then do we want to look at women 65 and plus? I wonder if there are any I know. Lydia Beer has competed multiple times. Pia Gund has competed multiple times at the Games. She's probably in Mary Schwing, but Mary Schwing is going to be pretty old. Yeah, she's 69. So she's going to be the first athlete who's making a real case for a 70-plus division.

Let's check Lydia Beer. I think she's finished. Dude, these are great names. There's Rhonda Desert, Pia Gund, Betty Harden, Linda Beer. These are great names. Dude, I think it's so cool to watch them work out and compete. And you really couldn't do it if you were watching the individual competition in the last couple years. And you can do it this year because they're on different days.

Every single person in the woman 65 and plus is American except for one who's from Sweden. Yeah. Say that again, Sweden. Yeah, that's... Say that again, Brian. You think it's pretty cool that you can watch them what? Yeah, they have separate days to compete this year. So you can watch them early in the week and you can see. I mean, it's really impressive. The teenagers, the masters, and the masters are impressive for different reasons.

You know, the physical feats that they're still able to perform at 38, 43, 48, 52, and then it kind of changes. Not that they can lift an incredible amount of weight for their age necessarily, but the skills that some of these athletes have at 57, 62. David Hippenstiel is 65. I'm pretty sure he can bang out 8 to 10 ring muscle-ups unbroken. It's crazy. Yeah, that's nuts.

That is nuts. It's fun looking you got me addicted to looking at their deadlift their deadlifts like this lady's uh 65 plus and she's got a 250 pound deadlift so think about that i don't know that just gives me hope man i just it gives me hope to get older and um makes me way less scared of it dude this lady sylvan sylvania volp she's 5 to 117 pounds and she has a 250 pound deadlift i don't know how you can't look at that and just be like shocked 117 pounds you know i don't think you can give blood if you weigh a hundred and seventeen pounds. I think you have to weigh like a hundred and twenty pounds. No, because you're too busy deadlifting 250 for reps because she's an animal.

Yeah, it's nuts. Wow, I can't believe we dug into the masters. Sorry. Really slumped. I sidetracked this whole thing. But if people are out there listening and they're not impressed by that, then they need to check their pulse because you're dead on the inside. Will we see pegboard at the games this year?

It's coming back. You think so? Yeah, it's a great time for it to come back. Pegboard is so fun. Have you ever seen the pegboard? I've only seen it on Instagram where you don't actually put the wood into the holes. You slide it up pathways like a maze. I've never seen that.

And you have two sticks and you're like just sliding that. So you slide it up and then put it in a ledge and then slide it up and put it in a ledge. Basically, I don't think the sticks can fall out. At least it looks like they can't fall out. You know what I'm talking about? And it usually looks like that. Have you ever seen those? Yeah. Well, no. It makes sense. I haven't. It fall out you know what i'm talking about and it usually looks like it's a have you ever seen those yeah well no it makes sense i haven't it makes sense to me what you're talking about though i've seen them never used them i think this show has reached its end is there anything you want to um

you guys want to talk about we still didn't get to my question but we didn't have a right time to enter it so i'm just going to hold on to it for now no no do it what is it no it's not the right time to do it i like what you i like how this one went this was nice see that he's brian why'd you shave what why did you shave i was uh walking into the bathroom the other day to take a shower i looked looked in the mirror and I said, I feel like shaving and I finally have time to shave. So I did. That makes sense.

And Hobart, why did you shave? Um, cause I grow terrible facial hair. So like when it grows just a little bit, it looks even worse. So I try and stay as clean cut as possible. Maybe you don't have terrible facial hair.

Maybe you have expectations on the way it should look. And that's why you don't have terrible facial hair maybe you have expectations on the way it should look and that's why you think it looks terrible yeah that's 100 right should i just wing it should i give it a shot so see you at the games and just see what i can do yeah do nine weeks give it nine weeks see what happens in nine weeks of hair growth do you have gray hair gray hair yet yeah i definitely I definitely do. Is your beard gray? No, but it's like I have red hair in my beard, which is really weird. That makes sense. Are your pubes red?

No. Is your armpit hair red? Dark as the night. No. Thank you.