The Sevan Podcast - #87 - Jay Crouch

Episode Date: July 25, 2021

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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. Is he on a computer? Did you see? God, I hope so.

I can't see what you can see. Don't know what happened to him. Jay. L-I-A. I got a question for you. Can you hear me? Can you hear him, Brian? Yes.

Okay. Okay. I could barely hear him. Jay, do you have five gigabytes available on that computer? Yes. Oh, sweet. Oh, it's that microphone again. It's the same thing we had issue had with Sidney.

Mickelson. Mickelson. Mickelson. Mickelson. phone again it's the same thing we had uh issue had with sydney micklelson micklelson micklelson micklelson jay do you know what arson is it's when you um it's a term we have in the united states where when you set a building on fire oh yes and and then like if you if you set the building on fire like on purpose then they you get the title of arsonist someone who sets a building on fire or a car or something it's not a good title like you don't want it yes it's like i don't know if it's worse than like being racist it's dead but it's uh it's probably probably not as bad as being a pedophile.

It's bad. It's not good. You don't want it. It's like you don't want that title. I was looking this morning, and in Australia, you guys seem to have the same issue that we have. People are gaining weight in the last 18 months. Not as, not as bad in the United States. Only, only one in three Australians has, has put on about like 25 pounds during the, yeah, like during all the lockdowns and stuff.

Yeah. And in the United States, I think it's significantly worse. I think, uh, I'm looking at something from the New York times right now, which is completely untrustworthy, but it's still fun to talk about. 42% of Americans are obese and another 32% are overweight. Wow. If – I think the question for you, Brian. Brian, if the building is already on fire and I were to walk over to it and pour gasoline on it, would I also be an arsonist even though I didn't set the fire? Maybe like just an accomplice.

Just an accomplice. And let's imagine that this building is an orphanage. It has 10,000 children in it. 10,000 children in it, 10,000 children in it with no parents, and I'm pouring gasoline on the building. That would be bad, right? Exacerbating the problem? Seems that way. And let's say I'm a really famous person in society that everyone looks up to, but I'm not pouring gasoline on the building.

Instead, I'm standing out front selling cans of gasoline. Tens of millions of cans of gasoline. Important question. Do as you please. Do as you please. Important. As this orphanage is burning down right in front of me, I'm selling gasoline. How much of your profits are you giving to charities? How much of your profits are you giving to charities? Oh, a huge amount, a huge amount, 0.001% I'm giving to charities.

Yes, and then you're advertising that, right? You're giving this money to charities. Yeah. I am completely blown away that there's not even a second place correlate to people dying from anything on the planet. There's no second place, no DVOC, no cancer, no type two diabetes, nothing that even runs even close to obesity. And yet the response from Australia, Canada, the United States, the UK is to lock their citizens down, which is the number one cause, in my opinion, to putting on weight. And if 18 months ago, it was fat people dying from type 2 diabetes, viruses, whatever, why would you encourage a lifestyle that has them put on more weight and puts them significantly more at risk. Brian, not only am I going to ask you to run through this burning building,

but I'm going to ask you to hold four cans of gasoline as you do it. I mean, it's just – this is insane. Guys, if you would elect me as president of the great United States, I would set you all free and I would buy you all assault bikes. All of you. All of you assault bikes and I would have a better response. And a better quality of person would be saved. person would be saved jay you deserve better than a fucking ranting midget from his palatial estate in california living the dream sipping on good dude's coffee but i guess your karma has brought me to you i apologize i actually had no idea where you were going with that originally i thought

you're going to talk about him like burning it down on the competition floor or something, but. Yeah, I was expecting something like that as well. How the fuck is The Rock selling gasoline in front of a burning orphanage? I just don't get it, and people think that's okay. How is LeBron James selling gasoline in front of a burning orphanage? I just don't get how those people can get away with that. I don't understand how you're pushing get away with that. I don't understand how you're pushing Sprite when Sprite is the number one cause of death in this country. I just don't fucking get it. It's like people are, where's the woke crowd? They should be like,

like, man, I was picturing it today. Someone who's – let's say it's me. I'm 5'5", and I weigh 155 pounds. But most guys my age in the United States, let's say, weigh 185 pounds. So you're already 30 pounds overweight at the beginning of this fucking disaster. And then in the last 18 months, you put on another 30 pounds. That means I'd weigh – oh, he hung up on us. He's like tired of this shit. Now I weigh 205 pounds, and they're concerned about some variant. Maybe you should be concerned

about the fact you put on another 30 pounds. Jay, you're the man. Look at you. Look at you. Look what you've done. Look what you've done here. Let's go to the leaderboard and let's go to Let's go to the leaderboard and let's go to semifinals. The CrossFit Games leaderboard, for those of you who don't know, this podcast has been seemingly to be obsessed with CrossFit lately. And you were one point away from beating Royce Dunn and finishing first place in Australia? You say something else. Say something else.

Yeah, I should have won or Royce is great or it was because I had diarrhea that day. Help me out here. Get me off of my rant. The week prior when they were announcing all the events and stuff like that, I, um, I don't know, I was sort of getting in my head a little bit, like didn't think they suited me too well, all that sort of thing. A little bit of self doubt going on, but, um, yeah, I had heaps of confidence going in. Uh, like I, I won the open and the quarters in, uh, Oceana. So I'll sort of had a little thing in my mind.

I really wanted to win all three. I was calling it a little clean sleep for myself, especially just motivating me through the sort of training clamp lead up to the Torian Pro. So, yeah, pretty bummed about the one point, So, yeah, pretty bummed about the one point, but overall I was just happy. I mean, you can leave there with your head on straight. I mean, you've definitely – which event was it that you took 17th in? No, sorry.

That was Royce. Oh, you didn't even have a bad event. No, it was just, yeah, just pretty consistent over the whole weekend. Man, it's incredible. Which was the heavy lift? Was there a heavy lift in this semifinal? Yeah, there was a clean and jerk ladder. And which event was that?

It was a Saturday night, so i think the fifth it's called okay well that's great nj ladder on the leaderboard ah yes yes that that makes sense you mean the one that says 156 kilograms yeah do you know do you know royce yeah yep i've known him yeah probably yeah just so competing over the last probably four years it sucks he's a really nice guy yeah he is he's a good dude and like that's yeah i got to know him a lot more especially at the taurian pro this year wouldn't it be great if he was a douche then you could go into the games and really sock it to him this year. Wouldn't it be great if he was a douche?

Then you could go into the games and really sock it to him. And then it's also got to be great. I mean, I hate to say this because everyone likes to say, hey, you got to just focus on yourself, but you also beat the great James Newberry, who's just consistently been a force of nature coming out of Australia. Yeah, for sure. And he looks natural. He doesn't look all juiced up, so you have a good competitor.

Sorry, that wasn't to dig at Ricky. As soon as I said that, I'm like, which country is Ricky from? Oh, he's from Australia, because I really like Ricky. Have you trained with Ricky? No. No. Would it be taboo to train with Ricky? No. No. No. Would it be taboo to train with Ricky? No.

I just don't really. I've never really met him. He's from a different part of the country, isn't he? Is he in your neighborhood? He's from Sydney. I'm from Melbourne. I'm Victoria. It's an island, Brian.

Everyone's within a 20-minute drive of each other. That is not true. That's a big island. That's a big island. Yeah, it's big. I know. Australia has the biggest desert. I think Australia has the biggest desert in the world too, right?

Right in the center you've got a monster. It's very big, yeah. I used to know this. Is Australia bigger than the United States in terms of land mass? What was it? Which I could ask. I used to know this. I wonder if Australia is bigger than the United States,

or is it the same size as Alaska? Australia is approximately 7,741,000 square kilometers. And the United States is 9,800,000. The United States is 27% bigger. I wonder if that includes Alaska. Okay, so they're basically the same size. 27% difference makes them the same size in my head. A lot less people there.

Yeah, significantly less. That is something that's pretty damn amazing. I think you basically have the same amount of people as California. We have 300 – yeah, you have 25 million people. I think we have 30 million, which kind of comically is also the same amount as Mexico City. Your entire country. Jay, have you ever, like, obviously you're just born in Australia, but have you ever realized or thought about that that's kind of a lucky thing

to be born in the southern hemisphere where only 10% of the people and 10% of the pollution in the world exist? Yeah. No, I never really thought about it to tell you the truth but yeah it's uh it's a good place wait what did you mean are you explain that to me brian what i mean 10 of the pollution 10 of the world's pollution 10 of australia's pollution what are you talking world's pollution they're like at the equator the the ocean and the air kind of circulates back and

mostly stays in one hemisphere or the other. And there's, it's just a lot less dirty and a lot less populated in the Southern hemisphere. Wow. I didn't even know that. That's awesome. So you guys take a shit and flush it and it comes over to us. You start your car in the morning and by evening my three little my three little playing brothers are breathing that shit in that's not cool that's um how how old are you jay i'm 22 oh my god do you feel young yeah i do i still i just still feel like i'm 20 but i suppose it's the same thing pretty much. Your very first post on Instagram was in 2013. The irony, the crazy part is that, do you know what your very first picture is of?

I don't. It's of Rob Forte and Chad McKay. Oh, yeah. I know the one you're talking about. Eight years ago, you were a 14-year-old little boy. You didn't even probably have armpit hair. No, probably not. And already then, you knew, I guess.

Yeah. Yeah, I definitely did. And it's crazy how you connect with all the different people. I was just a young fan, and then it turns out now I'm being coached by Rob, so it's cool. When I see pictures of Rob on the internet, he reminds me so much of the – who's the awesome UFC fighter, you guys? I can't believe I can't remember his name. He's one of my favorites.

Rob Whitaker. Rob – yeah, Whitaker. They kind of remind me of each other, their hair, their demeanor, their poise. Except I bet you Rob doesn't play video games, right? Nah, he doesn't. Forte? No. Yeah, Whitaker's addicted to video games.

I just can't see Rob. Yeah, I've heard Whitaker say a few times he doesn't mind the hotel quarantine on the way home because he can just play his video games. Are you a UFC fan? Yeah, I'm a big UFC fan. Oh, awesome. Al Savant likes you.

That's cool. Even being out here, the gym that we're training at in vegas is like right next to the apex so i've just been yeah fanboying every time i'll drive past it oh that is sweet have you taken a picture out in front of it yet uh yeah i've sent a picture of it to a few of my mates but um i haven't taken a photo of me in front of it but dude that's awesome how do you how do you stumble across crossfit at 14 years old uh my dad was doing it for a year prior and um yeah i was sort of just like a little not i wasn't i wasn't too fat but i was just like a little chubby kid and he sort of like

said if i wanted to try it out and yeah i just went in and loved it and your dad's kind of a stud you got that picture of him on your instagram writing one of the nicest harley davidson's i've ever seen yeah yeah that's a that's a really nice bike and what's your dad do for a living uh he's a plumber so he has his own business oh shit so your dad's a plumber and you're an electrician yeah yeah uh my brother my brother's a plumber as well and he works with my dad my younger brother and uh yeah dad might he just wouldn't let me do plumbing because he didn't think i could handle it so i went with a bit bit more of a cleaner trade and, yeah. So basically your dad's like, hey, I don't think you can be a plumber.

So you're like, okay, fuck you. I'll be the CrossFit champion. You can handle that. It ended up like that. And so when you started when you were 14 was were you kind of like dragging ass when you went there were you like kind of like pouting like i would have been like at 14 like you want to go play with your friends and your dad's like come on come to the gym and you're like god damn nah nah it wasn't like that at all i just i just see as soon as i started i just

loved that you could uh you couldn't really ever master it. You can always continue to get better at something. And for me, I suppose the motivation at the start was to do a muscle-up. And how old were you when you got a muscle-up? I want to say maybe like 16, 15 or 16. So after a couple of years. And there's pictures of you competing very young too yeah there was uh a lot of luck just local competitions around at the time and i mean even um the open but when there was no teenage division or anything like that i was just

jumping straight in you didn't mind um you didn't mind losing you didn't mind putting like kind of like your yourself on the line and participating and and knowing that you might not not do well yeah not at all like especially at the start like i was still very fresh and um just wanted to be involved so because i think a lot of kids are kind of afraid of losing i know i would have been afraid of losing yeah for sure i suppose i don't know I suppose at the time like I just thought I didn't think um that you know I was gonna take it serious I thought maybe I was just doing it for fitness at the time and then it turned into into a sports for me so were there pretty girls in the crossfit class everyone was older than me but yeah i suppose yeah like you remember going in there at 14 and being like wow there's a lot of

attractive women i don't remember that specifically but were you a shy boy um yeah i'd say so like normal shy for a 14 year old or like exceedingly shy i'd say normally shy yeah normal shy normal yeah and did you play any sports before then yeah i pretty much like did all sports like even like racing motorbikes as well early. And then, yeah, just like AFL, which is Aussie football. And yeah, basketball a little bit as well. So you liked moving? Yeah, for sure. My whole family was like pretty much always playing sports.

No rugby? And how much older was your... No rugby or cricket? No rugby or cricket? Nah not not rugby or cricket that's sort of like rugby is a lot more um popular in like queensland and sydney but in melbourne uh aussie rules football is very popular um brian can you see jay's upload status no i don't think i want to either though it says zero percent i've never ever seen that well first time for something else um jay how's your internet how's your internet at your house he's not at his house i'm in a hard towel so that's what I was scared of.

Oh, you're outside an airport and I just keep hearing airplanes taking off? Pretty much. I'm actually pretty close to the airport here. And are you on a computer? Oh, because you're not in Australia, you're in Vegas.

I'm in Vegas, yeah. Gotcha. Okay. This is going to be something else. And is your computer plugged in? Yeah. Oh, awesome. You mean?

Yeah. And do you need to take it anywhere today? No. Oh, sweet. Because you might have to leave it there for like a week to finish uploading, right where it's sitting. I'm hotspotting on my phone, but I can go over to to the wi-fi but i think it's a little bit slower but i'll i'll figure it damn okay great um so so you're you're were you did you look up to your brother uh my brother's younger than me he's two two years younger but um yeah he he he motivates me he's like my

he's like my main hype man at competitions so he looks up to you and you don't want to let him down yeah for sure and uh your your girlfriend who's your girlfriend uh maddie sturt and when i saw pictures of her on your instagram i recognized her was she a competitor yeah she she's been at the games for four years i think holy holy cow is she going again this year also no she she come third in the last chance qualifier so just missed out and how did you meet her? Through competitions, but mainly because we were both sponsored by Reebok. So can you tell me about meeting her, when you met her, how you met her? Yeah, I knew her for a couple of years before we started dating. But yeah, it's just like through competition and um

a lot of like Reebok things going on it did you make the first move or did she how do you how do you how do you know that you that you're capable of talking to and dating a CrossFit Games actor yeah I don't know I suppose that we're just like already really good friends and then um yeah i just get talking and then it all just happens right so it's very smooth yeah you you gotta be like a pretty a pretty rare outlier for a 22 year old to have a girlfriend you met in person yeah i suppose not on not on tinder yeah yeah yeah and and it's probably is it is it better for two do you think that works for two athletes to be dating as opposed to maybe someone who's not in the sport also uh yeah it's like we both have the same goals so you know

we both support each other so it's pretty easy yeah do your parents like her yeah does your brother like her yes you tell him not to make eye contact with her for more than like 20 seconds like hey hey when uh when you were only given one, one extra person to bring with you to the United States, did your brother like her then? Yeah. Well, dad, dad said he couldn't go cause he had to stop. He had to keep working. So he made it easy for you. So she's in your corner now. She came with you. yeah so she's in your corner now she came with you oh that's awesome so you have a uh and and have you been to the games before yeah i was in uh uh team uh 2017 and 2018 and then last year if you want to count it virtually but it's not the same no i don't want to count team either or or or virtual

and was it hard switching from team to individual uh no i felt i felt like uh that helped me a lot like just to sort of see how it all worked and then when i went individual i was i was ready are you all in now i mean 22 i ask you this because we were talking to sydney yesterday cindy sydney go ahead brian mcclellan and thank you and i was trying to figure out when it clicked for her that she would call herself a CrossFit Games athlete because it's such an enormous commitment, right? It's so easy for someone who carries a camera around to say I'm a photographer or so easy for me to say I'm a podcaster. I just call people and talk to them and post it on the internet, right? But to say you're a CrossFitter, there's this leap you have to make into like, OK, I'm going to live in the pain cave now for 10 years. Right. It's like, do you remember when you made that leap or have you made it?

Are you still just fucking around? Yeah. Well, no, this year I definitely made it. I, well, obviously I had to do my electrical apprenticeship and that was four years. I had to do my electrical apprenticeship and that was four years so yeah I did that and then I always had the plan on doing something and going full-time with CrossFit once I had something to fall back on so I mean I feel like I made the leap of making CrossFit a priority probably at the start of 2020, but this year I've gone full-time with CrossFit. So, yeah, I mean, I feel like that's what you've got to do. And when you go full-time with CrossFit, what are the implications?

full time with CrossFit, what are the implications that it's like, like in my mind, it means basically it's 24 hours a day dealing with your body, sleep, food, movement, what good mental mindset. It's like, like everything has to be perfect. Like all the aspects of life. Is that what it's like? no i've like i don't try to take it too serious because that's when i think um like i feel like when i'm not having fun then you know the results won't follow so i mean like it's good it's good to have the time to i mean maybe do more than one session a day and then, yeah, having the time to prep your food and then recovery as well. Whereas when I was working and then just rolling up to the gym in the afternoon, that was a lot tougher. So, yeah, for sure having the time to, yeah, listen to your body and then go from there.

I used to play Frisbee like five or six hours a day every day for years. And so all my friends played frisbee. And now I have kids, and I was actually talking to one of the parents about this the other day. Like all my friends, and I use that term loosely, they're basically people with kids. And I don't really care whether the parents are cool or not cool. My threshold for tolerance is enormous if their kids are cool because I want my kids to be able to hang out with cool kids. So if you have a kid who doesn't bite and who is easy for my kids to play with and doesn't encourage them to throw rocks at the side of my house, then you're in. And I don't care if the – I really don't give a shit about the parents. Like I'll be friends with them. I'll

make it work, you know? So they bring their kids to my house and play. Um, and it's also really easy for me to push away bad people now. Right? So someone, is it like that with CrossFit too? Have you noticed a restructuring of your social group because of just this severity or or the not the severity of what you're doing it's not life or death but you are walking a tightrope you're trying to make your body the best body in the world right most capable yeah i mean um i have to knock back like a lot of a lot of things that all my like school friends and all that sort of that when they're like sort of going out and all that sort of stuff i have to um say no so i probably don't get asked anymore but um yeah just things like that i mean um yeah i'm not don't hang out as much with all my all my school friends anymore

do do do boys um your age um smoke weed in aust Australia? No, it's still illegal. Oh. Oh. Well, it was illegal when I went to school and everyone smoked weed. Yeah, fair. You would think that would be like – Not in my group. Not in your group.

And is drinking big? Drinking big. And you can't really do that? I try not to anyway. It doesn't fit in your macros. Nah. I mean, I don't even really measure all that stuff either. I just eat whatever.

Yeah, you're not going to waste any of your caloric intake on a Heineken. Or St. Paulie's girl. What do you guys drink there? Yeah, you're not going to waste any of your caloric intake on a Heineken. No. Or St. Paulie's girl. What do you guys drink there? What's the thing with the giant can? Foster's. Is that still big in Australia? Not so much.

It's just like Corona, all the main beers. That was like 20 years ago they had that Foster's campaign. That's just what I remember. that's just what i remember that's all that's just what i remember yeah everything's bigger in australia or something like the guy had a huge knife instead of a pocket knife and he drank a giant can of fosters that's what they would tell us about riding the kangaroo to school tell me about your journey to the united what your're what what hotel are you in can you say are you afraid that the fans will mob you no we're we're not staying on the street for anything like that we're just in a uh holiday inn just like a yeah pretty chill hotel so tell me about your

journey um from australia to the holiday inn uh yeah so we had to put through travel exemptions all that all that sort of stuff to um get permission to leave the country so um yeah there's a lot of like planning going into it and um yeah we had to fly to sydney and then sydney to la la to vegas but uh yeah it was sort of weird because uh most of the country's in lockdown at the moment and my state's in like its fifth lockdown so uh planes and airports are like there's no one on them and the airport's virtually closed so um yeah super weird. And even like the plane from Sydney to LA, there was 15 total people on it, like on a mass. Yeah, you put a little video up on your Instagram

and I was looking at it. I watched it like two or three times. I was like, this can't be right. Yeah, like, I mean, I wasn't complaining because you have a whole road to yourself and sort of make a bed, but it was super weird. So, yeah, that's pretty much it. And it was all like pretty cruisy.

I mean, just weird with the lockdowns because, yeah. At every checkpoint, at every interaction with airport officials and customs people, are you kind of like holding your breath? Like, holy shit, are we going to get stopped here? Are we going to get stopped here? Yeah, especially because the rules are changing every day. So when we went to the airport at home, they said that Sydney's made a rule now. Anyone coming from Melbourne is going to have to quarantine for 14 days when you get to Sydney. And we're like, well, we can't do that.

And lucky we just kept saying that we had an exemption and all that. And then they said that we were going to have to get escorted from the plane in Sydney to a hotel for the night. And then they were going to bring us back to get on the plane to LA. But then we get to Sydney and we just walk straight out. There's just so many weird things like that going on and it stresses you out when there ends up nothing actually in place. So yeah, I was definitely in that mind frame of scared that we're going to get stopped and not be able to come over.

But we're here now. So all the stress is gone. And if they tell you that you're going to get escorted to the hotel, then when you get when you don't get that escort, you must have been nervous coming back to the airport. Like they would ask you, hey, well, why weren't you escorted back here? Yeah, for sure well i mean when we got there there was all people lined up and you had to fill in like a declaration so yeah it was just super weird like yeah man i don't i don't i and when you say that you're in your fifth lockdown, what does a lockdown look like? It's pretty much you have to stay home.

There's four reasons to leave. If you're an essential worker, you go on for exercise, which exercise, the gyms are closed. So that means go for a walk or a run, go to the supermarket. And then I don't know what the fourth one is, but yeah. And you can't, you can't leave like five Ks from your house. And so theoretically you could be outside all day if you were just

exercising all day. Yeah. Well, no, they even say like you got two hours or something like that, but I don't know how they police that, but that's what they say. Did you ever get in

trouble for not obeying the lockdown no um do you see people getting in trouble yeah like i haven't i haven't seen like police or anything telling anyone off but i've seen like videos and stuff of like you know people not wearing masks and they're getting fines and stuff like that yeah because that's what we see here in the United States about Australia. We see a lot. They just show us through social media and the news, we only see the worst of the worst. But I can't tell if that's the norm.

They show the police storming a lady's house who's pregnant and taking her away and arresting her because she posted something on Facebook against the lockdowns. And you're just like, holy shit. But you can't tell if that's just a one-off or if the, if the cells in Australia are full of pregnant women. Yeah, that, that's definitely a one-off. Yeah. Stuff like that's gone viral is all like a one-off, but, um, yeah, I mean, it's crazy. And, uh, how long are you here in the United States? states um the plan is two and a half weeks um but yeah we got weird news the other day that uh united and the united airlines and stuff aren't

flying now until september 4th because of the lockdown in sydney so i don't know whether we're going to be able to get on another flight, but it just seems weird that they've cancelled all their flights and not going to fly again until the lockdown in Sydney is supposed to lift. So apparently American Airlines have done that as well, but I've reached out to all the other Aussie athletes and they haven't been notified yet, so hopefully it's just united and we can get on another flight home and uh is your only comrade on this trip maddie yes well one thing one thing

that should help motivate you if you win the crossfit games this, there will be so many people swinging from your dick that you could probably stay at people's homes and shit for like months here in the United States. People will just love on you. But unfortunately, that's contingent on becoming the absolute fittest person who's currently on planet Earth. But I bet you it would lead to a lot of um invitations to staying at a lot of wealthy people's homes and shit you could go up to vermont and stay with matt i bet he's a sucker for a game that would be nice and and and that wouldn't be so bad you know that's a great time to be i don't know how it is in aust Australia right now, but these next four months here in the United States are three months. I mean, are pretty much amazing everywhere.

And if you were to come west to the West Coast, I mean, we basically have our summer. We keep our summer here in California until like December. So it's pretty damn nice. Yeah. so it's pretty it's pretty damn nice yeah i mean like it it'd be super cool to like hang out here for a couple of months especially like home being in lockdown there's sort of you know no reason to go home but yeah it's just the money all that sort of stuff oh yeah money i keep i always forget about that part um uh jay what what does your training look like when you're locked down how did you do that um i had a gym at home so when it was real like hectic lockdown we'll lock down for like eight

months um i had a pretty good gym at home so i was still able to do everything um but yeah the next few like next few times we ended up sort of finding rule like rules out that you can go to the gym if it's your job. Do you think your training suffered or do you think there was any benefit to the lockdown? Did it motivate you? Did it get you more focused? How does that play out for you? Yeah, I found it tough, the motivation, because it's just not as fun not being around your mates and throwing the banter around, all that sort of stuff. So I suppose missing that sort of social side and enjoying racing your friends and talking shit is what I found tough. Since you started your training at 14 and you're 22 now have you ever gone backwards

um yeah i would say like uh no i wouldn't say backwards but just like the early stages when i was young you know i'd have mate like i'd be a little bit over it and you know have like two weeks off and just early on but uh no i wouldn't say I've gone backwards. And what age did you have? When we were talking to Sydney yesterday, it just sounds like in the last two years from when she was 19 to when she was 21 that her fitness just exploded. Like it almost seems unbelievable

the leaps and the gains she's made. Has it been like that for you too? Yeah, I'd definitely say in the last two years, for sure. Because there's got to be some point where you're snatching 200 pounds and you're so proud of yourself, but then also in your head, you're like, well, fuck, someone else snatched 300 pounds, and I'll never do that. Yeah, for sure. I think it's just sort of like where you're at in growth as well. In the teenage divisions, there was obviously guys a lot more developed than me, so I didn't do as well. I mean, in sort of the strength numbers and all that sort of stuff. But I feel like now I'm in a place where I'm sort of seeing that level. Yeah, now I'm in a place where I'm sort of seeing that level. When you don't have facial hair, you don't look a day older than 16.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, your body does. I mean, you have a man-child body. But when I go back in your Instagram and just even a little bit, when you don't have facial hair, it's crazy how young you look. I couldn't even believe you're the same person. Yeah. And that's it. Again, that's like the last two years.

I could only maybe grow like a little mustache in 2019. But yeah. Are you keeping the beard for the games? A little mustache. Yeah. I'll probably trim it up, sharpen it up a little bit. Have you lived a good life, Jay? Yes, I have.

Your mom and dad are together? Yeah, yep, family's all together. Very solid and, yeah, super lucky. You've been healthy your whole life? Yes. You have both your testicles? Yes, I do. Have you ever met Chad McKay?

Yeah, I have a couple of times, just at competitions as well through Rob. Was he nice to you? Yeah, super good dude. I think he's an amazing dude. I'm just looking for some dirt on him. No one can be that nice and perfect. And is the whole CrossFit community in Australia pretty tight?

Yeah, everyone's like, yeah. Especially at Torian and i realized that too like everyone's just real good mates especially on the men's side like yeah everyone throws banter around and it's just yeah such a good time because you guys yell all that aussie aussie aussie stuff and the crowd gets behind you you even bring that shit to the united states and make everyone else feel bad because you guys are having so much fun um and how has tia affected the sport in australia uh yeah she's she's definitely blown it up like yeah everyone i suppose everyone's just sad that she's uh that they can't watch her over here anymore because she's uh living the States. But, yeah, she's definitely put CrossFit on notice a lot more in Australia.

Yeah, it's really cool that she's Australian for you guys. I mean, you basically have someone. If she wins this year, it will be hard to say she's not the most dominant CrossFit Games athlete ever. Would this be her fifth win? Yeah. Brian? Yep.

Yep. Does anyone know if she plans on retiring after this year? Has anyone interviewed her or talked to her? I've heard both ways. I haven't talked to her, so that's the only person I would trust with that information. I would trust with that information. I would trust with that information. I trust Jay with it. What rumors have you heard, Jay?

I don't know if I've just heard little things on interviews too, but yeah, I suppose you can't know for sure. You have a YouTube channel, and in one of your recent interviews, you were making predictions about who was going to win events. On behalf of Brian and I, we'd like to tell you to stay in your fucking lane and just compete. We'll deal with the predictions. Yeah. I mean, the story about my YouTube channel is I'm just trying to get a lot more comfortable in front of the camera.

That's what my main reason for all my youtube videos is but uh yes i'll i'll take note of that uh you you seemed very comfortable um how did how did you do in your pics um yeah that that not so not so well i was in Dallin. Dallin Pepper was looking really good. He was. He was looking really good. Well, just so you know, not to make you feel – well, yeah, actually to make you feel bad, I think Brian in general gets four out of five right. So just keep practicing.

Actually, Jay, there's something you said a while ago that that kind of surprised me was that when you saw the torium pro um workouts that you didn't think a lot of them were good for you because when i you know i obviously don't know as much about you as an athlete as you know about yourself but i generally think of you as an athlete who there isn't that much that's actually bad for you so i was curious what you thought in particular might have been a you know less than ideal workout or circumstance for you that down there yeah well thanks for that i appreciate it um yeah the i suppose like it was sort of just i was just getting in my head a little bit i mean i i sort of just felt like uh there was three out of the seven workouts were with machines and i i don't know i felt like you know i'm i'm a i'm not as a like a bigger dude that can sort of move those

machines well so yeah i just felt like i was just getting in my head too much and um talked myself out of it but you know it's weird how it works like the event that i thought i was going to do really well in was my worst finish so um yeah it's crazy just you know your little mind games and stuff which i mean i've worked on a lot and i feel like i'm um usually really solid going into competitions and um really confident in in my fitness so yeah it was just uh i suppose maybe the long the long layoff of not having an in-person competition for for you know over a year so um yeah you could i suppose i just surprised myself and um sort of reassured uh my mental game to to not doubt myself. How tall are you? Maybe like 175 centimeters. He's about five,

nine, I think. He's about five, nine, I think. Yeah. Oh, and how much do you weigh?

85 kilos. I think it's one 83 or something like that. Three or something like that. Three or something like that. Oh, you're the first perfect crossfitter we've interviewed. He's actually one of the latest competitors this year at the Games for the men. Yeah, and I think in the last six months I've put on four or five kilos. Like 10, 12 pounds. Wow. Are you trying, four or five kilos. Like 10, 12 pounds. Yeah. Wow.

Are you trying to do that? Yeah. Like definitely because, um, just the strength numbers, I think it helped, has helped a lot with. Is Vegas a mile high? A mile high? Yeah, what's the elevation in Vegas? Are they at a mile high? How high?

What's the elevation in Vegas? I think it's sea level. Not sure off the top of my head. It's sea level. Oh, is it? Why did you choose... Am I confusing it with Denver? Why did you choose Vegas to Vegas elevation?

Why did you choose Vegas? Oh, 2000 feet, half, less than half a mile. Really? Yeah, mainly because of the heat. I just wanted to feel, feel what it will be like. And then, yeah, I suppose that in Madison, it won't be, won't be as bad. But yeah, definitely the first day that we got here, we did a running session in the heat and it was very tough. But yeah, over the course of the week, got a lot more comfortable being in the sun and sort of, yeah, being a lot more comfortable and not panicking, feeling that.

And which gym are you working out in? Sorry, Brian. We are training at Culmination South. So that's the gym. So you're there with Kerry Pearson, Bethany Shadburn, Daniel Brandon. And you're not the only Australian guy that's in Vegas right now, are you? Yes, right now, are you? Yeah Yeah so that was just like super lucky that Khan came over and he said that he was going to be here as well the week prior so yeah that's made it a lot a lot more enjoyable as

well with him jumping into our sessions so yeah and I can't I can't thank the guys enough there at uh at Culmination South because they've been super welcoming, and it's been really, really fun. Wow. Wow. Why is Con there? I made up a reason in my head. Do you know why he's there?

Yeah, well, he's in the demo team, but he's in Vegas because he's good mates with Justin Kotler. That's it. Oh, I thought he was courting Danielle. Yeah. Brandon. Yeah, that's the story I told myself right away. No one's surprised that that's the story you came up with.

Maybe I'm projecting. Maybe I'm projecting. So did you know him back in Australia? Did you say you guys were blokes? Is that the word you used? He seems like a great dude. The little time I've spent with him and his persona through the media is that he's dope. Is he dope?

He's such a good dude, and he's like, he always just wants to help you out. That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome. And he's on the demo team. What a cool thing. Who's the other one? Oh, that's right. And has he made it to the States yet?

Yeah, he's been training. He was training with Tia prior to the LCQ. He came over, yeah, like over a month ago. Yeah, he came over here like pretty much straight after Torian. Do you have any desire to train with Tia? Yeah, I mean, I'd love to, like if the opportunity ever arises. Probably just show your passport and prove that you're Australian. I think that's how you guys work.

That's for sure. I'm sure they would be super welcoming as well. And when will you start making the journey? How many days are we out till the games? It's getting close. Less than a week now. Five days. Yeah, five days.

Is it, is the 20, today's the 23rd. It's Friday the 23rd. And does the event start on the 28th? It does. Wednesday the 28th. Yeah, but we have check-in and all that sort of stuff on the Monday. Okay, so when do you head to Madison? Heading on Sunday, 25th.

So, yeah. Okay. And I'm assuming you'll fly? Yeah, we got to fly to Chicago and then fly to Madison. Do you have any angst about, I'm assuming when you get to the venue, there's going to be one final test to see if you have the virus. Do you have any anxiety about that? A little bit, but I've been vaccinated and stuff like that, but I know that you can still get it. But yeah, a little bit.

Like we're just being super cautious as well because I know it's a lot more common here than it is at home. So yeah, for sure. common here than it is at home so yeah for sure yeah i think yeah i think you're still 100 susceptible to getting it but you just if you get it theoretically the vaccine would make you asymptomatic so you wouldn't spread it right that's what i've heard too and i've heard that like uh yeah people have still got it but it's just pretty much just like getting the flu. Like, it's not as bad. But it would still stop. They would still not let you compete. Yeah, well, I'm not sure if they're testing people who have been vaccinated.

I'm not 100% sure. Oh. Oh. Well, God, I hope for you that they're not. Because it's crazy what's going on all over the sporting world that you're seeing people, especially these Olympians. I don't know what the – I never seem to read the articles, but I keep hearing about Olympians who test positive. And then I just assume that means that they have to sit in their hotel room and they don't get to compete. I've heard that there was an Aussie tennis player who was having Grand Slams and stuff before going to the Olympics, and he had it, so he couldn't compete. Hey, Brian, we have a hum, and when you leaned over to your left, it went away.

Yeah, well... Lean over to the left again? I want to see if that happens. No, it's not going to go anywhere. Go that way? This is what will make it go away oh oh yeah yeah yeah yeah that's nice did you mute yourself i don't know where it's coming from it's your fucking computer because you have a computer from 1987 with like a a fan the size of a Walmart fan in there. I can't wait till this podcast is successful and we can buy you a new computer. God damn, that'll be amazing.

Maybe this interview with Jay will push us over. Jay, you gave away a sauna. Tell me about that. How did you give away a sauna? I don't even own a sauna and you're giving saunas away. said to that they wanted to offer a sauna uh yeah to someone who's donated so that was super cool and it got everyone super pumped and it yeah boosted the the fundraiser which was really really helpful and what was the name of the company uh eye health saunas and do you own one of those uh no i don't oh shit. They should have given you two.

Here's one for you. Do you sauna? Where do you do that if you don't have one? Oh, gotcha. Damn. Damn. Sorry, iHealth. I wish I wouldn't have asked that question. And do you ice bath also?

No, I don't. You don't ice bath. You don't ice bath. And why not? I don't really like it, but... You don't like it because it causes discomfort or you don't like how it affects your performance? Yeah, discomfort. And I mean, like, I suppose I don't really have a setup to do it. I'm going to bet that you use one at the CrossFit Games. Yes or no?

Yeah, I think I will. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. That was too easy. I was hoping for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Depends.

I was hoping for a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Depends. Do you have all your food and everything figured out what you're going to eat at the games? Yeah. I just like will eat a lot of stuff that's just easy to get in because I find, yeah, when I'm competing, it's hard to eat. Just with like the nerves and all that sort of stuff.

Will you be at a house or a hotel room? A hotel. Oh, why is that? Just, I suppose, the cost. Are hotel rooms cheaper than renting a house? The Airbnbs are ridiculous. That must be people just taking advantage of the fact that there's a lot of people coming to town because nothing i can't imagine anything being expensive

in madison yeah and i think the hotels boosted up a little bit too sure yeah because i've got the i don't know what the real estate market there is doing now, but when I was there in 2017 or 2018, I remember – or both years – I remember looking at housing prices and it was just crazy how cheap everything is in Madison. I mean you get a house on the lake for like half a million dollars. It was nuts. You can't even get a one-bedroom shack with a fucking outhouse in Santa Cruz, California for half a million dollars. You cannot buy anything is it expensive where you live also and i'll show you it's pretty much the same what you just mentioned then like average house where i live i mean like a i'll say like a starter house would be

yeah like five six hundred thousand hey hey frequently when I see the most expensive places in the world to live, I see the San Francisco Bay Area, Sydney, and Hong Kong. Yeah, Sydney. The average house is very expensive. Yeah, that's nuts. Jay, was the gym that your dad started training at Rob Forte's gym? Yeah, Rob Forte's gym. No, it was a gym about 10 minutes away.

And then presumably he took you to the same one he was at. So at what point did you either meet Rob or make the transition to the different gym? It was as I finished my last year in the teenage division so yeah when i was 17 i connected with rob and um yeah went from there did he did he like recruit you and say hey do you want to come train with us maybe be a part of our team or something like that our team or something like that yeah yeah um he yeah offered offered me to train there for free and yeah mentor me and get me started and was that uh did that change had you already had aspirations to compete in the sport or did that enhance it or did that kind of propel that forward in any way

propel that forward in any way yeah that enhanced it massively especially because i was like a big fan of rob's and um yeah it kept the kept the motivation at a peak at first were you were you nervous at all training with him was it all training with him yeah for sure and then when and then you beat him and then it was all good and then it was all good yeah and then yeah as i started to build a um a good relationship with him, it was obviously, yeah, just really, really good pushing each other. And yeah. Will he be at the games this year? No, he's got a young family and one on the way. So he sort of didn't want to risk coming over here and not being able to get home.

So he will probably be on FaceTime a lot through the night. So he's your coach. How good is he still? Does he push you in workouts pretty frequently? Yeah, he beats me, I'd say, at least two times a week in a workout. Because we were talking with Samuel Cornway the other day, who's been training down with Rich at Mayhem, and he said the same thing.

He's like, this guy's still great. He's still beating me on a majority of the workouts. Yeah, man. If I'm beating him in a workout, it's only just. Wow. It's only what? Like by, you know, like just, like 10, 20 seconds. You speak Australian, Brian?

You knew what he was saying? I did a quick translation. I apologize. And are you going to do amazing in the swim? Like when we think of Australians, we think, oh, shit, if there's water, those guys win. No, not so much. I wasn't like a surf life-saving guy growing up. So, I mean, like I always was in like a pool or a beach and whatnot, but never really like constantly swimming properly do you have a uh

something you're better at than are you better at strength events are you better at endurance events or do you have a side that you prefer yeah i've been asked this a little bit as well like i just feel like i'm just very well-rounded and not, not like, you know, at that, that top at one thing. So, I mean,

like I'm good, I'm good on my hands and handstand pushups, all that sort of stuff. Like I love to do and feel like that's a good strength of mine as well. But I still feel like, you know, at the games level, it's still not like the top to sort of like win an event i mean

i could against i could surprise myself and and we'll see what happens but yeah i just feel confident that i'm just very well rounded you look pretty comfortable on the handstand obstacle course that you guys had set up over there and set up over there yeah yeah that that was good fun i always like like doing the obstacles how long how long is that event we don't know we don't know i mean it looks like i mean it looks like it's less than a minute it could be but you like you said we've talked about before you never know what they what if he says okay now you guys are going down and back and suddenly it's twice the time domain twice the time domain yeah and that's the same thing what I'm thinking as well

is like all the events that have come out, they're not official. There's going to be something, some change. Yeah, I think that's smart. In your training with Rob, he writes most of the programming? He writes most of the programming. Yes, he does all of it, yeah. And does he like to show it to you ahead of time? Does he give you a week at a time or does it just kind of show up and then find out on the programming? Yes, he does all of it, yeah. And does he like to show it to you ahead of time? Does he give you

a week at a time or does it just kind of show up and then find out on the day? On the day. Yeah, it's a week at a time. And he never changed... Where did you take second... Does he change that up at all after you qualify for the games just to give you that experience

of finding something out immediately and then needing to figure out how to do it? To out how to do it uh yeah for sure for sure especially uh yeah like the last two weeks being at home he um yeah he'd change change it up where did you take second place to rich at where did you compete against rich uh that was the tarian pro yeah before it was um but this was a it wasn't an individual competition though it was teams teams of two teams of two yeah teams of two so rich was with royce and i was with rob so that was 2019 wow okay and how close were you guys to them? I don't know off the top of my head on points,

but I know that we only beat them in like one or two events. Wow. Wow. Okay. Because when I saw that, I was trying to figure out where did Rich compete as an individual. So I guess that makes sense. He wasn't competing as an individual. What was Rich doing out there?

I think, yeah, just came out for that. that makes sense he wasn't competing as individual what was rich doing out there uh i think yeah just like a just came out for that i know uh china cho and um tasia tasia came out as well yeah what year was that brian what was rich doing out there that seems so uncharacteristic i think what was uh 2019 but i think it was uh was like a sponsorship thing and agreement and partnering with Reebok and Torian and just getting some obviously high-profile athletes from the U.S. out into Australia. Because a lot of times the Australian CrossFit competitions are very contained. You know, even Jay's, I think besides this year, he's only, I think, you can tell me if I'm wrong about this, had one other individual competition that I would call international, in a live setting at least. Most of his experience competing is with the other Australian men, and most of the Australian

fans only get to see the Aussies and Kiwis, I guess we should include New Zealand in that, compete with each other. So I think Rich was just coming down there as a promotional thing. It was like a promotional thing. Oh, you have to talk out loud because some people are listening, Jay. You have to be like, yes, Brian, you're right, or fuck you're a no-it-all. You're not even close.

You choose. You choose. I won't force you what to say, but I do have to force you to actually open your mouth and talk. Sorry, buddy. I've just been used to watching your guys podcasts on youtube so so you think you don't even think you're on the show right now you think you're just watching it it's just brian and i and some handsome dude from australia okay well you're on the show so go ahead is brian right or not so jesus christ he's fuck he's fucking 22 he doesn't even want to be on the show he wants to go he wants to go roll around in bed with maddie and then go train he don't give a

fuck about this no i'm i'm happy i'm happy on me jay what what did uh how did you choose that competition in argentina south fit to go compete at south fit to go computer yeah that was another cool opportunity that uh rebook organized and then there were there were a lot of uh oh so wait whoa i'm not letting them off that easy hold on so but did you have to do it the question is as brian's asking how did you choose it and you're saying it was a good opportunity did you have to do it no they uh they just offered and i thought that it would um yeah met very good opportunity to um see that part of the world and then also potentially qualify for the games and do they contact your agent or did someone from reebok call you yeah at the time someone from reebok just called like because i was good mates with the well long story short the guy who worked for

reebok is now my manager so i was just oh no shit who's that uh andreas glor oh i wonder if i know him how long was he at reebok um oh i don't know off the top of my head but i'd say i reckon i'd like to say maybe six or seven years. Is he Australian? Okay. And who else does he manage? Who else does he manage? Matty, Rob, Zeke, and Ali Turner, who's competing at the Games this year.

Are you in Royce? In Royce, is it Mayhem? Have you ever thought about changing coaches? No, not at all. Never, never crossed my mind. Rob's your boy. I'm very, very happy where I am yeah i could see that he's he's he i mean he's a staple in the crossfit community it's funny i always talk about people brian and i will talk about people who've been in the game for a long time and i we're probably pretty american

centric on that but when i hear rob forte's name i mean shit i can't i can't remember a games he hasn't been out what was his first year at the crossfit games i think oh this is i think this is a question for bro good job smooth smooth jay's first year at the games i i don't know for sure. I would guess it was 2011 is my guess. 2011 is my guess. Yeah, I think his last year as an individual was 2017. And it was funny because the 2018 season I qualified. That was my first year I qualified as an individual for regionals. I finished 29th. And that was the year that Rob asked me if i wanted to go in a team with

him and did you say yes right away or did you have any doubts were you like oh shit maybe i don't shouldn't be on the nah i said yes straight away like i was sort of yeah super pumped because you know like eight uh eight years prior to that or seven years prior to that, you know, he was an individual and always looked up to him and then just thought that was a crazy opportunity that he could, you know, offer that to me. And we had a couple of solid girls at our gym as well. So that was a really fun year. Did you have a goal for a specific year that you wanted to make the games?

I mean, no, I didn't. I just always had in mind that it was going to happen eventually. And, you know, I was sort of, I've just always been here to just enjoy the process. And then when it happens, it happens. But, yeah, I was just – I felt like, you know, I've been lucky enough to be on a team and sort of experience how it all sort of works. Like, I mean, obviously not being in a crazy test as individuals do, but just sort of seeing how it all works and being ready for what's to come. how it all works and being ready for what's to come.

When we spoke to Sydney yesterday, I think she said she's 21, and her goal was to make it to the Games by the time she was 26, or when she was 26. She was giving herself a five-year window, and she ruined her goals because she made it five years too soon. So that's where that question came from. And you're 22 and it seems so young to make it. I wonder, do you think about next year's games already? Have you thought about next year's games already?

Smart. Very smart. And are you still working as a do you practice uh your trade as an electrician uh i mean like i have a little like a couple of cash jobs here and there but i i haven't had time to do that especially the lead up to tarion and the games so by cash so by cash jobs you mean like friends of yours who are starting huge marijuana grow operations, you'll go in and rewire their house to be... Are you guys 220 in... Look at me, Brian, watch me show off here a little bit.

Are you guys 220 in Australia or are you guys 110? 240. 240. 240. 240. And when you think about the United States being on 110 does that disgust you you're like does it just seem like god what pussies yeah a little bit i suppose it works what are the advantages what are the advantages of 240 over 110? I mean, just, but there's not, there's not really like, I mean, you, it depends what, you know, all the sort of equipment's made out of. So it's all going to do the same thing, especially with how it's designed, you know, like the amount of current that it draws and all stuff like that. amount of current that it draws and all stuff like that because you you know like if like our homes are 110 but then if you want to get a washer and dryer like anything big then all of a sudden

you got to have the electrician come to your house and put in one of those big old weird plugs that you guys have because all our washers and dryers are 220 or 240 whatever you called it yeah well yeah off the top of my knowledge like i think obviously all the standards and rules would be different here. An electrician seems like it would be a good friend to have, someone you could really take advantage of. But if you were my friend, I would still pay you full price because I do realize that everyone is trying to make a living. I wouldn't be like, yo, can you come over and I'll make you a sandwich while you rewire my laundry room. That's not me. I just want you to know. Depends how good the sandwich is.

Right. Right. So Jay's lived this damn good life. Got a good mom and dad at home. Not afraid of hard work. Already planned for the future by having a vocation in place, has a girlfriend who sees eye to eye with him. Does she want to have kids?

Yeah, eventually. We just got a dog, so that's enough for now. Oh, yeah, that's a good first step. Holy shit, what were you thinking? Why did you get a dog so that's enough for now oh yeah that's a good first step holy shit what were you thinking why did you get a dog i don't know like uh we're moving at the moment to a um to sort of a bit of a farm just on 17 acres and uh yeah i know i just always sort of wanted my own dog so yeah what kind of dog what kind of dog did you get a german short-haired pointer oh sweet what a sweet dog and who's watching him now that you guys are here in the states

my mom and dad oh oh typical typical fucking move i did that shit to my parents all the time get a dog and then drop it off at the house jesus christ no he's already how old was he when you dropped him off was he even potty trained yet yeah yeah yeah he's he's a year old and and do they have any dogs do they have any pets yeah they got uh they got a little dog oh what oh what a fucking yep that's i I can only imagine what my kids are going to do to me. I got a Great Dane. I had three Great Danes. Three Great Danes. And I would go on a trip somewhere and I would drop them all off at my mom's house.

And my mom's five feet tall, 100 pounds, and I would drop off 350-pound savages at her house. It was – in hindsight, it was complete fucking idiocy idiocy on my part it was dangerous it was like it's dangerous jay will you guys be able to uh to at least grow any food or trees or anything on the farm when you move into it on the farm when you move into it yeah yeah but uh it's like we had a few cows that we just got rid of. But yeah, I suppose, definitely. What do you mean got rid of? They just got big enough to send off. To turn into meat?

And do you get the meat yourself? No. Oh. No, that was still where the house is only just starting to get built. Are you the owner of the house? Oh. Oh, shit. Your parent – God.

So you left your dog at your parents' house and your parents are also building a house for you and your chick to live in? Well, I still live. Holy shit. Life is good. You live with your parents now. And they'll move into the house on the farm too? And does Maddie live with you? Oh, that's a good fucking life.

I used to bring girlfriends home and my mom would let them live with me too. That shit's great. That's good parenting, by the way, people. They're really, really good. Yeah, that's awesome. And they like her and she likes them? Maddie and your mom don't fight? Not at all.

That's good shit. That's good shit. And your brother gets along with Maddie? Yeah, they're really good friends too. Does she have a sister? What's your brother's name? It's Harvey. Toby. He's got a's name? It's Harvey. Toby.

Toby. He's got a girlfriend there. Whatever. Whatever. Does he ever... I don't want to set limitations on Toby. Just because you can only handle one, don't put that shit onto Toby. Maybe Toby needs two women.

Go ahead, Brian. Sorry. Did you guys play a lot of the same sports growing up? Were you competitive with each other? Yep, competitive with each other. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And now still? Everything.

And now still? Yeah. Oh, I mean, yeah, in the CrossFit space. I mean, he's getting a lot better too, like in the last year. And he was on the affiliate team at uh at taurian um but yeah always competitive but at the moment yeah he's just uh loves seeing me do well and always hyping me up have you ever been arrested no god God damn it. No, I feel like I've been a pretty good boy most of my life. In 2018, you posted a picture on your Instagram,

and you have your arm around one of the greatest human beings I've ever met that I enjoy being around, and you said uh you posted something like with the man how did you know chuck carswell was the man he has no social media no one knows who the fuck he is unless you went to your l1 how did you know to put your arm around this guy and take a picture and say with the man yeah well he was obviously like uh the one of the main judges at the games for the teams. Okay. I suppose I just could see he's such a good dude. Then went to the after party and talked to him a little bit more

and wanted to get a photo with him. He's great, isn't he? It's weird how everyone knows that about Chuck. You just meet him and you're like, Holy shit. This is the guy. Yeah. What a great,

what a great dude. And that is what people will call him. Oh, Chuck's the man. Chuck's the man. And he's not on social media. You can't like, like who knows if he sees how much accolades he gets.

I don't even know if he knows how great the community thinks he is. He's so low profile. He's an amazing coach. He's one of the first people i met you know early on in my crossfit career and i was just enamored with him have you taken your l1 no disgusting disgusting well in my defense i just i'm just this i'm just an electrician. That's bullshit. I've never really had too much interest in being a coach. Yeah, you don't need to take that to be a coach.

When you go over there, when you see Dave, ask Dave. Just walk right up to him and be like, what place do I need to take here at this fucking event to get a free L1? You really would like it. You really really like it it is really it's um it's a great great great two days and uh you'll have a blast it's it's really cool you know what they they disseminate there which is is not talked about very much at all but the culture culture, those, those L1 instructors, when you're there, of course, they're going to teach you all the fundamentals, right? And just basically just all the things that Greg Glassman wanted the world to know about human movement that he could shove into two days, but you'll also learn about the culture. It seems like Rob's pretty much taught

you about the culture already. I mean, you seem like an amazing, uh, contribution just as a person to the CrossFit community. You're upbeat, you're positive. You want people to do better around you, but those coaches, they, that's where you learn about the culture. You know, that's where you learn to cheer people on. That's where you learn that it doesn't let that a jumping pull up. Isn't any less than a regular pull up. It's just a different stimulus. And they just really, it's awesome. If you get a chance, like – I don't know why. This is the second time I brought this up, but I don't know why they don't make sure that all CrossFit Games athletes

get a free L1 because you'd really love it. Has Maddie taken it? She has. Okay. And does she like it as much as I liked it? Yo, Maddie. Yo, Maddie, you like that one or what, bro? She said it was pretty cool.

Yeah. Did she have Chuck Carswell? Did she coach at the gym? Did she coach at Rob's gym? Did she coach at Rob's gym? No. No? No.

No. When she moved down to Melbourne, she pretty much stopped coaching. Was it hard when she didn't make the games this year and you did is there uh yeah does she start crying and you're like okay get over it can you cry when i'm done with the games yeah i mean like as a point that yeah she's obviously was disappointed in not not qualifying but um no she's been really good about it and staying super positive for me. And I, and I guess she can live through it.

I don't know what it's like. Cause I've never been a top competitor, never really wanted anything that bad. Like that as bad as I think you guys want, um, this experience that you guys are striving to have, but there's gotta be some part of it. That's going to be really fun for her to see a different angle of it.

It's like the same way as like these people who didn't make the games but get to be on the demo team. Now she's going to get to be back there and get a whole new perspective on the event, which is so different than being an athlete. Because she's going there in the capacity as your coach, right? Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, for sure. coach right yeah that's cool yeah that's yeah for sure like i mean um yeah it it's like even i know it's totally different but even for me like sitting back um in the quarterfinals watching the affiliate team do it was just really cool you know to be around that and uh cheer them on and

sort of see how they go about it you know it's cool just to sit back and um not have to go through you know all the pain and watch other people do it so i did do you guys drop i did check by the way and so um rob did start in 2011 at this first year at the games but in 2014 when you started there were already a handful of guys who are competing this year that were at the games way back then. Scott Panchik, Bjorn-McConnerl Goodmanson, Noah Olsen, Cole Sager. A few years later, you probably watch all these guys. We were talking to Pat Vellner a few days ago, and he said that he's going to use some of his veteran savvy to get in some of the young guys' heads, well, one guy in particular.

What I'm curious about is if Rob Forte is giving you the dirt on some of these old guys so that you can do that for them. Do that for them. No, he hasn't. You've got to bug him. You've got to tell him. What makes Scott Panchik tick? How can I throw that guy off his game?

Yeah. No, I'm excited for all the banter. It's going to be good. Oh, stay away from Scott. He's vicious. He's the nicest guy ever that can deliver the most piercing mental shots. He was great back there.

God, he's so funny. You don't expect him to be funny, but then he says the funniest shit. When I used to see him, him and Josh would really taunt Matt. Maybe that was a mistake. When you say that, 2014, Jay was only 15 years old. Right.

And these guys were already at the top of the sport, and they're still there, and now he gets to compete against them. Gets to compete against them. Yeah, super cool. yeah yeah that's nuts well jay is there is there anything that you want to tell us like it would have it would have been fun to uncover some dirt about you like that you were arrested or that like something something happened to you and ever since then like you've been striving to you've been running from it by doing crossfit but you just sound you just sound like you have your head on straight yeah and i wish i could tell you something um something juicy but i got nothing hey

yeah i just just been had my head down just working awesome Awesome. 1% of this podcast is uploaded. 1 fucking percent. Oh, God. Well, no, I'll get it sorted. I promise.