The Sevan Podcast - #88 - CrossFit Games Men's Leaderboard Predictions

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

@jameshobart @sevanmatossian @brianfriendcrossfit The Sevan Podcast is sponsored by http://www.barbelljobs.com Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/therealsevanpodcast/ Sevan's Stuff: ht...tps://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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance.
Starting point is 00:00:19 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. There are 38 men registered to compete. Two of the three unable to make the trip, Stas Saldov and Roman Krennic. So we're at 38 for the men.
Starting point is 00:00:42 Okay. And that's a shame because their names are so fun to say. I like that. I like anything with an of at the end. But what about Alexander Illin? Alexander Illin is scheduled to compete. He's arriving actually yesterday. I haven't confirmed that he's here yet or not.
Starting point is 00:00:59 But he competed in 2019. And my confirmation is that because he'd either done the process like carried over for a couple years or he was just fit to make it happen in the short enough time frame only russian athlete of nine there was a team one woman three he's the only one who's able to make the trip actually the master's athletes in is a question mark. I just, oh, oh, oh, we see a drop down.
Starting point is 00:01:31 Oh, the YouTube, Brian, the YouTube people can see now your slides. Maybe that's bad for the show. I just like their own. Yeah, one of your slides. Look at, he's gone into a deep panic. They're very small, so I don't know. Everyone, close your eyes. Don't look at gone into a deep panic. They're very small, so I don't know. Everyone, close your eyes. Don't look at the YouTube station right now.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Where are they? I'm watching. I have the YouTube chat open in case anyone makes a comment. Trust me, nothing was ruined. I promise, nothing was ruined. Well said. Well said, Ryan. Yeah, even if it was, that was the right thing to say.
Starting point is 00:02:01 And I just liked our own video. I have no problem. I like all my own Instagram posts i always i always i'm a leader i'm a leader i lead um so we are going to brian is going to share with us places one through 38 of the men that is going to be the first podcast episode 90 we'll take a small two-minute break, and then we'll go through the women. So if you're busy this week and you can't watch the games, don't worry. Brian's going to let you know everyone's placement right now. If you don't want to know how people are going to place ahead of time, probably just turn this show off. Because I feel like we have all of us before we start. And it's
Starting point is 00:02:41 all these athletes are incredible. And most people put up the top three, five, ten, or whatever, but not go all the way. But this is the top of the sport. Someone has to finish last, and there can only be one person at each spot in between. So I'm not denying athletes. I'm just saying that relative to the field, this is how I think. Yeah. And in all seriousness, I respect the shit out of you for doing this.
Starting point is 00:03:13 It's like going to the world's largest dick competition and getting on the table and dropping your pants. I mean, what you are doing by sharing this all the way down to 38 is making yourself extremely vulnerable, especially since you're in the hive. So thank you for doing this. And Hobart and I will try to use our discretion as we laugh at your choices and attack you, realizing that.
Starting point is 00:03:35 And as always, my hope is that if any athletes see this list, that if they're happy with their placement, that they're encouraged to try to achieve that placement. And if they're not, that they say, I'm going to show the world otherwise. And if you don't like your placement where Brian puts you, feel free right after one of your sweatiest events just to go up and give him a big hug. There's probably nothing grosser and more uncomfortable for when one, one of you sweaty athletes hugs us.
Starting point is 00:04:08 But I mean, it's cool. It's kind of like a trade-off. You get the spotlight on you for a second, but it's also kind of nasty. I'll take it. I'll take a sweaty hug. I'll take a sweaty hug.
Starting point is 00:04:16 You, cause you are probably sweating right now. Profusely. Or does know where his sweat starts and someone else's sweat ends. I just want to know. I only have a t-shirt on. That's how they do it at CNN, too. Don't worry.
Starting point is 00:04:30 Let's do this. Okay, Brian, should we start at number 38 for the men? I don't know if we need to go one by one through all 38, but maybe we show the bottom eight. Okay. Or something similar to that. Why don't we just move up them quickly? Because he took the time to make slides for everyone. Sure, sure. Yeah, that's fine too.
Starting point is 00:04:50 Okay. Uh-oh. I see it coming out on the YouTube station live. He's sizing it. It's going to be fun watching Brian's beard grow throughout the week. It's already like two days ago. He looked like he was 18. He already looks like he's 28.
Starting point is 00:05:05 Sorry, do you guys want men or women first? Men, please. Thank you. Brian knew that. He just wants to get his voice on the podcast. No, no, no, no. Hobart, what are you wearing? What's your shirt? This is one of the shirts from Hamplan.
Starting point is 00:05:27 What is Hamplan hand plan was uh our online programming platform oh that's right sorry sorry well we're transitioning to cap crossword affiliate programming but so i don't think we're allowed to talk about we're not allowed to talk about that brian not yet it's a collector that's not what this part that's not what this we have a lot of them brian so if you want one let me know i'll get you a lot of them stuff that's uh you know you can't get anymore okay done deal, number 38. Let's see it, Ryan. How can we peer pressure Matt to do a podcast during the games? Let's hurt some feelings.
Starting point is 00:06:13 FaZe. I don't know what FaZe means. There he is, number 38. Make him big. You can hide our faces too if you want. Oh, man. I need to link link but okay he's up there yeah i can help you out with that i'm gonna make mine full screen bam alexander illin number 38 this is the guy that's in question whether he's even gonna make it devastating then right one rushing guy that's supposed to be making the trip. He's the second oldest guy competing in the field, I believe. It's very close.
Starting point is 00:06:48 It's his birthday. And incredible the last year or so in online competition. To see him compete against a field of this caliber in live competition. Bottom of the list. No gray hair I can say no gray hair okay number 37
Starting point is 00:07:12 when they're up on the screen yeah I'll try to say their names Guillerme Malheros yeah he commonly goes by Guy he's in the field I'll try to say their names. Guillerme Malheros. Yeah, he commonly goes by Gui. He's one of the strongest guys in the field, if not the youngest. And he's in Brazil and South America.
Starting point is 00:07:34 He's also one of the strongest guys in the field. I think he's got a clean injury close to 375+. He's competed as a teenager at the Games. He's talented for sure he won the RX division a lot of times so there's nothing bad about him here that I'm curious about
Starting point is 00:07:54 we've thought that there are going to be cuts and we know he's a guy who could really benefit from having a heavy lifting event early in the competition. And so far, we haven't seen that. And if he has a heavy lifting come up before potential cuts, that could change his ranking. Otherwise, he's going to need barbells that he can move.
Starting point is 00:08:18 And heavier the better early, he has to make it through the cuts. And I'll nominate him for top five best bodies at the CrossFit Games. Okay, number 36. Is it up there? Oh, good. No. Ryan's slipping. Oh, I think there's a delay.
Starting point is 00:08:40 We got a couple second delay. Okay, Augustin Riquelme. Other guy who qualified from South America, Argentinian. Generally small in stature, pretty good gymnastics-type workouts. I mean, don't necessarily have anything bad to say about him. He did compete in 2019 at the Games also. I think he was cut around 50th, right around there. And
Starting point is 00:09:06 he got to prove to me that he can obviously winning South America is great, but I need to see what these South American athletes can do in order to put him any higher than this.
Starting point is 00:09:23 Are you going to have anything bad to say about any of the athletes? I just have better things to say about something. I'll think of something. Number 30. Thank you, James. Number 35, Sam Stewart. Oh, that's the guy we want to try to get on the podcast. I hope.
Starting point is 00:09:41 He's from Ireland. Great guy. A little bit smaller athlete probably one of the lighter guys in the field qualified obviously through Europe in the online format guys at the bottom are just unproven at the game unproven
Starting point is 00:09:58 and there's a lot to be said for having experience for the intensity and caliber of the field so like I said someone's got to finish down here and these are for having experience for the intensity and caliber of the field. So, like I said, someone's got to finish down here. And these are – you might see an outlier in terms of rookies doing – it's pretty tough to – Brian, Stephen Cesar just said individual event number 12 was just announced, and it's a one rep max snatch. And that's event 12.
Starting point is 00:10:31 Yep, that's right. And for the other strong guys in the field, that's after the cuts. And that means that similar to 2019, you won't get that opportunity to show off your top-end strength. You kind of have to earn it. We've had conversations in the past about whether that's a good thing or not. I'm assuming that there's going to be some tests prior to the... that will allow athletes to flex their...
Starting point is 00:11:03 If that's the one rep max test for the weekend and it's after the fact, then a guy like Guy Mejeres won't potentially event win or top finish and the after uncovered points that come along with that. Okay, understood. Number 34, Dylan
Starting point is 00:11:21 Vowell. Is that it? Oh, that's not number 34? Let's see who number 34 is. Maybe my notes are all screwed up. Oh, yeah, sorry. Georgis. Let's call him George or George.
Starting point is 00:11:40 George. George Kouravas. He's Greek. One of the athletes coached by Facundo. He's looking to basically... Greece has some top-end athletes that aren't getting... The last two big-time athletes to get through. Around suspensions right now for steroid abuse.
Starting point is 00:12:06 George is very good. He was fifth at strength and depth the year that Matt Fraser won it. He competes at Dubai sometimes and has done okay there in pretty competitive fields. Younger guy needs to prove himself on this stage for me to get any higher than this. Two quick things. I think it's horrible that
Starting point is 00:12:25 brian's shitting on the whole entire country of greece by suggesting that the other two athletes were on steroids making possible implications that george is i think that's not not right and number two we don't know that they abuse steroids we just know that they took them okay go on number fair enough and i did i wrote an article about to competition, or he was a part of an article I wrote. It's about how important it is to him to play fair and to reestablish the fact that not all athletes in Greece do that. So I'm trying. Wow, this is a great name. Thank you, Brian.
Starting point is 00:12:59 Number 33, Uldis Ubenix. God, I hope he does well. That's a great name. It needs to be said a lot. If I'm not mistaken, Uldis Ubenix is the five-time reigning national champion from Latvia. He competed at the Games in 2019, and I think he got cut in the round of 30, along with people like Samuel Cornway and Jeffrey Adler.
Starting point is 00:13:18 He's a very good, one of the smaller guys, maybe the second smallest in the field, the shortest at least after. Yes. One of the smaller guys, maybe the second smallest in the field, the shortest at least after. And, you know, straight guys from Europe on this list here at the bottom. And I just think that the men in Europe are, they're not of the same caliber of the women in Europe. Online qualification, oldest is a guy who's been before exceptional in that online format he qualified as a national champ experience and you're seeing a theme here with the guys at the bottom it's you got to show me
Starting point is 00:13:54 what you can do in these competitions and because of the nature of the level we haven't had these guys come to regionals and go 16th make it through or 10th 7 7th, and finally get in. So a lot of these people are new in this format. They've got nine tests to prove themselves, but for me, Wildis is still down here needing to show me what he can do. And although that's a pretty small representation of him in that picture, I will rank him in the top five best bodies also.
Starting point is 00:14:24 You're going to run? Maybe. Number 32. So this is a bit of a departure from the last couple of guys. Is he up there yet? Yeah, Jason Smith. What an amazing
Starting point is 00:14:42 physique. My God. I do think he's incredibly experienced at blowing away with what he did at Dubai the last time he competed there, finished in the top ten against a very good field where a lot of these guys were in it. I think that he's basically dominant. Once again, no one has been able to catch up to him there, even as he's getting older. But I do think that there's a, especially in the guys,
Starting point is 00:15:12 we haven't seen anyone of this age do well at the games yet. So I think, you know, maybe he'll prove otherwise, but I expect him to be, no disrespect to him. Look at that muscle on his forearm touching his bicep in that picture do you have that muscle hobart no no nice bicep though thanks man you're welcome okay number 31 i think the same I think this. Oh, no. Oh, no. Someone has it.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Oh, buddy, buddy. Royce Dunn, superstar of the Sebon podcast, trains with the great Rich Froning at the Mayhem Empire. And Brian makes his first stumble. Could be. Could be. could be, we'll see. But Royce, an incredibly gifted athlete.
Starting point is 00:16:13 The one year he was at the games before, he didn't do it. So I've got him down here, pretty similar to where he finished that year. And I hope the best for Royce. I love him. He's so fun to watch. He's very good at a lot of things, but we're going to see pretty quickly how good this field is about to get.
Starting point is 00:16:31 This would be a good time in the YouTube chat. So someone just write, eat a dick, Brian or something. I mean, just, you know, let it fly.
Starting point is 00:16:39 I'm ready for it. I'm ready for it. Number 30. Wait a second I want to say one more thing about Royce Dunn Number 30 is good Let's hold him there for a second Hobart What do you think Royce Dunn coming out of the
Starting point is 00:16:59 Mayhem Empire getting placed at 31 What was his Last games finished brian 2017 18 how old is he fourth and the only year he competed as individual is 34th and he is 30 years old i don't know i mean he obviously obviously has an edge working out there down at mayhem with rich but um i don't know what did sean woodland say and i don't mean this is a knock
Starting point is 00:17:32 because i was never a great individual games athlete didn't sean woodland once say you don't know how good you have to be to suck at the crossfit games right so it's like and i'm not saying anyone who finishes not in the top 10 sucks what i'm saying is like i think the margin of error between that field i'm sitting on the fence basically the margin of error in that field is so small like the gap you know the little differences between 30th and 20th are really tight so um you know i don't think brian's handing out a bad bad deck there but hey with rich's experience i could see i could see i'm getting close to top 20 and top 20 i think is very very hard to be in so number 30 henrik and then his last name
Starting point is 00:18:15 has four a's in it i'm pretty sure that breaks some sort of rule uh for a line and we're gonna go with okay rookie at the games, he's from Finland. We've got, obviously, Yonakoski, another Finnish. Probably not Mikko Salo, so there's some great... And Henrik's... I don't know too much about him. He's probably the guy I know the least about.
Starting point is 00:18:43 But, um, you know, it's a scientific probably proclamation of any guy, but I... He's pretty well-rounded, and not going to have any outstanding performances, and so he won't maybe be last
Starting point is 00:19:00 bottom five in a lot of events, but he's just going to be over and over again, and that doesn't get you where the swimming system is. Does he train with Koski or Mikko? I don't think so.
Starting point is 00:19:16 He's been training with Laura Horvath and Ben Smith for the last week or two out at Krypton. Then switch him with Royce Dunn if he's not training with Mikko or Koski. The first event's a swim event, too, and Australians typically perform very well in them. That could help with the cuts, man.
Starting point is 00:19:36 Finland is an exceptionally good swimming nation. The worst year that Australians ever had the exception of Tia and Cara the and Laura Clifton who's from New Zealand but she's
Starting point is 00:19:51 not great swimmers relative to the other women who usually and the guys Jay Crouch, Baden Brown, and Royce Dunn were swimmers than guys like Matt McLeod James Newberry and Con Porter so look for the Australians not to dominate the swim event the way they do. And number 29, if you don't think
Starting point is 00:20:12 Brian has a bias, this guy is Brian's favorite CrossFit Games athlete, the great Gamboa. He's had an awesome career, man. Super awesome guy. I like him a lot. From North Texas there. He's up there in age. He's got a lot of experience.
Starting point is 00:20:34 But his finishes historically at the games, they're okay. But he's stellar. He's got the last time he competed was an online version, and then the two previous 35th. So I'm kind of like splitting the difference here and saying, I don't necessarily think he's gotten any worse. I just think bottom 15 in this field. And he's had an event win at the CrossFit Games before, right?
Starting point is 00:21:00 He won the sprint event that Matt Fraser famously had the call of, what can't this guy do as he's passing the rest of the field? Because Roy Gamboa was... He also has an awesome open performance too, which I think sometimes when you start to see that trend of really good open performance, not great games performance, you have guys that can win events, but they just lack that consistency across.
Starting point is 00:21:24 But he's had a long career at the games and i just left uh shit i see can someone make a comments in the chat to see if we're still live i think we're still live i see the red record button lit up is the uh slideshow updating uh oh uh he's doing something on the screen. I see something. I can see his mouse moving around on the screen, so we're good. Matt Souza, you're live. You're live, Interceptor 11. Number 28.
Starting point is 00:22:00 Or 27, or just anything that we haven't seen yet. Oh. Oh. Come on, buddy. He beat your boy Royce Dunn. Come on, buddy. Colton Mertens. So I had had Colton Mertens as high as 18th in my...
Starting point is 00:22:20 And when I found out about... As events started to be... And as I found out about the cuts, I just kept having to drop him down. He's a guy who can definitely win events at the games. If they come out, he could beat every single guy on this list in those events. We've seen the exact opposite of that in terms of events. So he's not going to be good on the swim. He's not going to be good on the sprint.
Starting point is 00:22:42 He's not going to be good on the fields. He's not going to be good on the swim. He's not going to be good on the sprint. He's not going to be good on the fields. He's not going to be good on the pig. He's not going to be good on the skier. And he probably won't even get to the heavy snatch where he also wouldn't be good. There's got to be some events. But they haven't shown up yet, and they're just running out of events that we don't know about before the cuts. So what I'm kind of worried about is the about are going to be towards the end of the weekend and he won't even get a chance to participate in them.
Starting point is 00:23:09 And you're still putting him at a 28th and you just bash Royce Dunn down to the bottom of the list. I think in general, Colton is fitter than Royce Dunn. Boom. That's what I wanted to hear people. So let me ask you this, Brian, if this makes sense. I don't even know how to think about this really logically. But everyone, you're saying, though, that this guy will make it to day three of the competition because he's number 28, Colton Mertens. If he was actually 28th, he would make it to event 10,
Starting point is 00:23:45 which is the first day of the third event, the first event of the third day of competition. Okay. Okay. And then, and then let me ask you this if, cause maybe this is a question for Dave, since we were told that it would go 40, 40, 30, 20, right? The cuts. So that means the first day, since there's only 38 people, or after the second day, only eight people will be cut. Whereas if everyone showed up, it would have been 10. Correct. Okay.
Starting point is 00:24:21 Colton, I apologize. Number 27. He's going to outperform everybody's expectations on the pig. I'm calling that right now. He's not going to end up like Taylor Self, get folded in half underneath it? Exactly. Good. Number 27, Brandon Luckett. I don't think he's going to make it this far. We'll see with the elbow, but I don't think he's going to make it this far. We'll see with the elbow, but I don't see anything that's
Starting point is 00:24:50 been announced yet that I think is going to make it this far. So I think he'll be alright because this is where he falls. I think the swimming and the paddle, whatever the paddle event is, is going to really, really aggravate that elbow.
Starting point is 00:25:06 He was pretty upset about the cuts too. Yeah, he was pretty vocal. He was. Number 26. Oh, we got him up there? Yeah, Andre Houdet. oh we got him up there yeah andre who did who did who did i think it's who day andre who day uh you say it like you want he's he's kind of uh in line to take over this is now that frederick gideas is to some things in his life what james
Starting point is 00:25:43 nothing oh i thought you're listening i'm listening i'm taking it i'm taking it in to some of the things in his life. What, James? Nothing. Oh, I thought you were going to say something. I'm taking it in. Andre Houdet is extremely well-prepared. I think that the fast-paced, unknown, where you have to go really outside your comfort zone at the game, food prep and warm-up time and all these other things. I think he has potential to do a lot better than this at the games in future years,
Starting point is 00:26:14 but I think in his rookie year, finishing in the mid-20s is a good spot for Andre. But without any, what other live experience have you seen with him, though? Because he's 27 coming in at this and you're ranking him. I mean, I think pretty high at the games. How many different countries are represented at the games this year? Sorry, Brian,
Starting point is 00:26:33 were you gonna answer a question? Sorry. Yeah. Let him answer. I'll count. Yeah. Well, total countries for competition is currently at 41.
Starting point is 00:26:45 Question. He competed, the sanctionals he competed in, Strength and Depth and Fitness in Cape Town. At Strength and Depth, he was 6th, but it was a small field, and he was 10th at Filthy 150. There were a lot of games, athletes in all those fields. So he's got potential to do well in live competition. I really think that he's going to,
Starting point is 00:27:05 I think he'll learn a lot this year. And if he's able to qualify again, I think he can be pretty, maybe 10 places higher on this list. Number 25. This is one of the most intriguing guys in the field. He's another one that I don't know too much about. It's Luka Djokic from Serbia.
Starting point is 00:27:29 Him and his brother are both competing here, and we'll get to Lazar later on. But I think he's pretty young, and he does not have a ton of competition experience. I mean, I don't think he did as well as he did against his brother and getting him to train there is great. But he only did one away, which was not a super stacked field. There were some good. He was 16th. And, you know, if you look at a lot of other guys in the field,
Starting point is 00:27:58 like he barely snuck into the quarter, 50, 60 qualifiers in Europe. He did finish third. I don't know a ton about him. I've, I talked to Lazar for a little bit and, uh, it sounds to me like he's the less developed and less experienced version of his brother.
Starting point is 00:28:14 And, you know, he, the fact that he's making it at this age is awesome. I think that he will be like, I think he's good enough to compete at the games, but if he finishes 25th, I think a good performance for him this year.
Starting point is 00:28:28 How old is he? 22 or 3. Damn. Got another one of your boys coming up next, Seva. I saw him. I accidentally saw him. I accidentally saw him. What did we do? We just like to pick people to be on the Sevan podcast.
Starting point is 00:28:45 We just picked people who are going to be in the bottom 40. No, no, no. Zach Watts. We've had a lot of guys on the show. Zach Watts. So similar to Guy Mejeres here. This is a guy who has similar lifting numbers to him. Top end up could be top three if not winning that snatch event
Starting point is 00:29:04 if he were able to snatch 310 at the mid-atlantic and he said he had more he probably is not going to get to that event and that's kind of i think is a loss this is one of the things that's i would prefer and i haven't seen the total programming and so i i i have to say that like until i see the total programming i don't like making comments like this but people people love seeing heavy lifts, and when you have the heaviest lift coming after the cuts, sometimes by nature you just miss out on seeing the best lifters in the field, and if Zach and Guy don't get to participate in the snatch, then we probably won't see a 315 snatch, and I know that every fan of the sport would love to see that.
Starting point is 00:29:41 So I would consider that a bit of a loss if those guys don't make it there. But it's going to be tough to make it there. It's a really good field. You'll see pretty much from this point on, these guys are very, very good. So I'm, I'm actually feel like I'm ranking Zach pretty highly here.
Starting point is 00:29:54 I think a lot of the workouts that have come out will favor a little bit of bigger, stronger athletes so far early in the weekend, maybe not the swim, but the, who's the fellow event, maybe not the, you know the walking.
Starting point is 00:30:09 So you start to see like, he's probably going to have this kind of, and I don't help me. I don't think it's going to be enough to get him to the snatch, which is, I know if that happens, I know he'll be really bummed about it. I'd like to see Zach's confidence skyrocket. The little bit of interaction we had with him. I don't think he knows how good he is. Maybe we thought he was a killer swimmer or something. He wants it.
Starting point is 00:30:31 Man, he wants it. Okay, number 23. 23 should be Baden Brown. Is that right? He's there. Baden Brown is that right? he's there yep Baden Brown so
Starting point is 00:30:50 phenomenal athlete really out of all he competed in both of the Australian Cross sanctionals he was second the first year third second and third
Starting point is 00:31:02 at those two competitions he did compete at Dubai which is not that great. He got off to a pretty bad start at the semifinals. Consistent. Long-term events are probably not his forte. With everything else, he's good. And so I think he can be flirting with middle of the pack in this field. He has been to the games twice before, but they were each of the last two years.
Starting point is 00:31:23 And he actually had... He's one of those really excited to see in 2019, and he didn't make it out of the first cut event. So we didn't get to see anything from him at all, and he basically got no experience from that. Last year, he was 11th in the online version. That's pretty good too, but again, no actual experience in live competition at the games, for all practical purposes, a realistic,
Starting point is 00:31:45 it's kind of like his rookie season in this game's competition. So if they, you know, good finish for him this year, he is, he's 20, 26 years old. So he's could definitely have some years ahead of him. It's pretty, he's a, he's a good guy. He's well-rounded, but I don't see the home runs. I see a couple bad events for him early on, so I think this would be
Starting point is 00:32:09 an appropriate spot for him. Brian, so you're saying this guy got 11th in the games last year, and this year you're ranking him at 23? Yeah. I don't think 30 guys in the field last year, and they weren't the 30 fittest guys on earth
Starting point is 00:32:27 because the season got cut short, and a lot of them qualified through the Open is how it ended up happening. And I know that people who do well in the Open can also do well at the Games, but there's also people who do well at the Open that don't ever make it to the Open in the old format. And I would say
Starting point is 00:32:45 relative to most years, definitely relative to this year in my opinion, it was also only seven events. Three of them were monostructural events. They were kind of the handstand hold and the row. I told you
Starting point is 00:33:03 he's not that good at long events. The fact that five of the workouts were less than seven minutes last year is beneficial for him. Ouch. Okay. Number 22, Sean Sweeney. That's not it. It's just a fact. Sean Sweeney.
Starting point is 00:33:18 Some facts can hurt. So like I said, now we're getting into this realm right here where we're looking at the cut line. And Sean Sweeney and some of the next couple guys you're going to see, I view going to be the guys right there. Sean should get off to a pretty good weekend. I think he's going to do great in the water, possibly even top five-ish.
Starting point is 00:33:39 I think he'll be able to flip the pig. I think he'll be able to sled. I think he'll be average on the run in the handstand but i think he'll be inside the top 20 at some point early in the competition he has been to four in 2019 he was 24th so he almost pretty far on the cuts but in 2018 he was 22nd and that's kind of the one i'm looking at so he has that experience and it's right in this realm being here i think that the games field this year in terms of depth and caliber is similar but he has a little bit more experience than some of these guys so i put him kind of at the back end of the more but definitely with the opportunity to make the cut and i think that
Starting point is 00:34:18 actually just he's he's very good with the fans in the crowd and i think it would be awesome if he makes it through the cut so he's's right there flirting with it on my rankings. What's the highest he's ever finished in the CrossFit Games? 22nd. 24th and 30th are his three previous finishes at the Games. Wow. Okay. Number 21, Tim Paulson.
Starting point is 00:34:39 Oh, that's good. Are you going to ask something about Sean? I just want to know if he's going to wear his cowboy hat during the swim. Yes. It's a setting line. Paulson, so making his fifth game's appearance. He was 14th on the season. Like Baden-Brown, he missed the cut in first cut the year before that,
Starting point is 00:34:59 and his previous finishes were 29th and 19th. So those are the two years, 2017 and 2018, that i'm kind of looking at he's 31 years old but there's a lot of older guys in the field and i don't think that that's too old to be detrimental to him he says he's healthier than he's ever been coming into this games he's so he's done it a couple times he's going to be ready he'll know how to manage his body in his week he does have a young kid but his whole family will come here and be supportive of him in that realm. So I think he will have every opportunity to make it. I have him just here one spot out of that kind of cup position,
Starting point is 00:35:33 but very close to 20th comes come Friday night, Saturday morning. He blew that rope climb event in 20, 2019 too. And I think he's got an ax to grind, man. So I, I'm a big tim paulson fan i hope uh i think he can squeeze up there is he the biggest guy uh competing this week
Starting point is 00:35:53 second second or third heaviest yeah maybe oh who's bigger than him bigger than him for cows yeah for cows keeping hopper yeah wow yeah tim has incredible presence i i i'm always impressed when he makes it this far because he is enormous what he he performs on gymnastics movements much better than you'd think when you look you're like this guy's going to get upside down and just do one handstand push-up but he has uh short arms that's why his his instagram is t-rex paulson his wing span is less than his height so um the gymnastic stuff for a guy that big is generally favorable for him i love that you know that yeah that that's a trip he um he looks more paul bunyan than crossfit athlete. Yeah, man. He's a Viking killer. And it's
Starting point is 00:36:46 compared to, yes, the next guy. Number 20, Jay Crouch. We just did an interview with him that I think went up this morning. This is a bit of a risky pick for me to put him ahead of guys like Tim and Sean. Doesn't have the experience. Some of these workouts aren't amazing for him,
Starting point is 00:37:06 but I think he's, I kind of, I think he's like Zach Watts better than he knows. You know, when he was, when we talked to him and he said, none of these workouts at Torian pro are really good for me. Still was one point away from winning the competition. And I mean, look, there's like, there's good guys in Australia that didn't make this competition like James Newberry and Con Porter and Luke Fiso and a couple other guys. I think Jay is going to surprise some people this week. I think he's going to have a lot of performances in the
Starting point is 00:37:33 10 to 20 range. If he's able to do that consistently through the first couple days of competition, the last couple days, that I think would be... Jay Crouch is also poster boy material for CrossFit Last couple days, and that I think would be. Jay Crouch is also poster boy material for CrossFit, squeaky clean. He's got a crazy cut-up haircut.
Starting point is 00:37:56 If you want to watch me stumble through an interview, there's nothing to talk about with this guy except just dandelions and puppy dogs. Jay Crouch? Yeah. Girlfriend is coaching him this week. It's Maddie Sturt. And she's been... So he's got a little bit of... His coach is Rob.
Starting point is 00:38:11 He'll be checking in with him. So he's got a lot of experience in his corner to help guide him through. And he's a really successful team athlete, too. And I think they have better headspace coming over to individual. Like, Vellner is a good example of that. What, Vellner was a team athlete yeah it was oh shit i didn't know that i i feel like that what do you explain that hobart i feel like that's just some like some sort of bias to validate your twilight years on the team it's
Starting point is 00:38:38 a thousand percent bias but i will say my competitive mental headspace got way better after team because you got to learn how to deal with other people's shit, not just your own. And that really makes you check your own. I think it really helps your own personal headspace way more. If you're a good team athlete. Simone didn't like that. No, I did like that. I did like that.
Starting point is 00:39:00 And you were a good team athlete. I just have to keep moving forward. When you guys say stuff, I actually hear you you and listen i just pretend to not acknowledge you fair number 19 will morad god he got huge over the last 10 years huh will morad is i believe he's one of the best guys on earth and he's just never 100 healthy um he's been to the games twice before in 2014 his rookie year incredible incredibly difficult central east regional he made it ended up taking 14th at the games which was a great finish that year back until 2019 and he made it into the top 10 so he made it through all the cuts
Starting point is 00:39:41 now there were got injured. So he was basically limping on one hamstring. So he didn't get to see I think he would have actually done maybe 5th to 6th that year if he had been healthy. Obviously, it would be a great finish to have, but
Starting point is 00:39:59 he went into semifinals, and he was healthy enough to make some back problems this year. So even here at eight, his lowest ever games finish in three appearances, and obviously, he's an interesting guy. But he could also push for top ten.
Starting point is 00:40:20 So I think he's got possibly the biggest range of finishes of anyone in the field. That's super. Say that that again hobart sorry oh it's just exciting but i do think too like being healthy is part of your fitness so uh that 2014 the year he made it out of the central east regional there's a behind the scenes on that too, which he played, I think, a pretty big role in. I think Rich was there also, right? Was that the only three year? Not sure. But he was a very impressive athlete,
Starting point is 00:40:56 not just as a crossfitter, but he was an incredible mover. Number 18. What? Okay. Oh, 18. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry. number 18 what okay wasn't Oh 18 yeah sorry you did say Wilmore at 18 but we didn't correct you we just let you just roll with that my bad my number 18 Alexander Caron I know you like to say his name sorry Brian go ahead now is it a cuddle the end is silent they're kind of silent but yeah so there are six canadian men in the field this is the first one to pop up on my list and i put up a post on instagram a couple maybe a week ago that said which of the canadian men do you think is going to do the best because this is a
Starting point is 00:41:36 super strong contingency of canadian guy in sixth place in his rookie year in 2018 when he had to withdraw due to an injury from slipping on a wet platform during the crossfit get to see his potential that year 2019 didn't made it and finished 16th in the online format so he's one of these guys that's been there a couple times but never really been there and had the chance whole thing he has put himself out there and competed in some of the better competitions. He was 16th in Dubai, 8th at Rogue, and 6th at Mayhem. So he's got some competitive experience
Starting point is 00:42:12 making it through the Atlas. To the other five Canadian guys which are still coming up on this list, but he was able to make it in second place in the last chance qualifier. And I think that he's, he's poised for a top half finish.
Starting point is 00:42:28 I think he's pretty good. So you're saying this guy, he was, how many events in was he in 2018 when he was in sixth place, when he slipped on the platform? They'd only at that point done the crit. And what was his injury from slipping on the platform? His knee blew out his knee. It's actually
Starting point is 00:42:47 pretty gross to watch. Holy cow. Number 17. Why was the platform wet? Was it sweat? It was raining. Were the games outside? They should have been going out. They were trying to drive the platforms. Yeah, they were doing that.
Starting point is 00:43:08 They were trying to drive the platforms and whatever, but they pushed forward. He's still finished with a 1205 total in 2018. That's insane. That's a top 10. He's very smart. Number 17, Andrew Mudslinger. Nope, that's not it at all, Andrew Mudslinger.
Starting point is 00:43:26 Nope, that's not it at all. Adrian Munn. Oh. Adrian Munn-Viller, he's similar to Will Moore. Coming into the semifinals, I thought he had a knee injury, and I picked him not to make the games, which I would admit is a bit disrespectful given his... He's been to the games three times.
Starting point is 00:43:43 He was eighth in 2009 through all the cuts. He was 16th in 2018. In his first year, his rookie year was 34th. So he obviously learned from that, came back. He's 28... of his career, and the people that I've spoken to that know him... My prediction of putting him
Starting point is 00:43:59 outside the semi... fight around his ass, and that he is very to prove him wrong so I got him here at 17th believe and rightfully so that he top 10 finish but yeah 17
Starting point is 00:44:16 and we'll see he was hoping to see a bike he's the best biker in the field so if a bike would be good for him, especially if it's before the cuts. They'll do biking. They can't resist, don't you think, Hobart?
Starting point is 00:44:33 I don't know. Probably biking. I don't know. I'd like to see biking. They've already announced three of the first four events. I don't think that the nightcap event is going to be a biking event. four events, I don't think that the nightcap event is going to be a biking event.
Starting point is 00:44:45 Starting with event five, which was a skier rope climb event in the Hoosaville bag. And then I don't know what they are before eight, and I just have to assume it's going to be in the Coliseum, and it's not going to be a bike event.
Starting point is 00:45:01 It's not going to be a bike event. So if he wants a bike event, he's probably going to have to learn it, I guess. Why can't it be event number six or seven? Have they ever combined a bike event with something else like a like a gymnastic movement or weightlifting movement?
Starting point is 00:45:15 Yeah, last year they had bike. Ten rounds of four and something meter bike with one legless rope climb. Yeah, the legless rope climb. OK. I'll also... There's going to be no road biking at the games this year. That's my inclination.
Starting point is 00:45:30 Ah, they got to. They can't resist. They're like... Dave, once he puts something in like that, I think we'll see it every year. Munweiser, he's a wild... Adrian Munweiser is a wild animal too, man. Watching him compete is so fun.
Starting point is 00:45:45 I hope he does well. What are you calling his last name? Munweiler is a wild animal too, man. Watching him compete is so fun. I hope he does well. What are you calling his last name? Munweiser? Munweiser. It's Munviller. Munviller. Sorry. Thanks, Dad.
Starting point is 00:45:55 And I'm going to rank him as the third nicest body we've seen in these photos, Adrian Munviller. Okay, number 16, Alex Vigneault. Alex Vigneault. Alex Vigneault been at the Games three times. 11th, the next year he was 9th, and then in 2019 he got cut to death, which is one or two
Starting point is 00:46:16 spots away from Fikowski. He's a new dad. He's a police officer. He trains on his own. He is, I think, fired up to be back at the Games. He's a police officer. He is, I think, fired up to be back at the games. There's a lot of guys in the 28, 29, 30 age. He did against a lot of these guys a bunch of times. He did no sanctionals in terms of live competition.
Starting point is 00:46:40 He hasn't had... But he's pretty solid across the board. No... he hasn't had but he's pretty solid across the board no but very few things that he can I think he can have a lot of top half finishes including an overall finish in the top half so I got him here what do you say
Starting point is 00:46:56 15th? 16th I also think that he's the first dark horse we've seen I think this guy can really shake up the pack. I think that when he came on the CrossFit scene, people were thinking that he could be the next golden child. Hold on, hold on.
Starting point is 00:47:14 My helmet on before the next pick. Okay. This guy is the real deal, Alex Vigneault. Number 15, as Brian puts on his helmet oh bkg no way i don't know he said helmet i just thought viking number 15 whoa that's why you got to put your helmet on you're out of your fucking mind brian Let me tell you something. He's going to win an event just based on his seniority. Seniority.
Starting point is 00:47:50 Travis Mayer, number 15. Would that be the lowest he's ever finished in the game? What's the lowest he's ever finished in the games? 29th in his rookie year. 12th. 12th and 19th. His ranking is about relative to his average.
Starting point is 00:48:10 What I'm saying here is I think that this games field is top heavy than some of those other fields were. He definitely has top 10 potential. All four of those guys that finished in the top four there, which was Hopper, Pancik, Medeiros, and Mayer, have top 10 potential. And that was the first week of semifinals.
Starting point is 00:48:32 Obviously, we needed to see the rest of it play out. If Travis finished in the top 10, I would not be surprised. He trains with... I think they go blow for blow on a lot of different workouts and events. To me, now we're really getting... ...guys are all at the top. I believe that they can not just do well, but win at the games.
Starting point is 00:48:56 So I got Travis here. If he sees this, he will be very motivated. He believes he's the top 10 in the world. He can punch you in the throat is what he's going to do. Number 14. Is he up there? Yes, Jeffrey Adler. Is this the first guy we've seen who went to the games last year?
Starting point is 00:49:28 Yeah, and there's only three. Jeffrey Adler was fifth last year at the game. Last night, incredible guy. Him and his coach, Carol. Very, very good ambassadors of the sport. They own an affiliate. They uphold movement standards. He's one of the only guys in the field and a job they uphold movement standards to the he's one of the only guys in the field that doesn't use olympic lifters and he's
Starting point is 00:49:50 else he's uh won the open before actually yes he did um and he's uh um i think that that you know he was 2019. And he's had some kind of up and down finishes. 19th in Guadalupalooza. 13th. 8th at Dubai in a really good field in 2019-20. 5th place finish. No disrespect to Adler.
Starting point is 00:50:24 I think it was more indicative of the format than his fitness relative to the rest of the field. If he's able to do it, I have no words on that. But until I see him do a 15 and place in the top 10 at the games, I still don't believe him.
Starting point is 00:50:41 I'd like to interview him. We haven't interviewed him, right? We have not. He'd be great to talk to. He and't interviewed him, right? We have not. And yeah, he'd be great to talk to. Yeah, he and his coach, they own CrossFit Wonderland. She's amazing. He's awesome. That's a cool story.
Starting point is 00:50:53 What state is that in? They started the games in 2016. And three years later, he was on the competition floor and she was coaching him. Yeah, and she's done translating for seminar staff and super, super awesome crew. What language? What language? French. They're up in Montreal, right? No. I think so.
Starting point is 00:51:13 Yes, yes, French. All right, number 13, the great Saxon Panchik. So, this will be his fourth time competing at the Games and he's only 25 years old it's a pretty impressive resume he was 19th in his rookie year ninth in his second year that was 2019 so he made the cuts and he basically finished last because will more had finished the weekend in 10th with the injured hamstring and he was 21st last year in the online version. He didn't win a single event at Granite Games, beating Chandler Smith, which to me was a... I was expecting Chandler to win that competition.
Starting point is 00:51:54 If Chandler thinks he can win the game's top five at the games, which a lot of people do, I wanted to see that dominance there from him. Instead, it was Saxon that was running the show from beginning to end of the weekend. I don't know if he's a top 10 game, but I think he can push for it. He's very consistent. He's very... And yeah, I mean, to me, this is a...
Starting point is 00:52:16 It's reflective of the fact that I really respect him as a net. And maybe two of the greatest training partners to ever be, you know, maybe the best training trio in games history. At least deserves an honorable mention, being that he's training with Scott and... His brother? Scott and... Spencer? Spencer.
Starting point is 00:52:43 What's wrong with you? Brian, when I stutter, you guys just throw something in there. Just throw a name in there. This is like ad libs. Spencer? Spencer? What's wrong with you? Brian, when I stutter, you guys just throw something in there. Just throw a name in there. This is like ad libs. I just wanted to watch you be uncomfortable for a second. That's what I was really trying to do. Let's show that we work well together.
Starting point is 00:52:57 You guys just, like, we can share each other's senses. Like, you know. Brian, there was one thing I missed here. You said he'd been to four games, but the only placements I heard you mention were 19th, 9th, and 21st. No, this will be his fourth. This will be his fourth. This will be his fourth. Okay, my bad. All right, I'd love to see him do well.
Starting point is 00:53:12 I'm interested in getting into him becoming a fan of Saxon's. I want to be a fan. Number 12. Lazar. Wow. Lazar wow he's one of the most fascinating men at the field for me this year he's 25 years old it'll be his first time competing at the games he in 2019 he qualified
Starting point is 00:53:35 as Serbia's national champion and turned down the opportunity to come because he felt like he wasn't ready a lot of people think that a lot of national champions they all showed up to compete anyway He was No he's a German throwdown Excuse me
Starting point is 00:53:50 But he Really really stands out to me And his resume is that In 20 seasons He was 11th and 5th The year that he was 5th in Dubai The podium was Roman Krennikoff BKKG, and then him.
Starting point is 00:54:08 He's a very good swimmer. He's very good aerobically. Very good on high-volume wall balls, rowing. He's won open workouts before. Gymnastics is not an issue for him. I actually don't know what an issue for him is, except for maybe like. Strength, but he's strong. I think he's very good.
Starting point is 00:54:32 I think he's poised to be in the conversation for, for rookie of the year this year, depending on a couple other placements on both the men's and women's side, really. And he's yeah. I mean, I could be way off on this one, but I, I think he's, I think he's up, but I think he's up there. The phrase pain cave hero popped in my head the way you described him. That this guy can go. Yeah, he knows how to hurt, how to fight, and he's tough. He's tough.
Starting point is 00:55:07 I'm happy he's in the field he's a type and i'm real i'm like i said i'm really excited to watch him compete this week outside of colton mertens i think the most confident person we've had on the podcast is number 11 samuel quanway and man i was i was in the top 10. I won't be surprised if he finds his way into the top 10, but I kind of... I need to... He... He was at the Atlas Games.
Starting point is 00:55:37 He was online. He was trying to compete live. I think he's... worldwide in the Open. Obviously, that's incredible. There was one year he competed there, and then he took 22nd at Mayhem. It was really, honestly, a pretty poor performance relative to what he expects of himself and what I would expect from him
Starting point is 00:55:54 this year. I think in the last couple years, he changed his training a little. Increased the volume, which sounds like it's a good thing. So I think he can make a push for the top 10 i'm just having to put him and uh from talking to him it my words not his it seems like he has gleaned gleaned gleaned some of the uh froning mojo that he he he wears that mayhem empire uh training with pride and that he'll have a lot to prove.
Starting point is 00:56:26 What will be interesting with him and Jason Hopper will be how they react, how their confidence will be influenced by events that don't go well. And that is going to be very interesting for Samuel and Hopper. Number 10, here we go. Well, before we get to number 10 10 james you had said basically that like in the beginning of this podcast that number to make it to the games you quoted the great sean woodland the voice of crossfit you had said that uh what did you say something about you don't know how you don't know how good you have to be to suck at the crossfit games yeah i think that's
Starting point is 00:57:03 what he said. Yeah. And then after that, you followed up with the top 20 is really like, I don't remember how you described it, but you were describing it as even more elite. Like, this is a crazy group of dudes. So do you have anything you want to say about these top 10 guys? Honestly, I just think it's the same thing. It's like they just don't falter. Like, everybody's always like, well, the game throws weird stuff in there,
Starting point is 00:57:26 and it's just like those top guys don't falter on the weird stuff. Brian's gone. Oh, show's over. Good. I've got to take my second P of the show. Yeah, that was always – unless you had someone like – I mean, even with like you look at Matt and that top 10, they're separated by like when they get into those events,
Starting point is 00:57:42 just small little differences. The Margs of Error are really small, and it little differences. The Marg Zavera are really small. And it's just like the big stuff doesn't trip them up. You know, people look at events like, oh, I haven't been training that. And, you know, they just, you know, maybe they get a tenth on the weird swim or the Husafelt stone or the Totobar run. But it's like that stuff doesn't throw them out that much. It's just crazy how broad their fitness level is. How's that, Dwayne?
Starting point is 00:58:07 I just cleaned my glasses. Someone commented, my OCD really wants to clean someone's glasses. It sucks because I'm using my T-shirt too and I'm scratching the shit out of them. I like that shirt. Thank you. And number one, Brian, we did 10 through 9. And number one is… Yeah we did 10 through 9. And number one is? Yeah, tell me who it is.
Starting point is 00:58:29 Number 10, Yana Kosky. Where did you go, Brian? Where did you go? The Internet Hotel just stopped working, so I. Did you panic or were you cool about it? Were you just like, oh, it doesn't matter if it's live. Were you cool or did you panic? I broke my external monitor.
Starting point is 00:58:45 I stubbed my toe. Number 10, Janikowski. A lot of people think Janikowski can actually podium this year or finish top five and improve and have his best performance ever at the Games. I am a huge fan of Janikowski. He's phenomenal. And I think pound for pound, size for size, one of the best CrossFit athletes in the modern era. I just have a suspicion he's not healthy.
Starting point is 00:59:11 And that's kind of been his MO in the last couple years. He's just always just not quite there. And like James said, like being the best means that you have to be able to perform at the best. And I've seen some pictures and videos that his girlfriend's posted recently and he's all taped up, his shoulders all taped up, and it's just like, man, I want to see this guy at 100% without any injuries coming to the games. And I don't know that we're going to get that this year from him.
Starting point is 00:59:35 I had him a little higher originally, but something just tells me that he's not at full capacity. And when you see the rest of the guys on this list, I mean, you got to have it all weekend long if you want to beat these guys. when you see the rest of the guys on this list, I mean, you've got to have it all weekend long if you want to beat these guys. Didn't he pull out of the games once? That was in 2016. I think he was...
Starting point is 00:59:54 They'd gone to the ranch. They did the events there. And then the next day, they only had one event. It was an ocean swim. 500-meter ocean swim. And he's the best swimmer in the field. So he did that workout, cashed $3,000, and then withdrew from the event but he's got this is his seventh time competing at the games he's finished inside the top 10 three different times so but the other three times he was 37th 40th and 32nd so he's got the most up and down games resume that you can have really
Starting point is 01:00:20 even years right is? Is that crushing? No, no. I was just trying to see it as a pattern. Yeah. If this is a good year or bad year, one of the most difficult things to see when you're down there close to these athletes is when they pull out of the game. So when the media is down there with athletes and someone pulls out,
Starting point is 01:00:39 it is brutal. You haven't, you're almost too close to something that is very, very painful because nobody wants to pull out. How do you win the $10,000 from Reebok for the swim event? You got to get the Reebok flippers. You wear shoes, man. You wear some Reeboks.
Starting point is 01:01:02 What are the rules on that? Can you wear shoes in the water or you have to be barefoot? It's probably – I bet there's a rule that says you have to be barefoot. Me too. I hope that there's a finish line right afterwards and that Yonikoski just puts a pair of Reeboks outside the water. I don't even know. He might be sponsored by another. And he just gets out, slips them on, and runs across the finish line wearing them. That would be cool.
Starting point is 01:01:21 Dude, that would be brilliant. across the finish line wearing that would be good that would be brilliant or or what what if like you're just you're another at let's say you're a noble or whoop or whatever the other shoe companies are and you and you and you and you and you win and you win and you know you're ahead someone should you should all everyone should do that just carry a pair of reeboks out there with them and then at the last minute throw on the Reeboks if they're up enough. Number nine. This is getting good, Brian. Yeah, this is where we're starting to get into it.
Starting point is 01:01:54 This is where people are going to hate you. Yep, perfect. I got your back. That's a man, Chandler Smith. My God, great photo ryan chandler smith phenomenal uh phenomenal athlete obviously ton of potential two years game is experienced both were the last two years so he barely misses the cut in 2019 finishes in 15th we don't get to see him finish the weekend 2020 online online version misses by one spot and less than a handful of points.
Starting point is 01:02:26 I think it was maybe two or three points of making it to the final five. So he's got a sixth and a 15th on his resume, but he's never done more than seven events in one game season. At the Granite Games, like I said, I was looking for him to win that and win it emphatically against what I considered to be the weakest semifinal field in North America. He did not. He took second to Zach Zempanchik.
Starting point is 01:02:46 But he's competed at Rogue both years, and he's got a fourth and a fifth place finish at Rogue. That's when Fraser was in the field. We know Fraser's not in the field, so that's a relative third and fourth place finish. And guys, the really good guys show up to that competition. But I think that this year's games field is stronger than either of the Rogue fields that year.
Starting point is 01:03:03 I think a top ten finish would be expected for Chandler. And pretty much every spot up the ladder from 10th is a good accomplishment for him. If he finishes inside the top 5, I think he's got a narrow range of finishes, like 6 to 10. I think top 5 would be tough for him, but I think he's a pretty good bet for a top 10 finish. What number game is this for him? Third in a row. So after this year, could he make, I don't remember seeing him in your all-time best list.
Starting point is 01:03:35 Yeah, yeah. So after this year, maybe we'll consider it. I think we'll have to run that back at some point after this year because I think a lot is riding on this year for a lot of guys. Okay. So he wasn't on your list correct okay sorry i'm texting texting and podcasting at the same time um number eight cole sager yeah and this is also his eighth year at the games he's 30 years old he's one of these guys that's 30 plus that has a chance to get on the podium this year.
Starting point is 01:04:06 I do believe that he could have his best season at the games if everything goes right for him. Especially the notable thing to me is he's beaten Noah Olsen the last two times that they lined up in competition against each other, which was this year at the West Coast Classic and then the last time that we had Wadapalooza, where he actually tied Vellner on points and lost on a tiebreaker. time that we had wadapalooza where he actually tied velner on points and lost on a tiebreaker and there's very very few people who have ever beaten velner in a live competition outside of the 2019 games so cole has the potential to hang with the best in the world and beat some of the best in the world obviously noah was second one year and he was in the top five last year so when i say that we're getting into the thick of it here and i talk about guys like yonakoski
Starting point is 01:04:42 and samuel cornway and saying like if they want to have their best finish ever, these are the caliber of athletes that they're going to have to beat. Um, Cole has very few weaknesses. He's incredibly mentally tough. He knows how to navigate the weekend of the games, having done it many times in the past. And he's the type of guy who usually gets better as the weekend goes on. So look for Cole to be inside the top 10. I've got them at eight. Is this Chandler's training with Ben Bergeron now, right? Yep.
Starting point is 01:05:07 So they're on the same contingency, the same, same team, so to speak this year. Is this, is this Chandler's first competition since he's been training with Bergeron? Well, granted Atlas games,
Starting point is 01:05:19 a grant game. Sorry. And, and how did he do there? Second, we took first Saxon Pancheck okay god you and then brian you're talking to me like i should memorize that shit i know sorry you were just trying to create conversation i'm just fired up i just you know brian did say that was the weakest um qualifying event
Starting point is 01:05:40 which is devastating you don't think chandler smith was just sort of like doing that thing where you know he's this is a good point this is a good point because bergeron's athletes in general in general always prepare for the games and expect to make the games so when when talking about any of his athletes you have to to keep in mind that their relative fitness could be a lot better now than it was six weeks ago. He seems to be very good at prepping them for that. There's some athletes, I don't want to use the word cursed, but I just, I don't know what the word is. Cursed is way too strong. but I just don't think as much as I would love to see Chandler do well
Starting point is 01:06:26 and Koski do well I just for some reason don't think I just don't see it I see them as So you think these are good places for him or do you think I have him too high? Yeah, no, no, no I think
Starting point is 01:06:36 to be honest with you I think everything you've done so far is amazing from my limited knowledge locked up in the three-plane brothers empire in palatial estate um okay number seven justin medeiros the young the young lad yeah so justin medeiros skyrocketed our podcast ratings justin thank you justin medeiros obviously phenomenal guy he's also the technically the defending champion frazier's out and quant out, so he's the highest finishing place ranking
Starting point is 01:07:06 man from last year's games. This is only his second time competing at the games, and if you look at his resume of live competition, he goes back to regionals. As a young teenager, he placed in the teens in California Regional two times. He went to Guadalupalooza.
Starting point is 01:07:22 He was 17th. He went to Granite Games. He was fourth. He was in line to win that competition, but he didn't really know how to maneuver a sandbag well, just lack of experience. He shows up at Filthy 150, they kick off the Sanctionals, and he wins it, and he beats some great athletes there,
Starting point is 01:07:37 Roman Krennikoff and Sean Sweeney and Tim Paulson and Will Morad, and suddenly Tommy Marquez had Medeiros pegged as one to watch for two years prior to that, and obviously with good reason. What's the light on for? What's going on? We're at number seven with Brian and Hobart.
Starting point is 01:07:56 Hey, I just called to tell you next time, don't fucking do that again. Next time you do a podcast, please stay focused, man. Don't answer. Don't ask me about friends. Don't ask me't don't answer don't ask me about friends don't ask me about fucking family don't ask me about anything but the games stay focused all right so you're blaming me for why our podcast went shitty earlier today you got one chance you get one more chance i'm gonna give you one podcast tomorrow and if you fuck it up you're not gonna get any more during the game i'll give you to the i'll give him the fucking buttery rose oh wow buttery the buttery castro
Starting point is 01:08:30 uh you know what i like about dave is he's really big on second chances yeah that's good no he's normally isn't big on second chance i think he shit the bed on the podcast today he was i think he was mean me, and he feels bad. And instead of taking responsibility for it, he's blaming me. I like that. Okay, sorry, Brian. Number seven, Medeiros. What's interesting here is that there could be a contradiction we're hearing. He's the number one contender.
Starting point is 01:08:59 You're saying he's the best dude in the field in one way, you're saying, because of his placement last year, but then you have him placed at number seven. That's right. So in a way, you're either saying that the other guys got so much better or he got worse or that you're fanboying and there's guys you like better than him. No, none of that. I can appreciate all of those sentiments and attempts to bring me down but no it's none of those things i think he's improved and i think all the guys ahead of him have improved and i think that you know he's gonna do well this week i just don't think he's gonna
Starting point is 01:09:36 beat any of these next six guys some guy wrote um paul paul i heard you by the way some guy named paul fendler you didn't answer the question, said, fuck Dave Castro. So then I can right click like shit to do to him. I can make him a moderator or I can hide this user or I can even put him on a timeout. Put him on a timeout. I can remove him. I can report. It's so funny.
Starting point is 01:10:03 No, just time out of them a little bit. James, do you think I've missed the boat with Medeiros here? Do you think he's better than this? No, I'm just getting a vibe on how I feel like you discount last year's performance by somewhere around like 30% to 40%. Like if you competed last year and where you finished, you get like a 30% discount on last year. That's a fair thing to say. And honestly, it might even be more than that. The 30% could just come from the fact that the field was 30 instead of 40,
Starting point is 01:10:32 and there's a quarter of the field missing. It could come from the fact that 10 guys who would usually be at the games hadn't had a chance to qualify for the games yet because COVID canceled the season. It could come from the fact that it was an online competition. We've never had an online competition at the games yet because COVID canceled the season. It could come from the fact that it was an online competition. We've never had an online competition at the games before, and there were only seven events. And it's been 10 years since, or 11 years since we've had a games with that few number of events to prove yourselves. Obviously in some of those years there were cuts, but all of those things can combine to say that I'm not taking away from the guys who placed that. They earned
Starting point is 01:11:02 that spot last year, given the circumstances circumstances they had the same circumstances as everyone else once making the games and they outperformed them i want to see what those guys maderos and adler can do this year against a full field and a more robust test i think that's i think that's fair for maderos you do and like i yeah i do i do i think he's um super well-rounded and i don't think he's going anywhere in the sport and it's like if he finishes seventh this year next year he finishes fifth like i don't i don't think it's like you know i think there are some athletes where you're just gonna who have been competing a while they're gonna do well but they're just you know if they kept competing they're gonna be 19th or 20th for a very long time but i think you know he's one of
Starting point is 01:11:43 those guys where he's i really think he's only going to get better. Let me share you a quick stat about him. He was 73rd worldwide in the Open this year. He had 1,440 points. On 21.4, he had 1,367 points.
Starting point is 01:12:00 So he does have a hole in his game. It's strength relative to the best in the world. And we haven't seen anything announced yet that's really testing strength in the capacity that he struggles in. So there's a lot of events here that he's doing well. But I'm expecting him to get to do all 15 events. And I'm expecting three or four of those events where he'll have relatively worse finishes than the next six guys we're about to say on their worst events. Would you be surprised if Justin Medeiros won the games? I included Justin Medeiros as one of the four people who I think actually has a chance to win the games.
Starting point is 01:12:35 And I did that because he's in the category of I don't know how good he is yet because I haven't seen him in a competition like this. Based on his previous competitions, he's shown capacity to win events and to win competitions and to excel in competitions. He's very young. I still think he's getting better. He's got a great relationship with his coach, Adam Knifeford, who has a ton of experience.
Starting point is 01:12:54 He's got Matt Fraser in his corner. He's been able to train with him and learn some lessons from him this year. There are a ton of good things pushing towards Medeiros having the potential to eventually win the games. I think it's too soon this year, but I did include him in my top four good things pushing towards maderos having the potential to eventually win the games i think it's too soon this year but i did include him in my top four in terms of the possibility of winning the games his hair haircut his ass do you think i agree with you do you think matt's conveying any
Starting point is 01:13:18 real technical information that's beneficial or is it more of just like having someone like matt frazier say to you hey man, man, you're really good. I believe in you. You can do this. That really pumps athletes up. Or do you think he's really giving them some special secret sauce about the weekend? I got to be super transparent here. I haven't spent enough time with the elite athletes having conversations like that
Starting point is 01:13:38 to know if Frazier actually knows things and figured things out that other people didn't. But I think that it's fair to say that Fraser is as good as anyone has ever been at seeing a workout and maximizing his potential within that workout. And if he's able to give Medeiros a couple clues here and there, hey, when this thing pops up in a long workout and is rowing, this is one, two things that I do that I don't think a lot of guys are doing. I think you can give them some tips like that. Yeah. Let's ask you that question back Hobart. I mean, you trained with the best in the biz. Was it, was, was, was froning where you, was he giving you, um, uh, advice on strategy, tactics, training, et cetera, whatever the components are that would
Starting point is 01:14:24 make you a better athlete. Or was it primarily like you're in the presence of greatness and it's, it's, you're getting it through osmosis? I mean, honestly, I think it was a little bit 50, 50. I learned a ton just from like watching. I don't feel like I, if we ever sat down and talked about like workout strategy about things, but you definitely learned, you learned, you learned more from watching how they trained than I think you did on how they competed. Number six. I like the tension it builds before the slide flips.
Starting point is 01:15:02 It kills me. Ooh, EKG. before the slide flips. It kills me. Ooh. EKG. Björkman Carl Gumundsson, one of the most consistent games athletes ever, really. I mean, eighth, third, fifth, fifth, eighth, third. Those are his last six games appearances. Prior to that, he had his rookie season 26th.
Starting point is 01:15:22 Crazy. He was... Oh my God, did I read the wrong thing? There's no one to fact check you. Oh, that's so funny. Facebook is not tracking this. Okay, this is funny. This is actually kind of funny.
Starting point is 01:15:39 So the stats that I gave for Medeiros on 21.4 were actually BKG's stats, but Medeiros' stats were almost identical in the fact that he had less than 100 points on the other three workouts and then 1,168 on that workout. So BKG also had this really outlier bad performance on the lifting event. Now we know he's not that strong. The reason why I don't have BKG any higher than this, and I fear that he may actually possibly do worse than this, and I fear that he may actually possibly do worse than this, is I'm not convinced he's 100%. He did win his semifinal, but he didn't have a good performance relative to other people who did the semifinals, some of whom are on the list ahead of him here. If he's healthy, he's a podium threat. He's done it twice before. He's a podium threat. He's done it twice before. He's incredibly good. He's incredibly consistent.
Starting point is 01:16:25 He has, like, there was one year where, I think it was 2018, where his worst finish on the weekend was 21st. It was his only finish outside the top 20, and it was on the clean and jerk speed ladder where he missed advancing to the round of 20 by, like, a tenth of a second. And all the guys were super close because the barbells were relatively light, and it was just about execution and jumping over the bar and maybe which foot crossed the line first. So when you're talking about a guy who can compete against 40 of the best and finish in the top half on every
Starting point is 01:16:54 single workout, that's a guy that can podium at the games because he also has the potential to do really well on some workouts. So if he's healthy, he could do better than this. I'm suspicious of the fact that he's not at his optimal form this year. And so sixth is where I have him, understanding that that could be plus or minus three based on his health. I'm disgusted by that lollipop in his mouth. He still has that same picture of him up there? Number five, Paul Fendler. Number five, Paul Fendler. Paul Fendul fendler now paul fendler is
Starting point is 01:17:27 an interesting guy because i don't know him oh sorry uh number five oh i love it there's our boy scott panchik holding down the top five your boy he's not okay before i say anything i would just i just put bkg i mean i get the hell thing but i just i think bkg is back on holding down the top five. Your boy. Okay, before I say anything, Jake. I just put BKG high. I mean, I get the health thing, but I think BKG is back on the podium this year. But, you know, what do I know? And you think this is a good spot for Panchuk, or am I wrong? No, this is a great spot for Scott Panchuk.
Starting point is 01:18:03 He's abusing Scott because of your placement at bkg scott's just a scapegoat yep when we get to the podium james let me know who bkg is going to be on the podium instead of but uh in the meantime and maybe you maybe you'll think i've got multiple people on the podium run in the meantime scott panchick yeah the i mean he is one of the ambassadors of crossfit 10 years at the games the top six, seven different times at the Games. It's an incredible, incredible resume. Never on the podium. I know there are a ton of people pushing and hoping that he'll get on the podium this year.
Starting point is 01:18:35 I kind of think this is actually the best version of Scott Padanchik we've ever seen this season. I think that one of the best things that happened for him was going team and learning from Rich in that off season. Rich used to be obviously a huge competitor of his and people can maybe remember. And if they can't remember, they should go back and watch that epic battle that they had at central east regional. I think that was 2014 where Scott was like nipping at his heels on event after event after event. And Rich has rarely been pushed like that in competition. Scott has a tremendous capacity tremendous strength tremendous experience to draw on he's a threat in this competition without a doubt he'll think that this is his best chance to podium rightfully so i don't think it's out
Starting point is 01:19:15 of the realm of possibility i just think that the four guys that i have ahead of him are better than him and i'm gonna do it as simple as that i'm gonna do a bias vote here even though i'm a huge bkg fan i think um not enough people talk about this i know the sports the sport but like scott started an awesome grassroots competition that's crossfit sanctioned he's a big affiliate guy um he's an amazing athlete he's super nice like he's just the kind of athlete you want on the podium for a million reasons um pat sherwood once said to me, he said, I met, I've met great athletes. I've met, what did he say? Very cool people are very good people. He says, you rarely meet people who are, you know, great performers and good people. And I think, you know, you want
Starting point is 01:19:54 more Scott panchecks in the games field on the podium. I will say that you would be hard pressed to find anyone who could talk shit about Scott. If won the CrossFit Games this year. He took first place. I think pretty much everyone would be happy. Number four. I gotta get your reactions here before I say anything. I like it, man. James?
Starting point is 01:20:28 Who is it? It's Noah Olson. His confidence is skyrocketing. Is that because of his performance in spite of the year he's had? Or like the sacrifices? I mean, he said this is the hardest he's ever pushed for this year, the most he's given up for this year. I read in a recent Instagram post.
Starting point is 01:20:45 I might be paraphrasing, but. I'm going to just tell you real quick right now, his body gets in the top five, too. I think I have five now. No one else better have it. No, no, you're at four. You're at four. You've still got one to go.
Starting point is 01:20:55 I would sell vital parts of my anatomy to have Noah Olsen's torso put on my legs, man. Before I talk about Noah, Savan, I'm impressed. We've got three guys to go, and you still have one guy left in your top five. You're doing really, really well. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Noah Olsen.
Starting point is 01:21:12 Noah Olsen. Similar to Scott and BKG, he's been around for a while. This is his eighth year at the Games, and you'll see most of these guys I have in the top ten have a lot of experience. And I think on the men's side, the experience is still going to carry this year um yeah noah wasn't 100 going into the semi-final i already talked about how he was unable to beat cole sager there he was unable to beat cole sager at guadalupalooza but noah is this type of guy to me that he knows how to prep for the games and he knows how to bring just to step up his level a little bit more at
Starting point is 01:21:45 the games than anything else if you look at his sanctional finishes third third third 11th and eighth it's not it's it's not great for a guy who has games finishes of second fourth sixth fourth eighth eighth and eighth so he does better at the games than outside competitions and that's why i think that despite not winning the west coast classic he'll beat cole this weekend and be pushing for the podium. I have him missing it by one spot. I know a lot of people think he can podium. I know a lot of people think he can win.
Starting point is 01:22:11 I think he's going to be right there knocking on the door. But I see Noah fourth. Hobart, what do you think about this? By the way, there's a lot of great comments in the chat. Thank you guys for doing that. This is an interesting comment. Some guy named Chris said, sorry sorry he gets in his own way and i kind of feel that i feel like noah has everything to win like i i'm i'm not saying
Starting point is 01:22:34 he's jinxed or that he's just like a complete fucking you know shit show and like but i mean you know the most obvious is when he dumped the wheelbarrow or the year he came out in one of those final events too hot. I mean, the guy has everything, right? He does, yeah. I mean, he's good in the water. He can run. He's at least in the top half of everything. He can lift.
Starting point is 01:23:01 Gymnastics is great. He can win events. He's excellent. His execution is good. He does have this event every year where it seems like he doesn't just leave some points on the table, but leaves like a ton of points on the table and costs himself. I mean, just listed off his event finishes six times in the top eight, I think I said, but those could all have been a little bit better if he hadn't had those just minor little hiccups and slip ups here and there. And you just wonder for a guy who's getting ready to come to the games for his eighth time, like, when are you going to figure out that you don't
Starting point is 01:23:33 have to win round one of the workout? You need to win the workout, you know? So I'm hopeful that this year he's going to turn that corner and'll he won't have that slip up of an event even if he doesn't i'm not sure he can beat any of the top three guys obart i'd like to hear your thoughts on strategy mental prep the non-tangibles i don't know i'm thinking through it though i've always been a big admirer of his progress as an individual athlete you know second i agree on the on the because, you know, it does seem like he comes out way too hot early on. You know what I wonder with Noah and, like, you know, he's got the whole, like, happy but hungry kind of thing. And Noah always seems really positive in interviews.
Starting point is 01:24:19 And I wonder if he needs to, like, just turn that nasty up a little bit. You know, like, hey, I don't love all my fellow competitors that much right now. And maybe he doesn't when he's out. I imagine when he's on the floor, he doesn't feel that way. But maybe he's got to look left and right a little more often and be like, I got to smash him. I'm going to pace with him. I'm going to blast that guy out of the water. You know, like, I don't know.
Starting point is 01:24:40 I've seen him have that ferocity before some events, but I don't think he has it before every event. And I think that you're right. He needs to come into this competition aggressive. And not aggressive in the sense of blowing up on the first round of a workout aggressive, but aggressive in the point, in the force of, I want to beat you, every one of you, and carry that mindset through for five days.
Starting point is 01:25:06 Yeah, like every event he's looking and like, hey, knock that guy out great he's down i'm gonna go knock that guy out you know like and and i've never really i don't know noah that well so i've never sat down and talked to him about it you know i'm sure he has some of that because you're not that successful without it but um i don't know um one year in carson i don't know. way more like happy and cracking jokes back there. So there is definitely a fine line, you know, I mean, I don't think that he is a legit veteran and I, and I know he's tried a lot of different tactics and working on himself to, to get in the best, not only physical, but mental mindset. There's no point to what I'm saying. Just adding another data point. Number three. Jason Hopper.
Starting point is 01:26:13 That's what I'm guessing. I guess. Wow. Wow. I'm surprised you put Fikowski ahead of Hopper. That means you think that Fikowski is past his prime and is getting old. What? Not at all, no.
Starting point is 01:26:32 I think Fikowski is primed to dominate the competition this weekend. And honestly, the more events I find out about, the more comfortable I feel with this pick and even the potential to do better than this. I feel with this pick and even the potential to do better than this. He is amongst the best we've ever seen in live competition. Honestly, with the exception of the 2019 season, when he showed up for a live competition, he is lethal.
Starting point is 01:26:58 He is a force to be reckoned with. In sanctionals, he was first, first, and second at the three he went to. He's a three-time regional winner. His first three years at the Games, he was fourth, second, and fourth. This guy is a force to be reckoned with in live competition. He's a force to be reckoned with at the games. I have, where Hobart says I maybe emphasize or de-emphasize performances from the last year or two. In that case, I'm literally throwing out his finishes from 2019 and 2020
Starting point is 01:27:23 because they are such big outliers relative to everything else he's ever done. I think he is extremely focused, extremely dialed in. I don't think he's, I think he's making the types of life choices and sacrifices this year that Fraser talked about making that people thought were like, wow, he was really going to extremes to make sure he was in the best possible shape
Starting point is 01:27:42 to win the CrossFit games. I think Vukowski will see this. If he ever saw this ranking of third, I think he would say, I intend to do a hell of a lot better than third. I think he is showing up this weekend with the purpose, focus, intent,
Starting point is 01:27:53 and ultimate goal to win the CrossFit games. I wouldn't be surprised if he does, but I'm putting him third because I think the other two guys, I just think the other two guys are a little bit better. I think that Brent Vikowski has something that, um, I can't, I can't say about every athlete. That's huge.
Starting point is 01:28:14 He will fight to the death. Every workout he can do poorly and come back strong. He can not be doing well, be down, you know, at the games and come back strong i don't think he ever sees himself out of it i think mentally he is i don't know if it's mentally he's strong but he's so calculated maybe whatever the reason is i don't know i don't know what the process is
Starting point is 01:28:38 or what the procedure he has going on in his brain but he never counts himself out and that's what makes him very dangerous and we know rich froning also had that, that he was, I don't know if we ever had to see Matt deal with that, but definitely he, he he's in it to win it. No matter what he's not, he's, he's, uh, he's always a threat. If he's on the floor, he's a threat. When you say in it to win it, it turns out he has more event wins at the CrossFit games than anyone else in the field this year,
Starting point is 01:29:03 despite not having as much experience as some of these other top guys he his first year at the games he won four events i'm not 100 sure on this but i think there's only i think there's only three guys in the history of the games that have ever won four events in one games and the other two guys have also won at least four titles at the crossfit games and and this is going to sound kind of maybe stupid but it's like there i think there are so many people in crossfit games and and this is going to sound kind of maybe stupid but it's like there i think there are so many people in crossfit who compete make it to the games that are fit and they're like in the gym fit but then it's like they're just not great competitors in the sense of like there's just something different about being at the games with the best you know
Starting point is 01:29:41 zero zero zero one percent in front of judge, in front of fans with all that stress. And it's like Fikowski is just someone who's amazing at handling and taking all that stuff and doing something good with it. And there are so many super fit people that I would probably beat Brent in, you know, online competitions or a hundred out of, you know, or, you know, a hundred out of 101 workouts in the gym, but you flip the lights on, you know, in the, in the Coliseum. And he's like, I'm just going to wreck your world, man. There's just not, you know, there's just people like that. I don't know what that is. You know, it's a million different things. The other thing that's amazing about Fikowski is some of the
Starting point is 01:30:17 people at the games that win multiple events of the games, they win the same kind of events over and over. They've got three wins at the games. They were all swimming events. They've got three wins at the games. They were all running events. Check this out. Fikowski's got a win in run, swim, run. That's a long grinding endurance event. He also has a win in 100%, which was a lightning fast box jump over, D-ball over the sandbag or over the shoulder sprint event
Starting point is 01:30:41 and under the lights at the tennis stadium at the games where everyone was neck and neck. And all of a sudden it's Fikowski that comes out and wins the event. Rope chipper. He was at the back. He's the middle of the pack, pulls the sled better than anyone else to win. Strong man's fear clips,
Starting point is 01:30:53 Matt Fraser by less than a second to win that event. Ranch mini chipper in the dust of a Roma's third day. After a long travel day, he runs up the hill at the wall ball faster than anyone. Climbing snail, odd object, weird implement, hot rope climbs and running, wins this event.
Starting point is 01:31:08 He's won in every time domain. He's won with all the nuanced things that show up at the games. He could snatch over 300 pounds, so he's going to do well in the lifting event. Maybe he won't do great on handstand walk and running event, but give me the generalist over the specialist at the games, and especially when the generalist can also excel in several different time domains and weird kind of stuff that we only see at the games. Do you want to move Fikowski? Do you hear that?
Starting point is 01:31:31 In the dust of Aromis. Do you hear that little artistic, like, bam. Brian, his game is up right now. Too much time on talking elite fitness is making him smarter. That was so good. But here's the deal. All that nice stuff said, and he's still not beating jason hopper boom wow brian friend well let's go to number two throwing haymakers i think number two makes brian so uncomfortable i think this is like
Starting point is 01:32:00 this is like brian like this is like brian like when he got the first time he had a car and he wanted to see how fast it could go. He's really… And I was like, 80, 85. Oh, my God. This is really bizarre and uncomfortable for you, I think. That's my feeling about you putting Jason Hopper at number two. The reason that it's uncomfortable for me… It's like buying a fucking lotto ticket.
Starting point is 01:32:23 It's like buying a lotto ticket and you're not the kind of guy who buys a lot of tickets. Fair. And that's the reason why it thing, it would be uncomfortable for me is because I don't have a long laundry list of accolades to list off for why Hopper deserves a rank, a ranking like this. Instead, I'm going almost on the opposite end of the spectrum and saying once in a
Starting point is 01:32:41 while, a guy comes around that just has it. And I don't know if i'm right but i feel like this is the next guy that just has something that you can't teach i cannot get over what not not it wasn't his results at the mid-atlantic he won half the events there scott panchik was there justin maderos was there travis mayor was there these guys are incredible he wasn't just beating them. He would finish workouts.
Starting point is 01:33:07 They'd be 10 to 30 seconds behind him, come across dying and rolling around on the floor in agony. And he was just standing there like, I'm supposed to be here. It was eerily impressive. And I can't ignore it. I can't ignore the way in which he was winning and the way in which he was executing. He's a young guy with relatively little experience who was letting people like Medeiros and Pancik and Travis Williams get out in front. And he just reeled them in and methodically beat them over and over again. Besides those three event wins, he was second, second, and eighth.
Starting point is 01:33:40 And the eighth place was in Gretel, which he made a mistake in the competition and still was only 16 seconds away from winning that event too i think um go ahead i think hopper has two crazy things going for him intangibles i think he thrives under pressure thrives and i think he's a fucking crowd freak. I think when the crowd, when he goes out there and feels that energy from that crowd, he will suck it all off of him. I think he really knows how to perform live. I think he even blows himself away. I think he surprises himself. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying he's not a nervous wreck like the rest of the guys.
Starting point is 01:34:23 himself don't get me wrong i'm not saying he's not a nervous wreck like the rest of the guys but i think the second it's the second it's go time i think that i think he loves the pressure yeah uh let me rephrase that i don't think he loves the pressure i think he knows he flourishes under pressure so he's willing to deal with the uncomfortableness of it and then two i think he really really appreciates the crowd like Like, really appreciates them. Any thoughts on Hopper Hobart? I got a couple more. No, I actually, I want to get caught up on, I got to re-watch the,
Starting point is 01:34:54 I didn't watch the entire Mid-Atlantic, so now we're where you're putting it. I'm going to watch it and give it a nice hard, you know, under the microscope this weekend. But, I mean, the last time I've heard people, so Patrick Cummmings who was a videographer for again faster way back when came up from a southeastern whatever semi-final sanctional you know years ago and said hey there's this guy rich froning and the way he's beating everybody and i was like whatever pat like you know who is this you know richard froning you
Starting point is 01:35:22 know whoever this guy is ronnie i remember that and then and you know and, you know, whoever this guy is. And then, and you know, and then, you know, Rich did everything he did. And, you know, Fraser was the same way, Northeast regional, everybody was like, you got to watch out for this guy, Matt. And, you know, finished second, the first couple of years, the games and the way he would beat people was exactly like you're talking about, like he would win. And he was kind of like, all right, that was really cool. And everyone else would be just left. They had to kill themselves to get second. So, I mean, I've heard, you know, I've seen this with other athletes before. So if I trust anyone, I trust you. Well, and I mean, yeah, and that's, that's right. And we've talked, Dave said he was impressed by
Starting point is 01:35:57 him. I talked to the buttery bros, they trained with him. They're like, man, this guy's good. And I have a Fraser said, this guy's good. And have uh fraser said this guy's good and you know that's some pretty high praise he definitely has some questions to answer and i've talked to him about it before i think that the biggest obstacle for him this year is when something doesn't go his way how does he recover from that and if he's able to because it's the games something's not going to go your way and if you if that doesn't disrupt him from doing what he set out here to do, if he can overcome that and handle that, I feel confident that he can be that next. Forget about the next guy.
Starting point is 01:36:32 I feel like he can be right there in the mix this year. That's exciting. That's so exciting. Yeah, I would say he's kind of like Noah. He's got a lot of control over his uh where other people have to do need to maybe worry about the other athletes i think hopper and noah as long as they stay in their game we're gonna see some crazy shit number one matt fraser there are some funny comments by the way you guys are killing it
Starting point is 01:37:01 in the youtube comments i love it so give us what's something good because i said he's sucking energy off the ground off the crowd some guy responded sucking off the crowd could be considered bribery the kind of childish immature shit that i would say put that person in it can you do something opposite of a timeout can you like boost make him a make him a moderator yeah like pin his comment um number one no no surprise here for a variety of reasons if you listen to brian talk he obviously the people who are the better crossfitters get more time out of his mouth we know how great patrick bellner is but for some reason brian thinks that this is his time to shine and he has said a lot of nice stuff about the people in the top 10 actually a lot of nice stuff about people in the top 38
Starting point is 01:37:51 why velner brian because uh outside of fraser and fikowski no one's beaten him in five years in a live competition where he's been able to finish the competition. I think he's healthier than he's ever been. I think he's happier in his life than he's ever been. I think he's, he's so, he told us he's a little bit bummed out that Fraser's not here because he wanted to beat him. You know,
Starting point is 01:38:15 I think he always held on to a little bit of hope that he could, but I think that he's wise enough and mature enough to say he's not here. And, you know, for me, this is Vellner's opportunity. I'm not saying that these guys can't beat him, but I'm saying he's the guy to beat. And until someone beats him here at the games this year,
Starting point is 01:38:36 I feel comfortable saying he's the favorite. And if you're their favorite, you get number one on my pre-event rankings. What I think is cool about Vellner, like everyone will get out there and say like, hey, you know, I'd love to take a shot at Matt Fraser, but I don't think a lot of people would be like, hey, I'd like to take a shot at the champ and then let the champ hit me back. You know, I think Vellner has that. And he's never been afraid of saying like, why couldn't I beat Matt Fraser? Like, which I think with his fitness level and his pedigree is dangerous. So it'd be very cool to see him win this year and definitely possible.
Starting point is 01:39:08 I agree with you 100%. That's what I was going to say, Hobart, too, not as eloquently as you, but I think he means it when he says he wanted – you feel from Pat that he wants to beat the best guy, and I think that that's indicative of how good he thinks he is and the work he's put in. So it's hard to argue. Oh, you're getting just tore up in the comments, though, Brian.
Starting point is 01:39:34 I can't say that I don't. It hurts me. Tell me, tell me. Brian loves Pat. Brian is biased. We all know it. Yeah, but maybe he is but like who who beats velner everyone in the comments you know that's what i want to hear right and it's fair for them
Starting point is 01:39:51 to say that but on the other hand it doesn't take away anything from the fact that like he's his results speak for themselves why don't you guys put in the comments who would you guys who do you think is going to win yeah what's weird is is that the only other person yeah who do you guys think is going to win i mean ron sutton says panchick fukowski velner will podium but but who's going to beat velner it's a really good question when you just look at him and then you start pulling guys up and putting them next to him who is going to beat him he only shows up for the best competitions first at wadappalooza both years. First at Rogue, second at Rogue to Fraser,
Starting point is 01:40:28 and second to Fikowski at Dubai. Those are the most recent relevant competitions that he's competed in. In the three years he's been able to finish the games, he's been on the podium every year. I'm friends with Pat, great, but he's also the best guy in the field. And until someone beats him, he's going to stay up there at the top for me. And someone, CrossFit West Oahu said a very interesting point. You could, maybe you could also say about Vellner. Vellner, you, and you can't say fraser would definitely beat him there are some guys
Starting point is 01:41:06 in that top 40 list that you could say top 38 list hey we'll fucking dust fraser off right now from his bodybuilding routine and probably you'd bet on matt you could um velner is you can't you can't can't just say that matt would just crush velner although sam well thinks that broning can i find that fascinating absolutely well sam sam cornway said that he could be i believe him himself so yeah that's a lot of confidence and and i do believe but when sam well says that that rich is the fittest man walking the planet right now there's a uh at least 51 of me that it's really hard not to think that it's really hard i mean i know i have a lot of bias just because i was in i was watching the sport so closely when he won four events but four games but man i don't know
Starting point is 01:42:13 what don't you know no it's break time break time i'm hungry i knew it i'm hungry okay guys we are going to take a two minute break i'm going to take my 18th p of the show and uh we will be back with the women's placement one through 40 at the 2021 CrossFit Games. Thanks for tuning in. We're out. Back in two minutes. Three minutes.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.