The Sevan Podcast - #91 - Sam Stewart

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

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We can book your reservation. And when you get to the main event skip to the good bit using the card member entrance let's go seize the night that's the powerful backing of american express visit amex.ca slash y amex benefits vary by card other conditions apply uh just the video but i think you don't you don't need to look at me anyway you're not missing out just stare at your own picture the entire time oh where are you sam uh i'm at the fitchburg suite in madison oh okay how far is that from the venue? It's about a 10-minute drive.

It's not too bad. Did you get in the kayaks today? Yes, we did. We got in the kayaks. We tried on our little flippers. Yeah, it was good fun. Kayaks are not too bad, I don't think. Oh oh you're cutting out pretty bad you're pretty choppy i didn't even hear what you said i wonder if there's a better place in your room your city are you you're in a hotel room

yeah let me let me uh let me go around the room now it's great it's fine over here yeah can you stand on one leg and then hold your other hand over your head yeah you bet be a human antenna um so you got in the kayak they got you got in is it gone again no you're good do you hear me good this is annoying just that i hear yeah i can i hear you just let me know if i need to uh okay if i need to move you tell me and i'll i'll move around yeah this is much better um so tell me about the kayaks i mean i know you spend a lot of time in a kayak anyway because you kayak um back and forth between the big island and ireland all the time right yeah yeah it's it's a daily thing for me i'm a kayak expert uh today's kayaks were pretty good and so we did a little practice swim they bust us out to the lake we did a practice

swim and with the flippers it's a bit different with the flippers uh the lake is a bit smelly which is okay yeah it stinks a bit and then um we got in the boat kind of it was a bit choppy there's a bit of wind out there but it wasn't too bad and then um we kind of just i think someone's trying to do the maths like so it's three miles of kayaking and someone is saying like they're they were looking at their garment they're saying their top speed is like uh one mile every 17 minutes so it's going to take like it's going to be like an hour of minimum of kayaking and you swim first you swim first so you swim a mile which is kind of around the edge they have like buoys around the edge of the shore you go up 800 meters come back 800 meters you do a swap and then you're out

across the full lake on your kayak sam stewart is from ireland he took uh third place or or fourth place depending on who you ask um and the crossfit low down low lens uh throw down low lands throw down and uh he did not have to come through the last chance qualifier. He handled his business. And what was a very, very close race. You were less than 30 points behind the great Carl Gudmundsson. I would have said his first name, but I think I'd fuck it up. Me too. So you're coming in with some confidence. Yeah, for sure.

I don't think there's no reason not to be confident. Yeah. What do you mean by that? Well, like you're hanging around these athletes. Like today we were hanging around the athletes all day. And there's no one. Everyone there is a human. And no one looks as big as they look as they do on Instagram.

No one looks, and everyone has skin, flesh, blood. You know, it's not, there's no superheroes. Now, some people might pull out a superhero kind of level performance, but that's just what happens. It's not them, you know. They're not a superhero. They're not any different from anyone else. There are people that have enormous advantages. For example, Colton Mertens. Like you said, that lake smells bad. He works on a pig farm. That lake smells

great to him. He loves it. So he's going to have an enormous advantage in the lake because he's going to be in bliss there while the rest of you softies are going to think it smells bad yeah for sure he's going to be doing he's going to be squirting at the water like a fountain that's a great visual um i'm going to ask you a question that people are going to love because they're going to just get to destroy me in the youtube comments or is there kayaking in ireland i mean i think there's yeah i think so yeah for sure okay i don't know if it's i think it's as big as any other kind of outdoor water sport it's probably bigger than paddleboarding like the prone paddleboard that everyone's practicing yeah i think that's like that's not very big i see a lot of people doing stand-up paddle boards not as a sport

but it's kind of recreational and yeah but i think kayaking or like even some sort of rafting it's definitely uh it's definitely done yeah i'm in california and basically every third garage in the suburbs that you drive by with the door open. You see a kayak in the garage. I mean, it probably doesn't get used, but you see it. You see it a lot. And I just wasn't sure if that, you know, each country has its own things. I've never seen a cricket paddle in anyone's garage in the United States. So I never know what exactly people are doing. Fair enough.

Fair enough. And you were training with the great Max Elhaj, who Travis Mayer comes from that pedigree. What's that been like? Oh, fantastic. So I started working with Max just like kind of December, January time. So pretty much all of this year. But I got to go over and train with them in person the last two weeks as soon as we got our kind of travel pass from them

homeland security or the fbi whoever it was someone it's not scary sounding um uh-huh and then yeah so i was training with travis i was training with noah sandra it was a good crew it was good to um actually have your coach in person because most of the year has all been online max would text me i'd have a zoom call it'd be as like this it's not as good as in person but it you know it'll do and so it was really good to uh hang out first of all he's a cool guy and second of all get some kind of feedback in the moment like when he's looking at you how tall are you five nine and how much do you weigh um in pounds i'm not sure but about 87 kilo i think that's 190 something okay so so you're the you're the perfect crossfitter

190 something five nine you bet um was it so that's the first time two weeks ago was the first time you ever met max and team in person no so i met max at some training camps in the past and but it was the first time while i was getting coached by him that we were training in person. And when you show up there two weeks ago, what is the vibe between you and Travis and Noah? Is there a lot of butt sniffing or is it just, you know, you know how like dogs do that or is it pretty much just family right away? Yeah, definitely a mix. To be fair, those guys are super, super cool. They were, they weren weren't there was no

like um cold shoulders it was all let's get training you know what's cool about crossfit is everyone kind of speaks the same language you know you could be from you could speak a completely different language but when it's time to snatch you both you both speak the same language there you know so we all had a common interest competing crossfit and just hanging out being idiots that kind of stuff so there was no posturing it wasn't like you went over to grab a barbell and travis is like taps you on the shoulder and shakes his head no that one's mine no none of that none of that okay just checking i just got to make sure my boy travis is squeaky clean squeaky clean yeah fair we got to keep his record good.

I'll get you the real dirt on Travis Mayer. Oh, thank you. Yes, yes, yes. That would be a great title for a podcast, the real dirt. Have you met his kids and family? No, I didn't. Why not? Because it's all business this last two weeks.

Yeah. I think he was super busy and I think, um, I think he wanted to, I think his schedule is quite tight. Like he wanted to, obviously he's away for a full week now. So he wanted to be at home as much as possible. And he has a cool switch.

Like he, he's at the gym. It's all gym business. Obviously we're messing around, but it's like, let's train. And then when he gets home, I think he kind of flicks the switch and he's the the gym. It's all gym business. Obviously, we're messing around, but it's like, let's train. And then when he gets home, I think he kind of flicks the switch, and he's the family man. Gotcha.

And how old are you? I just turned 24. Wow. Okay. And are you married? No. Do you have kids? No.

And did you come over here by yourself? I did, but my girlfriend traveled here just yesterday she got here yesterday and is that a good thing or is that a distraction no i think it's a good thing uh she's she's not um she'd be the first to tell me if i'm getting out of line is she an irish irish woman yep and and uh so i noticed on your instagram that um it looks like in a previous life you were a fighter is that correct yes it was yeah i used to do um kickboxing chinese kickboxing which is like uh muay thai but it has takedowns oh okay but no jiu-jitsu so you hit the floor and then you get back up and then they used to do uh kung fu as well like growing up and then were you

pivoting towards mma at one point i definitely was but um it was a kind of a time where okay could go MMA or I could go CrossFit. And just the way I was kind of – I was still in secondary school or high school. I just kind of floated towards CrossFit a bit more. It just seemed – when you say floated, meaning you would go to the gym and you would gravitate more. You just started noticing if you were spending two hours a day doing combat sports, all of a sudden you were doing an hour of CrossFit, an hour of combat sports. And then some days you just started going in and just doing CrossFit

and just the combat sports kind of faded. Yeah, that's pretty much it. There was no exact decision to leave behind martial arts. It was definitely kind of a slow fade through. Have you done any fights yeah i had uh i think i had 20 fights but they're all they're all well the most of the time i was under 18 so you most of the time you're fighting uh other guys that are under 18 but i had some i fought in the like 18 plus category as well when I was not 18. Gotcha.

And is that – was it an Ireland outfit, an outfit that's based in Ireland? Yes. It was all Irish except I went to a competition in Romania as well. It was like a European championship thing. And was it called kickboxing or was it called Chinese kickboxing? So it's Chinese kickboxing, which is called Sanda or Sancho,

which is... Did you ever watch the UFC fighter Kung Lee? Yeah. So that was his background. He had the same... That was the same sport. Okay. And were you born... you're born in Ireland?

Yeah, from Dublin. Your accent – Dublin? Yeah. Your accent is so – I was going to use the word weak, but there's a better word. It's not strong. You're very easy to understand. Yeah, that's what I've been told. I have kind of a neutral neutral accent i'm not

not too uh not too gimmicky there's um yeah some people so i traveled over with some people here from the north of ireland and when we were at the gym at travis's gym they were saying it was kind of hard to understand the northern accent but saying mine was kind of a bit more clear. Yeah, you almost have to listen clearly to realize that you're from Ireland. Like some sentences you say, you sound like you're just from the States. Really? I've been spending too much time here, obviously. Do your parents sound like that too? Yeah, my mom definitely does.

My mom has a very clear voice. My dad maybe has a little more accent. Do you have siblings? I have one younger brother. Okay, and is he doing CrossFit? No. Does he like CrossFit? I don't think so.

It's not his scene. How old is he? He's 22, so he's two years younger than me. I bet you he's going to get into it. I bet you you're going to have an influence on him. I really don't. I really doubt it. You do?

Yeah. It's just not his thing. You know, his things are different. Do either of your parents do it? No, but they do. My dad does like general fitness classes. He'd follow along a bit at the competitions and stuff, but he's easily confused.

We were watching the team competition at one of the semi-finals recently i just team competitions are hard to uh to follow sometimes if you don't know what's going on so it was a yeah i was gonna say in defense of your dad sometimes it's quite the shit show out there yeah so it is for sure when when i learned cross I mean, I could not for the life of me. I was 34 years old. And for the life of me, I could not remember snatch, clean and jerk, push press, all those things. I'm just like, whoa, I'm never going to learn all this. Burpees.

I was just like, I'm never going to learn. It's like learning a whole new language. But it's weird because now that we're in it, it's like just you can't imagine not knowing it right yeah for sure i remember what confused me was um snatch power snatch hang power snatch and i was like what the fuck i have no clue yeah too many yeah way too many so you're so you're born in dublin you're the first uh kid to your parents and uh did you have a pretty normal life as a child just basically go to school are your parents still together yep yeah yeah fairly normal enough yeah and when did you start realizing you like sports and moving your body i'd say I was 11 or 12.

When I was young, in school, the school I was in, it was kind of like you had to play sports and everyone was going to. There was pressure to play sports. I just didn't like being told I had to play. You had to play basketball. You had to play hockey. You had to play rugby. I didn't like being told to play. To be honest, I didn't like the people who are on the same team as me you know and so then when i was like leaving

primary school or elementary school i think for you guys um i found martial arts and i liked the fact that you know if anything went wrong it was only me and I didn't have to rely on anyone else. I guess I didn't fancy being on a team. And I wasn't too good with the ball. I wasn't going to kick the ball very well, but I could kick someone in the balls pretty well. So in the martial arts and all those other sports were inside within the school system and martial arts was outside.

It was somewhere you went after school. Yeah, exactly. And did you embrace it pretty quickly? Was it just one day a week or did you right away just start going every day? Yeah, it was pretty quick. Like at first, I think it was like you had to go three times a week was like the thing you signed up for. And then suddenly I was going six days a week, you know, and I was getting I was progressing through pretty quick because I was like kind of getting obsessed with it quite quickly. And you started at 12 years old.

11 or 12. I think it was 11 or 12. And and are there belts? Tell me the name of the Chinese kickboxing again. What's it called? Asana? Sanda. Sanda.

Yeah. S-A-N-D-A. Sanda. Are there belts in it? So there was two sides of that kind of gym. So there was the sports side, which was the Sanda, the kickboxing. And then your traditional martial arts, so like the Kung Fu. So they kind of blended both in the same gym.

So there was belts in the kung fu side of things, and then the sand was kind of strictly sport-focused. So you're like, competitions in six weeks, let's train for that sort of thing. And so you were doing both simultaneously from when you were 11 or 12? Yeah. And how many belts, what belt did you get up to in

kung fu uh black belt yeah wow so i don't yeah that's that's pretty cool to say i forget i forget i am even um just saying and now i remember that's a that's a cool thing to say and how many years did that take you to get that um i remember being told i was the quickest guy to get there. And it took about five years. Wow. That does seem really fast. Yeah. It was, you know, it was from the start. It was like I quickly became obsessed.

It was like a seven, six, seven day a week focus. It wasn't like I was, it quickly became the front focus on my mind as opposed to like for most people, it's like a thing I do after other stuff, you know? Right. Would there be days that you would go to the dojo or the gym two times in one day? Yeah. If I had time off school, I'd usually end up doing that. Yeah. Okay.

And were you – so it's interesting because – and you've obviously embraced CrossFit the same way. You've become obsessive about it. Obviously, you've embraced it completely, the lifestyle. Did you know you were like that before you found Kung Fu? Or was that the first expression of that in your life? Like did you ever before then draw every day or – Maybe a little – like, like yeah i was maybe looking back i don't think i ever realized it until then in the present moment but i think looking back

like i'd play the guitar i'd have to sit there till i could play a song a certain way or correctly or whatever and i think even younger i like to draw pictures and stuff like really young whatever but and i think in the present moment i was like martial arts because you're obviously you're surrounded by people and people would say wow you're here all the time or look at you you're doing something well or something you know you progress quickly or whatever it is like when you're sitting in your room playing the guitar you don't know that right oh right so you're getting outside um accolades or recognition recognition or something and then that kind of makes you realize oh okay i am a bit obsessed or a perfectionist in whatever way and uh so so you're you're

every way and uh so so you're you're 16 17 years old you're ending you're finishing in high school and you get a back black belt in kung fu and when does crossfit come along so crossfit came along for me early as well i was about 14 when we started doing crossfit and my pts so 10 years ago you have 10 years of crossfit experience pretty much not full exposure but like we were doing introduction running okay kipping pull-ups and and you know kind of stuff that you more 14 year olds more likely to do and my p teacher was well too qualified to be a p teacher well overqualified he actually interesting guy he was the head referee for MMA in um in Ireland he was if you ever look at Conor McGregor's first fight and where he's in his like swim trunks in like a boxing ring the referee the referee is my PE

teacher oh that's awesome what a great story it's very cool him and john kavanagh and mcgregor's coach like we're kind of came up the ranks of jujitsu in ireland and together i'm pretty sure uh jonesy my p teacher was uh the first irish man to ever fight in a cage and so like you know if you messed up in p you look at this guy scary looking guy you know you you're not gonna you're not gonna mess too much more um but I quickly like I think we became fond of each other because of martial arts and he was big he's quite knowledgeable in strength and conditioning and he was doing a lot of crossfit so he had a kind of thing where he'd put up a workout of the day on the on a notice board at lunchtime.

And then you'd look at the workout and you'd show up after school and there'd be a group of lads there to do the workout. And I was probably 14, but I think the rest of the guys were up towards the end of the school. They were 17, 18. So I was definitely one of the younger guys doing this. And then that did, did he call it CrossFit? Did Jonesy call it CrossFit? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. That's interesting. I wonder, I need to see a picture of him. I wonder if I know what he looks like. I wonder if I've ever met him before, because in 2011, the community was really small, even though there were, you three four five thousand gyms we really all

um a lot of us knew each other a lot of us knew each other it was crazy especially places like ireland you would know you would know the people who were kind of the big deal in each country yeah and so did he and he actually called it wad he would put wad on the uh yeah there's a yeah workout of the day wad he'd print it on a piece of paper and just, like, tack it to a board. And you'd almost bump into all the guys looking at it there that day. You'd just pass a comment, oh, those thrusters are going to be hard. See you after school, you know. And these, and so the kids who went there were kids who gave a shit.

Because they could be off chasing girls or throwing rocks or smoking weed or going home and watching tv and instead these were the boys and girls that did girls show up to and not so much to this um but there was up like plenty of um actually sometimes there were but it was more like like you'd scale it or ever differently i don't think they had the same interest and well good the boys needed a head the boys needed a head start because now the women are fucking taking over the sport you bet no definitely it's crazy um so i need to get that guy on the what's jonesy's full name i need to get him on the podcast what a great guest what's his name uh david jones david jones david jones do you are you still in contact with him yeah yeah yeah is he tripping on the fact that he introduced you to this and that you've just

taken it to the highest level i think he's uh definitely uh a little bit impressed because what he was telling me recently is like every year because he's a p teacher every year someone the kids come in like younger and younger and the kids every year are slightly less coordinated slightly less willing they've spent far more time on their nintendo ds or whatever it is there you know every year it's a different story like when i was in school he even just said it the other day like when he said like oh congrats and can't wait to watch you compete he was saying like i don't have anyone in school in the school currently looking to do any of the same things as me and my friends are kind of looking to do you know every gender even

though it's i've only been out of school five or sixty five years i think you know it's um it's uh it's a bit shit it's a bit sad brother i see your kids i can't i can't sorry i can't resist i'm going to go off on a little tangent here no the the the number one correlate for death in the united states i can't speak for ireland but i bet you it's the same heart disease cancer um covid all of these deaths all of these people the vast majority sorry i won't say these people, the vast majority of people who are dying from these things, we're not telling the truth. What it is, is they're obese. And recently there was a study released in the United States that during the last 18 months, the number of kids with type 2 diabetes in the United States has doubled. If they're reporting it's doubled, that means it's quadrupled or more because we know so many people do not go to the hospital.

And what a travesty it is that the leading correlate for premature death is obesity, and during the last 18 months it skyrocketed when, if anything, it should have been going down. I don't know if this is true or not, but I think I saw in Iceland – I don't know if they still have this. Was it Iceland? It was some country, but basically they turn off the cable TV for a month every year. Really? They just – yeah, so no one in the country can have cable. And I'm not for government enforcement but god

damn if they're gonna enforce anything that's the one to do yeah like come on man come on man force everything i even heard someone on the on the news station i watched the other day one of the news anchors say hey this sucks to say this but i think the world would be a lot better place if they forced all social media and media outlets to stop reporting for a month. Yeah. I mean, come on, man. I agree. This is just insanity that people are getting more and more obese.

And it's so sad to hear that from this guy, David Jones, a man on the streets working with the kids. It's so sad to see that kids are not building the habits and being exposed to the things that they need their entire life. You need that until the day you die. I know kids don't understand that, so you have to trick them into believing that because they're like, everything's okay now. But the reason people go to nursing homes is because they lose the mobility and the capacity to wipe their own ass. The second your parents can't wipe their own ass, you're like, get in a nursing home. And it's like, Greg Glassman used to say that,

the cornerstone of CrossFit is longevity. It's just mobility. It's just to be able to sit on the toilet, wipe your ass, and get off. Well, that's all you're doing. You're squatting there, you know? Right. It all goes full circle.

Like, you do your squats now. You keep up the habits for life. And, you know, as you know, it's right. It all goes full circle. Like you do your squats. Now you keep up the habits for life. And you know, as you said, you can wipe your ass and stand up and down off the toilet. Have you ever experienced burnout? You've been going, you've been going hard since you've been 12 physically 11. Have you ever experienced like, okay, enough of this shit. I'm just going to smoke weed with the boys and, and go to the lake for the net and drink beers and chase girls. For sure. Like, I think it's, um, if I didn't, I think I'd be a psycho. You know, you have, there's a balance there that you have to, um, you have to experience normal stuff as well. Like what, you know,

you're not all, I think if you're only ever an elite performer and you don't do anything else, how do you truly value being an elite performer because you don't know anything else? I hear you, but what about this? And I'm not saying this is a fact. I'm asking you as a question. this and I'm not saying this is a fact I'm asking you as a question what about the fact that you're in the gym if you're in the gym from when you're 11 to when you're 17 and you're training you know two to four hours a day what happens when you turn 17 and that focus turns to girls and drinking does that do you end up becoming like I mean there were there were years where I drank a 12-pack my obsessive like for me it just transferred I'm doing, I do obsessively. So like, you know, if I really liked puzzles, I did puzzles for a year.

But like, you know, if I like drinking, then every morning the first thing I did is I walked to the liquor store and get a 12-pack. How do you like – was it ever like that for you where you just completely jumped away from working out and were just partying? I never completely jumped away. It was always in the background. But there was definitely a point where maybe that transition phase, like I was saying, from like maybe 17 through kind of 19, where I was definitely in a transition phase where I could afford to go drinking and partying. You start in college or whatever,

so those opportunities are presented to you frequently and partying and you know you start in college or whatever so you're you're those opportunities are presented to you frequently and a lot more so like i i went through that phase it's almost like i'm glad i did it because now i don't crave any of this right right and and i wonder if this too now that you say that i also know this even in that phase when i was in that phase i even like in college there was four or five years where I was just basically drunk every day. I still had the habits where I would wake up in the morning. Even if I was hung over, I would ride my bike to the Gold's gym and I would work out for 45 minutes. I would do the lap pull down machine and the bench press and, you know, and, and all that shit. So I guess I

had still had the discipline. Did you work out through those years also yeah for sure for sure i remember just with the group of friends i was hanging out with as well i was probably doing a lot more strength training you know at that time and i was i would still do like mechons but it wouldn't be like you know now it is like it can end up being like 40 minutes on a rower there There was none of that. It was like, hang out with your friends. You know, do some squats, do some bench, do your bicep curls. And okay, we have 10 more minutes. Let's do like a burpees and power clean thing just for like a finisher kind of workout. When you were 14, did Jonesy have a watch?

Would he time your workouts? Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, it was like things were before time. We used to do these big workouts at the end of every school term or semester, like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, and summer, we used to do all these rescue workouts. FanDuel Casino's exclusive live dealer studio

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Gambling problem? Call 1-866-531-2600 or visit connectsontario.ca. Please play responsibly. So it was like a hero workout, but we call them rescue workouts because you either have to carry something or push a big sled for ages. So it's like you're rescuing something. And these workouts would be like north of an hour, big, big workouts. So I remember we had one called Christmas Rescue one year. And I can't remember. There was some sort of weird theme where it's like you're rescuing an elf, but really you're carrying a sandbag on your shoulder and you're running 800 meters for laps.

And I remember these were all for time. Because they were kind of big test workouts, I guess, that we'd keep score of. It would be more of a competition kind of setting. it would be more of a competition kind of setting. Yeah. When I, when I first found CrossFit in 2000, summer of 2006, I remember my friend and I were at the gym at UC Santa Barbara in California, the university of Santa Barbara. And we, I think we were doing Fran and we didn't know that you had to do it for time.

So first we figured out what a thruster is. And Sam, you would do your 11 thrusters. Then I would do my 11 thrusters. Then we would look at some girls or drink some water and crack some jokes. Then he would do his 10. I would do my 10. Then we'd walk over to the pull-up bar and do our pull-ups. And even then, like that, that introduction to me, that's the way I did CrossFit for the first three months.

And even then, the workouts were incredible, right? Yeah. I was like, holy shit, something is definitely happening to me. This is a brand new stimulus. And then finally, someone told me, no, you're supposed to time them and fucking ruined CrossFit for me. It's funny how a small clock or just a watch will make someone change how they're doing something so quickly and so drastically. It's fascinating to talk to someone who at 14 already knew that stuff because that's so foreign. It's like a whole generation is now growing up knowing crossfit and it was so foreign to those of us

who hung out in the gym before then like ropes and rings and timing and actually doing pull-ups instead of lap pull down like all that stuff was so foreign kettlebells i mean we had no those just weirdos use that shit right yeah yeah and uh so when did you when did you start thinking that you would compete in CrossFit? Do you remember your first competition? Yeah, so my first competition was kind of in that transition phase. It was a competition at my own gym, just like a one-day event kind of thing. Sorry, let me interrupt here. So let me go back one step before you talk about competition.

So you went from doing them on the board in your school PE class, going after school, just volunteering. And then you made friends with the teacher because he was a martial arts guy and you were a martial arts guy. You'd been doing martial arts for like three years at the time. When did you switch to a gym? And was it a CrossFit gym? Yeah. And was it a CrossFit gym? Yeah.

So in Ireland, in your fourth year of secondary school, you have kind of like a, we call it transition year. So it's less kind of studies focused and you kind of do some outside the school stuff. Like you do like work experience and like outside, like hikes and all sorts of weird shit like work at a veterinary clinic like work at a veterinary clinic or the the local dog shelter or some shit like that exactly so or national park okay yeah something like that so my um jonesy got me set up to do a week's work experience at a crossfit gym so i yeah which is which is great so i did that i ended up staying or like becoming a member for the summer till September again and school opened up so I could train CrossFit over the summer. And then I trained again the school year and I trained there the next summer. And then what was the name of the, what was the name of the. That affiliate, CrossFit Ireland.

It was the first affiliate in the country, I think. Well, hence the name. I know who Jonesy is. Do name. I know who Jonesy is. Do you? I know who Jonesy is. What's his wife's name? Jillian Wallace. And she trained there too. Oh, no.

They didn't own CrossFit Ireland. No, no, no. Who owned CrossFit Ireland? Do you remember? A guy named Colm O'Reilly. And did he have a wife? No. Do they put on the filthy 150? No, you're thinking of Jamie and Doreena, who run CrossFit Bua.

Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry. I know them, too. They're very cool people. Yeah, I'm disgusted that I don't know who Jonesy is if he was there around around 2011 so i was going to try to pretend like i did i don't know if he trained at an affiliate he kind of followed it online more him himself you know okay and what was the name of that first gym you went to say that again crossfit when you crossfit when you did that that's when you did the internship at yeah and then i ended up working there for a few years are they

still open uh Yeah, yeah. Because they could never get that name now. Actually, I don't know. With the new regime, I don't know what kind of boundaries they're having on names, but that's awesome they got that name. Because when I worked there at HQ, we would never give anyone that name. So that's awesome they got it. Yeah, I think they snuck in nice and early, got that name,

and then just never changed it. Okay, sorry. I think they snuck in nice and early, got that name, and then just never changed it. Okay. Sorry. So you started training there, and then at that point you were – so that's like around 17 years old. Yeah, basically around that time. Okay. Your computer battery is not going to die, is it? Let me check.

51 minutes remaining. I'm going to check that though in five minutes. I might be lying. And I'll plug it in if I need to. Okay. So I trained there for the summers and then I trained in school during the year. And then when I finished school,

I started cleaning the gym sort of thing so I could train there more. And then we went to the competition. You just mentioned the Filthy 150. That was, I guess, my first competition, proper competition, but it was obviously on a team. It was a team of four competition until it became a sanctional. And so when you went to that gym and you showed up there at 17 years old,

where did you rank amongst the clients in terms of fitness? Were you pretty close to the top just going in from your three years with Jonesy? Yeah, I think my cardio was definitely up there and gymnastics, like pull-ups. I was always kind of good at pull-ups. But then like strength, like you're 16, 17, you don't have that raw man strength yet that just some guy who's never even trained could be stronger than you because you're a skinny 17-year-old. And then when do you start having – was there ever a point when you started – do you remember when you started having aspirations to go to the games? Yeah, I think it was always something that I thought would be really cool to do. I don't think I was ever not thinking about it.

But I think when I made an actual kind of focus towards it was when I think I was 19. And I was just coming out of that kind of, okay okay i'm drinking a bit more than is probably good i know i'm saying that but i was never like i was never off the rails right um i wasn't super dedicated to anything and i had been dedicated i've been dedicated to martial arts so i had that inner need to dedicate myself to something so then i was like okay let's make let's make a good stab at this crossfit thing and i just recently i think that was 2017 i was recently kind of just um annoyed by my open performance like i was strong i had all the skills but just wasn't fit so i said to myself, next year I'm going to do it. I'm going to get to, like, obviously regionals was always that pedestal goal for so long.

So I fully went all in, dedicated myself for a year, stayed under the radar. No one knew where I was. And then next year, 2018, qualified for regionals. And that was my first individual competition. 18 qualified for regionals and that was my first individual competition so so you were if i'm hearing you right you were really focused on just doing really well in the open you're like hey i don't want to be 27 000 i want to i want to see how good i can be in the open yeah and then and then you just became obsessed and then you did good enough in the open to get to the were you shocked when you made it to the regionals and i think I was shocked, but I knew it wasn't an accident.

You know, obviously I had worked hard. And was any part of you like, nah, I'm not going to the regionals. That's just, I did what I needed to do. No, no, it was always. I'm scared. I'm not going to go to the regionals. No, that wasn't you? That's not me, no.

Okay. And where were the regionals that year in 2018? Berlin. Wow. Yeah. So you fucking scrapped the cash, scraped the cash together and went out there and did it? Yeah. It wasn't too bad traveling from Ireland to Berlin.

Because I think it was only a two andand-a-half-hour flight. But yeah, we got it together. We got out there. Did you know anyone else who qualified? Yeah. Or you just went out by yourself? No, I knew a guy, P.D. Savage. He's from the north of Ireland.

Great name. Yeah, I was about to say, best name in the business. Yeah. So I trained with him a few times i knew another guy arminus who is this great name great name being an armenian guy arminus sounds like a good great it sounds like armenian and penis put together arminus nothing better and he's he was from um lithuania but trained in cork in ireland so i knew him as well so i had some guys i knew um to go like when i was there so i wasn't uh totally out of the loop you know and then how did you do there pretty middle of the pack and like usually around 20th place i had one workout where i actually finished second. I nearly won an event, which kind of took me off,

took me by surprise. And then the next event I came like bottom five. So it was like, like a really good workout, really bad workout. And then the rest of them kind of in the middle, you know? So the media was like,

oh my God, who's this guy? This is amazing. Oh, nevermind. It was a fluke. He sucks. Yeah, exactly. Did you have your, the girlfriend you have now, did you have her back then? I just started going out with her then. Yeah. Wow. So you kind of had, you have a witness to your success, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. yeah yeah that's awesome yeah that's very cool yeah that's really cool so okay so you come home from that regional and then and then what are you like are you reinvigorated yes are you looking at your are you looking at your battery yeah i'm

gonna plug it in um okay give me go for it Give me one sec. Do it. Yeah, yeah, do it. Cheers. Do it. He stepped away from his computer. He took out his headset. I'm guessing he can't hear me right now, but I'm guessing his computer is like a 2014 laptop where the battery only lasts half as long as it claims it does. Maybe it's not even his computer. No, no, no. If he's plugging in, it is his computer.

Okay, he's sitting back down, and now we will ask him. He's putting in the earphone. Sam, what year is your computer? I have no idea. It's my mom's. I'm not a computer guy. Ah. Yeah.

While you were gone, I was talking to the listeners, telling them, I predict that your computer is a 2014 laptop, and if the battery says it's 100%, it's really only 50%. I'd say it's about 2014. I'd say that's probably spot on. Thank you. Okay. So what did you end up placing in that regional in 2018? I think it was like 21st or 22nd.

Okay. Out of 40 guys. Yeah. And so you come back and you're like, okay, that was a good run. Time to get a job. Or you're reinvigorated. You're like, oh, shit, I can do this. Yeah, I'm reinvigorated because someone said, look, you're 20 years old. You can go to regionals for the next 10 years if you want to. And I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. It's giving me a good focus. And I was kind of thinking, hmm, I don't want to just go to regionals for the next 10 years as well.

I'd rather get better every year and at some point qualify for the Games. And then so you – so then you – 2019, what happened? 2019, so I ended up kind of coaching myself a bit. And so obviously, you know, you're programming slightly biased to stuff that you probably enjoy a bit more. And that rowing and wall balls workout comes up. So it's the first workout, the open. It's just engine. It's rowing and wall balls.

And I just blow up. I try the workout three times and I get worse every time. And, you know, it's just not happening. So I'm like, you know, that was the first year of the national champion. So I was like, okay, I'm in with a good shot as well. So I'm like 35th in ireland after workout one and then i win like three or four of the next workouts so it was that one workout i wasn't prepared for and just it just got me hard so no no um no real qualification that year but ended up going to some –

Just so you know, listeners, they use that term differently in Ireland. When he says that workout got him hard, he doesn't mean it like the way we think in the United States. Okay, go on. Well, maybe I do. Okay, we'll leave it up to interpretation. Okay, go on. So it's 2019 and you bombed the first workout. Well, relatively bomb it.

You still did great at it. You took 35th in Ireland. And then the next three workouts you won, you said? I won the next one and I won another one of them. And I think I wasn't even repeating them. You know, I was just going once. I think I clawed my way back up to fifth fifth in ireland i think it was um but it was just wasn't good enough but it was good enough

to get me or did i qualify to that anyway i qualified for some sanctionals that year for some kind of competition experience because regionals have been my only individual competition so i needed to get crazy some experience you know and i always think you know it's better like coming from martial arts it's um you know crossfit's never going to punch me in the face right so you know i had the i had competition experience just not in the same kind of way right and then and then so so you didn't qualify in 2019 no and and does that re does that break your heart yeah so it was interesting like does that kind of piss you off that someone in ireland's fitter than you you're like well jesus christ i want to go to the the event where the fittest people in the world are and i can't even beat all

the people on my own fucking island yeah no that's i couldn't have said it better that it's definitely that kind of feeling you know you know you have one you have an expectation of yourself and then it's a harsh reality of okay fuck i can't um live up to it was the dude who beat you in 2019 where are any of those guys at the games this year? This year, no. Oh, fuck those guys then. What happened to them? The guys who won the national champion spots, they're legit athletes. One of them had a shoulder surgery within the last year.

And the other guy who won the national champion the next year was in the i think it came 10th of the german throwdown so still a decent showing yeah i'm seeing uh tomaso um from ireland stefano i think that's the italian flag You're right. It looks like the Irish flag just turned on its side. Okay, so I don't see any other Irish men at the Lowlands Throwdown. No. You were the only one. At the Lowlands. At the German, there was two other guys.

Okay. Yeah. They wanted to stay away from you you bet they did when you um when you see these names okay so then 2020 what happens to you and we have a I was in I was in good shape um and I just lost the national champion spot by one point. So it was a close race. So I felt better about myself that year because I ended up placing... That year, I was one point out of the national champion spot, but two of us Irish guys were in the top 40 worldwide at the Open.

So it was a big step up. And did that matter that you weren't a national champion in 2020? Did you still get to qualify? I didn't end up qualifying that year. But I did go to a bunch of sanctionals. I went to like Dubai and Waterpalooza and big, big competitions that were probably the next best thing for the games. And how were those? How did you do in Dubai and how did you do at Waterpalooza?

Oh, I did really badly actually. I did really badly. I hear the competition is brutal. It is. Very stiff. Good guys, not a lot of workouts. So I surprised myself by qualifying for Dubai and I just went in the mindset of –

I didn't go in with any mindset really. I went in and I just went, look, let's's see what happens which is not the way to do things and by the time i got to wadapalooza i had done four sanctionals in like three months or something crazy and i was just my you're lacking motivation and your body is saying stop so and is max your coach at this point no no okay i think if i said that to Max now, he wouldn't be too pleased. Because you just started with him in December of 2020. Yes. Yeah.

Okay. And then – so then the Open rolls around for 2021 and what is your – what was your goal? rolls around for 2021 and what is your what was your goal the the thing about the open this year was kind of interesting was there was no real point to the open if you're if you're um a good athlete you know it's just like qualify to quarterfinals and then worry about everything so my goal was just to get to quarterfinals and then kind of smash quarterfinals, get to semis and see what we could do. And how did you do in the quarterfinals? Quarterfinals, I came 16th in Europe. Okay.

So what happened was I actually got a penalty on one of the workouts, like a major penalty. So I got 15% of my score added to my, or like of my time added to my time. So it was like a big penalty so if i did the maths i would have come like fifth or sixth and what was that what was the penalty it was a virtual workout yeah so it was my lockout on hands on push-ups like that's as straight as my arm goes but even there it doesn't even look straight right but to be fair it was a it was a legit penalty you know i can you know, it looked it looked really bad. And I you know, I can't say I don't deserve it. So it's interesting. I wonder what the strategy is at the CrossFit game. You know, like when you get pulled over by the police and they're like, always be honest. I feel like every time I've told the police that they pull me over and they're like,

when I was younger, they would say, how many drinks have you had? And I would say one. And then they pull me out of the car and fucking test me. And then if I say zero, even though I've had six, I'm good to go. But they still say it to be honest. But anyway, I wonder if it's better to tell the judge at the CrossFit Games, hey, I don't lock out. Man, look at my arm.

My arm, when I put it straight, straight. It's not that your arm doesn't go straight. It's that you have a – look at your bicep. It just looks – You just have a giant bicep that I don't have. I wonder if it's better to tell your judge that your arm doesn't go totally straight or if you say that, then you're fucked because they're just going to be looking at it the whole time. Yeah, I wonder. I'll let you know. Ask Max El el haj yeah he'll know he's the man of the plan

that's a max question okay so then when so when you when at the quarterfinals you're pumped you you're like you're at this point now working to go to the games yes yeah and you make it to the semi-finals so we didn't think we thought semi-finals still could have been in person you know okay we didn't they only kind of announced it maybe a month or a month and a half before the actual event saying okay it's it's um it's online so we don't know what to expect. We could have been traveling to the Netherlands, or we could be staying home. But you did it online.

Oh, look at this. I just got a text from Travis Mayer. What's he saying now? I was asking him about the kayak. I can't read you the text, because that would be inappropriate to share. Okay. He said it was good.

So, and why does that matter? Sorry, I was multitasking. Why does that matter whether you know if it's a virtual event or not a live event? You said it like that that's important. Well, it's just knowing what to expect. You know, if it's an online thing, you're're going to train a slightly different way than if it's in person you're going to have access to different equipment you know it's not going to be it's going to be slightly more like open-based equipment you're not going to have super heavy dumbbells

you probably aren't going to have sandbags you're not going to run probably you're not going to run you know so it's not far not far anyway you know it's um it changes the training slightly and the preparation like obviously you have to book hotels you have to fly you have to get food prepped and all this stuff um did you know did you choose the lowlands throwdown as your first pick? Did I? I think I did. But the reason I did was because I'd been to their competition in years past, and I thought it was a good, well-run competition.

So I picked it before we knew it was going to be online. And what did you think when you saw some of these names in here, we knew it was going to be online and what did you think when you saw some of these names in here like bkg adrian munn viller um ianis papadopoulos i probably didn't say that right sounded good i mean uh bronislaw olinakawicki whatever that guy's name is i mean these are all frederick agidius i mean these are all these are all scary guys were Where you're like, oh, shit, I chose the wrong one. No, because I just, you know, everyone can seem scary until it's three, two, one, go. And then it doesn't really matter then. You just have to go your hardest.

I don't know. I never really felt like I was shit out of luck or anything, you know. And then you did fantastic. These are the kind of numbers that you want to win an event. You have a fifth, a ninth, a tenth, a fifth, an eighth, and a fifth. Yeah, consistency. Yeah, crazy consistent. And you tied with some guy.

Oh, yeah, yeah, This guy has a great name. You tied with Uldis. Uldis. Uldis Upanikis. Uldis Upanikis. Did you meet him? Yeah, I met him the other day. We had the athlete dinner yesterday.

He's a quiet guy. He's really nice. He got 17th place in workout four where you got fifth place. What was that? Snatches, I think, maybe. Yeah, he got 38 reps and you got 46. Damn, you did good in that. That was a good workout.

Yeah. So I know the semifinals were stressful because basically you're working out in the dark, right? You don't know what anyone else is doing, how they they're doing and every day they're releasing the scores just slowly like they dribble out like at noon or at three o'clock right they um with the time difference they release at like 9 p.m so you're waiting okay you're waiting all day till nine and then when they release the final scores you and you and you see you're in third place, are you still feeling confident or are you like, oh shit, I could still be penalized, shit could still move around? Yeah, you do feel a little bit of that. But what was nice was you get an email saying, okay, your video has been verified.

So I got my videos verified, which is soon after the qualification, like within the hour. And that was kind of like, okay, that's good news. Okay. Step one. Check. The worst they can do now is say they fucked up and confuse my video with someone else's. Yeah. The odds go way down.

And then so basically at that point, you're going to come to the games and then this is your first CrossFit Games. Yeah, exactly. No. It is, yes. Holy cow. Yeah. Did you think you would make it this quickly in your career at 24 years old? I never really set an expectation on what age I had to be or when I qualified.

No, I think this is probably about the right time. And did you have plans this week instead of the CrossFit Games that you had to push away? No, no. I was lucky in that sense. Calendar's wide open. Yeah. And obviously the two big things that are scary obviously are the fact that you would test positive for covid and couldn't compete or that you couldn't get travel

how hard was it to come to the united states um yeah it seemed like it was going to be a bit of a pain in the ass um what happened was we qualified and then we're like oh great and then you look up how to get to the states and turns out it's quite difficult and so then everyone's on to crossfit everyone's kind of panicking okay how are you going to get to the states across it what can you do are you going to get the athletes like special allowances or whatever and we didn't hear much at the start and then rumors start going around okay you have to travel to dubai for two weeks or to mexico for two weeks to be out of the eu so you can travel straight into the states on an esta and and then then crossfit are saying okay we're on to homeland security we're going to to get this sorted. So you're kind of fighting between, okay,

I need at least two weeks in Dubai or Mexico. So I need to leave with a potential week of quarantine in Madison. We didn't know if we have to do that or not. So you need to leave three weeks before the game starts. And CrossFit are, we're now three and a half weeks out from the games and crossfit are still not saying we've got you this pass so it got very close between we had to go halfway across the world to go nearly the full way across you know and were you planning on doing that yeah we were all looking into it we were all looking into getting some accommodation in Dubai.

God, that would have been expensive. Very expensive. Very, very expensive. But then literally, what was it? They got the pass, so they're on to Homeland Security. They got the national interest exemption, which it was called. We got it on a Thursday, and by Saturday, I was in Georgia training. Wow.

And where did your flight – did your flight fly directly from Dublin to Atlanta? No, I had to go through Chicago. Oh, shit. Yeah, so you fly eight hours to Chicagoago wait two hours and then travel two hours down okay oh it's not as bad as i thought it would be and then uh and then no quarantine or anything you're good to go yeah yeah nothing over here i think maybe i'm back as a self-quarantine kind of thing you know it's not like australia where they they put you in a hotel and lock you away i make you pay for it no it's not like that thankfully yeah that's good i think canada might be doing some shit like that too really i think makes me want to vomit um so uh so what what are your do you

have plans after the games how how long you're staying? Yeah, so I actually do have some cool plans. Me and my girlfriend, while I was in Georgia, I had the genius idea of heading to Mexico for a week on the way home to some resort. So I booked that there the other day. It's very cheap to get to Mexico from here. I think it's like $150 per person to fly from Chicago to Cancun. So I thought that was a good chance. And sure, I'm already on this half of the side of the world. I might as well go to Mexico. I can go to any of the local spots anytime I want back home. the local spots and anytime i want back home right right you're gonna love it okay so you're here um you registered you took whatever tests virus tests you passed those yep you're all good all good and um what were people freaking out what's the talk about the guys who are any of the other

athletes freaking out since what happened to bethany shadburn yeah i think so well i don't know if they're freaking out but there was definitely talk like you could see at the um at the we had like a athlete orientation kind of gathering the dinner not the dinner the morning after where they kind of tour you around and show you the the venue facility okay that was this morning this morning um and like there's a kind of question and answers part and people are asking like are there going to be more testing throughout the weekend and questions like that and if there's if you have symptoms or whatever and then while we're at the we went in and tested the kayaks and tested the swimming because bethany shadburn trains with her crew the other members of her

crew are going to be separated from the main group for the whole weekend so they had to come at a different time on a different mode of transport stay like on the other side of the the two of them try their swim at a different time try the kayaks at a different time and i think they're going to have to be in like a there's going to have to be like an empty lane between them and everyone else at the in the in the games um have you seen um carrie pierce or daniel brandon only like with your own only from afar because they were down the other end of the field. Oh, man. You should get a rock and put, hi, nice to meet you.

I'm Sam Stewart, and just throw it across the field at them. They probably feel lonely over there. You could even tie like a little parachute, you know, like you used to do to rocks when you were a kid, and you throw it, and then it kind of sails down. when you're a kid and you throw it and then it kind of sails down. Yeah, I heard, I don't know if this is true, but I heard earlier today that they are also, not only will they have their own area when possible, but that they will always be in the final heat regardless of their placement. Therefore, no one else has to touch the equipment after them. Oh, I didn't know that makes a bit of sense, I guess, if they're trying to do that kind

of thing. Yeah. Come on, Sam. Nothing makes sense. But I appreciate you throwing that in a bit of sense, I guess, if they're trying to do that kind of thing. Yeah, come on, Sam. Nothing makes sense. But I appreciate you throwing that in there. That's fair. It's impressive that you made it here. Is it tripping any of your family and friends out that there's this planet Earth and it circles the sun in this galaxy. And through one of the most nonpolitical open competitions in the history of mankind, the CrossFit Open, you have climbed your way to what I've always thought was more impressive than anything that they do in the Olympics because this net is so wide, right?

I mean this is all of humanity can enter this. And now you're in this list of, God, let's see. Let's go to the games. 38, 40, 40, just two couldn't show up. But you're in this list of the 40 fittest men in the world. And you're the only Irish flag. Are people in your circle tripping? Like your mom and dad?

Yeah, I think i'm i'm i'm pretty chilled so like i just kind of take things in my stride i don't get too uh too um caught up in any of that but like like my friends the people i work with the people at my gym uh i guess my parents and they're they're they're excited for me, for sure. Let's say there are sports that are harder. Let's say becoming a UFC champion is harder than becoming the fittest man in the world. I'm okay with that. Someone could say it's ten times harder.

Fine. I'm okay with that. The one thing, though, that this sport has, and granted, it's hard as fuck. I'm not suggesting that it's not is that there's so many people entering yeah and it's so transparent like you just see it there's no politics like this is it and it was always it's um men and women get paid the same amount all you need to do is enter the open and you're in you don't got it you don't got to deal with any sports bodies you don't got to like kiss anyone's ass at the u.s olympic

weightlifting commission like it's just like these are the fastest cars in the neighborhood well i i guess i know exactly what you mean like it's it's truly earned you know you didn't earn through your actions not earned through anything else or given to you. And there's so many people doing it. Yeah. So many people. And if, and truly,

if anyone thought they could beat any of you 40, they've tried. Meaning there's no one there. There may be that there may be a guy out there. I guess I shouldn't say that. That's going to really piss some people off. I truly think that these are the 45th guys on the planet. Someone could say or disagree with me.

That's fine. It's not that big of a deal. But it's an amazing pyramid of hierarchy to get to it. What do you think about the fact that the russians can't make it here it's kind of disgusting right it's like fuck man yeah we're all humans get them over here let's see everyone compete yeah it's a bummer like it's it's it would be heartbreaking if you were in that situation you know it doesn't seem like there's any really good reason why they aren't here you know if it's not like it's there's no valid reason you know

yeah he's not he's not they're not yeah exactly unless maybe they weren't going to go home that's what i think that might be what they're afraid of i think they stopped doing that in the 70s maybe i'm wrong maybe i'm wrong um is doing this podcast a distraction for you being that you um you compete tomorrow has any of this been um bad for you to take time what would you be doing if you weren't doing this podcast right now not much packing my bag for tomorrow you know i'm not i'm not like a super anal about anything. You know, I'm just like, go with the flow. I'd be talking to someone else if I wasn't talking to you. So I might as well be talking to you, you know? Awesome. Well, thank you. Um, maybe throughout the weekend,

I'll try to bug you. No pressure if you don't respond, but unfortunately for you, you no pressure if you don't respond but unfortunately for you i have your phone number very good and uh feel free to send me any pictures naked pictures of travis like if he's changing by the lake or anything yeah i'll i'll do my best um and thank you very much for your time this was uh this was awesome i'm trying to think trying to think. I think this is the only athlete I've interviewed on site. It's only been two days, so who knows? Maybe there'll be others. But I really appreciate your time.

I really appreciate you having me on. Thank you very much. Yep.