The Sevan Podcast - Rebecka Vitesson & Bronisław Olenkowicz | 2023 CrossFit Games Prep

Episode Date: July 21, 2023

Welcome to this episode of the Sevan Podcast! 3 PLAYING BROTHERS - Kids Video Programming https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers/daily-practice BIRTHFIT Programs: Prenatal - https://marketplace.trainheroic.com/workout-plan/program/mathews-program-1621968262?attrib=207017-aff-sevan Postpartum - https://marketplace.trainheroic.com/workout-plan/program/mathews-program-1586459942?attrib=207017-aff-sevan Codes (20% off): Prenatal - SEVAN1 Postpartum - SEVAN2 ------------------------- 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 https://www.vndk8.com/ - OUR OTHER SHIRT https://usekilo.com - OUR WEBSITE PROVIDER 3 PLAYING BROTHERS - Kids Video Programming https://app.sugarwod.com/marketplace/3-playing-brothers/daily-practice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is an advertisement from BetterHelp. Everyone knows therapy is great for solving problems. But turns out, therapy has some issues of its own. Finding the right therapist, fitting into their schedule, and, of course, the cost. BetterHelp can help solve these problems. It's online, convenient, built around your schedule, and surprisingly affordable, too. Connect with a credentialed therapist by phone, video, or online chat. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more.

That's BetterHelp.com. 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 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 bam we're live we did it yes i always um uh rebecca where are you i i'm in nesher at the moment oh you are you're already here in the states yes okay whenever i do um international podcasts i'm always think i'm on edge about the um time zone you know or the you know when you cross the international date line someone will think it's on a wednesday i think I'm on edge about the time zone, you know, or the, you know, when you cross the international dateline, someone will think it's on a Wednesday. I think it's on a Tuesday and you miss each other. Are you, are you mayhem athlete? No, I'm not. No. So much with Andrew Houdet, no shortcuts. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.

Who did I have yesterday? I was with, um, who's with Houdet? Manon. Manon. Yeah. Who did I have yesterday? I was with, um, who's with who day? Manon. Manon. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

Wow. I didn't realize who day was working with so many high level athletes. Incredible. Yeah. It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. That's high level.

Yeah. Um, you know, he, he was at the games last year, or was it the year before yeah both yeah um people always spoke about him with such a high regard that he had a great eye great great uh technical um athlete but but also very patient and a good teacher that's crazy how many how many um games athletes does he have?

He has three games athletes and one Masters of the Games as well. Crazy. Who else besides you and Mano? Djelle. Oh, no shit. And then the Masters is Belinda.

Belinda Becker. Are all of you guys meeting up in um nashville and no so i just came a week earlier and then i will meet up with them next week in madison why why nashville um because uh yeah it was quite random. I wanted to come earlier because me and my boyfriend were just back home in Denmark and thought, like, why not move to the States a little bit earlier? And it would be too boring to stay in Madison. So we just thought that it could be a cool experience. And it's the same time zone, same climate. So, yeah, quite easy and good environment, good training gyms.

Yeah, where will you train? Where do you train when you're in Nashville? So right now I'm training at CrossFit East Nashville. And then we will also go to Mayhem on Friday, I think. Is that accommodating are they accommodating over there Mayhem since you're with

Andre Houdet and then no oh what what do you mean are the Mayhem people are okay with

Andre Houdet's athletes coming there and training yeah yeah that was fine yeah yeah as long as I don't interrupt with their training

and yeah do you call them ahead of time do you call someone over there and be like hey we're coming over there is it we're um i'm an individual athlete i'm coming over there to train is that cool yeah just to make sure so i have i also like to to kind of schedule everything and know the plans so it can be a little bit more structured this is your first individual yes yes congratulations one of the 40 uh fittest women walking planet earth that's crazy what do your mom and dad think um so my mom is obviously very very proud um i'm not sure she maybe realized it yet same as me

uh but she's very happy yeah and your dad uh so i don't have contact with my dad. You're raised by your mom. I'm raised by my mom. I did have contact with my dad until I was like 14 or something. But then we just moved separate ways. Is Denmark home for you? Yeah, right now. And born and raised there? No, I'm from Sweden. I moved to denmark like six years ago and why did you move there um so uh it was actually for a team butcher's lab

um so in 2018 they kind of got me in the team to be there for a year to try to qualify for the regionals. And then I just thought that Copenhagen was really cool, nice people. And yeah, so I stayed there. Are Sweden and Denmark, I apologize, bordering countries? Yeah, it is. Is it a big deal to switch, to move from Sweden to Denmark, or is it easy? It wasn't for me because I live in South Sweden, so it's like a one-and-a-half-hour train travel to Denmark.

So I think it depends on where in Sweden you live because Sweden is quite long. I guess I meant legally. Do they have an issue with it? Legally, no. If you're from Scandinavia in general, Norway, Sweden, Finland, whatever, then it's quite easy. And Rebecca, what's your first language?

Swedish. And then how quickly do you learn English? So we have it in school. Already from age of, I think, 10 or 12 years old i think do you speak any other languages uh we did have spanish in school so i kind of know a little bit of that and then my mom is lithuanian my father is romanian so i kind of know those languages as well and i speak danish and because i guess you're in denmark now and is your boyfriend So I kind of know those languages as well. And I speak Danish. And because I guess you're in Denmark now. And is your boyfriend Swedish?

No, he's Danish. Oh, shit. Wow. And so you guys speak English to each other? No, Danish. You do speak Danish. Does he speak English? Huh?

Does he speak English? Yeah, he does. But you speak Danish to each other? Yeah. How close are Swedish speak Danish to each other? Yeah. How close are Swedish and Danish in the languages? Are they close at all? Yeah, it's quite close. But the pronunciation is very different. So it kind of doesn't sound the same.

But when you see it in written, it's quite similar. But I just like, I love languages. So I just wanted to learn that. And for me, since it's quite close to Swedish, it's more natural to speak Danish with him than English. And for him as well, since it's his native language. When did you, how old were you when you learned Danish? Since I moved here six years ago.

Wow, crazy. I can't even imagine learning how old are you again i'm 29 29 how good is that for your brain at 23 still learning other languages you think you could learn another language too yeah i would love to i love languages i really like chinese could be super cool to to learn hey do you think Hey, do you think that because you speak three languages fluently then, right? Danish, Swedish, and English. Yeah. Do you think that that significantly changes your reality? Because words are so powerful in how they describe things yeah maybe yeah

like sometimes you see things and it's just you're like why can't these people see it this way and it's just well shit they don't even have they don't have the tools yeah true it's like asking them to swim but they don't they don't even see water they don't even know what water is yeah exactly um i guess where you're from maybe three languages isn't a big deal but here in the states it would be it's huge yeah i mean because english is the common language for everyone so you don't yeah in the states you don't really have to learn other languages i guess i i think that you start getting into some like rare someone will tell us in the comments but some rare group once you start getting to like you're you're just one or two languages away from being in this really exclusive club and then i think once you get to like seven languages there's some special word for you you're basically a freak at that point yeah you think you you think you could learn chinese could be cool i mean just imagine like being in a metro or whatever and and no one knows

that you know the languages but you can just hear all different kind of people talking and you understand it is always it is always weird to see a non-chinese speaker or even japanese speaker or non-japanese person or non-chinese person speaking those languages for some reason i guess it's because it's so rare i mean shit you're the you're the top 40 fittest woman on the planet. Anything's possible for you. Yeah, true. Tell me how Rebecca crossed paths with CrossFit. So I have always done sports in my whole life. yeah I've I come from two ACL knee injuries

and after that I kind of stopped doing sports and training at all and yeah after a year of not doing anything I started a little bit fitness bodybuilding just for fun and then I had a good friend because I did like those fun kind of stuff like Tabata and last meals, you know, body pump. And I had a friend doing CrossFit and she said like, you should try this instead is it's quite the same, but it's much more fun. I think you would love it. Oh, yeah, it was in back in 2014. Where I tried it out. And then I just fell in love with it. It's interesting, isn't it? You hear about the – I can't remember who I had on, but Matt Fraser is the classic example.

He breaks his back and comes to CrossFit, becomes the fittest person in the world five times. And here you are with – there was someone else we had on. Who was it? She broke her back twice. Oh. A couple days ago we had on who was it uh she broke her back twice oh a couple days ago we had someone on i can't remember who but she basically she broke someone will tell me in the comments in a second but she broke her back twice and here she is uh doing crossfit and you had two acl it's it's just a huge testament to what crossfit is you know this thing that Greg used to say, hey, I didn't invent this.

This is part of your DNA. This is God invented this. We're not doing anything that you're not made to do. Here you are with two ACL tears? Yeah. Were you a soccer player? On one of them, yes. And the other one, basketball player.

And what causes ACL tears? Direction changing? Yeah, in football, yes. And then the basketball was, I was doing a layup. And I always been quite explosive. So I did a huge jump. And then I just landed on my like and the good knee and it just popped both times do you know when that happens the first time I didn't know because

it was very like I didn't recognize the the feeling or I've never done it before so I had no clue and I remember my doctor when I went the first time he said like yeah you'll be good in training like in two weeks just be a little bit careful and then just start training two weeks and yeah I listened to that and then I went to training two weeks later and then it just like cracked it was something wrong and then they knew that it was the acl and but then the basketball i i already knew when it happened like directly i like i kind of i started crying so much not because of the pain because i knew that i'm fucked up right now like i'm done yeah um it was someone in the comments said it was abigail uh abigail domit domit that broke

her back yeah twice and then and then here she is making her first uh trip as an individual to the games too crazy hey and you said you're crying because you know it's damaged but you know that that means months or a year away from your sport you know that about is it you start thinking about the recovery yeah and also because i couldn't I couldn't go back to football because of the ACL. So I was kind of like basketball have always been like my favorite sport. And I just knew that I was scared of that. I wouldn't be able to get back to the sport again. And also because of the recovery was so tough. Where were you playing? Is it high school or college?

Basketball? No. So in Sweden, it's not related to school. So I was playing when I was like 12 years old and then I stopped and then I got back around high school yeah and then and then and then you said that um you you went through those uh so you played a bunch of sports and then including basketball and then you had in soccer you had these injuries you take how long do you take off before you get into stuff like less mills the classes I had a year off where I didn't do anything so first I did my recovery for a year and then I

took a year off because I realized that I would never be able to play sports again um and it was I've always been that kind of person that I do everything 100 percent and when I realized that I did basketball like 80% that wasn't fun anymore so yeah I had a year off where I did some some non-sport related stuff like partying and all this kind of shit

how old were you then? I was 20 yeah 20 you think you missed you think that um you think you realized at that point that um sports and movement was something more to you than you you realized how much it meant to you that it was more to you than just sports and movement that it was your lifestyle your your way of making yourself feel good yeah i can't imagine not

moving for a year taking a year off can you imagine that now no not at all like that that was also because i've been doing sport my whole life and that was also like off that year i just looked myself in the mirror and said like dang i i need to keep start moving and just like the free feeling of knowing that you can lift things yourself and be independent in that way rebecca are you pretty do you describe yourself as are you pretty fierce you're pretty aggressive person yeah yeah maybe yeah you like Yeah. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. How would you describe yourself, your persona? Specifically, your athletic persona. My athletic persona. Yeah.

Yeah, like very independent, hardworking, dedicated, reliable, I would say, like, in a way that... Is that the same as discipline? Reliable? Like, just your discipline structured? Yeah, yeah. How about competitive? Yes, always being competitive. Like, very competitive? Compet, always being competitive. Like very competitive? Competitive against your boyfriend? Yeah.

I can be fair, but competitive. I like that. But I'm very fair. Yeah. But you don't like losing? It depends. very fair yeah but you don't like losing um it depends like that's where the fairness coming comes in so i'm competitive if i know that my competitor are like the same level level of me that i know that i compete with that person if the person are like much lower level than me then it's okay to lose if you know what i mean like i'm fair in that sense if they're lower than you it's okay to lose yeah i don't understand

what do you mean like so if uh you and i were to do murph around uh together you would wear a 20 pound vest and i could i could um i could do run half as far and if I beat you, that's okay. Uh, no, maybe not. Yeah. I'm not understanding. Hey, I, I, it's interesting cause I heard you say in a podcast, I was watching you in last night that you're, it sounds like you're trying to get in the mindset that you just need to focus on being the best that you that you can do like when you were at the regional or the semifinals and that's kind of the common line that you hear from athletes right they're trying to figure out how to reduce the stress um but is that all at the end of the day is that just fake

is it you're just making that up just is it all pretend and at the end of the day is that just fake is it you're just making that up just is it all pretend and at the end of the day you still go back if you win you're excited and if you lose you go back to your hotel room and cry no but i think uh i think there's a truth in it i think you need to find your own way of how to believe in that sentence you know like for me to take off pressure is a lot about being playful and to have fun with things um and of course like in the end if you do a bad event and if it doesn't go your way you go home and cry but then yeah you kind of need to find that that way where you feel that you do your best and you are playful with things and then if it doesn't go the way as a leader as you want the leaderboard to be then you're still happy does that make sense yeah um i think

i heard there's a guy tony blauer I think I heard talk about it one time. He said it in terms of fighting. He said something like if you get into a fight, it doesn't matter if you win or lose. It matters that you're true to yourself and you get out of it emotionally intact. So I think I'm getting it now. You're basically saying that if you lose it's gonna hurt either way but if you know you gave it your all the wound will heal heal quicker like yeah you did what you did you did you if you weren't out drinking the night before

and you did everything you got enough sleep and you trained hard and then you went out there and you absolutely went until you you broke then you know like hey shit i just gave it my best it sucks that i lost but like what exactly because you know you know that you couldn't do more you know that you prepared everything you could for the event coming up you ate to sleep everything and then you know that there's nothing more in my control that i can do if my competitors are better that's not in my control I can't I can't change what happens on the floor with everyone else I can just control what I do on the floor can you remember the first time you were in a um crossfit competition or any athletic competition where you ran out of the air

you just you had to stop because you couldn't breathe anymore and you had to watch people keep working yeah a lot of things yeah is that just a horrible feeling it is it's very frustrating yeah yeah but i mean that's also comes with experience in a sport because it's not always about like going full send from the start because obviously like if you lose gas in the end that's maybe because you strategize bad or something like that and sometimes it's also a lot in the mind i think like whether you come into a workout and you're scared of the workout already beforehand then you just know that it's gonna end that way as well it is weird right that the person who wins the workout comes across the finish line

all fucking pumped yeah and then everyone who comes after them is collapses and it looks like they're dying and you're like wait a second that guy worked harder than you and they're celebrating yeah and at that point you kind of have to start wondering yeah there's something mentally going on right yeah i had the two times at the semifinals and it's it's unbelievable like how you can for example the last event i tested it back home and it was horrible work and it is a horrible workout but when i just finished that that like cross the line yeah i just has i was just so pumped up and because i won my event heat. Yeah, that's crazy. Were you in the final heat? No, I was in the top second final.

And you got second place, 413. Yeah, so I won my heat and second overall. Yeah, crazy. What was that workout again? That was the echo bike, the toes-to-bar and the sandbag carry? Yeah. How was that workout again that was the that was the echo bike the toes to bar on the sandbag carry yeah how was that sandbag uh i don't remember it was like i was in a whole different state in that workout

because you knew that you were you were on when you went into that workout were you on the cut line yeah were you below it i was on place 13th but five points out so the the girl above me on 12th place she was one point out so everything was very very close and so you got second place so that you were out of your mind you just sent it yeah full throttle full just maniac on the echo bike toes to bar don't let go and then pick the sandbag up and go yeah well not really because i i kind of paced it a little bit i remember i was the last person out of the echo bike oh yeah so did you panic when you saw that were you like oh shit what am i doing a little bit because andre told me before going into the work i like it's it's a sprint workout but still hold back a little bit so when i was the last person out of that eco bike i kind of like oh

shit did i pace it too much um yeah but then from that point it was kind of easy to calculate what kind of rpm i needed on that eco bike to be able to keep the pace and keep up with the rest there was no break right it was just three rounds yeah yeah and um when you when you're crossing here you know you you know where the other girls are in your heat you're like at some point you passed all the girls yeah yeah do you remember where you passed them it was uh on the last toaster bar so it was me jacqueline and sarah single star we jumped or sarah was a little bit earlier on the toaster bar I think Jacqueline was a rep ahead of me on the toaster bar but it was us three jumping

up and then Sarah dropped off Jacqueline dropped off and I kept doing unbroken wow all three sets of toaster bar unbroken yeah so I ran to the sandbag like first of them and that was just where I knew like okay

just pick it up no matter how i pick it up just run when you were finishing that last sandbag carry did it feel like you were going to drop it at all um i kind of picked it up a little bit bad so it was kind of just holding on and i'm i know from experience that i'm not very fast when i run with the bike back so i was kind of just holding on. And I know from experience that I'm not very fast when I run with a bike. So I was kind of scared that I was going to get passed. But yeah. How tall are you? Are you tall?

You look tall in these. Quite tall. It's 173 centimeters. Someone will tell me how tall that is in English talk. What was the... And where is this? What event is this that you're crossing the finish line that you're so happy? That's the runner,

the 800 meter sprint. And how did you do in that one? I did well, so I won my heat that as well, but I think it was fifth overall. These events where you win your heat, would you have gotten those times without your competitors there? Or is that Rebecca the competitor?

Like you're trying to win the heat and you're pushing harder than maybe you're comfortable with if you were by yourself it's it's rebecca the competitor yeah you're going for it yeah i'm gonna beat you girls yeah i was kind of like beating myself as well again that the sentence that we talked about earlier that being being the best that i can be so it's really like pushing my own limits like how fast I was gonna go uh thank you guys uh 173 is at least 5'7 so she's one of the taller people yeah look at this guy's trying to tell you she has a boyfriend sorry Austin he says well I'm 5'8 um that that's got to be kind of scary right flirting with that line so on one hand you do the assault bike and you're the last person off of it but if you're the first person off of it

it could also be like uh-oh yeah did i go too fast yeah what a what a crazy game you play guys play yeah uh is is do you think that's what it comes down to? As you get to the very top of the sport, pacing becomes... What percentage of pacing do you think plays a role? A lot. And it also depends on the workout, of course. But both the pacing and the mental aspect is huge, I think.

Like, our fitness, the top 40 women at the Games games the fitness is huge and big on all of us so it's it comes down to all the small kind of things and when you say mental what is what does that look like yeah so again the thing that to learn how to compete against yourself and to be able to push your limits, like kind of knowing that the limits are just a perception and try to compete with that. Your limits are just a perception. What else did you say you did besides Les Mills and something else? When I did the bodybuilding or yeah you said you were dabbling in some other things less meals um bodybuilding was there something else um tabata what's tabata

is that like it's all tabata exercises yeah so it's like 20 seconds on 20 seconds off i can't remember not 40 seconds off yeah i can't remember. No, 40 seconds off. Yeah, I can't remember. But then it's like all just suitable training kind of. And when you went to CrossFit, how was CrossFit different? The community. Like being in classes with a lot of like-minded people. And you work much harder.

Being in a body pump class, it's more look pretty and have a cute little barbell that's not really a barbell, where in CrossFit you could be much more rough and smashing with barbells and lifting heavy and sweat out however you like and yeah just pure training yeah i like that hold on one second let me slap these guys around a little listen when i know what we know what tabata is i was trying to figure out if it's like an actual like the name of a storefront there like les mills is the name of a storefront i was just trying to figure out whether she just did tabata on her own or if they have gyms there they're called tabata gyms yeah they had a class called tabata tabata okay these dickheads trying to make fun of me

oh shut it shut it guys just shut it um and um so uh um and um so uh les mills is kind of um i don't want to say crossfit light but you you like the variance the community and kind of the toughness there was a little bit more badass to um if if if uh if crossfit crossfit is more like full contact fighting and les mills is like we're just going through the movements it's tai chi kind of like that i also i also grew up with gymnastics and my mom was the gymnastic coach so i was like literally growing up in the gymnastic gym um so i'm just used to like all the hard work and and being surrounded by that

and that's that's what i felt when i walked into a crossfit box you think that's where you learn to um that's where you learn to push like why do you think you push so hard why do you don't it crosses being a crossfit athlete at the level you're at is kind of extreme. Do you know why you're attracted to that? Probably because of gymnastics. Because I also think it's a little bit for my mom because she was the gymnastic coach. And in gymnastics, you hunt all the gymnasters. Sure, gymnasters, I like it.

Yeah, when they're like four years old so i was always like kind of hunting and pushing to be like be good and be proven that i could be one of those um so i think there's where my drive and push comes from just and it has it always been to prove it to yourself or do you think that you were trying to make your mom happy or you think you were trying to prove something to someone probably my mom happy yeah yeah yeah yeah important to keep your parents happy it's a great motivator yeah you think you like the way your mom raised you um not not always there's yeah yeah both ways Not always. Yeah.

Yeah, both ways. I have some good things today that I'm very independent and strong, but it doesn't have to come from that the racing was very good. It was tough at some points. Do you have siblings? Yeah, I have an older sister and a younger sister and then on my father's side i have a brother but since we i didn't have contact with my father i don't speak too much with my brother um it's funny you say it's tough it was tough because i mean just being an american i always just think of like all those countries over there like sweden and denmark just everything's hunky dory.

Everything's just like perfect. Like, you know, like, yeah, everyone just wakes up in the morning, gets their lunchbox, gets on a bicycle and goes about their day. So my mom is a Lithuanian. So she grew up in the Soviet Union. So that's tough. Yeah. Yeah. So she she was she's a hard. So she's a hard woman.

She's a tough woman. Yeah. Very strict? Very strict. Not a lot of feelings. It's very like, yeah. And she must know that. Yeah, I think she knows today.

Maybe she's more aware of that. And also since she's seen... So my older sister, she's 35. And I'm 29. So she's learned a lot from us as well, seeing us growing up, I think. If you weren't doing CrossFit, what do you think you'd be doing? Well, if I didn't get an ACL chair, I would continue basketball for quite some years.

And then I actually don't know. I've always been using my body a lot. I've tried to study and going back to university, but I stopped because I chose CrossFit instead. So, yeah, it's a tough question, I think. How about your boyfriend? Is he CrossFitting? Yeah, but just as a hobby.

So he's starting up companies and selling them and yeah how did you how did you meet him at the gym at the crossfit gym yeah no shit yeah yeah i wonder if everyone i wonder if there's any couples where i wonder how many couples that there are where the woman is a high level crossfitter and the man doesn't do crossfit probably not too many no not maybe not no i've tried with that with a guy the guys that didn't do crossfit but or just sports in general it doesn't have to be crossfit for my sake it's just the understanding of of how important it is to be like to move around and to do sports um but yeah it's it's tough when when the other partner doesn't is he coming is he coming to the states to watch you oh he's here now you said he came to nashville

with you yeah what's he think did his so you met him in the crossfit gym when he met you were you already having uh games aspirations yeah i did i did and what's he think about it he's okay i mean it's full time for you right it's it's uh it's rebecca um vidison 24 7 sleepy train it is it's it's yeah it's tough yeah it's it's not always fun so it's kind of like a boring lifestyle um but since he's a startup he does yeah startups company and that's a lot of work as well so yeah we kind of have our own lifestyles, but it's very similar as well because we need, we need to structure every day and have a good routines. But then when he relaxes, that means maybe like sleep in or go to bed later or go out and grab a beer

with friends. And that's things that I can't do. So yeah, that's quite, quite can't do so yeah that's quite quite hard sometimes um but yeah then I think in the beginning it was always hard for him as well that it was so much crossfit and and that it was that kind of strict um but I mean having honesty in a relationship and talk and and being able to to communicate things and and expectations and how you want things to go then it's gonna work of course and um the when i speak to um uh jake gazan alex gazan's husband, he's a huge Alex Gazan fan.

And so part of him like really appreciates just having a front row seat to, to his favorite athlete in the world. Right. And so I'm guessing what, what's your, um, is it your husband or your boyfriend? Boyfriend. What's his name? Patrick. Patrick. Is Patrick a Rebecca fan? Like fan like is he so yeah that's awesome so he it's like it's like i'm being a fan of some band and then you get to travel with them and even though they might not

talk to you at least you get to ride in the bus with them you get a ticket to every concert you get to eat with them you get to like so he's he's he is a huge fan, huh? Yeah, exactly. Did he cry at semifinals when you made it to the Games? Yeah. He did? Yeah, I actually have the best video on my Instagram from the final event where I crossed the finish line. And then the guy that films that event, he films back up to the audience

where my boyfriend and my best friend stands and it's they go nuts it's so fun well uh this is him here yeah and where is the video where where is that video is it up higher yeah let's see is this one where you're crying yeah probably that one yeah oh it's and this is awesome another angle of this and look soon here there they are oh yeah oh yeah he's losing his mind he's so proud of you oh my goodness because like the audience the guys around them they were were cheering as well. But even they know me, they just did that because they were going nuts. Hey, at 14 years old, your dad left your life?

Yeah, around that. How do you think that affects your relationship with your boyfriend? Like my mom – my relationship with my mom is how I practiced. My mom taught me how to treat women, right? Like the behavioral things, how to talk to them. Not intentionally or maybe she did intentionally, but how she demanded I treat her is sort of how I'm supposed to treat my wife, right? Or how I'm supposed to treat you. How do you, if you don't have that in your life, was your dad in your life long enough for you to learn, to watch your mom and dad's relationship and to learn from it?

Yeah, I think so. think so but i also know that for example my ex-boyfriend that's what my mom told me at least that i was kind of at that point i was kind of looking for father right like i don't yeah yeah but the truth is is everyone kind of is right that's kind of like part of the we're all looking for another mom and another dad but you have to kind of flip it it's not just because your dad wasn't there yeah right yeah yeah so um i think yeah with my boyfriend now is i don't see the same correlation at all but your but your mom was saying with your your previous boyfriend that maybe you were seeing him more as a father figure you were trying to like yeah i was project that onto him get some sort of like leadership from him yeah kind of maybe yeah yeah and he was he was fathering me a lot as well it was yeah do you like do you like um uh relationships

you're you like being in a relationship if it works yeah yeah yeah i was before my my current boyfriend i was i think alone for two years so i and that was great as well but yeah it's always nice to have someone in your corner and and grow together um how did he how did he court you you you saw each other this wasn't you didn't have to do it through dating apps or any of the stuff that people use today yeah so we did it through a dating app um oh you did even though he did crossfit you did it through a dating app yeah because so i pictured you guys just walking in the gym together and him being like okay the girl doing wall balls over over there that would be how cute that would be cute no so um i was coaching him he went to some of my classes which i unfortunately don't remember uh so but he obviously knew when who i was already and then we met on a dating app and yeah hooked up over there what are the chances of that

is that pretty random that you would have coached him or is the country that small the city's that small what are the chances that he could find you on a dating app after you coached him at a gym i think i think i would say the country is quite small yeah yeah god that's crazy so so did he know when you were coaching him? Was he like, oh, man, if I could date this girl? Probably. Yeah. And so the dating app is you just meet somewhere?

How does that work? Like, hey, let's go meet at a or coffee or and then two people just go there yeah i remember we were both kind of busy so i had my crossfit i was coaching a lot and training a lot and he had his business and so i was always jogging around to like because he he said that he wanted to beat me in something but CrossFit. So I think the first date we just kind of quickly got a grab a lunch or something and then the second date

we did pool. Yeah, so he could beat me in something but he didn't. Wait, he wanted to take you on a date and beat you at something. So the second date he took you to a swimming pool and you guys raced and you beat him. No, swimming pool. Oh, this kind of pool.

Yeah. The stick. Oh, awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Hey, does he have all his tickets and everything?

How does that work at the games? Does he have your coaching pass or does he have a ticket? Like, does he all set up in the coliseum and all that already yeah we'll have a ticket for him but i have another coach that will have my coach tickets crazy and so he'll get up every morning with you and go down to the venue and and just be hanging out kind of like trying to like figure out what you're doing and where you are yeah god that must be nerve-wracking yeah um well well i appreciate you coming on it's great meeting you yeah thanks thanks for having me i'm excited to see you compete congratulations for

being the top 40 fittestest woman walking the planet. Absolutely nuts. You should be so proud of yourself. And maybe I'll see you soon. Maybe we'll get to meet in person. Yeah, 100%. I'd love to. Awesome. Stay healthy and I'll be rooting for you.

Thanks, you too. Okay, talk to you soon. Bye. Ciao. Rebecca Vittesen. Do they share a hotel room? God, I think it's so expensive there, you have to. Speaking of which, I slept amazing last night. Dang, I slept amazing.

So good. What is the, don't you hate that? It's like, I know I'm going to have to get up at 6 and it's 5 a.m. And I have to go pee and I'm just like, fuck. I mean, I assume it's 5 a.m. because I can hear my neighbors. I don't actually look at the clock. It's dark and I can hear my neighbors' roosters. Like, do you hold it and just try to go back to sleep or do you get up and pee?

What a mess. Dude, Jake, I see what you're writing. Excuse me, Rebecca, could you say get to the chopper? I just feel weird. I tried it a couple times. I tried it. Okay, watch. Watch this.

Okay, you ready? You you go pee you just do it so that you can get sleep in peace you're just like fuck it i'm going pee hey dude hey how are you i'm good and you i'm awesome hey it's kind of an odd request but could you say um uh get to the chopper get to the chopper yeah good all right see i asked him do you know do you know that's a there's a guy in the comments he's every show he wants all the foreigners to say get to the chopper because so because they sound he thinks you sound like arnold that he thinks all the foreigners like arnold he's probably right i think you guys all sound like arnold to Get to the chopper. I think that's from Predator. Yeah, it is.

We might sound a little bit different. Braun, do people call you Braun or Bronislaw? In Poland, Bronislaw mostly. In all abroad competitions, just Bron, because, you know, it's easier. And when I hear you say it, is there an F at the end? Bronislaw? Yes, Bronislaw.

Okay, but the last letter is a W. W, yeah. But you pronounce it like an F. Yeah, in Polish, it sounds like Bronislaw bronislaw yes so so because of that we just pronounce this like that and what's your last name

in polish it sounds olenkovic olenkovic yes like kovic bronislaw Olenkovic. Olenkovic. Yes. Olenkovic. Bronislaw Olenkovic. God. Hey, us Americans hear that name and it's strong as shit. Is that a strong name in Poland too? Yeah, it is. It's not so popular name.

So, you know, it's quite unique. But it's have, you know, good. Good meaning. It's a Bronislaw. It means fame, defend defending fame, something like that. You defend your fame something like, Oh, your family. Maybe something like this. Maybe not the family, but, you know, fame, like fame star or famous to be famous, you know. Okay. Hey, we had a paper towel here, Bronislaw, Brani. Did you have that in Poland? It's called Brani, the quicker picker upper. Do you know that? Do you know what a paper towel is?'s like it comes on yeah yeah rip it off and wipe stuff do you know that it's called no no no i know in poland we have a similar thing but it's not called brawny it's called brawny yeah it's called brawny and the guy on the um let me see if i can find the um the image and the guy on the paper towel is a bad dude he's he's tough motherfucker. Let me show you.

I can show you a picture of him. I just remembered it from when I was a kid. Look at him. He's like a real manly dude. Bronny. Bronislav. Can you see him at all? Let me see if I can make him bigger. You see him? Yeah. He's like a big old dude.

Like a woodsman. Brownie. Yeah, brownie yeah brownie okay okay i would like it i wonder i wonder if there's a uh yeah lumberjack he's a he was a lumberjack what what sabbath what that's i think that's a great they're making fun of me in the comments that's a great connection that's a great brawny brawnesloff and brawny the quicker picker upper lebronisla i also when i hear your name i think of coleslaw do you know what coleslaw is no it's like a salad it's a cabbage salad ah coleslaw salad yeah i know i don't know why but i hear brawnesloff and i think it makes me want to eat coleslaw i didn't connect these two never you don't need you don't need coleslaw no no i don't

need maybe a few times you know in my life um bronislaw tell me um tell me where you were born you uh tell me about this village you were born in were you were you born you weren't were you born in a hospital or you just born on no no worry it's not a this kind of village so i was born in hospital normally in the closest city to the village i live with my parents when i was child so it's a regular small town i don't know, just maybe 20,000 people. So I was born in a regular hospital, and I was living up to 18 years old on this small village with my parents. So in this village, we have just, let's say, 10 people living. So three families of farmers, and that's all.

So I'm not sure I understand. The town to this town you have a lot of small villages because you know this is mostly farmers area so one of this village was when my parents and just you know my uncle also lived here. The guys have some fields, my parents have animals to take care of, so mostly cows. So they produce milk. So, you know, my childhood was full of fields, animals, just pure nature.

And was that your schooling? Were you homeschooled? Did your parents? No, no, no. I had school in the next bigger village. So it was a kind of one kilometer by foot. We need to walk every day just to go to the bus. And 20 minutes on the bus, there was a school.

I like that. And would you consider yourself a farm boy did you have did you have chores on the farm what was life like for you on there you took care of the cows you milked the cows yeah yeah i milked the cows i mostly helped my parents you know to just feed the animals and clean after them so i work a lot i start to help my parents since i was eight years old i even you know drive the i know in english tractor uh with my with my dad then two years later i was able to you know drive on my own and help in the field so So let's say 12 years of working as a farmer. So it was get up, go to the school, back to the school,

help with my parents with the work and just do some homework, sleep and repeat. This guy in the comments says, I love this guy. But the reason why he loves you is this is also a farmer in um in california he has uh he's a he's a tree farmer he has tons of um plums and things like that nectarines peaches he's a tree farmer okay yeah him and his wife are tree farmers that's awesome really farmers um So at eight years old, you start an apprenticeship as a farmer,

and by 12 years old, you're a full-blown farmer. Four years later, you could run the farm. Maybe not run the farm, but I was doing a lot of things on my own. So I have my own schedule, the things that I should do on this farm. So I was taking care of this, of this thing. How many cows? How many cows? It was around, not, it was not a big number. It was about 20. Do you, did you ever kill animals to eat them on the farm?

I never killed on my own, but it is just regular practice on such farms. Once or two times a year, just my parents, uncles just kill one big pig, and you have meat for half of the year. Do you remember the first time you saw that? Yeah, I was a young kid. Six, seven years old. And was that hard to see? Or did you know that it was important

to keep the family alive? Yeah, I know it was important. It was just a part of, you know, our life. So nothing big. It was just a part of our life. So nothing big. It was nothing big for me. You didn't cry a little bit like when they killed the pig? No, I just tried to understand this, how this works. So my parents just explained to me why.

So it was understandable for me and acceptable on that day um jake chapman has said bronislaw the pussy slayer pussy no no not pig slayer not pussy slayer very different um pussy slayed very different uh very different i apologize very different very uh oh sean lenderman uh bronislaw cried and then he ate some bacon. Yeah, something like that. Hey, so did you know it was was it I want to ask you if it was hard work on the farm, but it's all you knew. So it wasn't hard work, right? I mean, like maybe to me as an american

it was hard work but to you was it hard work or was it like no this is just normal life yeah it become normal just uh yeah it was hard uh you know a lot of times i have you know i don't know this name in english but you know bursts on my on my palaces yeah yeah this name in english but you know bursts on my on my palaces yeah yeah so yeah it was difficult because you know sometimes you need to work one hour or two hours per day just physically you know just moving heavy things doing the same thing over and over so yeah it was hard it was hard. It was exhausting. But, you know, I believe for me, for today, it was really good. Let's say for the athlete perspective, because it was really cool general preparation for the sport. Even if I didn't know about it on that time. And crazy discipline and structure.

Meaning if you were sick or you were tired, it didn't matter. You were going to get up and go work. Exactly. So, you know, if you have animals on the farm, you don't have days off, especially if you have cows who produce milk. You need to, you know, get the milk two times per day, early morning and afternoon. So you just can't go on holidays or things like that. You need to be there every day, two times a day. Would you actually milk the cows?

A few times. But not every day? Me, not. I have one brother and two sisters. My sister and my younger brother mostly help my parents with the milk. I just work other stuff, not directly milking the cows. There was a woman I made a film for a documentary. She was the greatest female arm wrestler who ever lived.

And her job as a child was milking the cows. And so her hands and her forearms were crazy. Yeah, crazy. You ever just drink? You ever just, can you just do that? Can you just milk a cow into a cup and just drink a cup of milk right out of the cow? Yeah of course you can do this And is it the best tasting thing ever?

What is funny I hate milk Oh interesting Since child I almost never drink milk I don't know Maybe because of you know I have this too much

I just didn't like this taste. Yeah. That's how I feel about women. I had too many, and now I just can't stand them. I just had too much. Hey, when the milk comes out, it's warm, though. If you were to drink it, it's warm. Yeah, it's warm.

It's really warm. And thick and creamy Maybe not the creamy Just regular milk Yeah crazy I've never tried that I'd love to try that Well you should Some states in the United States

You know it's illegal to do that You're not allowed to drink raw milk Why? I don't know because fucking government okay actually i have no idea how this is you know on this side of you know government things but if you are owner of the cow so you have you can do whatever you want you on your own so you can drink this milk it's not an issue and so so this upbringing did you know right away uh bronislaw that you were strong did you have a suspicion as a child that you oh i'm kind of strong maybe i uh well was a word I was aware that I am, let's say, fitter than other guys from my class in the school.

Because, you know, on the physical education classes, I was just, let's say, on the higher level than other guys. So I competed from time to time in local competitions on, you know, things like throwing, short sprint running, jumping. So, you know, just things like that. I was good at it without training. So my physical education teacher just, you know, took me all the time for every competition we had. And that's all that was my you know childhood just working on the firm and in the school i just took part from time to time in competition competitions and and you didn't play any sports per se but you sort of

did these what would be more like olymp Olympic or track and field type events, running, throwing. Yeah, exactly. Perfectly said. Yeah, that's cool. And did you guys have, in the United States, we have this thing called like the presidential fitness exam or something. I can't remember exactly, but you take this test in the first, second, third, fourth, every grade you're in school. And then if you pass, you get a little certificate. Did you guys have that where you compete against all the kids in Poland? No. No, no, no, no. We don't do things like that. Do you remember ever getting your first pull-up or could you always do a pull-up?

You were just born like doing, you could do a pull-up. Pull-up? Oh, since like young kid. Yeah. We have just next to our house, we have just, you know, a tree with the pull-up bar. And we did plenty of plays on this pull-up bar. We just, you know, pull-ups, muscle-ups, things like that. We're just playing around almost every day on this.

Yeah. My life was so different than you i didn't learn to do a pull-up until i was 23 and i was high on drugs very very very different so good so very physical yeah they were great drugs uh so so very so you were very physically um you were very comfortable with your body. You were very physical from a young age. You had basically no fear of physical activity at all, foreign objects, getting shit done, driving tractors, a real rooted-in-yourself kind of self-confidence in your body, capable. And then, and then, when your celebration of life is prepaid in advance, it becomes a gift from you to your family later

because no one should have to plan for a loss while they're experiencing one. Paying in advance protects your loved ones and gives you the peace of mind you deserve. Let us help you plan every detail with professionalism and compassion. We are your local Dignity Memorial provider. Find us at DignityMemorial.ca. And then when did it turn into like formal exercise for you, right?

I mean, obviously the farm isn't formal exercise, but you're getting stimulus and you're growing. When, when did it turn into formal exercise for you? When were you like, Hey, I'm going to try to do some exercise. I'm going to go for a run or I'm going to lift some weights. I know on the time when I left the parent house, I came to the city when I live right now, to the high school. So this time I started to work because I was studying on the weekends

and I was working, you know, on the week. On the week time, I started to work in corporation in the bank. So it was just eight hours work next to the computer so changing my life from you know farmer's life to this kind of life i needed to go to do something to train and i met one guy who was training bodybuilding we become friends and he asked me you know to to try this so i'm practicing because i just can't say it was a training but i was practicing bodybuilding for one and a half year so doing this i was bigger than now i i don't know in pounds, but I weighed 115 kilograms. So it's around 250 pounds.

Is it this guy? No, no, no, no. This guy I met later on just during CrossFit. What is funny with this guy, I was training since a few years already. I did some competitions, quite good spots on these competitions and this guy just came to my gym. we didn't you know know each other. he came in and he asked who is this Olenkovic? oh it's me. I just came to beat all your records. oh shit. I just thought, oh, shit, it will be fun. And we did first

training together. And he almost died. Yeah, but I but I went, I want this one. But it was, you know, beginning of the really cool relationship. We trained together, we competed together since many, many years. Because this guy is Kamil, he's a former judo player. Yeah. I know. Judo athlete. So he also started training judo from a really young guy, young child. So yeah, he's also super fit.

So it was cool to have a guy like him to train together. Yeah, this is the photo from the latest competition in Poland we did together. Yeah, Judo's no joke. He's a bad dude, huh? He's a badass. Oh, yeah. He's, you know, he's just different genetics. He has muscles everywhere.

So, sorry, I cut you off. You were doing when you were doing bodybuilding, what was the most you weighed, Bronislaw? Around 250 pounds. And what do you weigh now?

220. Oh, you're 220? Yeah, I have almost 100 100 kilograms even a little bit over fuck dude you're huge how tall are you 184 centimeter so i don't know someone someone will tell us 184 someone hook it up 184 someone tell me how tall that is in american 184. Someone tell me how tall that is in American. 184 centimeters. Holy shit. I am, let's say, a little bit bigger than... A little bit? Crossfit. Hey, you might be the heaviest dude there at the Games.

Might be. Yeah. Might be. How old are you, Bronislav? 34. 34. Oh, shit. You might be the oldest dude there, too,

besides Jason Smith. Yeah, I will be probably the second after Jason Smith. And then Vellner. Oh, shit. You're six feet tall. Holy shit. Yeah, dude. You're not supposed to be there.

Everyone is telling me this. This was maybe mostly the reason that I am there is that one guy just said to me that I have no chance to go to the CrossFit Games because of my weight, my appearance. And this guy told me this 10 years ago when i started training god that's all and really that stuck with you for 10 years you've been able to keep using that as fuel that would be me on the most of the time but when i'm you know achieving some let's say big goal in crossfit i just remind this for myself that oh yeah so i just you know watch me just watch me um tell me about so i i like this story i heard you say on this podcast

that you you you saw a crossfitter and you liked their body and you're like yeah they're not too they're not too buff they're not they're. They're not, they're not too big. And you saw that. Tell me, tell me, can, do you remember the saying that in a podcast that you saw a male CrossFitters body? Yeah. Yeah. That looks like, tell me about that experience.

Cause I think that too, I see it and I'm like, yeah, that looks like a useful body. Like this idea of being so massive that you can't wipe your own ass or that shit's weird or that you got to get up in the middle of the night and eat just doesn't sound um fun yeah and this was the time when i was training bodybuilding with my friend when i was you know talking about this so uh i got bigger and bigger so i have the let's say period in my life that my calves just you know i have so much pain in my calves just walking you know because i was so heavy in short amount of time i just gained a lot of mass because i my body just you know like growing if i don you know, keep the proper weight intake, I can just grow, you know, even bigger. So then when I was big, with this guy, we trained about the building.

He showed me the video on YouTube from the CrossFit Games. And he said that, oh, you might like this because these guys are really fit, super fit, strong, and things like that. And when I watched the videos, I just, they impressed me a lot, you know, about their physique, but also the things that they can do. It was mostly the Retronic, Kalipa and these guys.

So it was games, movies from games 2013. And I, you know, the types of the movement just reminded me, you know, the things I was doing as a kid. So I really, you know, wanted to try this and after the first training like that i just i can't remember what i what i did what was the workout but i you know just i did this around 10-15 minutes and i was dying you know one hour later after that and i just said myself that this is what i want to do and you know this was just something different than just you know bodybuilding when you're just doing sets rest sets rest and you're growing and what you can achieve in the sport is you know just growing bigger and bigger and you know going to the competition when this is not actually competition but you know the beauty

contest when some other guys are sitting and just watching you and saying that oh you are better than this guy based on what based on you know my preference as a as a judge so also because of that i didn't like the bodybuilding but in the crossfit it was clearly who is better because you know this guy can finish the work faster and this type of you know challenging was uh for me was really you know i was curious about this how i would be able you know to do these tasks because and because i didn't start any sport so i didn't i wasn't good at at anything yeah i was good in almost you know all kind of stuff i could do this if you would show me something i probably was able to do i was able to do every crossfit movement once i watched this you know on the on the youtube maybe not the perfect form but i was almost able to you know replicate this but I didn't you know compete

at anything so I didn't have you know movement quality I didn't have endurance at all I just you know it was easy to me to gain the skills but the endurance I sucked at this and if you play any sport in the background you have you know this this training discipline so you have aerobic capacity things like that so i never had this i just was you know strong and let's say good in skills and um and and this particular uh video here not only are you good at the skills and all not only are you good at replicating things very quickly and learning quickly, but look at this position. This is crazy. Was finding these positions obviously not with this weight.

Was this easy for you? Like from the beginning, did you have your mobility or did you have to work to get these positions? Because when you think of a guy who's as strong as you, you don't think of him as being, you know, sort of in these positions. You know, when I started training CrossFit, I also, in the same time, I was playing with heavy kettlebells. Because after my main work, the office work, I was also, I was also doing some studies. I wanted to be a coach. Oh, okay. So I was getting some certifications, things like that.

So I found kettlebell things. I was learning how to be a coach with kettlebell hard style. I don't know if you know this. Kettlebell what style? Hard style. It's strong first kind of hard style it's strong for it's right now it's called strong first okay so it is the guy pavel tatsulin invented this one so uh yeah i was playing with kettlebells and when you lift really heavy kettlebells you need to be really flexible for this and you know i did for my strange work heavy turkish get ups heavy windmills heavy bent presses so a lot of unusual in crossfit things and because of because

i was pretty strong i was you know able to do this with three heavy weights and this is actually those are actually the videos. If you're looking for my Instagram, they are really, really low because it was a few years ago. But that was the videos that have plenty of views and impressions because normal people just can't do this. And for me, it was just, you know, just show me. Okay, let's go.

This is particularly crazy too. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Yeah, it was, you know, stupid idea of my friend Tomasz. Because for three years when I started CrossFit, I never have coach. No one coached me from weightlifting. because for three years when I started CrossFit, I never had a coach. No one coached me from weightlifting.

And I was able to snatch 120 kilograms. It's 260 pounds with no hook grip. Just, you know, just like that. I grab and snatch. So after that, I decided, you know, to find a coach and work with with him so I find Tomasz and when I come go to Tomasz for the you know workshop the first thing we started to do is was stupid you know weightlifting just snatching in you know in narrow grip or clean and jerking without you know standing up from the squat position.

So this is because of him. And who is the coach you said? Someone named Thomas? Yeah, Thomas Mitros. He has Tomek Weightlifting on the Instagram. Oh, okay, okay. And then here you are 41 weeks ago. Yeah.

So just shy of a year, nine months ago. And it says, time to get things more serious. I want to get in the best possible shape for 2023. So I decided to start cooperation with experienced coach Justin Kotler. I know him personally. I trust him. I believe we can achieve many goals together. So this is your first CrossFit coach just nine months ago?

This is the most experienced coach in coaching athletes on the CrossFit Games level who was able to finish on the podium. Because I have coaches. Two guys were helping me in past years. Half of this time of my training I did on my own. And in some period, just

two coaches helped me in training. But no one has experience like Justin working with the athletes on the highest level on that base. Why not pick someone in Europe? Why all the way over in Las Vegas, Nevada?

I don't know. Maybe it was just short thinking, quick analysis. short-thinking, quick analysis, who, from the guys I know personally, is a coach, and he coached the athletes from the games level. So, from the podium, who finished on the podium.

Meaning Ricky, right? Yeah, meaning Ricky and Cary Pierce. Oh, right. So, so yeah it was a quick pick for Justin so I right over sent him a message and then we chat and he liked the idea you know to try

to work together and we started I'm really simple guy to coach I just need a plan I'm doing really simple guy to coach. I just need a plan. I'm doing the things like Coach Wright. From time to time, we're just sending a message just to see if everything is okay.

And that's all. Patrick Clark says they met in Dubai two years ago. You met Justin two years ago in Dubai? Yeah. You met Justin two years ago in Dubai? Yeah, first time we met in 2018 in Berlin on the regionals. You remember meeting him? Yeah, I remember meeting him because he was coaching my friend, Bartek Lipka, another CrossFit athlete from Poland. We both, with Bartek, competed at regionals in Berlin. So I then met him because you know he

was on the warm-up area and they worked together. I was working with my coach and so then we just met and spoke a little bit just you know a few sentences and after that we met in Dubai in 2020. And after that, we met in Dubai in 2020. Bronislav, is your training for this Games mostly then endurance stuff? Have you just been working to build an engine? Yes. And that sounds grueling. Grueling?

Let me look up the definition of grueling uh not good uh grueling is um uh extremely tiring and demanding is the definition yes so but you know this is what my body needs to be able you know to keep up with the guys with with the more more endurance guys than me, because I feel that I am pretty enough strong for the, you know, CrossFit Games level. I am skilled enough for the CrossFit level. The only

thing I am, you know, not the good one is, you know, endurance, but mostly the endurance on my foot. So running, maybe a little biking. But the rowing, skiing, and things like that, I feel pretty good. I've pulled up the semi-final competition.

This 17th place isn't too bad for the strongman guy, right? For a big man. That had three machines, right? Yeah. And a lot of running. 2K run. Yeah. And then you took a 14th,

and then a second, and then a first. And what is this one you took a 36th in? Very close time to me. 36, 800 meters run. Oh, okay. So for me, the run, it was actually pretty good. I got pretty good time, but for myself, for my running level, but the guys were just faster.

So you had to do eight snatches and then get on the runner? That was that one? Yeah, that was that one. Were you the first one on the runner, Bronislav? Almost, yes. I think on my hit was also David Scharunke, so we got the same time. But it was, you know, just a matter of two, three seconds

because the eight snatches on this weight is really light, so everyone just, you know, could do this fast. It was all about the run. It was all about the run? Yeah. When you got off that runner and you went to the finish line did you think you still had more in the tank or did you did you end did you was that it right i just felt the gust but what a funny thing is on this run because we have running you know on the day one so the 2k run on the first event it was really good i felt

good it was smooth run and just i used to you know in my training on my treadmill but on the second day the running was so hard i don't know why because my this runner just you know worked much different than on the day one i don't know if this is because you know my legs were fatigued after you know day one but it was so hard to keep up the pace I was training, you know, for. Because normally I, in practice, I was able, you know, to, I did this workout in practice. So I was able to run sub three minutes, you know, easily. Maybe not super easy, but I was able to keep up the pace and run 800 meters in 3 minutes

and in this competition it took me 3 minutes something to run 800 meters and it was so fucking hard to run on this treadmill when you did it in practice did you do it on the same treadmill? no I have different treadmill

but on the first day when I was running 200 kilometers it feels totally the same like my training in my gym. But the good news is in the workouts you were supposed to do well in, you capitalized. You took second in Linda and you took first in the snatch. You did what you needed to do. Yeah, it was actually pure fun. you did what you needed to do yeah yeah it was actually pure fun um you in this other podcast that i i listened to that you did you really emphasize competition day performance like you really emphasize the crowd and that like hey man like, you're good in the gym,

you're great at training, but game day is a whole different beast. Yeah, exactly. Because this is a totally different environment and if you want to be good in competition, you need to practice competing and not only training. Because I know a lot of guys who are really cool in the training and they beat me up in you know a lot of workouts on the training but when it comes to the competition some things change my scores are the same or even better than in other guys you know just they just can't handle this so So the pressure, the judges, the being able to control your pacing,

all of those things that aren't there in training. Yeah, exactly. I think this is a lot of conditions why this looks like that. I just can say from my perspective that my training, I'm not super like training, let's say. So during my trainings, I don't like get gassed. I just practice. I like practicing the training. a lot of, I like practicing the training.

In my head, there is always that you just, every training session, I just need to leave some percent in the tank because this is for the competition time. So I just practice in my training, different scenarios, different pacing to be able to perform the best I can in the competition. So, you know, this is always my approach. So everyone can beat me in training.

It's just not super hard. But in the competition, you know, it's changed because this is the place when I always get 5 to 10% better scores than in the training. When you're a village boy

grow up on a farm um i mean in in poland in in a you know in country in eastern europe does that when you when you're going to go to madison and there's going to be every seat is filled and you're going to walk out there and every single person at the crossfit games knows who you are because there's a very good chance you're going to be the strongest guy there and all those people are going to have eyes on you is that an easy shift for you does does any part of that um little country boy be like oh shit this is too many people like like you might start to feel claustrophobic there. Like everyone, like in your town, you might, you know, just like, Hey, you know,

you see someone maybe every 15 minutes or every hour, maybe you don't see anyone, but you're going to go somewhere and it's going to be like 10,000 people screaming. I love this feeling. I got used to this because going to the competitions, I was almost always, you know, the strongest guy. What's funny in CrossFit, you know, the strongest guys

not often wins the competition. Right. But almost every time, the guy who you remember from the CrossFit competition is the guy who won and the guy who lifts the most. These two guys. Everyone remembers Guy. Exactly. So no one remembers the guy

who won the run. 5K run. Because it was so boring to watch. Right. Yeah. So I just, you know, always enjoying the time when it was for the heavy lifting, heavy events. So I was always playing with the crowd.

I just love this feeling. This is amazing. And this is why I'm doing this. I'm going to the competitions just, you know, because I love this energy when people just, you know, watch you when in the close race or heavy lift and these emotions when you hit the lift or maybe you fail the lift uh it's all you know it's really cool you know to to enjoy this to live this to to to try this in your life yeah and i and i love this feeling. The best feeling I have in my competition experience was at the Games in 2019 on the second cut event, when I took second in the entire event.

And what was the event? It was 800 row, 66 kettlebell push presses and handstand walk to the end of the line I don't know around 40 meters 50 meters something like that so it was two hits

I was in first hit I won this and on the second hit only Matt Fraser beats me for 3 seconds and those movements were row handstand walk and kettlebell And on the second hit, only Matt Fraser beats me for three seconds. And those movements were row, handstand walk, and kettlebell? Yeah. Shouldered overhead? Yeah, yeah, shouldered overhead.

Wow. Did you make it past that cut? Yeah, because I took second, so yeah. Patrick Clark brings up Danny Spiegel. Yeah, look at Danny Spiegel. Everyone, I mean, granted, there's other reasons why people know her too. I mean, she's a unique physical specimen.

Extraordinary to look at. But her strength, everyone remembers what she did at Rogue or what she does with the sandbag. You can't forget her. Yeah, truly, truly phenomenal. And even, I was just trying to think who i remember do you remember who won the um the log lift in rogue for the men was that chandler smith when that uh yes i think it was chandler i do you know how much he lived i don't remember do you

mess around with that stuff strongman stuff do you mess around with logs from time to time i have this in the competition uh in germany i took a competition with it was team competition with my friend and we have the the log lift so i i knew that the you know i i can live a lot so i just lived lift whatever I needed, you know, to win this one. And I lift 130 kilograms. It was around 300 pounds. And I did clean and squat jerk. Wow. With the log?

Yeah, with the log. You can find this on my Instagram. It was just from January this year. It's a really funny video. Were you surprised you were able to do that? No, no, no, no. Just a few years ago, I did a clean and push jerk with 130. So I knew that I would just few posts above

because this was one competition in Germany and then it was double travel competition it was in January uh yeah this is the end of the year oh yes here it is yeah just a little bit oh here no no no just go go lower lower oh yeah yeah. The one with the log. Wake up, Seth. Wake up, Seth. It's funny. Hey, oh, wow. Crazy. Crazy.

Bronislav, what's the lightest you flirted with? Have you tried getting down to 190 to see what would happen? My weight? Yeah. Have you ever tried getting – or maybe 190 is too light. Have you tried getting down to 205? No. My body just don't like this. At the beginning of the season when it was the open time and i my weight was 96 7 kilograms

i don't know yeah you're not getting down to five forget i said that forget i said that yeah so there's no fucking way there's the max that i you know wait so wait no no chance no chance i i would need you know to cut my arm or leg. I don't know. Right. Let's not do that. Let's say you keep all the dresses. Yeah.

You're married? Yes. And how long have you been married? I'm married almost three years. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Why did you get married? Because I love her yeah and are you gonna have kids are you gonna start a family uh we're planning yeah well after you know

just uh we because right now we have crazy life uh because of the traveling we love traveling a lot of this you know in our life and my training right now it takes me you know a lot of time but yeah but we are planning in upcoming time um there's no rush by the way i had my first kid when i was 43 i have three boys okay yeah wait cool and my wife and my wife was 39 and i now I have all the time in the world to play with them I'm not rushing you at all Take your time This is good advice, thanks Take your time, no rush

Damn, this man is a tank I know, he is a A freak Is Braun aware of all the stuff that's going on In Ukraine and how does that affect life in Poland? Oh, yeah. So that's a great question. Thank you, Patrick.

So you got this country, Russia, over here, and it's fighting with its neighbor, Ukraine. And then over here is Poland. And so you got a lot of people. It might be one of the largest migrations of humans in our lifetime. Yes. Right? Yes, it was. humans in our lifetime yes right yes it was it was but for the for me and people in my area because i live in north east of the poland so it's pretty far away from the ukraine because poland is a

quite big country uh so we we don't feel this you know as much uh much. But it was a lot of people who came to the Poland from Ukraine. When the war started, it was, you know, a kind of big panic. What will happen? Like if it could spread to your country, right? Yeah, exactly. So it was a kind of one month of, you know, just scary. But after that, it just came to the normal. Because when you take a look on the Ukraine map, so the majority of the war is from the Kiev to the right. Okay, way over here. Yeah.

But then you would hear sort of some fighting in Odessa. And then we did hear, you know, it's funny because in the United States, we do hear about maybe some fighting that happens on the border with Poland. Some bombings did happen. But then we never know. You can't tell – we can't tell what the truth is over here. I mean you probably don't know what the truth is either. No one ever knows what the fuck is going on really. Like no one knows what the truth is over here like i mean you probably don't know what the truth is either no one ever knows what the is going on really like no one knows yeah exactly exactly and also i am you know not the best source to ask for because i don't watch the news at all so i have

no idea what's happening outside my you know home river so i i have no idea what's happening what is the general um do you know what the general relationship is with poland and russia and poland and ukraine are they generally fr you know well right now you know all the around countries are really in good relationships with ukraine not the russian guys and i know that belarus is with good connections with Russia, but all other countries are rather, you know, in a European Union mostly, or a kind of union that, you know, protects each country in case of the war.

So we have NATO. So most of the countries from Poland to the south to the north are in NATO. So we feel pretty safe, let's say. Where do you live here in Poland? In the west? In the north. In the north. Northeast. It's Olsztyn.

So the other, yes, this is my town, Olsztyn. And so where will you fly out of when you come to the States? I will go, we fly to Germany and from Germany to the States. So you have an airport in your town? In my town, no. But we used to fly from Warsaw on from Gdańsk. We have the biggest airport. You'll drive to Warsaw?

Yeah, it's not far away. It's a two-hour drive. Okay. And then you'll fly to Germany? And then you'll fly to the States and straight to Madison? You'll come into Madison? No, to Chicago. And I will be in Chicago just four days.

And on Monday, we'll head to Madison. And Monday is the... Oh, that's when I'm going too. Monday is the 31st. Yes, exactly. And then how about when it's over, Bronislav, what will you do when it's over? When the games are over?

No, no, no. Just one day after. Just on Monday we are coming back to home. And then straight back to work? Yeah, because I have another event on the next week. I'm organizing here in Poland, also in my city. So I need to be here. A CrossFit event? Yeah, a CrossFit event, a kind of training camp. Because you know, I was in the States two times. I was in 2019 at the Games. After that, we see New York, Chicago for a few days. Then two years later, I competed in Miami, Guadalupalooza.

So after Miami, with our friends friends we go to Los Angeles so we see West Coast no this is not the West Coast West Coast yeah West Coast so right now we are going just for the competition and go back

Dude great to meet you, you're a cool dude thank you yeah do you know you're cool what you are cool too okay thank you it was really cool chat thanks yeah you're a good dude it's weird that your connection from your fucking car is better than 80 of the people i fucking interview in the united states i don't know what the fuck is going on are you on cellular service right now yes this is maybe because of that you know because this is the you know right now it's 7 p.m 7 sorry 5 p.m during poland 5 30 so yeah i at my home i have really bad connection because i live just outside the town close to the forest so it's really bad poor connection right now in my gym when I'm next to my gym there's a lot of you know classes right

now so it's a loud music so the only place I could you know chat with you uh is my is my car so yeah so I'm just outside but yeah it's crazy you. You're a good connection. The connection's crazy good. I can't believe you're on cellular service. It's like better than 90% of the people I have on the show. It's nuts. And you're in Poland. It feels like you're right next door. There's not even a delay.

Yeah, funny. Yeah. When I interviewed Jacob Heppner, do you know who that is, the old games athlete? Jacob Heppner, yeah, I know. He has to go to a strip club like 20 minutes from his house you know what a strip club is you have those in poland yeah you know what that is okay yeah of course okay all right oh yeah actually yeah i have a friend who told me

about going to a strip club in warsaw it was a good story okay uh bronislaw thank you very much uh take care and uh i hope our paths cross again very very soon thank you too and thanks for this chat and hope to see you at the games yes brother all right cheers thank you imagine uh tanya bowers imagine if all 259 of us commented on this podcast you mean in the youtube comments it'd be cool yeah do it get down in there and do it just drop just yeah just drop one comment in there nice man button sebi david weed everything is just better uh here in the EU, Savon. Dude, his signal was crazy, wasn't it? That's a cool dude.

Oh, shit. I didn't check the local recording. I may have screwed that up sorry Sousa we have this new feature on StreamYard the podcasting service we use we're supposed to double record it

so we get a high quality recording oh yeah we're not going to get shit from Rebecca or Bron. They did not complete their uploads. Oh, but you turned it on at least. That's cool. Yeah, I got that 5G all set up over there, I guess. Jonathan Lane.

I wonder if Bronislav thinks the Earth is flat. I think it's called stationary earth was the term Chrissy with her smile have we discussed Daniel Brandon's soft launch story because I feel like that warrants a 7 exclusive what is that what's going on over there where do I go for that warrants a 7 exclusive. What is that? What's going on over there? Where do I go for that? Do I go to Danielle

Brandon soft launch story. What is a soft launch story? I've been bugging the shit out of her with no response but I mean she's just busy. Let's see. Is it in her story?

Click this. Bam. Some shoes. Say hi to Danielle Brandon. Oh, Rad Global. Here she's drinking some shit she shouldn't be drinking. Some poison. Oh, wait.

Look at that. That's intimate. Look at those hands touching. That's something. Oh, wow. She's plugging this down pepper. I don't see it. What do you mean?

Soft launch for what? What are we looking at here? She's back. Well, where'd she go? My goodness. She is something else. Jeez Louise. My God. my god beach photos with Danielle Brandon

party photos with Danielle Brandon kissing photos with Danielle Brandon dog photos with Danielle Brandon bikini in the club photos with Danielle Brandon that's a great picture. Two weeks ago. Training seems to be going great. Cold shower.

Yeah, I forgot you guys were there. We're live still? Shit. Melissa Odier. hour uh yeah i forgot you guys were there we're live still shit uh melissa odier she is so hot yeah she's okay she's so she's basic 10 um anything else who do we have today i think we have christine colin brander by the way if you want to uh get brushed up on some of your christine colin brander uh trivia content um go over uh buttery bros filmed with her i think i want to say it's their last episode she She's up there at HWPO. Speaking of being hot, she looks fucking amazing too.

She looks absolutely incredible. All right. I think that's it. I think I'm off back to the skate park today. Dude, yesterday was absolutely crazy. I told you what I was doing, right? There's this kid there. I crazy i told you what i was doing right there's this there's this kid there i think i told you he's um uh probably top five best skateboarder eight or nine year old skateboarder within 100 miles of here and this this is i don't live in no podunk

area i mean i i well i live in a podunk area but but within 100 miles of here, there's some crazy shit. And so I knew he was going to be at the park all day yesterday, and Avi and him skated until Avi hurt himself. So I hope he got a pretty bad crash, got a bruise on his ankle. I hope it's better. So he's going to be there all day again today. Him and Avi are buds. Avi just exploded.

You guys want to see the... I'll show you my... I made a video at Three Plain Brothers. Check this out. Here we go. He's done this kind of stuff before but never so much just on his own kind of crazy In the skate park, just a boom in the skate park. Basically, maybe in the eight hours they were there, maybe there was fucking 10 other kids that showed up,

or 20 other kids. Their own skate park. And he was helping me on a sunny fucking day. Yeah, I'm so proud of him. He worked so hard. Oh, thank you, music. Thank you. You think that that,

is that song, you think that song's, is that like a famous song? Yeah, that dude did bring the cup of coffee. I told you guys about that. So basically, I ran into a guy who listens to the show at the beach one day

and then the next day, he asked if he could hang out with me and i said sure but i said i'm going to skateboarding tomorrow you have to meet me there and he met me there and he brought me a cup of coffee with like steamed heavy cream and shit in it he told me what it was it was like an ole or something it was awesome i walked to the bathroom with him twice. I hung out. It was cool. I would tell you his name. I don't know if he wants to be known that he hung out with me, but it was cool. I really, I enjoyed him.

Gave him a big hug when he left. It was dope. I enjoyed it. I didn't tell my wife. That shit would, um, that shit would freak my wife out. My wife didn't. My wife wouldn't want me hanging out with strangers let's see let's see what the fuck's going on with dave's instagram

the fuck's he doing might as well right the game show he's the games guy oh shit he wow he's with hannah black here you remember her? She didn't make it to the games, but she was a beast. That's the new Danny Spiegel right there, speaking of Danny Spiegels. That girl to the left of Dave. Let's see what Dave's doing. Oh, I wonder if that's the four star general our team had the privilege of having Major General Norrie division commander attend the one day

oh that's a two star general holy shit wow two star general took his CrossFit level one light wow that's cool. Chuck Carswell there. Let's see. Is that Jeremy Teal?

Wow. Jeremy Teal? Wow. So he's in Austin? What the fuck is Dave doing? Why is that bar so low? Shouldn't that be? Oh, Nelly. What the fuck is he lifting? What are those things hanging from that oh oh that's a trip wow that's weird have you guys ever seen that before he's back squatting you lower the weight with something heavy and then it it at the bottom it comes off. Wow, that's interesting.

Is that new? There she is, Hannah Black. Look at her. Fuck the future. He just finished reading Malcolm X's autobiography by Alex Haley, which is weird that it's an autobiography since it was written by Alex Haley. But I read that book. Great book.

Changed my life. Heather Bergeron? Oh, is this a preview for... What is this a preview for? This is a preview for behind the scenes. Did you see that? That's the behind the scenes footage. What the fuck was that? Hold on.

Let me turn the volume on, man. What is going on here with this? Oh, it has no volume. Oh, yeah. This is 2015. Oh, what are you doing? The workout. The workout.

Oh. Dave with Adrian? All right. Sean Lenderman I've been watching all the behind the scenes footage it is all so good can you imagine how good it would be if I did it again it would be on a whole

thank you by the way for saying that I agree I think it's like it's fucking nuts because if I think it's like, it's fucking nuts. Because if I did it again, I would probably get help. All right. Oh, we're getting an updated QR code for the peptides. Good. Oh, you know what I did yesterday?

One more plug for the California peptides. Yesterday I did – so you guys saw my Instagram the other day. I did a, um, I did a neck, I jumped up at the top and I did a negative muscle up and then I did one muscle up to test out my bicep. And yesterday I did, uh, 10 cows on the assault bike and one negative muscle up. I just jumped to the top and did one negative for 10 rounds just to test the whole bicep out. K kept the false grip at the bottom seems good seems good now the question is do i have the balls oh savvy

eccentric hooks that's what those are called eccentric hooks anyway um anyway yeah now the question is do I have the balls to start snatching a 70 pound dumbbell again with that left hand the most I've snatched with it is 50 see what the fuck's going on um cave dastro

you need to start learn you need to learn terms like riz and bet before you go hang Cave Dastro, you need to learn terms like Riz and Bet before you go hang with all those Gen Z kids at the games. Those kids aren't going to – I don't even know what those words mean, but no one talks like that. Come on.

Cave, you Riz the chicks that's a sentence you riz okay fine let me look that up riz urban dictionary is from the urban dictionary riz another word for spitting game oh i know spitting game is that's right and pulling pulling chicks riz spitting game you spin game and pulling pulling chicks Riz spitting game you spitting game like that's gonna be used back there excuse me how much is your deadlift and

what's your current what's some of the best Riz you got anyway I guess we're gonna get a new QR code because I guess this one didn't work. Where is that one? I guess, oh, it's gone already. What's this? Sponsor overlay.

What are those things? Let me see if I can. What are these things we have? Paper Street Coffee, California Hormones, BirthFit. This is stuff that I'm supposed to have on the screen. Shit. That I don't. Postpartum, BirthFit,

California Hormones, Paper Street Coffee. Shit, I should always have that up. Why don't I always have that up? I suck. Oh, I like this one. With BirthFit a little bit. Oh, no, it's better if it says postpartum on there. It should say birth fit on there.

Anyway. See you guys tonight, 6.30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.