S02E62 PREVIEW OF THE NOBULL CROSSFIT GAMES 2022

The NOBULL CrossFit Games 2022 is going live August 3-7, and Dave and Sam discuss the storylines which are most compelling, including the fact that Dave Castro is no longer programming the events, individual athletes such as Danielle Brandon, Patrick Vellner, and the Clash of the Titans with Rich Froning's Mayhem team matching up versus Annie Thorisdottir's Reykjavik team. What storylines resonate with you? Old generation Tia Clair Toomey vs. Next generation Mal O'Brian? Masters superstars such as Sam Dancer and Chyna Cho? We discuss all that and more!

You can find more information at our website, HerdFitUSA.com, and make sure to like and subscribe wherever you watch or listen to our podcast.⁠

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S02E62 PREVIEW OF THE NOBULL CROSSFIT GAMES 2022

[00:00:00] David Syvertsen: All right. Welcome back to the herd fit podcast. I am coach David Syvertsen. I'm here with Dr and coach Sam Rhee. We are just days out from the 2022 cross noble crossing games gonna be held in Madison, Wisconsin. And we just wanted to touch on. Maybe we can call it a little bit of a preview of the cross at games.

We're not necessarily gonna get into like our picks and analysis of athletes. And but we're gonna get into some of the background. The storylines that I think would be of cool to know about if you go in and watch the games. The games are very entertaining to watch, but as we were just saying, it's a really difficult sport to watch live.

It's nothing. Baseball basketball, football, where you can just commit to a three hour window and watch an entire game. The CrossFit games are, they start on Wednesday. That is August 3rd. And it goes through Sunday, August 7th. And they are essentially from. 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM almost all of those days. No one is going to sit down for 12 hours.

Even you cross your diehards. It's a really hard thing to watch over and over because you have different heats and then you have all the time in between heats and you're watching the same noble commercials over and over in between the heats. But what I like to do, I rarely watch the cross games live.

What I usually do is I go back at some point, whether it's the day of, or the day the day after. And I try to look for certain heats. There are certain heats and certain workouts that I'm really interested in watching. And you can do that once, all the workouts will be out, at some course, at some point during the week slash weekend.

And you can kind of see all, I really wanna watch that workout. That workout looks like something that's gonna be a tight race. I wanna watch that. So you can scroll your way through it, but let's just go over real. Some of the options you have to watch, they, they really do a nice job of widening the lens here.

Wednesday from 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM, Thursday, 10:00 AM to 7:15 PM. All of these times are Eastern by the way. Okay. Friday 10:00 AM to 8:15 PM. Saturday 9:00 AM to 9:20 PM. And then last but not least Sunday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. And just FYI on Sunday, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. Eastern time. It's gonna be live on CBS.

I think not CBS sports, actual CBS. Cool. Which is really cool. It's always a different feel when you watch something like, you know, when you're watching something streamed online or the CrossFit games website, like, oh, this is cool, but when it's on a main network like that, it kind of legitimizes a little bit.

And you know that some of your friends, like, I bet a lot of you CrossFitters are gonna get texts. Like, is this what you guys do? And yeah, I do that. Yeah. um, Sam, are you looking forward to the games just here? And are you gonna be able to watch?

[00:02:33] Sam Rhee: Yeah, I won't be there. Like I was last year. I actually attended last year.

That's true. And I will say. So many events, so many different divisions, so much to watch that even when you're there, it's really hard to watch it all. You have to pick and choose just like you do when you're at home. Mm-hmm I found it to be an amazing event to attend live and I, I'm not sure where they're gonna be next

[00:02:54] David Syvertsen: year.

I believe next year is Madison

[00:02:56] Sam Rhee: again? Yeah. Yeah. Maybe the last year that'll be medicine for sure. Next year. Yep. Yep. And, but I would highly recommend attending if you. If you get there early, a lot of the big names, are just kind of milling around early, not the, active athletes, those active athletes are all

[00:03:10] David Syvertsen: yeah.

Get away from me. yeah.

[00:03:11] Sam Rhee: They're all hidden in their um, compound, but yeah, but there are a lot of celebrities and other. Big CrossFit names that you could hang out and see to talk to. It's like a big

[00:03:21] David Syvertsen: fitness fair.

[00:03:22] Sam Rhee: It's a big fit. Yes. And and so I really enjoyed it and I'm really looking forward to, like you said, a bunch of the big themes, some of the storylines that I've been following this year.

I feel like. As a casual watcher this year has had a lot of content. I mean, with Sivan podcast and morning, chop up chalk up and Hiller. Yeah. Like I've consumed way more CrossFit sport content this year than I ever have before leading up to the games. And I don't know if other people have too.

Yeah. But there are definitely some things that I'm really. Excited to watch happen.

[00:03:50] David Syvertsen: Yeah. So let, let's get into a few of these storylines to watch. And again, I know some of these guys that listen to us, maybe you don't watch the games, or maybe this will be the first one to watch as a CrossFitter I think it's really cool to watch this kind of stuff, because.

If you did the cross it open, this is how all these athletes that you're seeing on your TV. That's where their season started. They all did 20 2.1, they all did 22.2. They all did 22.3. Then they qualified for the online quarter final. We had a few people from here do that, and then they qualified for the live semifinals.

We had Joe PIRO on from that. And, and

[00:04:22] Sam Rhee: some people did the age

[00:04:23] David Syvertsen: group online semifinal as well. Yep. We had several athletes do that age group and we'll get into that part of our storyline as well, but it's just, I've always found it like a really unique sport that, you don't get this in other pro sports right now that we all started off at the same stage in the middle of March.

And this is like the, the world series slash super bowl of the CrossFit sport. We can't go into talking about the gains without I think the biggest storyline of all. And it's, this is gonna be the first ever cross at gains without Dave Castro involved. And when I say involved, Yes. He programmed all the games previously, but we're talking about everything else.

He had his hand on. And all of a sudden we did a whole, a couple podcasts on this previously that, he, he, this was a big, big story. He got fired. Now he's rehired. But he even said on a podcast that he's not going to be at the games unless he's mandated to be there by someone that that's over him and, and CrossFit.

Any, what are you expecting? Are you expecting any differences that we could see from a spectator standpoint that Dave Castro will not be there?

[00:05:24] Sam Rhee: Adrian Bosman was on, I think the Sivan podcast and he said he didn't, he on purpose did not reach out to Dave Castro because it was, he said too soon. Mm-hmm , almost like morning.

I'm not sure there was a, an emotional aspect to it. He said he didn't want to get him involved in something. He, like you said, had birthed, gotten off the ground and made the games what they were. So this is all Adrian Bosman and, and the way he talked about it was he talked a little bit about his creative process and, and how he develops the games.

And they're, they're not that different, maybe the way he has, a think tank and he comes up with some of these ideas in his head, and then he tests them and, farms them out and, experiments. It's interesting. They asked Patrick ner what he thought the games might be like under Boz versus Castro.

And he thought Boz. Testing people where they have to make some choices in a workout. So, do you, do you go hard here and then go, and ease up here, like little decisions that can determine the outcome of the event. Yeah. While he felt Dave castor sometimes just wanted to grind it out. And it was more of a who wanted it more mm-hmm during the workout.

And I thought that was an interesting perspective. That's a really

[00:06:39] David Syvertsen: interesting perspective. Yeah. The, the programming is definitely gonna have a different flavor and I will not say better or. Like if I stopped programming at bison and we had Mike deltor take over, it wouldn't be better programming or worse programming.

It would just be, it would have a different flavor to it. And I could even see in the quarter final stage and the age group semi-final stage, which Boz program, both of those, the, I loved the programming. It was awesome. It was just like a really well balanced test. And it had what I love about Boz. What a lot of people don't know about this he's been around from the.

Pretty much. All right. He's like one of the true OGs of CrossFit, one of the true OGs of CrossFit games from a judging perspective programming perspective. And I love it when they of throw a workout from the past, into the current test of the fittest in the world. For example, in the age group semifinals of this year, that first workout, the Rowe bench press, that was a.com workout from 2008.

Very few people know, I would even say very few people care about that, but if you're really into like the history of CrossFit and you do your reading on the CrossFit journal and you really look back at stuff that there's, there's so much that changes about CrossFit and programming the games. But I love when you're able to go back to the core of CrossFit and, and I think Boz has like that special feel to it.

And I think if you're like an OG crosser that someone that's been doing it. I don't know. I mean, what is OG? I mean, it's all subjective, but 7, 8, 9, 10 years. I think that you should have a, really a true appreciation for the workouts.

[00:08:10] Sam Rhee: I feel like there are two things I would expect. One is some kind of new implement.

Yep. Not sure what, like they've brought the pig out. They've had different other things mm-hmm and then. I think they're gonna wanna showcase that, that two hour window with something really cool. Yeah. And, and feature these athletes and make 'em look good. Yep. And so I'm gonna be watching that CBS broadcast really carefully because I feel like that's the, they feel like that's a one shot to really yeah.

Make

[00:08:34] David Syvertsen: an impact. Yeah. That, that's, that's a really great point. What we see on Sunday will be something that cross, it really wanted the world to see. And because, you know, I mean, CrossFitters are gonna be on a. YouTube channel on the cross, the games website watching it. But you know, on a Sunday afternoon that's a prime hour right there.

That a lot of people are just sitting at home with that channel too on. And all of a sudden, the cross the games come on, you wanna make sure it's something that properly displays what these athletes can do, but nothing over the top, right? Nothing like upside down ring handstand pushups or something like that, but no ninja warriors stuff.

Yeah. I remember one of my first games ever watching was on a Sunday afternoon. This was back when ESPN had that contract and. They had the, I wanna say it was the top 30 or top 21 guys. And they had, 'em do three benchmark, CrossFit girl workouts with about 10 minutes in between. Cause they had the girls guy, then they got guys go girls, go guys, go girls go.

And they had them do Elizabeth, Fran and Isabelle. And it was like a, that's a nice, if you think about those three workout. That's a really in terms of movement patterns and what the athletes are physically and visually doing, it really showed me like, oh, that's what this is. Right. So from lifting some gymnastics, fast stuff, funny looking pullups, you know, all this stuff.

And I think that's, that's a good point. That's something we should all look for. If you can't really get to watch the games that much during the week, try to get in front of that TV Sunday, because it's gonna be a fun watch, no matter what it is. So, yeah, I mean, now that Dave Castro out, let's get into some of just the, kind of, maybe some of the athlete talks some of the back stories.

I mean, you can talk about who do we thinks gonna win. Like sure. Tia's gonna win for the girls. I mean, is it five years in a row

[00:10:09] Sam Rhee: now? Yeah. It's funny. I just watched an old video from 2016 when she plays second mm-hmm and uh, Katherine David's daughter was first. Yep. And, and she's just crying and, and weeping and you forget.

These people have arcs and storylines. Yeah. And they didn't start, she didn't come, dominating number one every year. Yep. She learned how to do that. Yep. And she ain't gonna give. Up, for a long time. And when you see that, those old stories and you, you think about how good she is now. Yep.

You realize what kind of growth

[00:10:41] David Syvertsen: she's had. Yeah. She's taking adversity, which we've talked about a lot here is she's taking adversity and use it as fuel. Not as something that pumped the brakes on her and yeah. Her and her coach Shane or who was also husband. Right. Uh, They, they do as good a job as anyone in terms of, in my opinion, just watching them train from my outsider perspective of really peaking at the games.

Right. Because this year, I think this was the first time she's gone in and out of CrossFit training throughout the off season, she was an Olympic weightlifter, very accomplished. She made the Olympics in Brazil, right.

[00:11:14] Sam Rhee: Or pan am games. Yeah. For lifting. Yes. She made the uh,

[00:11:18] David Syvertsen: Olympics for lifting. Yeah. And this past year she was on a Bob sets on a Bob sled

[00:11:23] Sam Rhee: team.

Yeah. But she didn't make it cuz she was an alternate or there was some picking politics or something.

[00:11:29] David Syvertsen: Right. I've I remember seeing it. I'm like, wait a second. Is she at CrossFit now? And it's really what I liked about it was. This girl had no bobsled experience whatsoever, but she was so fit from the program that CrossFit gave her and competing in the sport that they basically of just handpicked her and a couple of other former and current big, big names in the sport, across it on the female side, Kelsey keel Colleen FAJ.

They all had this look at, they were steps away moments away from being in the Olympics. And yes, I'm sure there's some politics behind who's on the team and whatnot, but I like the idea that she gets away from cross. For, for X amount of time, was it two months? Was it three months? And then she comes back in and you don't lose.

And we we've been talking about this. I just listened to Sam's podcast on Botox and buries with Stacy Marino about yes, there are times, especially if you're in the sport, you need to almost walk away from it from a little bit. And that doesn't mean walk away from exercise and training, but to switch it up, to keep your body healthy, to keep your mind simulated and clean.

There's a lot of ad, a lot of advantages to that, but this is the first games where I've seen that out of. Where she was in a bobsled training, more than CrossFit. And I don't think it's gonna make any impact, but it'll be something to look for.

[00:12:41] Sam Rhee: Her mental game is so strong. She probably has more pressure now than she did ever.

Mm-hmm , just to keep going and, you know, people. Are always rooting for the underdogs. So everyone's like, yeah, Tia, TT boring, boring, boring. Yeah. And I, that that's hard to, to fight against and I respect Tia so much for being that dominant force. Mm-hmm when you know, all these young hotness are out there.

Yep. And the storylines, like how much Tia have they actually featured in all of these documentaries? Yeah. I just see all the hot, new athletes that are in there. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's the thing. Makes me respect. Tia more is just how good she's been

[00:13:18] David Syvertsen: for so long. Yeah, it's just about winning with her.

Nothing else. Another storyline that I think the most intriguing storyline of cross at games to keep an eye on is Danielle Brandon. She was an athlete under underdogs athletics. Under Justin Cotler, I would say she was probably, they had a few big time girls, Carrie Pierce was there, Bethany Chadburn.

And, but I think Danielle Brandon, over the past, I would say 12 months has really escalated to. One of the most popular female crosses in the world, right? Absolutely.

[00:13:46] Sam Rhee: She gone, she exploded on the CrossFit games last year. Her story was so compelling. Mm-hmm because if you remember Chadburn and Pierce could not compete COVID they isolated her.

They put a mask on her. She had to compete in a separate lane last year. And she took it and she ran with it. Mm-hmm and she was a rebel, which, which the audience loves, she gave the middle finger right. In the middle of like broadcast. Yeah. And, and, with the colored hair. Yeah. And she's so dynamic and so charismatic she's

[00:14:18] David Syvertsen: bit like she's tall.

Yeah. Like big, tall, strong

[00:14:21] Sam Rhee: as hell. and so she and she performed great. And she has a lot of skill sets that some of the other athletes don't have in terms of gymnastics. Yep. And so she exploded and she's been on a tear this

[00:14:32] David Syvertsen: year. Yeah. And I think she's gonna come in with some attitude, but the, the big storyline behind this is not just what Sam talked about, even though that is enough of a storyline that she does not have to compete under this COVID umbrella.

Like she did last year. She left her coach. I wanna say about a month ago. Yep. Three, three to four weeks ago, three or four weeks. And it's, it's funny how with Sivan and Hiller, there, the more gossipy side of CrossFit is starting to make waves. And some people don't like that. Some people do, but Dave Castro said it best that you want as much media talking about your sport as possible, whether it's good or bad.

Right. Steven, a Smith has made a killing millions of dollars off of making an asset of himself talking about sports, but that. It's all about the clicks. It's all about the attention. And I think that all this attention, these back stories that bring to the public light, it's great for the sport. And so a lot of this, this story got a lot of publicity from that.

They had Daniel, Brandon Zivan, and she's pretty hush hush with what actually happened, but it does. It sounds like there was a pretty strong disconnect, strong enough that she would leave her coach just moments away from the games. Which is unheard of. I've never heard of, I've heard of athletes changing coaches and programs, but not this close to the games.

You

[00:15:43] Sam Rhee: know, the thing about Daniel, Brandon, I think this is also what makes her so appealing is that everyone knows what a physical talent she is, but the knock on her is that her mental game.

[00:15:52] David Syvertsen: Yeah. And that's something she says about herself as well is inconsistent.

[00:15:55] Sam Rhee: Yeah. And remember in semi she took first place.

Yeah. Clearly her training up until that point had been really great. Mm-hmm and then. Again, there was some sort of interpersonal or Relationship type of issue that occurred, that resulted in her going, leaving right training with Matt TA training with do

[00:16:18] David Syvertsen: pepper. Yep. Bruch strength down in Florida.

And

[00:16:20] Sam Rhee: When you listen to them on these podcasts, you have to try to keep reading between the lines to try to figure out what the deal is. No,

[00:16:27] David Syvertsen: one's really spilling the. . Yeah. And so

[00:16:28] Sam Rhee: everyone's like, was there some sort of uh, relationships that were going on in this big underdogs camp that sort of ruined it?

Mm-hmm was Kotler not paying enough attention to her. You know, It it's really weird and you always try to figure out stuff. And I wa I was watching the video of the semis and every time she finished, she would go and hug Koler. So there's definitely a very close, like for sure. Daughter, father relationship there.

Yep. And knowing. Brandon talking about her growing up and how difficult it was and how broken her home was. Yep. You can sort of see how important relationships are to her. Yeah. That father figure. Yes. And so you speculate, was there some issue there? You're not sure. Right. They brought in a bunch of new athletes.

My,

[00:17:14] David Syvertsen: my guess is that, is that it. Originally, basically Daniel BR Brandon, Bethany Chadburn and Carrie Pierce. Nice, nice family. Yeah. And they got to train each other, push each other. They were very vocal about that last year. Like that. I think all three of them won their respective semifinal. They went 1, 2, 3, oh.

In the same semifinal. Yeah. So the all classic. Yeah. All three went to the same semifinal and they came in first, second, and third is like, and they all trained together. Right. And I think in the past, since that, this year's semi-finals, they, I wanna say they have probably. 10 athletes onto them that are either at the games or at semifinals.

So,

[00:17:50] Sam Rhee: and Chadburn is out because of injury. Yep. Carrie Pierce retired. Yep. So that unit is no longer together.

[00:17:56] David Syvertsen: Right. And it just seems that a lot of new blood there, I mean, we can't assume there was a relationship problem with Danielle, Brandon and Justin Cotler. It could have been another issue within the gym, within their training group that just created a toxic environment that she knew would not be good.

[00:18:10] Sam Rhee: Yeah. I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, who, who joined? Ricky? Gerard Ricky.

[00:18:15] David Syvertsen: Gerard. Yeah, the girl I see. I, I don't know all these girls, all their names, but the girl that made it from granite games in fifth place one, she's a young girl. I think she's 21 years old. Right?

[00:18:23] Sam Rhee: I will say it seems like she's very close now with do pepper mm-hmm and I think it seems like she wants to train with him the way Tia, Claire, Tomi, and Matt Frazier train sort of together, like complimenting each other, pushing each other.

Yeah. And I've listened to a fair amount to Matt Torres the. The brute strength guy and he is a really thoughtful, solid dude articulate smart coach. Yep. And he seems very honest, very straightforward. And I feel like she found a place where she felt more comfortable, even though she wasn't necessarily looking to leave.

Mm-hmm . And so, yeah, that's a huge story. What's this gonna do for her training? How is she gonna perform what's gonna happen? Like

[00:19:03] David Syvertsen: if she struggles, if she really starts to fall apart a little. Do you blame it on this situation? Or do you say it was the whole past year or vice versa? She excels and does well and finishes on the podium or dare, I even say beat Tia.

Does it, does Justin Cotler and underdogs athletic at any of the credit or does it strength made her toward the

[00:19:23] Sam Rhee: corner? I mean, it's probably a little mix of

[00:19:25] David Syvertsen: everything, right? Yeah. Right. So that, that, that's something I just think is be really interesting to keep an eye on and you wanna see her do well early on.

Because I think that just knowing what she has said about her mindset and competing, if she gets herself in a hole early on in those first two, three days, or I should say first two to three events, even though you have a lot of margin to make up from from there. You know, You don't know if you don't have that coach relationship, the person that's been in your corner for so long that could really send you down, down the funnel even further.

So I hope for her say she gets a nice strong

[00:19:57] Sam Rhee: start. I think she's a fighter and I'm rooting for whether she goes, starts off hot or gets slow. I I'm gonna, I mean, I know a lot of people feel the same way they're gonna be rooting for

[00:20:08] David Syvertsen: all. So let's shift to the guys, the, I think the biggest storyline on the guy's side is without a doubt, Ricky, Gerard he, Ricky Gerard, for those that don't know, he finished in second place.

Yep. In no third, third place in 2017 I think it was their first year in Madison. 17 or

[00:20:27] Sam Rhee: 18, I can't

[00:20:27] David Syvertsen: remember. Okay. 17 or 18. And he popped for a drug test and that was, it was a five year suspension, right? Five year. So it had to have been 2017. Yep. Yeah. So he failed his drug test after finishing on the podium.

And that was the biggest, I would say, drug test pop that we've seen in the sport ever. Hmm. Someone that actually finished on the podium in the open division. And I actually remember when he failed his drug test, like EV almost everyone's like, oh, tainted supplements. But he eventually started saying he came out after his initial decline that it was true.

That he's like, yep. I took this. Yes. And I actually gave him some respect for that. I mean, you still cheated and that still put you in that certain category. But he was really, I didn't love how he acted after he was very adamant that he was still better than Matt Frazier. And that eventually after his suspension was over, he would come back and beat Matt.

And I remember him doing the workouts, the cross at games, workouts at his gym, in the comfort of his gym, no judges, no, no other opponents next to him. And he would beat Matt Frazier's times and like flip the double bird at the camera. That kind of stuff like that was, I feel like the first two years of his drug suspension.

And since then though, the, the times that I've listened to him, he's really been humbled by this whole thing. And I'm really looking forward to, I don't think he's gonna come outta nowhere and win the games. Like he didn't, he wasn't that overly impressive at his semi-final impressive enough to make the games, but I wouldn't call him one of the top 10 guys in the division, but I am very curious to see where he ends up.

[00:21:56] Sam Rhee: I think he went through the seven stages after the games and his pop in order. And so, yeah, he flexed a lot. He was very angry, but I think over the past year or so, he's followed this path to contrition. He's spoken more honestly about it to a certain degree. And his performance does speak for himself.

I mean, he's, he's really come on strong mm-hmm over the past. Several competitions I think there was a lot of drama at the time because. Vener got knocked to fourth and then he got bumped back up to third, but there was a lot of anger because he didn't get to sit up on the podium.

Yeah, there was no celebration of, Vena's podium. Right. And I just recently listened to Vener on a podcast and he said, listen, I'm I actually, he, I think he wants to talk to Gerard. I think he wants to just say, Hey, we're good. We're good. Cuz he hasn't talked to him at all.

Okay. But he said, you know, if we have an opportunity and, and we can just say, Hey listen, everything's cool. Yeah. He said, that's great. What he doesn't wanna do is make it a freaking camera Fest. Yeah. Where there's like 15,000 people watching and, and televising it. He says he doesn't want that. And so I think it speaks to the fact that.

There are no hard feelings, everyone that you speak to on the corporate side of uh, CrossFit sport has basically said he served a suspension. Yeah. He paid his penalty. Yeah. We want him to do as well as he possibly can. Yeah. And I think he's one of those spoilers. I don't think he's gonna win, but he can certainly.

Um, And this is what Vener hopes, creates some space between the top athletes and the mid-level athletes in any given event. Yep. And, you need a lot of jostling of positions in order for those points. Yep. To be mixed up, which is what Madeira's and Vener , Vener had a problem with, chasing Justin Maderas

[00:23:44] David Syvertsen: last year.

Yeah. I mean, that, that's a huge thing. I mean, you always have to remember when you're watching the games or tracking the leaderboard, you don't need to win a lot of events. You really can win the games without winning one. Um, And, and I remember that that was more of like a rich phoning thing. He always got off to a bad start.

Like he, this has been well documented that in the early days of him winning the games, he was never really that good at the endurance events until he got involved with a good friend of the herd fit podcast, Christian show. Um, Once, once he started getting coached by him is endurance game started getting much better, but I remember watching the games early on and phoning would always start well behind the, the pack he would always do well poorly in those first couple events.

And then from there on. he would've kept, he would have like a third place, a fifth place, a second place, a fourth place, a first place, a fourth place. And then you you're like this. Guy's winning the games by a hundred points and he, he didn't win. He's not the best at anything. And that really is what gets exposed and cross the competition.

You never need to be the best. You just can't have a major weakness and, or I would say more than one major weakness. And, but what really helps someone. That is constantly coming in fourth place. Third place, second place are the other guys, these specialty guys, like Ricky Gerard in this example that we're talking about right now, he, he gets in between a guy like Patrick ner and Justin Maderas and Patrick ner is one of my guys that I, I hope he wins.

And I think if, if you're gonna say pick someone other than Justin Maderas to win on the men's side, I am gonna pick Vener because he's just always right there. And I think he's someone like like Tia that I think he takes all the adversity that he. He takes it in stride and he uses it at fuel, uses it as fuel.

But like you said, there's gonna need to be a lot, I would say a few, a handful of events where he's gonna need to finish, 3, 4, 5 spots ahead of Madera's and that means 3, 4, 5 guys need to get in between. Human DARS. And I think Erra can do that for a few events.

[00:25:30] Sam Rhee: The other one that can do that is also new to the CrossFit games, but not new to the news of the CrossFit games, which is Roman Nikko, who has had so many difficulties getting to the us and competing.

He's a machine guy in the, in the sense that he has. Such an animal on anything with brute effort. Yep. And these are the kind of workouts I'm so interested to see and just see how, what this guy can do. I think a lot of people wanna just see him grind it out and, and perform at an insane level.

Right.

[00:26:00] David Syvertsen: His, his capacity is, is probably top three in this, in, in the men's field. Yeah. And I, I

[00:26:05] Sam Rhee: saw him a little bit on, in one of the Dubai competitions and he was so impressive. So yeah. So those are the kind of things. When you watch the games and a little bit of that kind of backstory you, you watch it with a little bit more excitement.

Yeah. And for me, it is Vener all the way. I he's my sentimental favorite for a couple of reasons. Yeah. One. He's on the older side mm-hmm he's so smart, I think in terms of how he thinks and, and trains and he, he is so matter of fact too, he's Canadian, so he's very self effacing.

He's he's low key, but when you hear him talk, you can hear the competitor inside him. Mm-hmm you don't necessarily see it., on a superficial level, but you know, it's right there. And that guy is just as tough and saying F you to everyone else. Yep. As anyone else's, even though he looks like

[00:26:53] David Syvertsen: I love when they talk like that too, because again, we don't know Vener personally, but we've talked, heard him talk enough that, and he's been around for so long.

He's he's a good person. He's a good human being. But when they get into the competition field, it. You know, Almost literally trying to rip each other's heads off and there's no sympathy, if someone gets hurt, they're not gonna stop, like that kind of stuff. And I, I, I love listening to people because I love it when you're able to turn that switch in the middle of a workout or right before an event and go from, Hey, good human being to, I will rip, well, I will kill your puppy.

um, So here's, let's talk about a macro level. Big picture guys and girls, you could probably go into the teams a little bit here, but the new verse, the old, we just used the term old for Patrick ner. He's 32, like what does that make us? But that is old. If you took the average age of every athlete at the game, 32 is one of the oldest ones there.

And it very impressive that he's so considered one of the favorites. If you follow sports, this is something I think some CrossFitters that don't follow sports have a little bit of a disconnect from age is a big deal when you're talking about the, the highest level, right? I don't wanna get into age being a big deal at our box, right.

We always kind of preach against using your age as an excuse, but if you are competing and you are trying to get to the highest level, which this is the super bowl of the CrossFit sport, you have to know. Age and biology catch up to your favorite athletes, no matter who they are. And. We have a lot of new athletes that are in their teens, low twenties coming up into this field.

And now they're competing against people that we've been watching for almost a decade. And we almost, you get wrapped up into all these people are untouchable. No, it's Patrick ner. It's Sarah Sigman Sauter. It's catcher. No, no, no. They're the best. And it's just factually wrong and it's not because they don't work hard.

It's not because they've had life changes. Maybe they have, but I think the competition field. Younger and younger every year and that's harder to compete against, but that is sport that, that watching any sport. I mean, catching and Sarah SZA are, they're not even make, they're not in it this year. They didn't make it.

And a lot of people are shocked by it. Even some of these people from. It's V's podcast and I wasn't surprised at all. Cause I watched her at ALZA and she's more impressive than anyone I know, but compared to the rest of the field, she just wasn't there thoughts on the young verse, the old we can get to into a few names, names that we'll be looking for, but just macro level, the young, the new verse, the old, what are your thoughts on that?

Well, the first thing

[00:29:20] Sam Rhee: is, is that the performance at the games has increased every year. If you go back and watch anything from 3, 4, 5 years ago, and then you watch it, like how they're performing. Listen, just like from our standpoint, what a good time at grace was like five or six years ago.

Yeah. And what a decent time in grace is now. Yeah. It's, it's changed. It's changed a lot and it's changed on the sports side too. Yep. Big time. Yep. So when you see um, for me on the young side, I'm really interested in ma O'Brien, who is now coached by Matt Frazier. Yeah. And to me it feels like, ma O'Brien is.

Playing with house money because she just got a new coach, Matt Frazier, who is awesome. Right. Mm-hmm supposedly. Yep. And she's very young. And if she knocks off come, some of these established athletes or even a Tia, that's awesome. But if she doesn't, they'll say what, she's 18 years old. Yeah.

This is the first year with Matt Fraser. What do you expect? You just have to wait for the long term mm-hmm the one established athlete that I'm interested in is Brooke Wells, because I saw her rip her elbow ligaments to shreds last year.

Yep. In the middle of a snatch. Yeah. On that heavy snatch. I oh my God. That was, I can't believe she's back this soon, man. Yeah. It's amazing. And. And I don't know where she's gonna sit, but, she's a proven athlete she's in that group. And I really hope that emotionally, I

[00:30:35] David Syvertsen: really want her to do well.

Yeah. Yeah. And I I'm, I'm curious to see if they test a heavy snatch, which I'm sure they will. At some point, I don't wanna say it definitively. They do like to switch it up year to year, but I have to think at some point, a heavy snatch will be tested. I really, I'm curious to see if there's any hesitation.

I'm sure she's trained it, but it's different training it in a controlled environment and doing it over the course of games weekend where your body starts to break down. I'm really, I hope that she can really put the blinders on and, and be able to kind of overcome that. I think that's like the last step of overcoming a past injury is that, that big, heavy max effort lift that, that you got hurt on that's that's like the final step to recovery.

[00:31:11] Sam Rhee: On the team side, I will say last year, I didn't watch a lot of team stuff. It just there's so much to watch when you're there in person that I, I sort of skipped a lot of the team stuff. Mm-hmm this year I will be watching the Annie versus rich. Oh yeah. Competition. Yeah. Rich phoning versus Annie and her crew from REIC mm-hmm I, I mean, I think the consensus is that rich frowning has the two best.

Women athletes. Yep. He had a big upgrade with that. Sam cornea. Yep. Yep. And those guys are gonna be dominating. This is first year that Annie has con Porter and to. Um, I forget his last name. Yeah. Lauren, Fisher's a great athlete, but she's not in the class of those two monsters that rich phoning has.

Right. So, but, listen, Annie is so gritty. Mm-hmm she is a, she shocked

[00:31:57] David Syvertsen: everyone last year. She was the shock of the game last year. Yeah. Finishing on the podium,

[00:32:00] Sam Rhee: finished podium after a year after having a baby. Yep., I watched a fair amount of her content on YouTube and those guys.

In it to win it. Yeah, for sure. If there is a single one or two missteps by ma'am, which can happen they've like what, 2017. They finished second.

[00:32:16] David Syvertsen: Yeah. With Adrian Conway's team winning. Yeah. Yeah. Since then they've gone on an absolute tear, right? I mean, you never know what's gonna happen.

No, you don't. And these guys are gamers. Right. And I think they're all. Pretty close fitness level. I think what makes rich and his team. So, so good is a, they train together all year. They don't just train start training together in January. They train together all year and they know each other so well, but they execute.

It's like, it's fun watching the team stuff because everyone there is elite, elite, elite. There's no questioning that, but rich and his team, they just stand out because they execute so well. And I think that's the one advantage they have over the record of it team is that they've been with each other for a long time.

And that, that time, that chemistry, it means a lot. And, this is like, we see this in free agency in sports all the time. Like sometimes you can get the best athletes from all these different teams that come onto your team. But chemistry means something, especially when there's this kind of competition with a lot of sync work and, and pacing work.

But I do think this is gonna be the biggest run that they've had. The biggest competition they've had. In since that time they came in second place, it's gonna make for good

[00:33:18] Sam Rhee: TV watching, for sure.

[00:33:19] David Syvertsen: I think now on the guy's side, the one young guy I'm really looking forward to watching is also competing with mayhem.

Ed's G RGH. Oh yeah. I never wanna say his name. Cause I'm always afraid of getting names, wrongs. But he is, he was the teen sensation from the CrossFit games. I think dating back to 2018, and I remember watching him as a 15 year old, he was snatching like 2 45 and I'm like, and it looked better than most of the games athletes.

And now he's one of the, if not the strongest snatcher or Olympic lifter at the games he's on the young side too. Right now, I'm gonna get his age real quick. But Sam, do you have any thoughts on him? Do you think someone like that has a realistic shot at coming out of, he completed, he competed in the south American semifinal and no disrespect to anyone that competed down there, but it's not the same as competing at the granite gains with what Joe competed against.

Right. So I feel like he's a little bit of an unknown. He was at the games last year. He did have some ups and downs, but with another year of seasoning with Fritz running in the crew at mayhem, and just having that one year of experience under his belt probably means a lot, any thoughts there on what he could do or how much noise he could make.

[00:34:25] Sam Rhee: well, we saw last year, what his talent was, it was lifting and he is, if you haven't watched him lift, you must see him lift. Yeah. It is amazing, amazing. His lift technique and his style is so smooth. It's unlike anyone else speed yeah. That I've ever seen in CrossFit. Mm. So you know that he got, what, when he trained with maam, what do you get?

A ton of volume. Yep. And a lot of mental toughness. Yes. So what does a year. A crapload of volume and mental toughness up the wazoo from rich Ron. And get you. Let's see, I don't know.

[00:34:57] David Syvertsen: He was seventh last year. I didn't know. He was top 10. Yeah. I mean, I, I really do think that he has a realistic shot at passing.

Those guys that were between him, like guys like Noah Olson and Brent Kowsky again, guys that I have so much respect for. And guys I've been watching for so long and look up to as an. But everyone has their time. And I think if G if he hit hits everything correctly this year, and he's healthy and he stays healthy, I think we're gonna see him on the podium at the end of this thing could be for sure.

That's gonna be my, my guy prediction there. Let's shift our focus over to. The masters and the age groups. Cause I think that's something that's pretty enticing for us personally, to watch. But a lot of the people that listen to this podcast either competed in quarter finals or maybe a few competed in semifinals, had the dreams of making it there someday.

It's really fun to watch those because for a couple of reasons, there's less event. A and B for the most part, they don't do a lot of like the over the top programming that Dave Castro has programmed for the open division, like with all like the new toys and the body drags, and a lot of the, the age group.

If you look at back, you can go back on the games website and look at all of the programming from previous workouts in the games. I always found that the masters teams, the age groups, it's like so classic CrossFit mm-hmm and it's just, it's really fun to watch them do that workout. And I think it's more relatable too, to us, even though those guys are on a different level than us, it's still fun to watch because it's workouts.

For the most part you could do just maybe not as fast.

[00:36:29] Sam Rhee: I mean, I I'm sure it holds more resonance for you because you actually did compete in the 35 to 39 year old age group. Semi-finals. against some of these athletes who are now in the games. Uh, The people who stick out to me in the age group in the master's division is Sam dancer.

Yep. And I remember when I first heard of Sam dancer, it was Carrie w track maybe like five or six years ago. Yeah. And she's like, I'm in love with this thigh and. I was like, who is this guy? So I looked him. I was like, holy cow, I'm in love with his thighs.

[00:36:59] David Syvertsen: They're amazing. I can't believe he can find shorts that can fit his legs inside of him.

The guy's

[00:37:03] Sam Rhee: a monster. Yeah. And I watched him clean and jerk 342 pounds and, snatch what, 2 25 plus in the age group semis. And, and this guy is so dynamic. He is, he has not lost. Step and, he's someone on the 35 to 39 that I can't wait to

[00:37:20] David Syvertsen: watch. Yeah. And because he has not competed on the individual level since the games in 2019, I believe, I think that's the last time he competed he had a baby a little over a year ago, so I think he took some time off.

He was actually on a team. Let's see, here we go. Games. All right. So 2019, he was on a seventh. Place team on two in 2018, he was on the second place team. I remember that game. That was the year after fronting lost. And they came in with fire and CrossFit, Invictus X gave them a run for their money. In 2016, he came in 32nd place at the games.

And it's funny. He was just recently asked on a podcast. Hey Sam, it seems like you're back in it. His training is very different than what it used to be. But he says he's feeling a little lighter and he feels better than he ever has. He's still, I would say top 0.01% of, of strength within the sport masters and open division.

And they ask him, what's your plan gonna be next year? And he goes, I think I might give the open division a run again. He'll try to go back into the non masters vision unless he goes, unless Richard. Who is rich frowning comes into the masters next year as an individual, then Sam said, all right, I'll stay in a few stay.

[00:38:27] Sam Rhee: Frings been hinting about dropping from competition all like all years. Yep. So we're just gonna have to wait and see what happens. Yeah. The two other women that I see on the, on the master side that I'm gonna follow is China show. On the 35 to 39, just because she's been on an individual and then on the team side for so long with rich Roig and then Becca Voit Miller, I always have a soft spot for she has qualified for the CrossFit games every year, since 2008.

She's qualified 14 times, 10 time regional athlete. Second last year in the 40 to 44, she is so durable and she is very humble. And when you listen to her, she's, she's basically, if you, if you took an affiliate owner, And gave them CrossFit superpowers. Mm-hmm , for 14 years. Yeah.

[00:39:09] David Syvertsen: Like that's pretty amazing.

Yeah. And I, I think there's two other angles to look at the, the age groups. I'm gonna go on both sides of the spectrum here. I do think. Okay. So we know that. The age groups, 35 to 39 and the 40 to 44, they probably are a little bit more entertaining to watch a, we know the names and B just the capacity and strength levels are a little bit more.

It's like watching, major league baseball, minor league baseball. Everyone's very respectable in that, like everyone's high level, but you know, if you have X amount of time, you're gonna watch the higher level. I feel that way, like more people will watch the open division, the master's vision, but if you can find some time, watch the 65 plus year old.

It, it's not going to be like, wow, that is so fast. Wow. That is so heavy. But if you can put in, if you know anyone that's 65 years old and seeing these people do legless rope climbs and, and guys snatch, 180 5 women snatch 1 25 at that age, I, I think it would be really smart just to sit back and just appreciate how impressive that is, because I think they get overlooked a little bit at the games just because it's not the highest level at the games, but if you wanna talk about the amount of respect that is given to these people and how hard it is to do what they're doing, just when you consider biology, I think that's something everyone should find some time just to watch at least one event of that.

They're very

[00:40:25] Sam Rhee: relatable. Last year when I was walking around, I talked to athletes and they were mostly either. Under 18 or masters, because they're the ones that are sort of hanging out, right. Not, not the open athletes from 18 to 34. Right. So I talked to a couple of the senior athletes in the 60 plus division and they're just like us, like I would talk to them and they're like, listen, I just want to go back to the hotel, rest, eat something.

Yeah. And I'm, I feel so beat up and, and I could totally relate to them. Yeah, they were, they were so cool.

[00:40:55] David Syvertsen: And I remember last year you texting me, we watched a teen. Female that was in the 17 year old group, I think. Oh, Olivia curse said her and she snatched something like, like 200 plus pounds. Yeah. 2, 2 0 5 or two 10.

They're like, I can't even do that. And what's cool about watching that division again, if you have the time and they will be aired, I don't think every one of their events will be aired or as easy to find, but they, they, there was, it was announced that they would be aired. You're watching possibly the future CrossFit.

When you watch that, like, it would be cool. If you're gonna follow this sport year after year, if you watched this years ago, you would've been watching G compete ma O'Brien. Yeah. Ma O'Brien uh, do pepper down pepper. They were all in that team division. And it's almost like, again, I, I keep using my sport analogies here, but you can watch college football or minor league baseball sometimes.

And maybe it's not the most fun thing in the world, but you can see the future of the sport and almost get like an inside track. And it's just trust me. It's fun to watch someone. From the beginning of their career to the end. And I just think it'd be, if you're gonna be in cross it for a long time and you'll give the games some attention year after year, give the teens a look at some point, maybe looking for one of the workouts, it looks like it's fun to watch.

And it's just, I think it's a good idea to just look for the future of the sport in that regard. I

[00:42:05] Sam Rhee: love watching, developing athletes like that. Yeah. I, I, I do that a lot in basketball cause I follow college basketball. Yep. And I saw Jason Tatum in, at duke and, and then now you see him on the Celtics and you see what he's done and.

Wow, that development like you could, but you could see that raw talent. Yeah. Right early. Yep. And it's fun to see that raw talent early and say, wow, I wonder what this is gonna be

[00:42:28] David Syvertsen: like in a couple years. Yep. And the skillset just isn't there yet. The skill is what takes a long time. And just that that's what takes time.

But again, you could see talent if you watch CrossFit enough or watch basketball enough in Sam's analogy. If you watch enough basketball, you know what talent looks like mm-hmm so in regard to the actual workouts, right? there are, again, there's some that are fun to watch. There are some that are not, but last year I hope they do this again, that the CrossFit games, they CrossFit created workouts.

That were gym, like box versions of every workout mm-hmm and some are logistically doable for classes. Most are not last year. They haven't announced if they're gonna do that. Or whether or not they're gonna do that this year. But if they do, I think that's something really fun to take on like you and your gym.

Like I know I'll do this. If those workouts come out at some point in the next. I will try to program them throughout August. Last year we did the wall walk. Did you do that one? The wall walk thruster. Oh yeah. it was like, it was half the, almost half the reps of what the games did and a lot lighter, but again, it's cool.

This goes back to the CrossFit. Methodology of, we all felt the same way. And it's cool to know that, Hey, this is where the games athletes pushed. This is where they fell apart. This is what was really tough. Hey, I have the same body type as that athlete and we struggled here, but we excelled in the other one.

It's fun to do stuff like that. And I think it of keeps you in tune. This is always a tough time of year I in the past week, I've had multiple conversations with people. Like they're starting to feel like that like burnt out. I feel like I'm in a lull. I, I can't get back into my normal routine. And we'll be back in, in a month or two, don't worry guys, but it's something fun to stimulate the mind a little bit and it doesn't need to be like your top effort.

You don't really need to care about your score. I just think I would encourage everyone to do that, that once those workouts come out or if we can I'll do it myself, if I can make kind of Jim versions of the workout coming and do 'em.

[00:44:15] Sam Rhee: Yeah, I remember that one because I, I was watching James ho. In the Coliseum do that one.

Yep. And him and the other master's athletes, they were doing 185 pounds on those thrusters and they hit walls that you could not believe. Yeah. And I was like, whoa. And then when I did it at a much lighter weight, I hit that wall too. But you know, much sooner and with less capacity and.

[00:44:39] David Syvertsen: Okay, this is, I get it.

I mean, how many times do we have that in workouts here? Where someone's like, oh, that workout doesn't look that bad or that little workout looks fun. Like yesterday's the push press burpee was an example of that, or it didn't look that bad. I feel like a lot of our veteran CrossFitters knew that one was gonna be bad.

Yeah. But I just had a new guide. He started about six months ago, James Fred. He came up to me today. And he was like, I'd learned something about CrossFit and I was like, what? And he goes, whenever you see a workout with two movements, it's gonna be really bad. smart, man. Yes. All couplets suck all couplets suck.

So yeah, I mean, that's, those are our thoughts on the CrossFit games, guys. I, I hope that we gave you some kind of guide on, on how to watch them and what you can get out of them, whether you're a fan of the sport or. Um, I think it's a great way to also show so support for CrossFit overall. It's still, we're like on a shaky ground right now with like the future CrossFit and the leadership.

And I think one thing that CrossFitters do really well as a community is we all get behind the games and whether we're trying to make that or not has nothing to do with it at all, it's just something to support and watch. So if you have some time, give it some views this weekend, put yourself on YouTube on their game site.

On CBS on Sunday and uh, just give it a watch. And I think, I think you will get something out of it. Sam, I need the last thoughts. Absolutely. They

[00:45:50] Sam Rhee: track all of the metrics on who watches and, and who. You know, Involved. And that's why, for example, for us as masters, we always want people to get involved on the master side.

Yeah. I think it helps. And I, I learn a lot every time I watch too. Yeah. I love it.

[00:46:04] David Syvertsen: Awesome. Cool. All right guys. So we're we're next week, just, you know, when we post this, we're not gonna be posting a new podcast next week. I am gonna have something for you on our Instagram. Um, That kind of just gives us a full like chapter by chapter, episode by episode.

If you've ever missed any episodes of the, her fit podcast, I will document which podcast cover which topics and I'll list them on our Instagram. And then we'll be back probably around mid-August and we have some exciting guests coming up from out of the state that have to do with uh, the legends competition.

So we'll get a lot of that coverage going because those qualifiers are coming up for those that want to do it. And thanks. See you next time.