Sevan Matossian (00:01):
BA I we’re live. Semifinals are within countries or governing groups of countries with travel restrictions requiring vaccinations. What does that mean? Eight out of what? What am I looking at here?
Brian Friend (00:12):
Oh,
Sevan Matossian (00:12):
Okay. Can you decode this for me? We believe in numbers and we believe in personal choice. However, the narrative surrounding the Atlas games and the cross, the game C by morning, chalk needs to stop. CrossFit is a global sport and traveling internationally for competition at the elite level is a given, oh, look, wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s this fallacy and argument there cross it’s. It’s a given it’s a given according to who? According to fantasy, according to the people who believe in fantasy or right. Yeah. Okay. Now I get it. Cuz you believe in fantasy
Brian Friend (00:45):
Given.
Sevan Matossian (00:47):
Well, given, you know, what’s given is who wrote that was born from a vagina or a C-section that’s a given
Brian Friend (00:53):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (00:54):
Jackass who wrote that? Who wrote this is that’s the, the pompousness of you, the pompousness of you. I’m all for just taking the morning, chalk up and licking my hand and spanking they’re behind. But this is ridiculous. Make it a legitimate spanking. The majority of semi-finals are being held in countries that have travel restrictions. The United States included the majority of athletes who comp competed at last year’s CrossFit games were also from outside the us and would need to be back. And the CrossFit games were held today. Pointless, pointless, two wrongs, three wrongs, five wrongs. Don’t make a right like, oh, everyone else has to sit next to smokers. So everyone should have to say on smokers. It’s just
Brian Friend (01:35):
The context. The context of this is
Sevan Matossian (01:38):
Please
Brian Friend (01:38):
Kind of important, but basically, uh, a couple days. Wait
Sevan Matossian (01:42):
A second. Let’s just sorry. Sorry. Sorry, Brian. So I must interrupt already one minute and 42nd into the show cuz it’s what I do. Taylor self just texts me and says, YouTube says the show’s at 1:30 AM.
Brian Friend (01:52):
There’s a lot of people watching right now.
Sevan Matossian (01:55):
Yeah. Taylor, you Jack ass. 470 people. Got it. Right.
Brian Friend (01:59):
<laugh> and they’ve
Sevan Matossian (02:00):
Been waiting. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Go on I’m I am changing my number. So Taylor can’t text me anymore.
Brian Friend (02:06):
<laugh>
Brian Friend (02:08):
You can, you, you don’t have to change your number to do that.
Sevan Matossian (02:11):
Just block him.
Brian Friend (02:12):
Yes. How I be seeing him tomorrow?
Sevan Matossian (02:16):
Oh my, my headphones aren’t on. I don’t even look professional. Where are you gonna see him at?
Brian Friend (02:21):
South Carolina?
Sevan Matossian (02:24):
What is fantasy fitness? What are you doing in South Carolina? Are you oh, you’re competing there.
Brian Friend (02:29):
Yeah. Uh, uh, Jr halls putting an event on it. Crash. It’s teams of four. I’m partnering up with some guys I’ve never met before they are members at his gym and uh, wanna go support the, the event and also compete a little bit.
Sevan Matossian (02:43):
Uh, how do you feel about partnering with some people you’ve never, uh, worked out with before?
Brian Friend (02:47):
I think it’s, I think it’ll be fun. I think it’ll be, uh, you know, an, a bit of an uncomfortable situation. I haven’t necessarily been in before, but you know, good kind of challenge to, um, see how I can do.
Sevan Matossian (03:01):
I think you’re gonna get people who, um, they just want to beat you and be like, yeah, I beat that dude. Who’s on the podcast, the podcast guy, the analyst guy, you know
Brian Friend (03:10):
The talk. Oh, the other, the other team
Sevan Matossian (03:11):
Talking elite fitness podcast guy. We beat, we, we whooped his ass. Brian. Frank, are you the weak link?
Brian Friend (03:17):
I have no idea.
Sevan Matossian (03:18):
Oh,
Brian Friend (03:20):
<laugh> I think I’m definitely, I’m probably the weakest when it comes to the strength lifting, but that’s usually the case amongst the guys that are, you know, similar to me and uh, but I’m probably, you know, maybe better on some other things.
Sevan Matossian (03:34):
Uh, I did not send Hillary the link that was just click bait to get more of you to watch Hillary is not coming on the show till July. I told you. Thank you very much. Uh, what, um, what were we talking about? Fantasy. Okay. Context. Can you put that in context for me, by the way, the premise of this show is really in, in part in Hiller is coming on in, uh, 25 minutes. Um, he just takes a little longer to get ready than Brian and Caleb and I, um, the premise is this. We, we are watching there’s stuff, that’s being presented now and, and, and a lot of it, um, courtesy of, uh, Hiller’s free work and, and people that Hiller’s giving credit to. He gave, uh, today he was giving a kid named, uh, Michael Lappin,
Brian Friend (04:23):
Halpin,
Sevan Matossian (04:24):
Halpin, sorry, uh, a lot of credit. And it seems like a lot of people are working towards just making sure that this thing runs with integrity, but man, the stuff that really just,
Brian Friend (04:32):
Well, this is, uh, kind of what I want to talk about.
Sevan Matossian (04:34):
Okay, fine. See, Brian interrupted me. See, finally,
Brian Friend (04:38):
There are, there are people that are trying to make, to do what they can to, you know, make the season run smoothly. Um, but there’s also people that are just complaining to complain and it’s, and, and the, the first part is creating an opportunity for the second part. So, you know, and, and, and it’s kind of like what, um, what Hiller always says on this video is I’m not singling out one athlete. I’m talking about a, you know, uh, a it’s like a <laugh>. I don’t wanna use that word. It’s a, you know, epidemic, right? There’s like a bunch of people that are doing the same thing wrong. And we just know about this one person. And so you’re gonna use ’em as an example, to talk about the, the public at large, you know, so like several people sent me this post from, um, jump ship CrossFit in Hawaii today that was complaining about the fact that they got sent to the Atlas games.
Brian Friend (05:31):
You’re in Hawaii. I mean, it’s gonna be a long trip anywhere you go. And CrossFit was kind of put in a tough situation when it came to semi-finals in north America this year, anyway, because of what happened in loud and LA and, uh, OIF leaving. And they didn’t want it, you know, they didn’t feel like it would be responsible to take on two semifinals. So they had a pick between west coast and granite and they chose granite games and then cross, it was like, okay, now we’re gonna try to find a fourth. We know what we can, we need. And there weren’t a lot of options, but if you’re in Hawaii and you’re traveling to Tennessee, Minneapolis or Atlas games, it’s a long trip. Anyway, you slice it. And so for you to complain about that, I’m not sympathetic to it because you know that you’re in Hawaii, you know, that the semi-finals are gonna be in the Continentals United States. And four months ago, we knew that there were none closer to you than Tennessee. It’s not that far, relatively speaking to go a couple hours further north. Uh, you know, so I don’t,
Sevan Matossian (06:22):
I’m sympathetic to anyone who has to go to, um, out of the country, out of their own country.
Brian Friend (06:26):
That’s a different topic, but this is to the point of the fantasy fitnessing guys is that this zooming in on the microscopic example of Jordy, Gail, and Bennett, and what’s happening to them illuminates the bigger picture conversation. And the bigger picture conversation is that at the start of the season, CrossFit announced that they were having semi-finals in certain locations. And I think that, uh, it would’ve been a realistic and, and even an expectation that someone there would’ve had the foresight to say, you know what? There’s still are gonna be problems with traveling to some of these countries. Let’s get ahead of it and to send out a communication. Maybe as soon as you register for the open, you get ping an email back that says, Hey, if you’re an athlete, who’s serious about competing and advancing in the season, just be aware that the CrossFit games are happening in the United States. And if you don’t live there, there’s certain requirements that are necessary to get there. You need to be responsible for knowing what those are. The semi-final stage of competition. We have 10 live semi-finals they’re in. They
Sevan Matossian (07:25):
Should only send you that though, after they get the 20 bucks.
Brian Friend (07:28):
Yeah. You register for the open, you get this email response. Okay. But the point is that you get ahead of it. And you say to people, if you’re in north America, there’s four, semi-finals one of them’s in Canada. Not gonna tell you the seating process, but assume you have a 25% chance of being sent there. So get your stuff in order now and prepare accordingly. And all they have to do is have this communication prepared ahead of time. And then all of these problems are invalid. All these complaints become invalid, but because their communication was not complete left, so many things open, and they’re still making changes to the rule book and decision making is on the fly. It opens up the door for people to continuously complain about anything they want, because some people are getting a result from that. And some people are being sh shown the cold. Should
Sevan Matossian (08:10):
Do you think that because the last two years we’ve had this, um, so-called pandemic that, and, and it has been such a, a shit show, N not in CrossFit. I mean, just everywhere, every single sport that people just that the people in charge have gotten almost lazy and complacent, that they’re gonna be able to use this as an excuse, cuz it is a pretty good excuse.
Brian Friend (08:31):
What, excuse
Sevan Matossian (08:32):
The excuse that, Hey, we like, yeah. Some countries require vaccines. Some countries require a vaccine passport. Some countries require have certain, um, travel restrictions, some countries. How are we supposed to know? It’s always changing. It’s always evolving.
Brian Friend (08:48):
Yeah. Well, I mean, if you’re, if you’re talking about the athletes, yes, that’s true. But I think no,
Sevan Matossian (08:53):
I’m talking about the institution of CrossFit, being able to use that they view every, every institution has used that as an excuse for the last two years. Right. I’m sorry the plays been canceled. I’m sorry. The concert’s been canceled. I’m sorry. You have to be vaccinated to go to this concert. Like everyone’s been using that shit right for the last two years and now, and, and now what it sounds like is you’re type. Okay. You’ve had two years to figure it out. The excuses run old, let’s get back to normal and, and make it so things work for the athletes. Again, I can’t believe that what’s interesting to me is it feels like the script has been flipped because normally I never give a fuck about the athletes. And I still feel like I don’t give a fuck, but these people give a fuck even less.
Brian Friend (09:31):
You’re talking about a CrossFit, uh, games team,
Sevan Matossian (09:35):
The CrossFit games team, but also these people who are sort of like saying that the athletes should know better. Like you should have known, um, like, like what the, what that fantasy post said. It’s like, holy shit. Well,
Brian Friend (09:47):
What, like
Sevan Matossian (09:48):
I thought we were on the side of getting all the athletes, the best athletes in the world to the games. Why, why would we make it difficult in any way for the, um, other than competing against their, their peers,
Brian Friend (09:59):
Which is certainly difficult.
Sevan Matossian (10:01):
<laugh> right.
Brian Friend (10:01):
Um, no, I mean, look, I’ve I, and you’re the same, I’m sure. Uh, actually I know like I’ve traveled a lot and I’ve traveled internationally and the world was opening up and becoming this huge global place. And in the past two years, as a result of the, you know, various decisions that were made by governments around the world and response to whatever this is, uh, people have become much more isolated. And in the case of a lot of, uh, you know, even someone like myself, I’ve pretty much resisted travel as, and I used to embrace travel because it’s just a pain in the ass and I don’t wanna deal with all that bullshit. And I, and when things start opening up again, I’ll start traveling more again and I’ll become more, you know, I’m more and more aware of what’s going on, but in the meantime, I’ve just focused on the things that I have going on here that are in my control that I know the, you know, expected outcomes for.
Brian Friend (10:44):
And I’ve, you know, and I’ve had a little bit of experience of that too. So there’s a lot, I think that there are a lot of insensitivities in the way people are responding to that article that are still driven by emotional responses just to the, of being vaccinated or not vaccinated. And that’s taking away, unfortunately from the bigger picture concepts, which is, there’s probably things that an international sports organization could have done at the start of the season to prevent some of these problems that are happening in the middle of the season. And it would’ve been better for everyone if that had happened.
Sevan Matossian (11:14):
Right. I wonder if that would’ve affected participation and that’s why they didn’t do it. I don’t think it would’ve.
Brian Friend (11:24):
I mean, this, this is the thing. And I was having a conversation with someone about this earlier today is, you know, CrossFit makes mistakes every year and they do things that seem kind of silly every year. But every year people keep coming back. Right. You know, like they’re gonna come, they’re gonna, you come back anyway. And it’s, and maybe that’s part of the problem is that there’s not that level of accountability it’s that you can just keep making these mistakes and people keep signing up. I mean, I keep signing up for the open, if I make the quarter finals, I’ll sign up and participate it in it because I believe in it, you know, but,
Sevan Matossian (11:51):
And, and it’s the only game in town. It’s the big game. It’s the only big game in town.
Brian Friend (11:56):
Yeah. But you know, everyone has their, like the end of their rope. Eventually they’re always going to, you know, they’re gonna get sick of it after a certain amount of time. And people’s timelines are different for that. And some people step away for a little while and then come back.
Caleb Beaver (12:09):
Maybe everybody will move to the grid league, Florida.
Sevan Matossian (12:13):
That thing still
Brian Friend (12:14):
The Florida is. Yeah. I don’t know if there are any others.
Sevan Matossian (12:17):
<laugh> nothing still going. Huh?
Caleb Beaver (12:18):
Yeah. They just took all their teams and put ’em to Florida
Sevan Matossian (12:23):
Have ha um, ha have you been staying up to date on all of Hiller’s videos?
Brian Friend (12:28):
Um, not necessarily. All of ’em but a good majority of ’em. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (12:33):
Okay. Did you see the one on, um, on, uh, hip and steel? The, the master’s champion?
Brian Friend (12:39):
I have seen both of the ones on hip and steel. At least I believe there are two.
Sevan Matossian (12:43):
Okay. I, I, I saw one. Oh yeah. I saw one. Um, and, and, and maybe we’ll, we’ll obviously come back and get more into detail on this one. Hillary comes on, but, um, I saw one that critiqued his movements and then I saw one that said, uh, I wrote it down here in my notes. There was one today. Uh, today’s video, 2022, no reps at seven 50 in that video, he says something. Is that easy for you to pull up Caleb?
Caleb Beaver (13:15):
Yeah. You said today’s video.
Sevan Matossian (13:17):
Yeah, it’s it. It’s called, uh, 2022. No rep. Uh, and if you start around seven 50, there’s something in there. That’s really brutal that I can’t wait to ask him. He basically is saying he lets the whole thing hinge on that VI on, on hip and steel. And let me see if, if I, we hear it the same way if we this
Caleb Beaver (13:36):
Right
Sevan Matossian (13:36):
Video. Yeah. This is it. I think this is it. Yeah. Uh,
Andrew Hiller (13:41):
They know what it’s like.
Sevan Matossian (13:44):
No, uh, let’s play it, play it. I don’t think this is the right video. When was this one published? The one I’m talking about was published. Like, I don’t know if eight hours ago
Andrew Hiller (13:53):
Did be you and you know what? I couldn’t compete this. You, you know why I couldn’t compete? I told you I couldn’t lock out the elbow. See this one. That one’s good. Let
Sevan Matossian (14:00):
Me know. It’s not that still isn’t Hey Brian, while he finds the video, let me ask you this. If you can straighten your arms in a, at the top of a muscle, up at the games, why would you need your arms bent in overhead squat? Is that because you don’t have the shoulder mobility theoretically, to go back here and it’s a pretty close script, overhead squat.
Brian Friend (14:21):
What I, what I know about the overhead squad is I used to coach some high school football, a really good high school football team in Texas. And there were guys that could back squat 500 to 600 pounds, a lot of ’em. And I gave ’em a broom stick to overhead squat and they couldn’t figure it out. They looked like a leaf in the wind. And what I tell everyone who comes to the gym to, you know, first learning how to override squat. I said, look, whatever happens here, don’t be embarrassed by it. There’s no movement that will expose a weakness, an imbalance instability, lack of mobility, anywhere along the chain, as much as an overhead squat will. And when you’re, you know, when you’re getting to be 40, 50, 60 years old, and you have, who knows how many injuries and who knows how many hours of training and whatever, there’s, you know, there’s, that is one movement that is, you know, most likely, I would say to be exposing of whatever weakness you have or instability or imbalance.
Sevan Matossian (15:08):
So, so, okay. But BA uh, uh, this isn’t the video. This isn’t the video still? No, no, it’s, it’s the most recent video. He published 2022. Anyway, we can get to it when he gets on here, but basically what he says in the video. And I’d like to replay it again with him here. He basically says, Hey, if they let hip and still in, if this video passes that that’s, that’s a deal breaker, it’s like the, the games is a fucking joke. I’m paraphrasing. But, and, and I kind of agree with him. I mean, we don’t, we don’t have anyone from CrossFit on here, refuting it saying, Hey, no, it passes, but there, I made a list and we’ll go over it with Andrew Hiller of all the things that Andrew points out that are wrong. And I don’t understand how that big deal could pass making, making the assumption that that Hillers correct on all those things. I mean, there was some crazy shit, tho those pistols there, I didn’t see a single pistol that was to depth, let alone the fact whether he should be allowed to do a pistol with those shoes on if at all. I mean, the whole thing is bizarre. It’s bizarre, right?
Brian Friend (16:11):
Yeah. It’s definitely only bizarre, but there’s been, there have been videos in the past that have been, you know, com completely unsubstantiated to be accepted that have been accepted and athletes have been allowed to continue into the season. So once
Sevan Matossian (16:24):
Again, but nothing like this,
Brian Friend (16:26):
I don’t know, not,
Sevan Matossian (16:27):
Not opening at the top of a deadlift for F for 50 reps and getting by is one thing. This is like,
Brian Friend (16:35):
Yeah. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (16:35):
You, this thing is just bat shit crazy.
Brian Friend (16:38):
You certainly could say that it’s, that it’s more, uh, egregiously bad than some of the other ones that I might be referring to, but, um, I’ll yeah. In the end, I agree. Like it has to be, it has to be addressed. It was a video that was seen, that was known and, uh, and the, you know, some, something needs to be done about him.
Sevan Matossian (16:57):
Uh, Jonathan, she, Jonathan pervert says, uh, where is Hiller? Uh, he’s probably, uh, in the bathroom throwing up, cuz he is so nervous about coming on the show in 12 minutes. That would be my guess, uh, what happened with Logan Collins? We had Logan Collins on last week. He was assign, he lives in Texas. He was 46 in the worldwide finish in the quarter finals this year,
Brian Friend (17:28):
40th and north America.
Sevan Matossian (17:30):
Okay. 40th and north America. Uh, and when we spoke to him, uh, I think he lives 1700 miles away from the Atlas games. Uh, all three, all the other three north American semi-finals are closer to him. He is not vaccinated and he does not wanna get vaccinated. And yet, uh, so, so he was protesting. What happened, did, did he get to stay in, uh, north Amer in, uh, the United States or does he still have to go to Canada?
Brian Friend (17:58):
No one knows yet. Um, basically about a week ago, uh, as far as I can tell CrossFit, stopped responding to athletes about these types of things. And so everyone’s kind of in a holding pattern. Now, there are some things that, that are happening that might, uh, explain why CrossFit is, is not, uh, responding right away and primarily being the finalization of the team rosters. Because at this point the team quarter finals have finished up and invites for teams semi-finals have been sent out. And most of those teams are now populated on the leader board for semi-finals. Um, but there are athletes that are registered for both there’s athletes. There are athletes that are competing or listed as competing for an individual and also a team. And they won’t be able to do that. So, uh, eventually some names will be removed from the semi-final roster because they’re competing on teams.
Brian Friend (18:47):
And then eventually later on some more names will probably be removed. Once the age group quarter finals are finalized and the invites are sent out and those athletes have to make the same decision. This is what, uh, we were talking about a week or two ago is that it’s getting close to semi-finals athletes have to start preparing to know where they’re gonna go when they’re gonna compete, how to adjust their, um, so training accordingly to book hotels, to book flights, to see if there’s anyone who can come with him to help mud, whatever else they need to do to prepare for that. And the time to do that is dwindling. So in the case of Logan Collins, I believe that there is a potential that he will be moved from the Alice games to a semi-final in the us. If a spot opens up in one of the three us, um, semifinals that hasn’t happened yet. And, uh, so we’re, we’re kind of waiting to see my understanding is if that does happen, that then he’ll go to wherever they move him to in the us. If it doesn’t happen, he probably will not go to the Atlas games and may have an opportunity to come repeating the last chance qualifier,
Sevan Matossian (19:54):
That speculation
Brian Friend (19:56):
That is speculation,
Sevan Matossian (19:57):
The last chance qualifier part.
Brian Friend (19:59):
That’s what I said may.
Sevan Matossian (20:01):
Okay. When is the
Brian Friend (20:03):
Not happen? Kinda like the choice to use the word may and the movement descriptions.
Sevan Matossian (20:07):
Um, Atlas games is the, is week three
Brian Friend (20:12):
Atlas games is week four
Sevan Matossian (20:13):
Week four. So there’s four weeks. And, and, and when does it, when does the first week start again?
Brian Friend (20:18):
May 20th
Sevan Matossian (20:21):
And we’re April 27th. So what you’re telling me is that there’s people who are, who have qualified both for the teams and the individual at this point, and they’re gonna have to choose. And when they choose, if the people who qualify for individual go to team, will they start backfilling?
Brian Friend (20:38):
That it seems that that will happen. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:40):
And so when you said that that’s part of the reason that you’re speculating, that the correspondence between HQ and the athletes has come to a trickle over the last week. You’re saying it’s because they’re waiting for that information or you’re saying, cuz they don’t have enough manpower to do both
Brian Friend (20:54):
Or because they’re having a party in
Sevan Matossian (20:56):
Colorado. Well, that’s true. Also they, they clearly have been in Colorado, uh, fooling
Brian Friend (21:03):
Around. No, I think, you know, there are, uh,
Sevan Matossian (21:06):
I’m going to Colorado tomorrow. Did I tell you that?
Brian Friend (21:09):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (21:10):
Oh, meeting with uh, Dave and Greg, not, not related to anything CrossFit, but still it’s quite, I’m going to Boulder to the world headquarters of CrossFit, Inc. They switched their name to CrossFit HQ. Did you know that back from CrossFit home office to CrossFit? H <affirmative>
Brian Friend (21:27):
I did hear that. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (21:29):
That’s cool. All right. Okay. So sorry. What were, were you talking or was I talking?
Brian Friend (21:34):
I’m not sure.
Sevan Matossian (21:35):
I was asking you whether or not what what’s the holdup and the hold. If I understood the holdup correctly, the fact is that they’re, they they’re waiting for the dust to settle.
Brian Friend (21:45):
Yeah. But you know, they should. Yes. I think that there’s, you know, the, the teams had a certain amount of time to respond. Once they respond, they need to do crosscheck their databases and see which athletes are showing up in two places, make sure that they made the decision of which one they want to remove them from the roster, send an invitation to someone else, wait for them to respond and then update the roster accordingly. But the sooner those things happen, the better for everyone involved, the competitions have to prepare some people like they’re not even sure like Logan Collins is a recognizable name. Is he coming to the Atlas games? If he’s coming to the Atlas games, they might wanna promote these coming to Atlas games. If he’s going to syndicate or Mac or granite games, those people might wanna promote these coming there. They might wanna make a name plate for him so that they can put it in his lane with everyone else who’s competing there, et cetera, et cetera. There’s ton of things that competitions, fans, support systems, athletes, coaches have to prepare for these things. And that’s why I’m saying we need to clean up the system. So that that process happens sooner so that everyone can be more prepared and therefore the semi-finals will just overall be a better show.
Sevan Matossian (22:46):
Uh, there were two athletes that were brought to my attention. Um, I cannot remember either of their names. I know one of them goes by the, the fitness wizard,
Brian Friend (22:59):
The fittest wizard,
Sevan Matossian (23:00):
The fittest wizard. What’s his name? Dennis
Brian Friend (23:02):
Samsonov
Sevan Matossian (23:02):
Dennis. And another one who are both living inside the United States who think, have both been summoned to, uh, Asia for their semi-finals. Is that correct?
Brian Friend (23:15):
Summon Hami is the other guy you’re thinking of in Denis? Yes. And that’s that’s right. They both are seated in the Asian semifinal in South Korea.
Sevan Matossian (23:25):
You say seeded, I say summons and uh, qualified will, will comp with qualified and they, um, have both expressed concerns that if they leave to go to and, and what city is it in? South Korea.
Brian Friend (23:38):
I think it’s Busan.
Sevan Matossian (23:40):
Busan. Great. I love that name. Busan. Let’s just call it P uh, they both do
Brian Friend (23:44):
It’s with a it’s with a B oh,
Sevan Matossian (23:45):
Darn. Okay. Then let’s call Let’s call boo on. So they they’ve been they’ve qualified and they don’t wanna leave the United States cuz they have concerns about coming back. Is that correct? And have you heard about this? Yes. Okay. And are, are both of these athletes? Um, can I see this guy’s uh, Instagram, this, um, ha I’d be really impressed if you get this up, Caleb. Ooh,
Caleb Beaver (24:10):
We’ll get another random guy in front of a Mercedes probably
Sevan Matossian (24:13):
<laugh>. I remember that
Brian Friend (24:16):
Guy still waiting on that tr on that shirt.
Sevan Matossian (24:19):
Um, Kayla welcome, uh, Kayla and uh, man sitting between, uh, with his head between your legs just got here. Craig white just brought me in on his shoulders and my bikini while riding a bear from the Trump rally alley, but you’re but in the China to flag. Very nice. Very nice. Okay. Um, what’s going on? There are, are both these guys represented by Snorri is that I tried to get snowy on, but he says he sleeps at 1:30 AM. He says he’s asleep right now.
Brian Friend (24:50):
Yeah. He works with both these athletes I believe early. And, and if, if he doesn’t work with them directly, he is working on the behalf to try to, you know, to sort this out.
Sevan Matossian (25:00):
And um, is it, is it it’s a deal breaker for these guys? Is it around the injection? Once again that they don’t that, is it around the injection or a visa or a green card or what’s the deal?
Brian Friend (25:12):
Uh, slightly different in both cases, but it’s around their like status in the United States where that if they leave, they won’t be able to get back in or they won’t be able to get back in easily or they won’t back be able to get back in, in a timely fashion, which at the very least from the competitive point interview means that that even if they did qualify, they’d probably miss the CrossFit games.
Sevan Matossian (25:33):
Is this a subject that you’re open to talk about?
Brian Friend (25:36):
I can say somethings about it. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (25:38):
But not everything, you know, I sent some, I, you, you seem more guarded to me than normal. Usually you’re guarded at about a level 8.9 today. You’re guarded at about a nine, seven, not but around this subject,
Brian Friend (25:50):
Is that what that’s the energy I’m giving off?
Sevan Matossian (25:52):
<laugh> no, I just don’t ruin my stick. What I’m trying to get at is that this is a sensitive issue where we don’t wanna say anything that makes it sound like these guys are pissed. So they’re punished by CrossFit HQ more. Is that like we’re, we’re walking delicately here or what’s the deal?
Brian Friend (26:07):
Um,
Brian Friend (26:10):
You know, let, I think that, uh, last year, because so many of the semifinals had to go online, a lot of these problems were avoided, but you know, some, uh, some athletes made, made this situation, uh, known to CrossFit ahead of time. So for example, Joshua Chama, who’s a, from the UK and lives in LA and trains with at CrossFit Invictus, he is on the verge of being good enough to make it as an individual, to the CrossFit games. He’s also competed on a team in the past. And so he knew that he could potentially pursue both options. So they reached out to CrossFit to the season and explained the situation surrounding his visa and his, you know, whatever and asked if there was any way, if he competed as an individual, if he would be able to do his semi-final in the us, if he made it to that stage rather than travel to back to Europe where it might be difficult for him to get back in time for the cross, the games.
Brian Friend (27:01):
And they said, no, that would not be possible. So he made a choice to compete on a team this year and he’s competing on CrossFit Invictus. And I think they were second in the north America quarter finals maybe and will likely do very well at the games. So he was proactive and reached out to them and got a communication back and made a decision about his season. I’m not sure what the timeline was for Hamsa and Dennis to reach out, to cross it relative to the rest of the things they knew about the season. But they knew that this, that this semifinal was gonna be there January, February, whenever they made those announcements. And they could have gotten ahead of it. Then I don’t know if they did or not, but at this point it seems that traveling there is not realistic for them in terms of their li their lives. And so, but CrossFit has made, and I believe this is true, that has made a contingency plan for them to get a buy to the last chance qualifier. So they can still participate in the semifinal portion of the season, cuz that’s technically the last semifinal.
Sevan Matossian (27:58):
Okay. So, so are you saying that we do know that about these two gentlemen Hoey and Dennis, but we don’t know that about Logan Collins.
Brian Friend (28:09):
I that’s what I think. Yes.
Sevan Matossian (28:11):
Okay. And, um,
Brian Friend (28:13):
But it’s confusing because I’m not getting any of this directly from CrossFit. It’s kind of, uh, you know,
Sevan Matossian (28:19):
Secondhand, hearsay.
Brian Friend (28:22):
Yeah. They’ve made reference to it. Uh, but like a direct communication saying yes, we’ve extended offers to these individuals to compete in last chance. Qualify if they can’t get there. I haven’t like, I just think that that’s happened.
Sevan Matossian (28:35):
Uh, is this true? Falkowski has a secret baby at the Froning farm.
Brian Friend (28:41):
Kowski had a baby. We know that
Sevan Matossian (28:44):
We do. Um, what about, what about, um,
Sevan Matossian (28:53):
Sending what I heard about asking athletes to participate in a swap in a girlfriend swap? No, no, not a girlfriend swap in a swap of semi-final locations where you would send some north Americans, you would, you would find some people, you could actually put out a calling or look and say, Hey, does anyone want to go to Asia so that these guys can take your north American spots? Has that, would that be even something considered or is that just completely ridiculous? I mean, it seems so fair. We’re not talking about a lot of athletes, right?
Brian Friend (29:26):
As far as I know, the, the people that would absolutely not like it doesn’t make any sense for them to go there because they can’t come back to their homes. Like these guys have lived here for a long time. They’re paying taxes here. They’re doing all these things here. And so to, to leave and not be able to come back would be like a huge upset in their life. Hi Andrew.
Andrew Hiller (29:45):
Yo, what’s up?
Sevan Matossian (29:46):
Oh shit. You just pushed C beaver out.
Andrew Hiller (29:49):
I didn’t do it on purpose. That wasn’t me.
Sevan Matossian (29:52):
Hey, um, um, uh, nice to have you Andrew real quick. I, I, I don’t wanna let Brian off the hook here because I know he knows stuff about this situation and feel.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
Check out our other posts.
