JR Howell (00:00):
So I did a workout
Sevan Matossian (00:01):
Tonight. Damn. I’m more live. Go ahead, Jeff. Sorry, I didn’t interrupt. Go ahead.
JR Howell (00:05):
Not, not important.
Sevan Matossian (00:06):
Who did you do today?
JR Howell (00:08):
No, I was just saying me and Jason hit a workout today.
Sevan Matossian (00:11):
Oh, what’d you guys do?
JR Howell (00:13):
Uh, I had bar muscle ups per handstand, pushups and squad cleans.
Sevan Matossian (00:17):
Wow. I’m surprised you can talk about that.
JR Howell (00:20):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (00:22):
I thought for sure I was gonna get it. Like I can’t tell you how about the reps? Will you tell us the reps?
JR Howell (00:26):
No
Sevan Matossian (00:27):
Time domain.
JR Howell (00:30):
No.
Sevan Matossian (00:31):
Who won you or Jason?
JR Howell (00:33):
Jason.
Sevan Matossian (00:34):
Wow. Good answer. Good answer. If you would’ve won you would’ve said I can’t tell you, right?
JR Howell (00:41):
No, I’d have told you if I one, one
Sevan Matossian (00:42):
Oh, right. <laugh> uh, tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM. I had scheduled, uh, one of my, um, new favorite athletes in the CrossFit ecosystem. Nicholas joy, a Jo from, uh, uh, Eastern, Eastern Eastern can. I think he’s from the greater Montreal area, Eastern, Eastern Canada, where, uh, vaccines are enforced. Injections are enforced on all ages from the living to the dead. Uh, I think you need three booster shots now there to be considered anyway, anyway, uh, but Nicholas also took partook prob in some other, uh, substances and it’s kind, and, and I, and you know, and I thought maybe he wouldn’t come on tomorrow and,
Sevan Matossian (01:30):
And he is being cool as shit. And he is, uh, he’s still coming on and I’m really stoked. And, um, it will be a good day to ban any douche bags in the comments, by the way. I am totally okay. With douche bags in the comments. I, my tolerance for douchebaggery and the comments Wayne’s if you have an account that, um, uh, doesn’t have a name attached to it. So if your name is like, like Dick butter, like that guy, Dick butter, I have a tolerance for his douche bagger and his jokes, because they’re always jokes. He’s not like, yo, your mom’s fucking ugly. It’s more like your mom’s so ugly. When I fuck her, I put a bag over my face in case the bag over her head face breaks. You know what I mean? There’s like a joke in there. It can’t just be just name calling.
Sevan Matossian (02:11):
So I’m, I’m up for like, you know, if you’re practicing your, you, you guys get it, you guys get it. Uh, anyway, so, so Nicholas joy tested positive for something. I don’t know what he made a comment. Uh, first he, he, he was nice enough to reach out to us and, and was like, Hey guys, I don’t know if you still want me on, I’m not going to the CrossFit games. Uh, what’s up. And he said, I pop for something. We said, okay. And we said, we’d love to have you on, uh, it’s gonna be great for our YouTube station. I mean, we’re compassionate people. And, um, so he is coming on tomorrow morning and then I also reached out to Mr. Ner and invited him on this show this evening, while, uh, there he is. And we’ll start with the toughest question first. What is harder Patrick beating athletes on peds or swim?
Brian Friend (03:00):
<laugh>
Pat Vellner (03:03):
Um, I don’t know. I don’t know. I guess, uh, beating athletes with PS since they seem to not do it very often.
Sevan Matossian (03:10):
Uh, I was so high on this guy, Mr. Joy in, in, in, uh, in Jr’s like easy there, simmer down, settle down. Like I was like, he’s gonna win the games. I was like, all in. I was all in
Brian Friend (03:23):
That’s. This is that he, he means on Friday of
Sevan Matossian (03:25):
Semifinals. Yeah. On Friday of semifinals. And these guys are telling me to settle down and, and, and then he, and then he kind of got, he got beat up a little bit the, the next couple days, but I was still excited about him. And then, yeah,
Pat Vellner (03:35):
You, you like, you lead with the heart, so you’re gonna, you tend to get it broken regularly, I think, as a result. But
Sevan Matossian (03:41):
<laugh>, that is true. Um, we, we, what, what’s the math look like? Are you now the Atlas games? Uh, champion?
Pat Vellner (03:52):
I don’t think so. I think, I, I think all that happens is Jeff and I both get eight more points if they were to rerun the points.
Sevan Matossian (03:59):
Oh, both. Did you get eight more points? Not just you.
Pat Vellner (04:01):
I, I think Nick only beat me in two workouts. Right. Both the first day. And he beat Jeff and I both in both of those workouts. And those are the only events that he beat either of, of us in I think. Yeah. So I think it, basically, I bump from second to first in event one and Jeff bumps from third to second and then event two, I go from third to second and Jeff goes from fourth to third. So in the end we end up with like, we have a level tie break, the points don’t change, and we have the same tie break. We have two first, two seconds and a third, and then I have a sixth on the complex and he has a fourth. So I think we still end up eight points spread between us.
Brian Friend (04:38):
Yeah, that’s right. A lot, a bunch of people were messaging me this afternoon telling me that Valer was the Atlas games champion. I was like, oh, damn. So I started looking at the numbers real quick. And then I was like, ah, I’m not sure about that. So I like spent a decent amount of time writing it down. And I also wanted to check on the bubble in case they do a backfill to make sure that like, everything would still be good there, which it also is.
Sevan Matossian (04:58):
Does CrossFit let you know Patrick,
Pat Vellner (05:02):
Uh, like about the drug testing?
Sevan Matossian (05:03):
Yeah. Like does, does, does, does everyone at who competed at the Atlas games or all the finishers get some sort of like, Hey, just so you know, someone tested positive, we’re just giving you a heads up or anything like that, any coms or
Pat Vellner (05:16):
No, I think, well, I mean, likely they’ll release a statement probably, you know, in a matter of a couple days that has all of the week four, maybe even, I don’t know if they’ve done week three yet even, but we’ve seen like drug testing results trickle out. There’s a few positive tests in the teams, I think, but generally they’ll do it in like blocks. So maybe weeks three and four is one big block that they were holding and they’ll release all at once what all the results were from there. Um, so probably it’ll come out at some point in the next bit. And if there were any other positive tests and they’ll be released at the same time there from, I think it was us strength in depth and COSU that happened at the same time. So I’d assume all three of those will have their information released all at once. Um, but I think Nick just kind of came out and got ahead of it and said, uh, he was gonna be not competing at the games and, you know, took some ownership over that. So power to him.
Sevan Matossian (06:06):
I, I guess we find out tomorrow, but so we think the timeline on this is he got a note from CrossFit saying you popped, they gave him the option of doing a test B or a, a beat, a test of his B sample or, or, or whatever, when you, when you push back on a drug test and he said, fuck that. And he just went straight to the internet and said he came out. He came out with his hands up.
Pat Vellner (06:29):
Yeah. I mean, I think, I don’t know. Yeah. Don’t I don’t like to see anybody cheating, but you know, I think there’s something a little bit refreshing about seeing somebody, uh, admit their fault and be like, Hey yeah, I did that. Sorry. And not, and not try to say it was that tainted, whatever. And, uh, this and that excuse, like we’ve kind of seen the same two or three excuses roll around every single time. And I don’t know.
Sevan Matossian (06:56):
And what are those excuses? I ingested semen. What, what were the other two? Besides I ingested semen? That’s the only one I, that really sticks in my head.
Brian Friend (07:04):
I think that just falls under the contaminated supplement category. <laugh> yeah.
Sevan Matossian (07:07):
Kissing,
Pat Vellner (07:07):
Kissing dudes. Kissing dudes was one.
Sevan Matossian (07:11):
Oh yeah. Contaminated supplements, right, right.
Pat Vellner (07:14):
Yeah. Contaminated supplements. Tainted meat
Sevan Matossian (07:16):
Is one that, oh yes.
Pat Vellner (07:17):
Yes. I don’t know. There’s a few that I just like, you know, I think that it is what it is.
Brian Friend (07:23):
People ask about this all the time. Do you think that there’s, you know, steroids and CrossFit and I’ve, I’ve always kind of contended three things. One, I’m not a hundred percent sure. Two. I don’t think that the athletes at the top that it’s worth it for them to risk it, but three, the athletes that have been close year after year, that feel like they’re just so you know, so close and keep falling short. That’s where the temptation sets it. And basically that’s what it sounds like Nick said is that he felt like he was really close. He did this, you know, he finally decided to do this thing this year took that chance, knew that knew what the risks were and when he got caught, he owned it. And I’m like, that’s not that surprising of a scenario for me.
Pat Vellner (07:59):
Yeah. I think that scenario is where you’re probably likely to see it. Like, I don’t know. I don’t know if you looked at like the people who are trying to break through to make it to the games or the people who are trying to break through to like, be a top 10 athlete or try just not quite there to make it on the podium. Like I think those transition zones are probably where it’s most likely and you see stories like that. I don’t know though. I think that, yeah. And I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s kind of refreshing for just for Nick to tell his story and say that because otherwise it, like a lot of it is just so shrouded. Right. It’s always like, you know, there’s some excuses that come out and nobody I was ever really sure there’s a lot of half truths or this and that.
Pat Vellner (08:37):
And I think it’s, you know, sports is a difficult world and it’s, it’s very unforgiving and there’s very like, it, it can be very all or nothing. So of course there’s people who are willing to do whatever they can. And I, I think it’s naive to think there isn’t that out there, but, um, you know, I don’t think it’s as rampant as some claim it is. Uh, but yeah. I mean, it’s, I don’t know. I, I it’s like, I like, I don’t like that. I, I always seems to be around me. I don’t know what it is. <laugh> what it is about me.
Sevan Matossian (09:07):
I just love it. I, you might not like it, but I love it. I hope I hope someone pops up the games. I hope you take second place at the games and God forbid, it’s not just the Madera, whoever took first pops. That would be great. I just want, I just want consistency in your life. Continuity.
Pat Vellner (09:23):
Well let’s yeah, right. Let’s let’s say there’s a, a scenario where it would, there was a Midling or something and him testing positive would have changed the leaderboard to say, be me beating Jeff or whatever it might be now, what happens like, so Jeff won and he’s got his award and now are they gonna rerun the system? Like, I think in, in 2017, which is like my best reference to this type of scenario, when Ricky tested positive, they, they didn’t rerun the scoring system. I don’t think they just eliminated him from the leaderboard and then shuffled everybody up. So in that scenarios
Sevan Matossian (09:58):
That it crazy
Pat Vellner (10:00):
Where I, where I would have
Sevan Matossian (10:01):
Did they, can we confirm what he just said? Is that true? What Vener just said? I think so.
Pat Vellner (10:07):
I’m pretty sure we can confirm. I have like a memory of them discussing it and saying you can’t pretend that this, so, and so athlete didn’t have an effect on the competition, despite them, um, you know, being on whatever substances because they’re physically there and they draw people out and they have an effect on the athletes around them. You can’t just like erase their effect. Um, okay. So by let’s confirm,
Sevan Matossian (10:31):
Pat had confirmed for that.
Pat Vellner (10:33):
So anyway, that’s the precedent that we have. So in a situation, I’m glad it’s not the case because if it were the case and it had ended up in a, a scenario where I, I somehow land higher than Jeff, my, my guts instinct is that they wouldn’t reshuffle it. It would just be like, now all of a sudden there’s more noise on the internet saying, oh, Vener should have won and this and that and blah, blah, blah, and do this. And it just, it creates the one thing I really hate the most about these types of situations with athletes testing positive is it creates so much noise for the other athletes. Like, you know, I am inevitably gonna get a bunch of DMS from people about this, whether they’re condemning Nick or telling me that I’m on drugs too, or this and that, it’s just like, it’s so goddamn annoying. Like, I’ve just got better shit to do than like, feel this all day long. And it, and so, you know, like I was having
Sevan Matossian (11:20):
Someone will do that to you. Someone you’re gonna get a DM that says, Hey, doubt, don’t act like you’re not on it too.
Pat Vellner (11:26):
Without a doubt. There’s so much
Sevan Matossian (11:28):
God. I’d like to run that person’s house over with the fucking
Pat Vellner (11:32):
You’re trying, you have gotta know that there’s so much malevolence out there. People who just want bad things to happen to you just because, um, and it’s like, it’s. Yeah. So it just, it, it sort of, again, puts everybody under the gun. It says it, it gives people ammunition to say, huh, told you so everybody’s on drugs. No, this guy’s a, you know, he was just the sacrificial lamb this year. Like, nah, they’re protecting their big. And it just like, it fucking goes on forever. So every time there’s one, it it’s like, it’s sad. Like it, frankly just makes me sad for the body of athletes who work really hard. And like, I’ve been competing as a clean athlete, which should go without saying for years. And it’s just hard. Then you just constantly like have this gun to your head. And everyone’s like, well, like you’re clean or, and whether or not you can, you produce a negative test.
Pat Vellner (12:14):
And they say, oh, I didn’t see it. And it’s like, fuck, like you just, you you’re guilty until proven innocent. And that just gets so old. So, um, it always just gets worse. It goes in waves and then people kind of calm down and forget about it. And then every time there’s a case like this, it just sort of like builds up momentum again. And it’s just, you know, like we have enough stress, two, three weeks away from the games trying to like flog ourselves and get ready to like, nobody wants this extra noise in your ear. You can. So it’s funny, these
Brian Friend (12:42):
People also, like you can just zoom out and, and you can say just on the men’s side alone, there’s 40 games qualifiers. And every summer final, they also tested the next three people, which are the last chance qualifier. And, uh, that’s 70 athletes that were tested and one guy popped and on the team side, you know, we’ve had four, four drug pops this year, but every team has four team teammates on it. And there’s testing, uh, teams like we saw with blue city athletics that didn’t even make the game. So if you extrapolate the numbers, it’s like a 10th of a percent of the people. And that, that shouldn’t be the statistic that you’re writing on when you’re starting to make these accusations.
Pat Vellner (13:17):
Yeah. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (13:19):
I like what you said about the honesty. I think all we can ex I think the highest level we can expect from our fellow man, and we should expect from our mellow man fellow man, and we should set them up for is honesty. And the fact that he came out and, and people’s responses, well, would he have come out and said, um, he was taking, if he wouldn’t have been caught, I don’t even understand how, how you go there. Like, I, I don’t, I that’s not what happened. He was caught and, and he just admitted to it. Well, I, I just wanna reward him. You know what, by reward him. I mean, by reward him, I mean, uh, just support him. I don’t wanna attack him. I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna beat him down anymore. I had a neighbor who robbed me one year, right in college, took all my shit and all my roommate shit.
Sevan Matossian (14:04):
Right. All of it. A week later, he comes over. He goes, Hey, I, I robbed you. I’m like, fuck, where’s the shit. He goes, it’s at my parents’ house. Went, went over to his parents’ house, loaded my pickup truck with all this stuff. And I’m like, Hey, thanks for giving it back. And he said, yeah, I thought you knew. That’s why I turned myself in. I thought you were about to turn me in. And the cops I’m like, no, I had no idea. My roommates wanted us to call me to call the cops on the fucking guy. I couldn’t do it. He gave the shit back.
Pat Vellner (14:29):
I mean, yeah. And then it’s, it’s a difficult conversation cuz it’s like, you know, he put himself in that situation. Right, right, right. I, I, I do, you know, I don’t hate Nick Jole right. Like I don’t, I think he made a bad decision and it’s, it is what it is, but
Sevan Matossian (14:44):
Can he come, can he come west and train with you? <laugh>
Pat Vellner (14:48):
He probably won’t have any reason to
Sevan Matossian (14:50):
Now. I mean in four years.
Pat Vellner (14:53):
Yeah. We’ll see what I’m doing in four years, but he’ll probably have better people to train with at that point. Um, yeah. It’s just, it’s, it’s tough. Like I think, yeah. Um, you’re right. On the one hand you do kind of wanna say, Hey, kudos to you for like being a grown up about the whole thing. But you know, like you did a bad thing and uh,
Sevan Matossian (15:13):
And he shit on your party and he shit on your party.
Pat Vellner (15:16):
Well, and like, it’s not me. Like I don’t, it’s not about me. Like I think, you know, look at someone like Austin, Spencer who finished six behind him. So Austin Spencer, his partner, Caroline Connors qualified from Atlas games. They would’ve both qualified from the same competition. Had Nick either not been there or who knows if Nick had just been there and not taken anything, maybe he still would’ve qualified or maybe he wouldn’t have, I don’t know. But given the, what we’re looking at now, like if Austin gets extended a back fill, like, which I hope he does, that’ll be really cool for them as a couple. And, but it could have been even cooler. Had they been able to share that moment at the competition? And those are like, it’s lame and cheesy kind of to say like, you know, it’s about those moments and stuff, but it kind of is it
Sevan Matossian (15:59):
Is,
Pat Vellner (15:59):
Is that’s what you work for. Like, so like if he could have been there and they could have both been there, had their photo, had their qualification, gave each other a big hug like that. Would’ve been awesome. It would’ve been a cool storyline. Those are memories that you make and last forever to get the phone call, even if he gets to the backfill, that’s like, Hey, Austin, laces up your shoes. Like you’re going to Madison. It’s like, oh, and that’ll be still cool. And they’ll have some time at the games, but like, it’s like, it just kind of it’s missing something. Right? So those are the things that suck, right? Like they’re, those are the unintended consequences and those are the people that lose out. Um, so like it part of you, like, I didn’t lose, I didn’t lose anything. Like that’s the reality of it. I, I lost very little, I would’ve won, I would’ve won the first event, which would’ve been like, yay.
Sevan Matossian (16:41):
And the second event, but
Pat Vellner (16:43):
No, I would’ve came second. And the second one, uh, Alex Koran also beat me.
Sevan Matossian (16:47):
Well, I, I, it, you could also argue that it would’ve changed your mindset because instead of like this, nobody from fucking comes outta nowhere and fucking beats you and you’re like, scratching your head for like how much he wasn’t a, he wasn’t a nobody too. I’m just, I, I, I’m not, I’m not doing it to be derogatory to ni Nicholas, but, but he had no place beating the great pat ner,
Pat Vellner (17:06):
I mean, who knows, could, could be like, could be that you have an effect on the psyche of the athletes that are competing against like, again, this is, what’s kind of CrossFits point in 2017 is you cannot pretend that these athletes didn’t have an impact on the competition outside of their placing, but it’s just like, you know, again, like I just, I wasn’t, I’m not a big loser in this situation. Like it’s, it’s not me. It’s not about me. Like, I’m gonna be fine. Right. Um, so
Sevan Matossian (17:29):
Part you even kinda happy or like I knew it, I was unbeatable unless you’re juicing.
Pat Vellner (17:34):
No, it makes me sad. We had five Canadians qualify from the men’s side and now we don’t. Yeah. Four. Um, yeah.
Sevan Matossian (17:39):
So it just, the Kowski counts as two dudes. We’ll still give you five.
Pat Vellner (17:43):
Well, from Atlas, we had all five qualification spots from Atlas go to Canadians, which was cool for the men’s side. Um, I was like, Hey, full Canadian sweep. That’s what we wanna see. And then now we don’t have that. I mean, and good for Austin. Not like nothing against him, but I was like rooting for the Canadians obviously. And when we, we got it and it was cool. I was rooting for Nick. Um, so it’s just, yeah. I don’t know. It’s it’s like,
Sevan Matossian (18:04):
Have you talked to him at all after the event? Did you have any exchanges with him after the event? Up until today?
Pat Vellner (18:11):
Like after Alice?
Sevan Matossian (18:12):
Yeah. Like after Alice, did you, have you DM with him or text with him or anything since, oh,
Pat Vellner (18:16):
We spoke a bit at the competition and like, as things wrapped up and kind of said, congrats, I know he was cuz he’s in Montreal. He was like talking about maybe coming to do a little bit of work with Michelle since that she’s local there. Um, which I don’t know if we did much of that, but it’s just like, yeah, we’re like cordial. Right? I’ve talked to him. I’m not like I have no, you know, I don’t, I don’t lose sleep over a guy beating me over in a couple events. Like that’s not, I’m not like I don’t have ill will towards him. I think it was great. I thought he had a great competition. It makes me excited to see people finally break through or do well and um, you know, surpassed their expectations. That’s what competing, that’s what makes it fun is to like, even from personally for me, like some of the things I do in competition, I’m like, whoa, didn’t think I had that in me.
Pat Vellner (19:00):
Um, and that’s, what’s cool about it. So even when I see that for other people, like, of course I wanna beat them and it’s easy to say it when it’s all done to be like, oh yeah, you know, I, uh, I beat all you guys, so I’m happy for your success because it wasn’t quite enough to be me, makes it really easy. But regardless like I’m, it’s cool to see people do awesome stuff and, and meet their goals. Right. So I don’t know. That’s just the thing. It, like, it sort of puts a damper on the whole thing. And now it’s like, this is also then becomes like the last set of news that you get post semi-finals. Pre-game where it’s like, everybody’s riding the high, there’s lots of buzz after the semis and then it’s like, want, want, and then everybody’s gotta,
Sevan Matossian (19:39):
We’ll make something up about you. Okay. I’ll try to come up with some sort of story about you. That’s louder than this one. I have a few ideas. <laugh>
Pat Vellner (19:47):
Okay. I’m in,
Sevan Matossian (19:49):
Uh, Patrick, I think you’re in a marvelous head space. Uh, it it’s so awesome. Your attitude. I appreciate you coming on. Um, do you guys have anything else for Patrick? I’m I’m it’s cool to see him just so pumped you look great. And, and it’s just great that you’re, you’re just, yeah, you’re just rolling with it. You got shit to do. You’re going to the games.
Pat Vellner (20:05):
Yeah, man. Yeah. I got some color back in my face after a hard session at the track. So I feel like I’m looking good now.
Sevan Matossian (20:11):
What’s your mile time, Patrick. What’s your mile time.
Pat Vellner (20:13):
That’s a good question. We don’t use those weird units in this country, so understood.
Sevan Matossian (20:17):
Understood. You’re not under the rule of the king. <laugh> uh, Jr. Do you have anything from Mr. Ner or Brian?
Pat Vellner (20:23):
Jr. Jr’s been quiet. I wanna hear something from him.
JR Howell (20:27):
No, I’m just looking forward to seeing him in a few weeks
Sevan Matossian (20:30):
At, uh, you mean at, at the CrossFit games? Yes. Yeah. Awesome. Uh, Brian, do you have anything for Mr. Ner? Uh,
Brian Friend (20:38):
What, uh, what are your plans between now and the games? How long will you stay up in Canada? When will you come head down here?
Pat Vellner (20:44):
I think I get there on the 28th or 29th at end of July. It’s my birthday next weekend. So I’m gonna stick around
Sevan Matossian (20:52):
Turning 33.
Pat Vellner (20:54):
Yeah, 30, 2 30.
Pat Vellner (20:57):
So I got a, I got actually gotta go to a funeral this weekend and then I got a, my wife’s going to a wedding the weekend after that. So I got the home to myself. Might get a couple people. Emily, Ralph might come by and train for a few days, do some stuff. And then, I don’t know. We’re just gonna kind of kick it more of the same, probably two more hard weeks of kicking my own ass and then maybe a week of tapering. And then, uh, I don’t know, hope, hope. It’s all good enough.
Sevan Matossian (21:22):
Who died?
Pat Vellner (21:24):
Uh, my grandpa.
Sevan Matossian (21:25):
Oh, wow. What you close
Pat Vellner (21:28):
To? Like in like in like November? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, so we just are doing like an interment and stuff this weekend.
Sevan Matossian (21:35):
Oh, does that, um, is that fuel for, uh, the games in life?
Pat Vellner (21:41):
No.
Sevan Matossian (21:42):
No.
Pat Vellner (21:42):
That’s just a fact of life.
Sevan Matossian (21:44):
Right? Right.
Pat Vellner (21:46):
I was 90 something. It wasn’t like tragic sudden death. It was
Sevan Matossian (21:49):
Wow. Okay.
Pat Vellner (21:50):
The way it works, you live in a
Sevan Matossian (21:52):
Die. That means you’re alive for a long time.
Pat Vellner (21:55):
Yeah. <laugh>
Brian Friend (21:56):
Yeah, I was, no, I was kind of curious if you would have, uh, any, any other games, athletes, male, or female that you train with between now. And then, I mean, it’s like, I think, you know, you see these, these camps that are developing and then suddenly athletes from the same training programs are making the games and you see, they have these pre-games camps and it’s like, I’m sure it’s a good environment. But also to me, it’s kind of strange. It’s like, yeah, we’re gonna train and have this great time together. But two weeks from now, like I wanna beat your ass every time we take the floor,
Pat Vellner (22:21):
We’ve done it in the past. I used to go in Montreal for about a month. Pre-game, you know, 20 18, 20 19. We did it. But 2019, I was there with like Sam Corno and, uh, James nure. And it’s hard to like have people in your division that you’re training with every day. Cuz those losses sting. Um, you know, I don’t want a training and I find, I think that’s hard for training cuz some days it’s not about going a hundred percent effort. It’s like we’re working on aerobic stuff and you gotta be holding like 70%. But if I go 70 and James goes 75 and Sam goes 80, like we’re at a hundred percent real quick. And it’s like, cuz you don’t want those training losses. So that’s why I think those, those training camps, when you have like one strong male and female training together can work very well.
Pat Vellner (23:07):
Cuz there’s no direct competition. It’s hard when you start to compete with people. So like Emily Roth lives in Vancouver, Fraya, moose, burger’s there. Um, I think FRA is going to Montreal soon to train with Michelle, but you know, we’ll get together occasionally to do some stuff. I don’t really have anybody, uh, um, around here, you know, I’ve done it with a few people, but it’s lately my, my thing I’m trying to do is get people from my gym to just come and like do some stuff with me when I have like hard track stuff or whatever. Cuz some people are just like can run or can do can swim or can do whatever. So if you just get people out with you, it’s better than doing it by yourself some days. So like trying to sucker some people into doing this <laugh> yeah,
Sevan Matossian (23:45):
I can’t advertise the uh, pat Vener card cuz all I have is the Colton Merton card. Oh where do you go to get the pat Vener card? Where do you go? Good. Wa zombie.com. Oh there we go.
Brian Friend (23:56):
Look at that. Look at that.
Pat Vellner (23:59):
Look at that best now
Brian Friend (24:00):
Everyone. Now everyone wants a hug from pat.
Pat Vellner (24:02):
I know squeeze the light. You
Sevan Matossian (24:04):
Know, that’s a picture of pat carrying his sheets from his wedding night. Um, pat, that was a great joke by the way. Uh, we, we have a, we have a long show ahead of us. I keep you on all night. We, we have to we’re we’re gonna announce that the, the woman’s winner for the CrossFit games, um, tonight
Pat Vellner (24:22):
<laugh> okay. Well, if you’re on the topic of talking about camps, while you re while I, I exit here, please, please. You should talk about how some of the training camps are currently exploding. Uh, and there’s some major drama and they’re unraveling and perhaps the training camp scene is not where you wanna be.
Sevan Matossian (24:40):
Are, are, are you referring to what’s happening over at the underdogs athletics?
Pat Vellner (24:45):
Yes, of course.
Sevan Matossian (24:46):
Uh, anywhere else to, are you referring about Harry? Um, and uh, being up from comp train up to the
Pat Vellner (24:53):
H WPO.
Sevan Matossian (24:54):
Yeah.
Pat Vellner (24:57):
I don’t know, man. Yeah, it’s dramatic. It’s a lot.
Sevan Matossian (25:01):
<laugh>
Pat Vellner (25:02):
It’s been a big day.
Sevan Matossian (25:03):
Oh, it’s
Pat Vellner (25:03):
Been a big day.
Sevan Matossian (25:05):
Wow. Wow. You guys
JR Howell (25:06):
Stick around for a few minutes, pat, stick around.
Pat Vellner (25:08):
You guys have a lot to talk about. No, I gotta go have dinner. I’m already late,
Sevan Matossian (25:11):
Pat. Um, you demand. Thank you so much for coming on and flashing your smile.
Pat Vellner (25:17):
My pleasure guys. I’ll catch you later.
Sevan Matossian (25:20):
Okay. Care, man. What is pat talking about? <laugh> Sue it. Good to have you back. Hi bud. Hi buddy. Hey, what’s up guys? What’s up? Uh, what is, what is, uh, what what’s he, I mean, I know there was some, there was some, I, I mean basically I heard today that Daniel Brandon has, has, is like officially moved to, um, Florida. But, but anything else
Brian Friend (25:45):
You mean regarding Daniel, Brandon or in general that
Sevan Matossian (25:47):
He might do just in general with camp? No, I don’t think so. Okay. That was so unlike pat, that was so uncharacteristic of him.
Brian Friend (25:54):
Yeah. It was like a little teaser than then he just disappeared.
Sevan Matossian (25:57):
Right. But he’s not, he’s not much of a drama queen and uh <laugh> and, and he stuck his toe in the water.
JR Howell (26:04):
I think he like, I think he likes other people’s drama. Like everyone
Sevan Matossian (26:06):
Does just not and just not his own.
Brian Friend (26:09):
Yeah. Just stay off of his island.
Sevan Matossian (26:12):
Oh, where’s my, uh, col Merton’s card. Did I already lose it? I already set it back.
Brian Friend (26:16):
I mean, you were just showing it like 30 seconds.
Sevan Matossian (26:18):
I know I said it by set it back over there. I need, I need, what other cards are there? Are there, are there other
Brian Friend (26:23):
Card’s so far there, there are more coming, but those are the only two you can have get so far merchants. I don’t even know if he’s selling anymore. Mertons and then ner, I think available right now.
Sevan Matossian (26:30):
Send me my Vener one. Dammit. How much are those? How much are those SU 20 bucks? 30 bucks. How much is the card? He’s going back to the website. We have 10 workouts that Brian friend has, uh, used resources from the great Mike helping he’s helping help, help. How helped helping helped what’s what’s the phrase helping? Oh, only $10.
Brian Friend (27:02):
Oh my gosh. Buy two one for yourself. Give one as a gift.
Sevan Matossian (27:05):
I know the plastic holder that it comes in is worth $10. That’s crazy. Okay. Uh, so we have these 10 workouts. We have three from the open. We have five from the quarter finals and we have two from the semifinals and all of the athletes who’ve made it to the CrossFit games have done all of these workouts because no one made it from the last chance. Right. Cuz no one made it to the games through the last chance qualifier who missed the semifinals. Correct. Okay. So if you take these 10 workouts and organize them, like they’re one event,
Brian Friend (27:41):
One competition.
Sevan Matossian (27:42):
Yeah. So like, like I’ll tell you a story. That’s not a stretch of the imagination next week. Monkey pops, monkey pops takes over the planet again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we, I need to give people like a narrative.
Brian Friend (27:53):
You have a new one from last night though.
Sevan Matossian (27:55):
Okay. A new ER, disease spreads over the planet and we’re all forced to stay home and CrossFit decides, Hey, we’re just gonna take these 10 workouts and we’re gonna choose the winners. And so we have the winners for you for the, uh, 2022 CrossFit games based on those 10 workouts. It’s it is, it is a remarkable piece of, uh, data junk food for games, uh, junkies at the I’d like to just start by telling you who is at the top. No surprise.
Brian Friend (28:25):
It’s not a surprise that she’s at the top, but considering everything about the season up to this point, which is
Sevan Matossian (28:31):
And Shane O’s wife, right?
Brian Friend (28:33):
Yeah. Okay. Shane O’s wife and um, you know, considering what she did in the off season, which her focus was not primarily on CrossFit, but we’re doing, doing some other stuff. And then she comes and she does the open. And like we talked about yesterday, most of the athletes that are, you know, perennially at the top of the sport and there’s none currently competing that are more perennially at the top than she is. They’re not, they’re not thinking too much about the open in terms of, you know, I have to prep my whole week to dominate this workout. They’re just doing the workout on the day that they do it and then moving out with their training. And basically she’s having the same approach in quarter finals. And of course she was excited for the semifinals to be back in Australia and you know, but, and she was incredibly impressive and dominant there
Sevan Matossian (29:11):
And the country came out like crazy to support her. The Torian pro is nuts. Was that the most popular? Do we have numbers on that? Was that the most in attendance of any semifinal maybe that are Brazil? Oh yeah. Tough
Brian Friend (29:23):
To say how, I don’t know how many seats everyone necessarily held, but my general impression was that the international ones outside of north America were selling out or filling up the stands at least. And that in north America wasn’t even close.
Sevan Matossian (29:35):
Torian, looked like it was
Brian Friend (29:37):
BT three days. Yeah. That, I mean, they sold out that, that, uh, it’s a Patrick rafter center, tennis stadium or something like that. It’s a, you know, it’s supposed to be a really cool venue. They sold it out and they did the big show and they had the fireworks and everything. I mean, it’s, it’s always the, the fans in Australia are really good CrossFit fans. Like some people I know who went for sanctions there to do some competitions were like, man, it was a great energy. And the fans really turned out in us.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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