#517 – Women’s Predictions | 2022 CrossFit Games Insider

Sevan Matossian (00:01):

Bam we’re live. Yes.

Brian Friend (00:03):

Nevermind.

Sevan Matossian (00:04):

Speak sweet, speak. Sweet. Nothings. Tell me in the private chat you wanna tell me in the private chat type in the private chat? Oh, look, come on. Going over there. Ha

Mattew Souza (00:19):

Uh, uh,

Sevan Matossian (00:21):

<laugh>. I don’t know, buddy. I don’t know. It’s a lot to ask. Okay. Uh, I have a question for you. I know I’m supposed to stay, uh, we have a long show and a lot of stuff to get through. It’s about Tia to me is the D um, someone said to me that there’s a big documentary crew following her around, and that is a sign that this is her last year, and it’s kind of the celebration documentary, the fittest human being who lived any, any truth to that.

Mattew Souza (00:57):

Brian, I just think that’s a question for you.

Brian Friend (01:00):

How many times has she won the cross games?

Sevan Matossian (01:02):

12

Mattew Souza (01:04):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (01:05):

Five. This’ll be six. This will make her,

Brian Friend (01:10):

Has that ever done that

Sevan Matossian (01:11):

And queen? No. No.

Brian Friend (01:13):

So it seems like a good story to tell.

Mattew Souza (01:14):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (01:15):

Oh, so, so you don’t think maybe it’s necessarily indicative of the fact that she’s retiring?

Brian Friend (01:20):

I don’t know, but regardless of whether she is or isn’t, she has an opportunity to do something that no man or woman has done before, and I’m sure that’s a story that they wanna have a lot of footage and coverage of.

Sevan Matossian (01:33):

Fair enough. Fair enough. Uh, did, um, uh, we got a, we got three events, but I have, uh, Howell and, uh, Jr. Howell and the thumb coming on tomorrow to talk about that. Maybe if we have some time at the end, we can talk about that. But I’m very excited because I do have Jay crouch either the first or second place winner of that bike event, which is really cool. Right. John, tell me how cool I am, how smart I am.

John Young (02:00):

I think you only have that, cuz Ricky told you to have that

Sevan Matossian (02:04):

Everyone has their sources.

Mattew Souza (02:06):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (02:07):

According

John Young (02:07):

To James and down are gonna tie at the finish line.

Sevan Matossian (02:11):

Who, who,

John Young (02:12):

According to James tutor and down are gonna tie at the finish line.

Sevan Matossian (02:15):

Oh my goodness. Those bikes can’t even hold down. Tires are just gonna go flat. Uh, and if that’s true, this is the last chance someone will have to beat Tia, which makes this pretty exciting. Since the workouts, before we dig in, since the workouts, uh, three of the workouts have been announced, have any, has that affected any of your predictions for tonight’s show?

Brian Friend (02:42):

I made the predictions for both the men’s and women’s field before I knew any of the workouts. I haven’t changed them. Uh, as a result of any knowledge I’ve gained since then,

Sevan Matossian (02:51):

Mr. Young

John Young (02:53):

Say my mine were made three weeks ago. Um, now I don’t feel as good about some of my picks after the events have been announced, but I haven’t, I haven’t changed them because you already, you already picked

Brian Friend (03:04):

Them. Well, let me address that real quick because so someone messaged me something today. I put out, obviously I put out the rankings for the women a few hours ago on Instagram and said something like, dude, have you seen the events Haley’s gonna podium for sure. And it’s like, those are three of 12, 13, 14, 15. We don’t know how many events, right? It’s not, we know there are gonna be good events for Hailey. At some point over the weekend, there always are. Right. We know there’s gonna be points that are more, you know, events that are more challenging for at some point over the weekend that there always are. And that’s the case for almost everyone in the field, the order and the number of events that we know right now is not that relevant really, because we still know a very small proportion of the test and there’s not gonna be eight more tests that look just like these tests. So, you know, people, I understand that people like to get excited about information and whatever, but you know, keeping context, there’s a lot more to learn and don’t, you know, don’t get too excited about a couple events in terms of drastically changing or altering your ex expectations for a certain athlete or another.

Sevan Matossian (04:09):

That seems, uh, very fair. Especially an athlete like her, by that, I mean an athlete like her or Laura, where there is, there is an event that could pop up that could actually stop them. You have to be careful.

John Young (04:26):

Yeah. There could be something like a heavy sled push that we haven’t seen, like a super, super like the dog sled way back when and Haley can’t move it. And then his last place

Sevan Matossian (04:35):

Really, she asked

Brian Friend (04:37):

Actually that would be super fun to see something like that.

John Young (04:39):

Hey, it would, I, I just threw it out there top of my head.

Sevan Matossian (04:42):

Okay. Uh, let’s do it. Let’s dig in. Let’s dig into the women. Did we say that the women were easier,

Brian Friend (04:50):

Uh, challenging in a different way? Okay. So, um, John, I think John said this last night, that where with the men, I mean, going down even 20, 25 spots, you know, we’re finding guys like Andre hue and, and Travis mayor that are, you know, certainly capable of pushing towards a 10th place finish, but also capable of finishing in the range of 25. I think that, and the women’s side, the ranges for most of the women are smaller and there are a few exceptions to that.

Sevan Matossian (05:22):

Meaning the women at the bottom don’t really have a chance of going to the top and the women at the top outside of catastrophe, don’t have a chance of getting pushed down to the bottom.

Brian Friend (05:30):

I think the way John said it last night is there are more defined groups or tiers of women when you’re doing a, a rankings or predictions. And that maybe we just take an example of women’s six through 12. You could see a lot of variance within there, but they’re probably all five of those six women that we think are gonna be in there are gonna be in there.

Sevan Matossian (05:48):

Okay. Hey, why the hostility towards John Young and the comments on YouTube? Why <laugh>, why, why the hostility toward he’s he’s he’s a cool dude. Knows

John Young (06:00):

Any hostility? Where, where was he?

Mattew Souza (06:01):

He’s a student. I’m gonna go look at

Sevan Matossian (06:03):

Him. He’s a student of the game. People. My goodness. <laugh> come on. He’ll come over there and slap you around. He’s a big dude too. Well,

Brian Friend (06:12):

I’m happy John’s here.

Sevan Matossian (06:14):

Strong guy. Me too. Me too. Me

Brian Friend (06:15):

Too. Matt SU I don’t know, but John.

Mattew Souza (06:18):

Oh,

Brian Friend (06:19):

<laugh> SU you’re in Madison now.

Mattew Souza (06:21):

Yeah. I was looking for

Brian Friend (06:23):

A little bit ago. You didn’t, you did not tell me you are. You didn’t get a chance to say hi, I’m bitter.

Sevan Matossian (06:27):

I feel everyone’s

Mattew Souza (06:28):

Busy too important. Yeah. You’re too busy. I’m just wandering around the RV part. All

Brian Friend (06:32):

You have to do is just say Brian I’m in Madison.

Mattew Souza (06:35):

Oh,

Brian Friend (06:36):

You would’ve said

John Young (06:37):

I got five minutes. That’s what he would say.

Brian Friend (06:40):

Let’s called seven for five minutes.

Sevan Matossian (06:42):

<laugh>

Mattew Souza (06:44):

Done.

Sevan Matossian (06:45):

Okay. Brian friend and John Young. It’s almost like they’re made up names. Let’s do it. Number one. <laugh>

Mattew Souza (06:52):

Who have I pulled up here first?

Sevan Matossian (06:55):

Uh, do you let’s let’s just go off of Brian’s list. Cuz he got the fancy graphics and then we’ll have John say his. Oh, got it. Let me pull. I think, I think that was a good way. We went went yesterday. Uh, Brian, who do you got a number one?

Brian Friend (07:07):

Tia. Claire to me.

Sevan Matossian (07:08):

No. And uh, John Young

John Young (07:12):

Tia, Claire to me. Same.

Sevan Matossian (07:14):

And, and there’s no, there there’s no wiggle room, right?

John Young (07:17):

No,

Brian Friend (07:17):

I think, I think a, I think a better question when it comes to Tia is, um, you know, how many of the events do we expect her to win? What kind of margin of victory are we expecting maybe relative to last year because everyone knows this. And it’s basically been saying this throughout the year, outside of something really bad happening illness, injury, et cetera. Tia is clearly, uh, you know, way ahead of the field based on her performances in the last, you know, five years, but also even more so, you know, in the last 12 months. And uh, I do think that if you’re, you know, if you wanna look at some of those other things that I mentioned, there’s some interesting topics of conversation, but if you’re just trying to ask the question of, if she’s gonna win, it’s not, it’s not that interesting to talk about

Sevan Matossian (08:02):

Is, is Tim, um, more, uh, popular than Matt Fraser?

Brian Friend (08:09):

That’s a good question. And I don’t really know. What do you think John?

John Young (08:11):

I don’t, I don’t think so. I think she’s probably the same popular. Um, she might be more likable than Matt Fraser, but as far as, uh, popularity, like when Matt was competing, I think Matt was more popular than Tia was at the same time when they were competing together. And now Tia is Scott the throne and Matt’s not there to have it the other way. So I mean, I would say they’re the same popular popularity.

Sevan Matossian (08:38):

I, I, I wonder who that’s interesting. I wonder who has, um, greater influence in the most shallow. I mean that in the most shallow sense, like if Tia says we know she takes, she, if Tia says she takes creatine, does that sell more than if Matt Fraser says he takes beta Allen? Here’s the reason why I ask it only comes up because of what Hiller posted, how he ranked his athletes by popularity on Instagram. And then at the end, there was a very telling number that the women at the CrossFit games have twice as many Instagram followers as the men. I,

Brian Friend (09:09):

When you say like, how popular are they? I know it’s, it’s not a quantifiable thing, but I just think about when I met these competitions and as, and the athlete has announced what’s the crowd’s reaction.

Sevan Matossian (09:19):

Yeah. And last year Danielle had the biggest, uh, uh, reaction, right?

Brian Friend (09:23):

Well, what I was gonna say is throughout Tia’s career, there have been other women that have gotten bigger ovations than her regularly. Sarah Sigma’s daughter being the biggest standout in that regard, right? In almost every competition she goes to, regardless if she’s competing to win or she’s showing up to compete after an injury or whatever the reception for her is massive. And, uh, and, and yes, Daniel, Brandon gets big ovations. There were times when caption David’s daughter got big ovations, Annie Thor’s daughter. So there’s been these other, like really big, powerful personalities in the women’s field. And, and on the men’s field Fraser was that guy for a long time. And of course there’s people that love ner and love, uh, Brent and BKG, but I don’t think that they, that the support for those guys. And I’m literally talking about the cheers from the crowds rival. What I would hear when Annie was announced or Sarah was announced or Danielle was announced

Sevan Matossian (10:14):

Last. Okay. Okay. Um, uh, by the I’m so happy that Brian’s picks are better than the morning chalk ups. They didn’t have Laura on the podium. Um, I, I, I, I watched that too, but they did have some interesting picks and, and we’ll bring, we’ll bring that up in a minute. They definitely went out on a limb. Uh, and I enjoyed the show. I believe they’re talking about, uh, the show with Jamie ha Gaia, Lauren KLE, and some lady I seen

Brian Friend (10:36):

Bella Martin, I think was on that

Sevan Matossian (10:37):

Show. Bella, Bella Martin, Bella LA Martin. Does she have an, uh, okay. Stay on topic, stay on topic. Sorry. Okay. <laugh> uh, uh, who’s your number two? Uh, uh, oh, sorry. Who’s your number two. Brian.

Brian Friend (10:50):

Laura Horvath

Sevan Matossian (10:51):

And Mr. Young.

John Young (10:53):

I have the same Laura Horvath.

Sevan Matossian (10:55):

Okay. And your number three, Brian.

Brian Friend (10:58):

A O’Brien

Sevan Matossian (11:02):

And John, your number three,

John Young (11:05):

Gabby Mawa.

Sevan Matossian (11:10):

And your number four. Brian,

Brian Friend (11:12):

Hailey Adams.

Sevan Matossian (11:15):

And Mr. Young,

John Young (11:17):

Hailey Adams.

Sevan Matossian (11:19):

And your number five, Brian

Brian Friend (11:21):

Gabby alwa

Speaker 6 (11:22):

<laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (11:26):

And your number five, John

John Young (11:28):

Maow. Brian, this show’s gonna go by quick,

Brian Friend (11:35):

Gonna ask us about them. He’s just

Sevan Matossian (11:37):

Wants I, I am, I am I am. Uh, so sorry. Tell me who, who is your number? Five

John Young (11:42):

Ma O’Brien

Sevan Matossian (11:43):

Ma Obrien, sorry. Okay. And here come the comments. <laugh> uh, here’s the thi here’s the thing. There’s a, there’s a lady that won the, the waza event and her name is Emma McQuaid in the morning. Chocolate had her in, in the top five. I wanna say even number two. And wait,

Brian Friend (12:03):

Wait, when you say the morning chocolate pattern in the top five, maybe number two. What are you talking about?

Sevan Matossian (12:07):

Oh, on, on

Brian Friend (12:08):

Has posted Justin Lacoss picks. They’ve posted Lauren Cleo’s pick she’s. We have Jamie AIAS picks. We have, you know, so say the morning chalk ups picks is very broad.

Sevan Matossian (12:17):

Okay. The morning on the morning, Chalkup uh, I saw a show with Lauren kil, uh, Bella, and, um, Jamie Higa who you would

Brian Friend (12:25):

Like

Sevan Matossian (12:25):

Bella? I think I would too. I like the name sounds like an only fans, girl <laugh> and um, I, I like that pick. I like Emma McQuaid. I, I like that pick it’s bold. She’s great. How come? How come Brian, you go first. How come she doesn’t make your top five?

Brian Friend (12:42):

Well, she has Sam Briggs coaching her, so she might just win. I don’t know. No, I, I mean, look though, if you look at, uh, Emma, you know, Emma was 12th at the games last year, it was a very good performance. She had a great run at, at waap ALZA. She got second at strength in depth to, uh, Jacqueline Alstrom. And that’s, uh, you know, if you’re trying, if you’re talking about winning or podium at the CrossFit games, um, you gotta be winning your semi-final against this women’s field. And then, and then to, to get into that conversation, you have to go through Laura Haley, Gabby, Mel Christie, Amanda Barnhardt and Daniel, Brandon, who all beat you last year. And I don’t see anything in Emma McQuaid. Who’s older than most of the worst women later in her career. She is just now coming into the best of her career. But I think all those girls are getting better. And I don’t, I don’t think she’s closed the gap,

Sevan Matossian (13:28):

Uh, who took second at waap PZA in, in the female division,

Brian Friend (13:30):

Beth.

Sevan Matossian (13:33):

Okay. Who took third

John Young (13:35):

Ariel Lowen.

Sevan Matossian (13:36):

Oh, wow. Okay. And, and, and how did Ellie do?

John Young (13:41):

Um, Ellie got sixth Ellie Turner.

Sevan Matossian (13:45):

Okay. So, so, and those are the two big names she beat, right? Bethany Chadburn Ellie. Who is the other one? Sorry.

John Young (13:52):

Ariel Lowen. Ariel lo Lucy Campbell, Lucy Campbell, and Danny Spiegel were the other big names.

Sevan Matossian (13:57):

Okay. I’ll be watching where you stick these people, uh, Maow, Brian, uh, Brian, uh, why don’t you have Maow Brian in, in second. Didn’t she get better? Last be didn’t she grow more from last year than Laura did from last year?

Brian Friend (14:16):

Yeah, but she had more room to grow. Right? I think that, I think that Mel, I mean, basically by putting her here, I feel that she has made the biggest strides of anyone on the women’s field relative to where she was last year and what we’re gonna see from her this week. Uh, and you know, it’s always a little bit risky, I guess, to trust, uh, you know, the coach is too much, obviously they’re gonna build up their athletes, but, uh, I have, uh, you know, I have a, a strong feeling that as impressive as Mel was at granite cames, we might see an even more impressive version of her this weekend. However, for me, you know, right now there’s, uh, when we’re talking about the tears, I still think it’s Tia and a tier of her own and Laura in a tier of her own barring one circumstance, which is that there’s a specific movement and a, and a rule within that workout of the movement that if you can’t do it, that you’re outta the competition. If that doesn’t happen, I think she is so good at so many other things that she will, like, she was last year, be clear of the field by 50 to a hundred points in the second spot.

John Young (15:18):

Do you think she could take a last place and still get second? No problems. Yes.

Sevan Matossian (15:24):

Wow. Uh, who, uh, John who’s whose whole is bigger, uh, Laura’s being upside down or Gabby alwa climbing ropes,

John Young (15:36):

Lauras, but Gabby’s whole will come up a lot more than Lauras Laura’s at most will be one event. Gabby. There’s gonna be high volume polling and multiple events. She’s better at some high volume pulling implements than others, but that’s still her weakest thing. And that’s going to come up more times than not. And Laura’s weakness is only gonna come up once, if it does come up.

Sevan Matossian (16:01):

What other stuff does, uh, Gabriela Mawa not. So you’re saying pull ups, muscle ups, uh, bar muscle ups, ring, muscle ups. You’re saying all of those pulling things. Uh Laura’s better than her.

John Young (16:11):

Yeah. Yes.

Sevan Matossian (16:14):

Ryan, you concur well

Brian Friend (16:15):

We’re but I don’t think recorded that he’s necessarily talking about just, just a head-to-head comparison.

Sevan Matossian (16:19):

I wasn’t, but

John Young (16:21):

He, yeah. He’s

Sevan Matossian (16:22):

But, but, but, but since we’re leaning that way, I’m just curious why, um, I, I, I was moving from the fact that you guys both have Lauren second to why John has Gabby so high.

Brian Friend (16:33):

Well, the case that I would make for putting Gabby that high is that the thing I think she’s worst at, which is Lego rope climbs seems unlikely to pop up this week because they forced the CrossFit themselves being Adrian Bosman and his team forced everyone in the, in the semi-final stage to do that movement. And there are other upper body pulling movements that are also difficult, like ring muscles or peg boards that would, I think would be better included in this test, knowing that all of these athletes already proved that they could do the Lego rope claims in advance.

Sevan Matossian (17:03):

Have you guys seen ropes at the venue? Have you guys walked around the venue? Have you seen any rigs set up with ropes? Dangling?

Brian Friend (17:10):

I haven’t really gone into the venues at all.

Sevan Matossian (17:12):

Okay.

Mattew Souza (17:13):

I haven’t seen anything. It still looks like they were setting up and most of it was, uh, blocked off and he couldn’t access it because I think all the athletes are checking in and warming and like wandering around. So they probably wanna block ’em from that.

Sevan Matossian (17:24):

So Brian, you wouldn’t rule out rope climbs. You would rule out legless rope climbs.

Brian Friend (17:30):

I think it’s as a guess. Yeah. I mean, well, as soon as I saw CrossFit program them in the semi-finals I was making the assumption in April or whatever, when we found out that there probably would not be Lego stroke climbs at the games and that there probably would be either ring muscles or peg boards or both.

Sevan Matossian (17:46):

Okay. Okay.

Brian Friend (17:48):

And look, Gabby’s like, those are things that she’s not great at, but I think she’s better at those than she is at Lego rope climb.

John Young (17:53):

And she can manage them much, much better than she can Lego rope climbs. Because once you blow up on a legless rope climb, you’re kind of screwed. And once you blow up on a ring muscle up, you can just wait five seconds and still do another ring muscle up.

Brian Friend (18:06):

And obviously we have the same five women in the top five. And so for, you know, for Gabby’s sake, if the thing that she’s worst at is not in the competition, that’s a, that’s really good thing for her. And it could potentially be the, the difference, you know, the fact that that workout, maybe she takes the 30th and a peg bar workout. Maybe she makes the 20th and those extra 35 points or whatever could be the difference between a, a fifth and a third.

John Young (18:34):

I just, I, uh,

Sevan Matossian (18:35):

Go ahead. Sorry, John, go ahead.

John Young (18:37):

I’ve just looking at Gabby lately. Like she looks much leaner than she does just, just eyesight. Like she looks more much leaner than she did in 2021. I don’t know if she like is or not on the scale, but she looks much leaner, which

Sevan Matossian (18:52):

She looked different in the photos I saw also

Brian Friend (18:55):

The scale.

Sevan Matossian (18:55):

I thought she just had her eyebrows done or something. I thought she, she

Brian Friend (18:58):

Could wait. She could weigh exactly the same,

John Young (18:59):

But I mean, that’s what I’m saying. I don’t, I don’t know if it’s yeah,

Brian Friend (19:02):

But I, no, this is what seven wants me to say. I trained with her earlier in this week.

Sevan Matossian (19:06):

Yes <laugh>

Brian Friend (19:09):

And she did look amazing.

Sevan Matossian (19:12):

Um, speaking of big heads, um, uh, I saw a picture of, uh, we had Ricky Gerard on earlier and I saw a picture of him and Roman Koff together. It’s like fucking two bodies with pumpkins on their shoulder. <laugh> crazy. What’s like Roman, those guys wear what he does.

John Young (19:27):

Uh, Roman does give a Shrek, like vibe to him a little bit.

Sevan Matossian (19:31):

Yeah, totally.

John Young (19:32):

I feel,

Sevan Matossian (19:35):

Uh, okay. Um, what, how close is Maow Bryan to, uh, getting on the podium? Are we talking? Is, uh, it’s gonna come down to the final event, Brian.

Brian Friend (19:45):

I mean, I, I,

Sevan Matossian (19:45):

Sorry, not Maow, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. Uh, how close is Hailey Adams to getting on the podium? Both of you guys have, are in fourth place. Does it come down to the final event? We see her and mal go to war or who

Brian Friend (19:56):

Her and who are. I think I, I, I really do think that the margins between ma Haley and Gabby are, are gonna be fairly small. And I think, I don’t know about the final event, but I think coming into the last day, each of them will still have a chance to podium.

Sevan Matossian (20:07):

John, how close will Haley Adams be to getting on that podium?

John Young (20:12):

I mean, I, I agree with Brian. I have all three of those girls on like equal footing. And it’s honestly, it’s just gonna depend on how the programming is for the games and who it favors the most. It’s going to favor one of them more than the other two. Um, and that will decide the third place.

Brian Friend (20:29):

Maybe it might, but it could just come down to execution seven on 12 points. She’s gonna miss the podium by 12 points.

Sevan Matossian (20:34):

Damn. I love it. Thank you. You a man. Wow. And you know that because you worked out with Gabby UA crew. Now, now let me, let me propose, let me propose this to you.

Brian Friend (20:43):

Totally irrelevant to correlation, but okay.

Sevan Matossian (20:45):

Let me tell you, let me propose this to you. Matt Fraser pulls ma O’Brien aside. I, uh, I agree, uh, uh, sea hill. I totally agree. Y’all sleeping on Kara. I agree, but we’ll get to that in a minute. Um, uh, Matt Fraser pulls ma O’Brien aside and says, Hey, your only chance of beating this girl is just to push her into the red zone. You have to get, you have to push Tia into somewhere where she hasn’t been before. You have to come out. So fucking hot and make her so fucking uncomfortable. John’s already not like, fuck you. No way. They, they, you have no, you have to do something that makes really, really fucking, um, out there. You’re gonna have to risk it, or are they playing it safe? And just trying to get mal on the podium, cause now has, has to risk her own demise by doing that. But why not? Why not? Uh, push Tia, make Tia chaser.

Brian Friend (21:38):

Well, it’s a great, it’s a great question. And it’s, uh, you know, and, and honestly, I, I think it’s one that maybe Fraser doesn’t wanna communicate directly to mal, but he should be contemplating that. And he has to make the decision. Do I really think she can beat her? And if the answer’s no, it’s like, this is what I tell people. When I play disc golf. If you have a putt from 35 feet away and you don’t think you can make it, don’t try to make it, put it so close. You can’t miss the next one. But if you think you can make it, you have to understand that you might hit the basket and roll another 35 feet away and take a Bo. So in this case, I think that there are still a lot of women that were ahead of her last year. Namely those three women that she, you know, she has to like, she can’t overlook them. The one thing I that I’ll say is I don’t agree with the concept that if you wanna beat Tia, you have to do it as a group. If you wanna beat Tia, you have to do it. You can’t count on anyone else doing it. And if I beat her in one event and you beat her in another, and John beats her in a third event, that doesn’t matter,

Sevan Matossian (22:37):

Right?

Brian Friend (22:38):

Because where are you finishing the event that I win? And where’s John finishing the event that you win. If that’s a seventh and a ninth, Tia’s taking second, third or fourth on all of those workouts. And even though she didn’t win him, if you’re not taking second and third on the workout, she’s winning. And you’re not also beating her. As often as she’s beating you, you’re not gonna beat her no matter how many times she loses to someone else. Right? So if you are coming in, whether you’re ma Obrien or anyone else, and you actually want to take a run at knocking Tia off the top of the podium, you have to be aggressive. You have to take a risk and you have to do it in every event.

John Young (23:09):

And I think that would be dumb to do because you’re not fitter. She’s not fitter than her.

Sevan Matossian (23:16):

I, I, I, you, what I’m saying disagree with that. I hear you. I hear you. I hear, I hear you. So, so you think it’s, it’s also more important that she get on the podium than take risks

John Young (23:27):

At, uh, I think she should just do her best and see where she lies and, and not worry about where it is. Like if she

Sevan Matossian (23:33):

Makes, I know that’s the traditional wisdom. Yeah.

John Young (23:35):

But she’s not fitter than Tia. She knows she’s not fitter than Tia. So trying to go all out to beat Tia, every single workout, she’s gonna run herself into the ground and then get fifth when she could have got third.

Sevan Matossian (23:48):

Right.

John Young (23:49):

Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I like, I think that’s the way, like, you need to know where you are in the field. And like, you could shoot above where you are, but you can’t shoot four levels above where you are. And that’s where TA is.

Brian Friend (24:00):

John ranks her fifth, cuz he thinks she’s gonna risk it. I ranked her third cuz I don’t

John Young (24:04):

<laugh> why are we arguing the reverse points? I know why we’re starting reverse points.

Sevan Matossian (24:10):

Thencause that’s what John Daniel, Daniel, um, Daniel, Brandon, uh, and Laura HT, uh, had a Instagram commercial release today for rad shoes. Um, are these types of things, a distraction for them?

Brian Friend (24:25):

Red, global shoes. Great disc golf shoes.

Sevan Matossian (24:29):

Okay. Fair enough. That you’re I’ll take the plug. Yeah, no. Yeah, I did actually. Great. Okay, good. Okay. Good enough. Yeah. Great disc golf shoes and, and a and a really, I mean, I don’t know the owner, but just from his Instagram account, it seems like cool as shit. The dude. He’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. What’s the dude’s name again?

Brian Friend (24:43):

Ben.

Sevan Matossian (24:43):

Ben. And what? Messy Ben mess. Massy. Ben Massey Massey. You call him mass. I call him messy. Um, oh, is this a distraction for, for them to be fooling around with their sponsors and doing commercials and dressing up and

Brian Friend (24:57):

You call him Ronald, do I call him Ron? Aldino same. Okay.

Sevan Matossian (25:00):

Okay.

Brian Friend (25:01):

Oh, wait a minute.

Sevan Matossian (25:01):

Or, or does it help him? Does it pump ’em up? Does it pump ’em up?

Brian Friend (25:05):

I don’t think they were filming that commercial today. I don’t think it really matters much.

Sevan Matossian (25:09):

Okay. Different at the right time. The sponsor at the right time, the sponsors will leave them alone.

Brian Friend (25:16):

Yeah. I mean, if I was sponsoring athlete like Daniel, Brandon, I would want to have some content in the bank too and release it right before the pinnacle event of the year. So

Sevan Matossian (25:24):

Were, but, but I mean, they’re shooting this, it looks like they put this

Brian Friend (25:27):

Together. That’s a picture. It’s a picture. I mean, it’s

Sevan Matossian (25:28):

Actually, they got a video, they got a video that looks like a full blown, uh, shoot,

Brian Friend (25:32):

This type of thing. I mean, I Haven not seen this yet, but this thing, if they’re doing a little thing like this today actually might not be that bad of a thing to do in a timing wise either. Because I think that today and tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday, between check in the start of the competition are some of the hardest days for the athletes where they’re looking for things to do. And so this is a fun, cool thing that they’re, you know, that they can do today and fill some time. So I’m, I’ll reframe my mindset on

Sevan Matossian (25:53):

That. Uh, but, but 48 hours from now, we’ll be talking about Danielle Brandon’s shoe coming off and Laura Horak falling off a bike and shit like that. I mean, where we we’re close. We’re close, right?

Brian Friend (26:09):

Yep. Yeah. It’s getting close. It’s gonna be great.

Sevan Matossian (26:11):

It’s getting close.

John Young (26:12):

Be on we Wednesday.

Sevan Matossian (26:13):

Okay. Number six, Mr. Friend

Brian Friend (26:20):

Six, I guess I should pull up my picks. I have, I think I have Caron six.

Sevan Matossian (26:25):

Uh, Mr. Yo, Y

John Young (26:27):

I have a Amanda Barnhart.

Sevan Matossian (26:30):

Mm. Uh, number seven, Brian.

Brian Friend (26:36):

Yeah, I, uh, yeah, seven. I have Amanda Barnhart.

Sevan Matossian (26:41):

Um, it’s what what’s, what’s the highest demand of Barnhart has ever finished?

Brian Friend (26:47):

I think it was

John Young (26:49):

Last

Brian Friend (26:49):

Year, seventh. She’s been seventh, twice and, and ninth, once and

John Young (26:56):

Fifth, ninth last year.

Brian Friend (26:57):

So she was seventh in 2019 and 2020 ninth last year. And I, I think I’ve said this before, I’m most impressed by her finish in 2020, because that the way that the, oh, no, wait, sorry. I’m what, what, I’m most impressed by finish in 2019, because the way that those workouts fell was really favorable to athletes that are not, that don’t look like Amanda Barnhart. And she was basically the only one that bucked the trainer was able to get into the top 10, uh, at that size and weight basically that year. Um, obviously last year’s ninth place finish is also good, but three straight top, top 10 finishes from any athlete at any point is a very impressive thing.

Sevan Matossian (27:36):

And, and this is her fifth year,

Brian Friend (27:38):

Fifth. Yep. Fifth in a row.

John Young (27:40):

And it’s three straight in three different, um, competition formats,

Sevan Matossian (27:48):

Uh, meaning she’s been to guap Palooza five times and row

John Young (27:51):

Five. No like the games was different in 2019, the games were different in 20 and the game’s different in 2021. She was top 10 in all three formats. I mean, that makes me think she’s legit perennial top 10 in every competition she’s going to be in

Sevan Matossian (28:05):

Good point. What’s your background?

John Young (28:07):

Swimming.

Sevan Matossian (28:09):

Uh, who do you get at number seven? John

John Young (28:12):

Carra Saunders.

Sevan Matossian (28:14):

And, and, and why do you put Carra at seven instead of, uh, six? Why do you put her below? Uh, Amanda Barnhart?

John Young (28:23):

Um, I just think, I think Amanda’s gonna have some home run hits and cars, uh, used to be home run hits. She’ll be third or fifth now and not first anymore.

Sevan Matossian (28:34):

Oh, you think so you think, do you think Carras, uh, her, her skillset’s waning, you think she’s, she’s gonna be, this is gonna be the worst version of car Saunders we’ve seen.

John Young (28:42):

I don’t, I don’t think, I don’t think that. I just think the field is getting better.

Sevan Matossian (28:49):

Wow. From our interview with morning chocolate, I think it’s Amanda’s last year. Oh shit. Okay. Uh, uh, Karen, uh, FVA, uh, is Brian’s number eight and I have, um, I, I, I don’t know who that is. I mean, I’ve heard the name a million times.

Brian Friend (29:04):

You don’t know if Karen fray?

Sevan Matossian (29:05):

No, I couldn’t pick her out of a crowd

John Young (29:07):

Before we talk about her. My number eight is also kava and I promise I made my picks way before Brian. Sure, sure. I know. I, Brian can tell

Sevan Matossian (29:19):

Brian how, how would I know who she’s, which, how old, how old is

Brian Friend (29:22):

She? I’ll tell you about Karen fray and I’ll tell you the same thing. I’ve probably told you half dozen times this year. I’m sure Karen FRA was, uh, she competed Dubai in 2019. She was in the mix with Sarah sigmas out, Sam Briggs and Jamie Simmons or green. Oh, I I’m not sure which one she was at that year. So when the competition with one event left outta 10, she’s very good in a live competition she’s built to endure. Um, last year she finished sixth in an online format. I do not think online format is super favorable her in the semifinals, the five women who beat her last year at semifinals all finished 13th or better at the CrossFit games. And I would.

The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.

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