Sevan Matossian (00:02):
BA we’re live, Brian. Hi,
Brian Friend (00:06):
I missed you.
Sevan Matossian (00:08):
It’s been a while. It’s been a while. I know. Where is Brian? Why wasn’t he on any of the games coverage?
Brian Friend (00:20):
Uh,
Sevan Matossian (00:20):
I heard rumors that you got a really bad case of COVID. Is that true when you were hospitalized? Invented?
Brian Friend (00:26):
No. Oh, I, uh, during the games this year, I had the opportunity to work kind of on the internal production team for the broadcast. And I thought that it would be important for me to commit myself to that and not be distracted or put myself in any, um, environments where I could potentially, you know, just be in risk of getting in trouble. I didn’t want to
Sevan Matossian (00:49):
Have oh, like leak, like, like leak stuff.
Brian Friend (00:52):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (00:54):
Like James bra did kinda <laugh>
Brian Friend (00:56):
I was on the show for that, unfortunately, but, uh, but you know, obviously on those shows, there’s a lot of speculating going on and, uh, you know, it’s kind of weird to be in a, a group of people that are speculating about things that you already know about.
Sevan Matossian (01:12):
Right. I, I, I totally agree. So, so what did you do over there? What did you do you worked with, uh, the that’s um, uh, Charlie and Joan about Charlie class act and Jon nav class act two of the classiest dudes I ever worked with.
Brian Friend (01:27):
Yeah. And so it’s Hamilton, Rhode, and, and Mike Roth, who’s the director there. And those guys, I worked with them at waap. I work with them at the Mac. I work with them at granite games, and then I work with them at the games. I don’t know what the technical role is. It’s some have called it a floor producer of field producer. But, um, in this particular instance, I had a, a mobile headset that had a direct line to the producer, uh, Tim PS, who I also worked with at granite games and Chad Schroeder. So the three of us were able to communicate and it’s better than having for me to have a line to the producer than the director, cuz the director is so many things going on. And the, the last thing he needs to do is hear from me if there’s something critical that we’re talking about, it’s Tim’s job to communicate that to Mike and then Mike will make the decision of how to react based on what people at home.
Brian Friend (02:14):
See. So my objective in doing this is hopefully to tell the stories of more athletes, better via the broadcast. And I know that there’s still a lot of want in that regard for, for changes with regards to the broadcast. But you know, there are also, there’s all, you know, it’s really easy to just say, give us wide shots all the time. And there’s certainly some value in that perspective, but there are a lot of other things in play. And this year I’ve had a chance to learn about some of those from a different perspective than I’ve ever had before.
Sevan Matossian (02:47):
Uh, if you want a be friendly shirt, uh, and it’s got a cool, uh, picture of Brian on the back, small one up on the, by the neck. It’s really cool. Actually you go to,
Brian Friend (02:59):
You know, they surprised me with these shirts.
Sevan Matossian (03:01):
Oh they, you didn’t even know. No <laugh> are you gonna Sue? Are you gonna Sue
Brian Friend (03:05):
<laugh> no, no, but, uh, it was, uh, I think that the, I think that the logo on the back, the vindicate guy made, and then he was working with Sherpa works. They sent me a, like a sneak peek of that mockup, but I didn’t really think anything of it. I just thought they were like playing around. Cause that’s what like shirt skies do or maybe it was a sticker. I didn’t know. And then at the games I, I showed up, I saw Ken from, uh, Sherpa works and he just tossed me this shirt and I was like, oh damn, that’s that’s pretty cool.
Sevan Matossian (03:34):
Uh, Ken, so, so it’s a, what Sherpa just go to Sherpa works.com and people can get that. Can people buy that shirt?
Brian Friend (03:40):
Yeah. It was kind the thing that was kind of awkward about it is he gave one to Lauren kil. She wore on the morning chalk ups review show one night. So people saw it a week, a week ago, maybe more. And then there were a few that he brought on site with him that he had been given out to some people, we had a little get together at the RV camp one day and I gave some out to some people there. Uh, and then a lot of people were asking about ’em, but I didn’t even know, like I didn’t even know they were being made. So I didn’t know where they’d be available or when, but today he finally did, uh, make them available. If you wanna get one,
Sevan Matossian (04:10):
Uh, Travis, uh, belling housing, if you’re listening from, uh, vindicate, see this shirt right here, can we change the B to a C? Could it be C dot beaver? And we make a, um, and then on the, on the other side, can you, can we see the other side of that shirt and see the little picture of, uh, Brian? Do they show it
Brian Friend (04:29):
D if there’s another, I don’t think that’s a bad,
Sevan Matossian (04:31):
Oh, that’s too bad. I could take my picture. Oh, there it is. There it is on the sleeve right there. Nice. And, and, and we have a picture of, uh, of Caleb C beaver and then a, and then like a picture of Caleb. That would be awesome. You like that? Hu Jesus, SU’s dying. I’m
Brian Friend (04:47):
Gonna put, I thought you were gonna have a, a different picture
Sevan Matossian (04:49):
And listen, listen with the mu <laugh> and, and, and made Caleb’s eyes really big. And then in the pupils, maybe a, a picture of a sea or chin or something, or a CNN enemy. Um, uh, and, and all that money we make from some of the t-shirts will go directly to purchasing Caleb, a new computer. God, I love this idea. I did use the landscaping. I, I did use the landscaping Clippers. They’ve never been used on my balls or my Caulkins, but I did use it on my face, on the second shortest setting.
Brian Friend (05:22):
How do you feel
Sevan Matossian (05:24):
Good? I, my mom called and said, Hey, you should shave that shit. And then I asked my wife, Hey, should I shave it? And she goes, I’m not gonna tell you what to do. And then as she walked away, she goes, it’s weird kissing you. And I just, fuck, I literally, I was, I was at the counter, I think eating like a bowl of meat and beans. And I just walked up and I went straight to the bathroom and I just fucking shaved it off.
Brian Friend (05:40):
That was all you needed to
Sevan Matossian (05:41):
Hear. Yeah, I think I was just looking for, like,
Brian Friend (05:44):
Those Clippers are easy to use,
Sevan Matossian (05:46):
Dude. I, I only have the three point. Oh, and they have a 4.0, they’re the best Clippers ever. I mean, I’ve never tried to go shorter than this with them, but like, they’re so nice. They’re so nice. I don’t know why, but they’re so nice. And I have a 20, those are expensive. I have a $20 me
Brian Friend (06:01):
Send me the link. I might, I wanna try ’em
Sevan Matossian (06:02):
Out. Okay. I’ll send you a picture. I heard though that if you do use them on your balls, they chop your balls up.
Brian Friend (06:09):
I’m not, I’m not planning to use ’em on my balls. All right.
Sevan Matossian (06:12):
So, so I used clips once on my balls that weren’t for my balls and within like a half a second, it gave me like 20 small paper cuts on my testicles. It was horrible. Oh, look at, look at Paul Desmond 4.0 Paul. You do those. You do. Do you, do you, Nick, your nuts, do you Nick, the golf balls, the, a avocados, a avocado thoses. Um, I saw today that Dave Castro went over. Sorry, guys. We’re lagging getting started, but I saw today, um, that Dave Castro and Don fall F right? Yes. This, uh, this is on the Dave Castro, Instagram a fun afternoon session with 15 affiliates from the bay area. I didn’t even know. There were 15 affiliates left here. Have
Brian Friend (06:53):
You sent the, have you sent Dan’s shirt?
Sevan Matossian (06:55):
No. Huh? That’s a great idea. I, we did invite him on the podcast and
Brian Friend (06:59):
Then assured to the notes, say, congratulations, join the club.
Sevan Matossian (07:02):
Oh, okay. That’s a good idea. Okay. I like that, uh, fun afternoon, um, session with 15 affiliates from the bay area and the new and new CrossFit CEO, Don fall foul fall. Uh, thanks for hosting CrossFit, Palo Alto, the discussion. Thanks for the discussion guys. MVP of the session of the session was Neil Maddox. Um, oh, and you can kind of see him just to the left. It looks like that’s him just to the left of Don. Right.
Brian Friend (07:34):
I came across Neil Maddox’s name today as doing some prep for this show actually.
Sevan Matossian (07:39):
Oh. Like for some sort of skills or some sort of record, he set for the games.
Brian Friend (07:43):
Uh, he’s got four event wins in his career and, uh, Adler now has four and geese GE now has five. So he was just on the Lister then.
Sevan Matossian (07:51):
Wow. I don’t think that that’s interesting, uh, who who’s a better CrossFitter, uh, games athlete, uh, all time. If, if you were to put Neo Maddox at his prime Adler and GE in a, in a, in a, in a competition, who’d win
Brian Friend (08:07):
At this point. I, I think, uh, Adler would probably have to take it, even though he, you know, his, one of his better finishes was on the 20, 20 year. He does have two top five finishes, neither the other guys have any.
Sevan Matossian (08:20):
Gotcha. Um, and then if you go over, will you click on the CrossFit affiliates, Instagram, this is perplexing to me. So we have the new guy with Dave talking to affiliates, but if you go over to the affiliates, Instagram, and you click on it, they haven’t posted in four days. They must be taking some time off after all that hard work at the games. Um, and, and it’s, and it’s just junk they’re selling. Anyway, Brian likes to keep his head above the fray, so I will leave it at that. And I will revisit this at another time. Um, let’s see. But I, but I, but I am curious, uh, that, that was a surprise to me to see that it is good to see that the CEO’s out and about, um, kicking ass already taking names he’s in good company.
Brian Friend (09:09):
Is that different than we usually see from the CEO in the first, uh, few days to weeks in the job?
Sevan Matossian (09:16):
Uh, shit. I don’t know. I, I, I know Greg was always out and about talking to the, um, affiliates. I do think that it was premature when Rosa did it. I don’t, I think Rosa was destined to fail because he just didn’t know what CrossFit was. And he went out and exposed. When you go out,
Brian Friend (09:29):
Hows, have there been in the last, like 15 months, four or five,
Sevan Matossian (09:34):
There was, there was, well, I don’t know about in the 15 months, but in the last two years there was Greg, there was, uh, that other guy, the, the garbage guy, then there was Greg, then there was Dave, then there was Rosa. Then there was none. Then there was the, there was, there was some dude that like was the president who like, I think doesn’t work there anymore, but they won’t tell us that he doesn’t work there anymore. Fuck. I forget that guy’s name. I met him in
Brian Friend (10:03):
And then there was the interim and now there’s
Sevan Matossian (10:04):
This. And then there was that girl, Allison, the CFO. Yeah. And then now there’s, uh, Don
Brian Friend (10:10):
Some, hopefully he sticks around for a while. Some consistency could be a good thing.
Sevan Matossian (10:15):
Yeah. Steep learning curve. He needs to surround immerse himself, uh, with Dave and Nicole, Steve, Steve learning curve. Uh, and, uh, boy, anyway, uh, I’m avoiding, I was gonna show you the new, what, uh, the, the new, uh, CDC, uh, the COVID guidelines by the CDC, but let’s, let’s, let’s dig into the CrossFit games instead. Um, before we start, I, I, I just wanna ask you some big picture questions before we start. Um, you did a, you’ve done power rankings. We did predictions. You’re the, uh, arguably, um, no better student of the game of, uh, athletes capacity. And, um, do, did, are you shocked by the workouts this year?
Brian Friend (11:06):
Am I there’s like a left turn? I was expecting to ask me about the athletes. Oh, am I shocked by the workouts?
Sevan Matossian (11:12):
Because here’s what, here’s why obviously you see where I’m going. It’s a loaded question. You had this pool of athletes and you talked about how they were gonna do. And somewhere in there, there had to be some prepositions that we all have of what the games are, what the challenges are gonna be for these athletes. So like, if it was a knitting contest, we’d have no fucking idea who was gonna win, but we do, we have 15 years of, of games to that. You knew, you thought you knew what they were kind of gonna be doing to, to, to some extent, a pretty
Brian Friend (11:37):
Good extent. I would say just, you did catch me off guard with discussion. There were a couple workouts that surprised me for the most part. And when I look at the total test, it’s not that surprise.
Sevan Matossian (11:49):
Okay. And now, and what workouts surprised you the most?
Brian Friend (11:54):
I would say the, the biggest surprise to me was the skills medley. Now it wasn’t surprising that they had some kind of skills test. I thought that they would have some kind of skills
Sevan Matossian (12:02):
Test. Is that the that’s the peg board crossover, that’s one with all the three new three or four new things. The unbroken more than that. Yeah.
Brian Friend (12:09):
So, and I think that Jr and Taylor mostly nailed this, the analysis of this one last night, which is it’s okay to have new elements. You should have new elements at the games. It’s weird to have a workout that has so many new elements and not give the entire field a chance to te to test themselves or prove that they have those skills. It could, oh yeah, it could. Um, I think they even mentioned it could, you know, lead to future iterations of seeing some of these skills in an, in an environment where everyone’s tested by ’em. But I think that for the most part, if you’re gonna have a new implement, uh, that it should be available for the entire field test.
Sevan Matossian (12:48):
So you’re mad at Adrian
Brian Friend (12:50):
<laugh> does, do I sound mad?
Sevan Matossian (12:52):
No, you don’t sound mad at all, but, but, but, but, but, but it is, it’s some constructive criticism I tried to, I brought that up with him and he said, absolute. I said, I, I would’ve liked to have seen them have two weeks. And he looked at me like I was out of my fucking mind when he was on the show and, and I, and I felt them. I thought he had a good, an answer. We have to test their ability to adapt also. And that was one of those things or a new skill.
Brian Friend (13:14):
Yeah, definitely, definitely. But, you know, um, if you’re gonna put something in that you want them to adapt to give all 40 of them a chance to adapt to it, don’t, you know, like, you know, the obvious, the obvious things. I think, first of all, that it was to, it was really unfortunate that the, um, L press to Hansen was buried so deep in that workout that we hardly got to see anyone do it. None, none of the women got there. Three of the guys got there. Two of the guys were able
Sevan Matossian (13:40):
To see none of the women.
Brian Friend (13:42):
I don’t think any of ’em were able to finish the 25 crossover double under, so we didn’t even get to see them attempt it. Right. And I think that that’s something that, you know, yeah, that’s annoying that dog over there. Um, I think that’s something that most of the community would’ve appreciated getting to see, cuz I think that a lot of the athletes would’ve been able to do that. And if, and you, you might have even seen some people kind of getting it for their first time on the competition floor potentially. Right. It would’ve been an exciting moment and a fun moment and a good and, and a good test for the athletes to say like, okay, well I haven’t really mastered this, or I don’t know if I have, is this something that I’m able to do, uh, when, when it matters the most.
Brian Friend (14:18):
And we saw that in other regards, you know, notably with the sandbag where in the back, not a lot of people were having very much success. Ricky was struggling with the two 60, only two of the guys even managed to do the 300, but you put him on the competition floor and it’s a totally different ballgame. I think we might have seen something similar with the press to handstand and that, that was a missed opportunity to showcase that movement as a new and potentially unexpected movement for some of the athletes. Uh, whereas now if we test it next year, in that regard, they’ve had a full year to test and therefore, you know, to test and practice that. And therefore that thing that Adrian was seeking, which is their ability to adapt to something new under pressure is lost with a lot of, with the four or five different movements, pure wet press to handstand legless, peg board sync, or, you know, um, unbroken sets of jump rope, unbroken pistols, like all of those things. I don’t know if it was necessary to reveal them all in one workout that not everyone got to do.
Sevan Matossian (15:15):
Um, how, if you don’t mind me asking, um, how, how did you know that Ricky was struggling in the back with the two 60?
Brian Friend (15:22):
He told me most of the athletes talked about that. Um, actually one of my friends who works, uh, across the media came to me and uh, before the men even took the floor, he goes, dude, the competition just happened in the back. And there was only two guys that were even able to get the 300 back. And I saw Ricky and Kotler and Benard after the event. And Ricky was like, I’m like, damn dude, that was impressive. He goes, yeah, man, I could barely get the two 60 back here warming up.
Sevan Matossian (15:44):
Wow. Um, I’d never seen so many. Um, I basically every athlete after they lifted did that shit that people do, like after they’ve been in a car accident, like this shit and like this, and they were like, you know what I mean? They were doing shit. And they were getting in some fucking contorted positions. I mean, if it, if you think about it, like Justin Madeira had his head like this with 300 fucking 40 pounds pushing on his fucking head and it’s strain in his neck, it doesn’t look like shit to us at home. But dude,
Brian Friend (16:11):
I had a really good vantage.
Sevan Matossian (16:13):
It would kill an average person. Go
Brian Friend (16:14):
Ahead. I had a really good vantage point for this workout. And um, I just will say that the last 20 or 30 minutes of the men’s sandbag ladder is the most fun that I’ve ever had at any individual CrossFit event anywhere. And you know, I’ve been to a lot of competitions around the world. It was such an awesome environment. I think every fan and every athlete abandoned, all sense of who was lifting. Everyone just wanted everyone to be successful with the lift.
Sevan Matossian (16:41):
And it was like, it was us against the bags.
Brian Friend (16:43):
Yeah. And it was great. And this is exactly what I think Adrian’s talking about is give them something that they haven’t done. You tell me you’ve been doing cross and, and Ben to box is all over the world for 15 years. Have you ever seen a sandbag over 200 pounds, maybe at one, maybe at 2 51 somewhere? Well, the, the starting weight for men was bigger than that.
Sevan Matossian (17:01):
Right? Right
Brian Friend (17:03):
Now stones is one thing. And I talked to Nick Fowler about it, but sandbags like that and you just had to figure it out. And it was amazing. The two athletes that impressed me the most were Jacqueline Daws, Fromm, and Justin Maderas. And not that either of them ended up winning.
Sevan Matossian (17:15):
How about Emma? McQuaid was pretty impressive too. Right?
Brian Friend (17:18):
The athletes as a whole were incredibly impressive. The thing that I really respected about Justin was that his movement pattern from first bag to last bag was identical. The hardest part of the lift room was a dead lift, especially as a bag, a heavy, but he got it into his lap. He positioned his hands a certain way. He took clear and obvious and big breath in and in one effort he got it up and did the rotation technique that the strong man who demoed it for them, uh, Jerry Pritchard, I think, uh, explained. And then, uh, you know, Jacqueline Drom, I mean the Jacqueline Dahlstrom is a body weight specialist. She should be dominating on ring muscle ups and handstand pushups and handstand walking. And, uh, the fact that she beat Amanda Barnhart and Laura Hoorvath and Tia, Tomi, and, and, and, and all these women in this workout. And the only person that beat her is, is Danny Spiegel, who was absolutely incredible in
Sevan Matossian (18:08):
That also Savage,
Brian Friend (18:10):
Uh, and the way she did it was unique. You know, she, she got it up there. She inched it up in this way that really no other athlete was able to do. I’m sure the strongman would’ve, would’ve kind of said, like, that’s not a very efficient technique, but it worked for her
Sevan Matossian (18:21):
Cole. Tried it Cole ser ward. Oh, my using that technique.
Brian Friend (18:24):
I know you guys talked about it last night, but that, uh, was insane to watch, uh, in person. I, I thought it the same as you guys, he was gonna black out for sure. I mean, 310 pounds just sitting on his chest for 30 to 40 seconds.
Sevan Matossian (18:37):
Uh, the Fergie show asks, um, is Brian moving to Northern, uh, New York with thei? No. Uh, the question is, is thei moving to the Seon podcast like Brian? I think he, he had his, he’s probably been drinking. He had his question all screwed up. Um, when, when you mentioned that the women, no woman did the press to handstand, there were a couple of, there were a couple events that I thought, um, you know, that, that opening event with the lap being shorted and, and it was, it was a disaster, but it was fun. It kind of, it, it, uh, from, from our place where we sat doing this show and doing the commentating, it really charged us up. Right? Like it was fun that there was a colossal fuck up, but it moved so qu it was still a great event. It moved so quickly to another event.
Sevan Matossian (19:26):
And that’s another thing right there that is a colossal fuck up in my mind that none of the women got to, uh, the, the L sit or the low position to, to even try it. That is a fucking problem, but that’s how good the events were that it was, I called the Donald Trump effect. Like you just, he has just one fuck up right after another. So, you know, you just keep forgetting that he did this and he did this and you just keep moving. It just kept moving forward. Um, and, and I, and I, now that I think about it, that was, uh, chase Ingram even said, were you standing next to chase and Sean, when chase dropped that line, oh, Adrian, a giant beat of sweat just rolled down Adrian’s head and he can read the sigh of release as Nick Matthews, um, completed the, uh, press a handstand.
Brian Friend (20:07):
No, I never stood next to him the whole weekend. I, uh,
Sevan Matossian (20:10):
I was, oh, really? Where you weren’t, I, I picture you standing in a room, the three of you
Brian Friend (20:15):
Like, uh, I have
Sevan Matossian (20:15):
That, that dude only has one arm that dude’s mom just died. That dude has the most games wins with throwing a ball. That’s what I pictured you doing.
Brian Friend (20:22):
I have done that, uh, in the past, if the granite games I was right next to chase, um, and at the Mac for, uh, one of the days I did, I was right next to Sean, but, uh, I was, I would text them things. Occasionally just the vantage point is different. So the, for the north park events, they weren’t out at north park. They were in a broadcast trailer calling it from there. So they could, you know, they, they have a limited point of view from there and I have a more, you know, so I can get a different perspective than them. And in the Coliseum, they’re up in like the mezzanine, like the second, uh, between the first and second tier, looking down from a horizontal view. And so I just go down on the floor to a, a different angle where I can see a little bit, you know, the perspective of the floor differently than they can. And so I, you know, kind of, uh, dividing, conquer type things we can see from more perspectives. And I tried,
Sevan Matossian (21:10):
They’re not, is that the first year they haven’t been out on north
Brian Friend (21:14):
Park? I, I believe so. Yeah. And actually Sean was saying that that was somewhat of a relief. That’s a pretty, it’s a pretty tough environment calling it from north park up where they were before. It was often very hot, very crowded. There was a lot of things like a lot of commotion and stuff going on that could be distracting. So he didn’t mind that change. Um,
Sevan Matossian (21:34):
Yeah. I don’t even, uh, Ryan Menard, I don’t even do CrossFit and I love this shit podcast now. That’s you could read that a couple ways. You could. I’m gonna just let you did not
Brian Friend (21:44):
Read it the correct
Sevan Matossian (21:45):
One. <laugh> okay. Oh yes. Seon Spiegel 20, 24.
Brian Friend (21:53):
So I will tell, I would, I’ll say since you brought it up, I’ll say the, the bike to work event was, that was, that was unfortunate. That men’s the, the final lap of the men’s race. Would’ve been extremely fun and compelling. I’m a hundred percent sure that Yona Koski would’ve won the, that event. If, um, if Laar and Spencer had it missed the lap. The reason that I know this is because
Sevan Matossian (22:13):
Whoa, whoa, whoa. That’s the first I heard that, wait, why, what the fuck did they have to do with that?
Brian Friend (22:17):
Because he was, those were the athletes he was citing. So they were the only, they were within 20 seconds of him. And there was another 25 seconds to Ricky and Justin in that group with, with three laps to go on lap, four Yona could cite them cuz he could see them cuz they were within 20 seconds. He could not see 45 seconds behind them on the track. And the way that the track was at certain, once you made a turn, there was a period of time where you couldn’t see anything, unless someone else made the turn. And then once you went up the hill, you couldn’t see anything until someone else Crested the hill. And so even coming into the stadium and if you, and the thing that, uh, it took us like hours to break down the broadcast to run back the cameras and to try to find where the hell Ricky and Justin came from.
Brian Friend (22:58):
But the entire lap Yona is the he’s he’s he and Ricky are the best cyclist in that field by far. And you know, you knew you saw how they were working together early in teaching Justin and Lazar, how to, how to trade off the lead in draft Yona knows how to C on a bike, as good as anyone, but the entire lap. He never saw za and Spencer because they didn’t do the lap. And he couldn’t see Ricky and Justin cuz they were too far behind. And so by the time he came over the last hill and came and he was going around the last fence into the stadium and looked, Ricky still had not come over the hill, like 200 yards behind him. So Yona had no sense of urgency. And Ricky saw him and he just, you know, guns, a blazing, went balls for the wall, risked it, coming down the hill.
Brian Friend (23:37):
He had the shorter lane and you know, so he was a huge advantage for Ricky that Laar and Spencer missed that last lap. It cost Yona three points in an event winning in a thousand dollars. For sure. It cost Lizza at least 15 points, which I thought might’ve been pretty significant for him come the end of the week. But I’ll tell you this about Laar ju for everything or whatever else you think about him, his mental fortitude to bounce back from stuff like that was insanely good. After that event and the capital, he never wavered. He was so positive. He put it behind him immediately. I told him two days later, I’m like, dude, I still haven’t gotten over the fact that that cost you 15 points and you got over it instantly and just went out the competition. He was like, that’s what
Sevan Matossian (24:13):
I, Susan, can we see the leaderboard real quick? I wanna see what 15 points is. It
Brian Friend (24:17):
Wouldn’t have, if those 15 points alone wouldn’t have had an effect. He still would’ve finished eighth.
Sevan Matossian (24:22):
Uh, Brian, uh, Brian, have you talked to Janowski or yeah,
Brian Friend (24:30):
I talked to him immediate.
Brian Friend (24:32):
I talked to Yana immediately after the event while he was still on the field. I’m like, where did those guys come from? He goes, I have no idea. But on the last lap, I, I couldn’t see anyone. I was going slow. I, I mean, I definitely could have gone faster and won that event easily. So he, he took the onus on him. But the, but I’m telling you I’m, I’m certain of it. If Lizar and Spencer had done the last lap, you would’ve won the workout. No question. No questions asked at all. The question is would Ricky and Justin Maderas have caught Laar and Spencer, I think. Yes. And I think that would’ve been a really fun four person race for those next four spots. The other thing is that,
Sevan Matossian (25:07):
Let go back to the leaderboard one more time. Let me see one more thing. And, and then, and then that would’ve been, uh, less points for Ricky also, uh,
Brian Friend (25:15):
Three less
Sevan Matossian (25:16):
Points. Okay. Okay. You
Brian Friend (25:17):
Still say, well may, maybe up to, up to 12 less points if he would’ve fish it. But I think he would’ve finished second or third. Fourth at were, so it wouldn’t have affected, uh, obviously Sam quant was almost a hundred points behind. Okay. Um, yeah, so that was, uh, the other, the other thing is when they came into the stadium, Spencer didn’t hesitate whether he knew he was wrong or not, he just ran across. Lizar had that like hesitation, which cost him additional time. So he like double punished himself.
Sevan Matossian (25:42):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He fucked. He got
Brian Friend (25:44):
Spencer, Spencer ended up finishing fifth in that workout and in Laar finished 10th, which is kind of laughable. Like obviously they would’ve been within one, one or two spots of each other otherwise. So it was just the, really the word I was used to describe that it was really unfortunate. And the thing that I think was most unfortunate about it is there was nothing else going on. It was the first event of the weekend. For any division. You have so many judges and scoring team there. You should have just had someone go out with every athlete. There are workouts where there’s 40 people and there’s 80 judges. Then there’s two assigned to one in the stadium, one outta the stadium. Right. You just have someone out there that’s specifically responsive for every athlete and does a little counter. And as they go by, they say one, two,
Sevan Matossian (26:23):
Brian, I’ve heard two stories though. I’ve heard that they were, um, I heard that they were Laar was told to go in.
Brian Friend (26:31):
We didn’t find any evidence of that when we looked at the footage going back.
Sevan Matossian (26:34):
But Adrian said that the judge actually told him to get both of them to get out.
Brian Friend (26:38):
We did see that.
Sevan Matossian (26:40):
Okay.
Brian Friend (26:40):
Okay. But I don’t know where the, so there’s a, there’s a guy with an orange flag, right? The orange flag guy was not waving them into the stadium from the camera. We went back in the truck and looked the cameras over and over and over. We didn’t see any orange flag. People waving them in once they went into the stadium, there were definitely people telling him to go back out.
Sevan Matossian (26:56):
Yeah, there were. Okay. Hey, um, do you know what’s crazy too. If he would’ve gone out, he may have fish finished, even worse.
Brian Friend (27:08):
Maybe the, we, the thing is that they decided to, to penalize him by adding their slowest lap time and their slowest lap time included probably when they had to get off the pull up bar, run their bike outside and then get momentum to start going up and around the course. So I don’t know it, I think there, I wasn’t upset. I mean, I know that some people think that they should have, uh, penalized them in, in indefinitely. Taylor was, you know, saying they should have got a zero or something like that. I think that it ended up working out. Okay. Um, you know, and the girls, there was some mistakes on the girls. It was just not with the leaders. So it was less obvious. I knew instantly that Danielle, Brandon had not done, uh, enough lapse because there’s, it is impossible to make up that much time on one of those laps. She was like in 20 something place and all of a sudden she’s in seventh.
Sevan Matossian (27:50):
That’s funny. I forgot about her.
Brian Friend (27:52):
The ones I didn’t know about because there’s, you know, as, as the event goes on, it gets, it’s impossible to keep track of the 40 athletes and all those laps and whatever is, was, uh, Elena Carala and sun young Cho doing an extra one. I didn’t know about,
Sevan Matossian (28:04):
Oh, they both did.
Brian Friend (28:05):
Elena did three laps instead of five and sung young Cho did six instead of five.
Sevan Matossian (28:09):
Oh shit. Someone did three
Brian Friend (28:11):
<laugh>. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (28:15):
Wow. Wow.
Brian Friend (28:17):
She ended up last place on the workout anyway.
Sevan Matossian (28:19):
So, uh, this, this shows off to a funky start. So I’m just gonna keep being funky. Can you pull up the leaderboard again? And can we look at where Spencer and Saxon? Um, or actually, maybe we should just go straight to the document that, um, Brian made, uh, Spencer pan finished in 17th place.
Brian Friend (28:42):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (28:44):
And
Brian Friend (28:45):
No, I think no, I had him in 17. I ranked him in 17th. He finished in 20th.
Sevan Matossian (28:49):
Okay. Okay. Yes, it was pretty, he finished in 20th. And where did Saxon finish
Brian Friend (28:55):
Saxon? On the left there? I had him in sixth. He finished 11th.
Sevan Matossian (28:59):
Okay. So, okay. Because Spencer was ahead of Saxon for quite a bit of, uh, the CrossFit games, wasn’t he? Mm,
Brian Friend (29:07):
No, maybe, maybe early on, but it didn’t last that long Saxon made a little run in the middle of the event. He had some good event finishes. Um, Saxon had a really up and down games relative to what he usually has.
Sevan Matossian (29:23):
Chris Hasell. Yeah. Cuz none of these shows are funky. <laugh> more funky please. All right. I’m trying, I’m trying to clean up. I’m trying to be professional. Uh, so what you guys are looking at here is this is the ranking that Brian gave, um, um, to the games, his predictions for the men. And you see, he predicted Justin Maderas to be in first place. And he took first, he took Patrick ner to be predicted him to be in second place. He took sixth and you can see there’s that consistency. It goes down like that. And then down below there’s a, um, what are those things called down.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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