#798 – Women’s Top 100 CrossFit Games Athletes w/ Brian Friend

Sevan Matossian (00:01):

Bam, we’re live.

Brian Friend (00:03):

Oh, I guess

Sevan Matossian (00:05):

If it wasn’t for California hormones, you would be watching this show over at the morning, Chalkup, or talking Elite Fitness or Bar Bend or espn or one of the other rags. But because of California hormone sponsorship and us leveraging that force of nature, that is California hormones, we’ve been able to drag Brian Fran onto this show to do the most important show of the year, the power rankings for female CrossFit athletes in 2023. Is everything I’m saying true? No, not necessarily. But the spirit of what I’m saying is absolutely true. Just like that’s not a douche bag that’s on Brian’s shoulders, but it is some sort of bag. What, what happened to the bag? Wait, wait. What happened to the bag that was on your shoulders? You’re making me seem like a liar.

Brian Friend (01:04):

I moved it to my back.

Sevan Matossian (01:06):

Uh, just like that. It just, there’s, that’s the technical move. Just slide it. Just slide it down.

Brian Friend (01:12):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (01:14):

Oh. Were you in some sort of compromised, uh, positions last night that you needed a heating pad for your, uh, shoulders and back?

Brian Friend (01:23):

Uh, no. I think we did. All right.

Brian Friend (01:26):

<laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (01:31):

I hate to see the other guy. You think, you think I’m sore? I’d hate to see the other guy. Uh, Clive McLoughlin. Hi. Literally just finished the last show 10 minutes ago. A seven marathon for me today. I was little. What? This doesn’t happen very often, but I was a little embarrassed at my performance last night cause I was so jacked on coffee. But thank God Halpin and Brian were here. They did a great job. Don’t watch, don’t watch last night’s show. It wasn’t my, wasn’t my best. Unless you wanna see Brian and Mike at their best. I kind of want to go over and look at the numbers from yesterday’s show. Yesterday’s show is good. I I was really impressed with the, with the power ranking show yesterday. I guess that’s Balance in the Universe. Great show in the morning.

Brian Friend (02:18):

I mean,

Sevan Matossian (02:19):

I said it was bad, don’t get me wrong. Yeah. Well, the subject was tough. It’s tough to make an hour and a half of,

Brian Friend (02:25):

I told Mike afterwards, I’m, I’m glad we waited out. You know, the worldwide rankings came out. We did it almost immediately. Strength of field came out. I’m glad we waited a little while because it gave us a better chance to not necessarily just have first instinct responses, but actually, like, think about if what we were, how we felt about some of those things were, um, were actually true when we, when we applied a little bit of math,

Sevan Matossian (02:55):

Arithmetic, the three Rs, or maybe we should have called it Math, with helping and friends, friend and Halpin. Halpin and friend. I wonder if your name always goes second just because of the double meaning of the word friend,

Brian Friend (03:13):

I guess. Depends what meaning you wanna imply.

Sevan Matossian (03:16):

Like, if we had a TV show like Matsi, like if we were cops, if we had a cop show, it wouldn’t be friend in Masi. It’d be Matossian and Friend.

Brian Friend (03:25):

Yep.

Sevan Matossian (03:26):

You could have a bigger gun though, if you want. Since my name goes first. Um, oh shit. We’re one minute late. This show started. Uh, great, great show yesterday. Um, this has become, is is this the first, second, third year? Second, second year. The power. How, how many, how many, how many years have, how long has it been? Is this the second year of the power rankings?

Brian Friend (03:47):

I guess so. I mean, last year I just didn’t have as robust of a list. I think the preseason, it was pretty small. Like 20 or 30. That’s right.

Sevan Matossian (03:57):

I forgot about the old days. Only 20. Or th we went from 20 to 30 and now we’re at a hundred.

Brian Friend (04:02):

Yeah. We expanded throughout the season last year after the games. Put out a list of a hundred and have obviously refined it. Um, as we talked about yesterday, and I acknowledged in, um, even the post I put up last night that there are still things changing. So I tried to have as good a pulse as I could on who’s actually competing this year. Um, but even since putting that post up, there’s been some more things that I’ve learned. So, we’ll, we’ll get to that as we work our way through the list.

Sevan Matossian (04:32):

Uh, do you feel vulnerable when you give these lists out? Like, um, like kind of naked? Uh,

Brian Friend (04:39):

Um,

Sevan Matossian (04:40):

You know what I mean? Like, insecure, like, like the whole world’s like looking at your shit.

Brian Friend (04:45):

I, uh, maybe

Sevan Matossian (04:46):

Everyone’s judging you, by the way. There’s no one who’s like, whether it’s good or bad. No one’s like, ah, look at the power rankings list with zero judgment. Like, it, it’s only to be judged. That’s what I mean, right? I mean, that you’re just, it’s not like, um,

Brian Friend (04:58):

Maybe it’s just

Sevan Matossian (04:59):

To be judged and everyone has an opinion who sees it. It’s just, we’re all a bunch of assholes. Like anyone who gives a fuck about the power rankings. A judgemental douche. That’s us. Oh God. Brian fucked up again. Great job. Brian.

Brian Friend (05:10):

<laugh>.

Brian Friend (05:11):

Not, maybe not. Na. Maybe at least I have a heating pad on. Not quite naked.

Sevan Matossian (05:15):

Okay, fine. Oh, you sl it down to your back.

Brian Friend (05:18):

<laugh>

Sevan Matossian (05:19):

Jay Hard or wow, no warning this morning. It’s probably the post I made on Instagram yesterday. My goodness. My goodness. Go look at that last one I made. Holy shit. I can’t, you can’t even believe the shit I’m posting is real.

Brian Friend (05:33):

Is this kinda, I will say this. I I feel like people have, um, <laugh> a little bit more, a little more sensitive when it comes to the women than the men.

Sevan Matossian (05:43):

Oh, with the men. It’s like, ah, you fucked up, dude. That dude’s 10 spots better. And with the girls, it’s like, Hey dude, I’m gonna fucking kill you. That’s my wife

Brian Friend (05:52):

<laugh>.

Brian Friend (05:53):

Or, or, I wish he was my wife.

Brian Friend (05:55):

<laugh>. Right?

Sevan Matossian (05:57):

Uh, where is Ariel Lowen? Where is Sarah Sigmund’s daughter? Does Tia Tomi get to stay on the list? Do you really know if she is gonna compete or not compete? Pregnant? Uh, by the way, I love all of her videos. I I like tea. It’s, it’s weird. Uh, I love Tia more than ever. Pregnant women are awesome. Um, and, uh, yeah, what, what, where this list is gonna be very interesting. Where’s Olivia cursed at her? What happened to is Emma, did Emma Lawson. Is she, uh, catapult? Uh, does Brian believe Haley Adams is gonna get strong and, and keep her in the top three? Um,

Brian Friend (06:32):

Top three? She’s never been in the top three,

Sevan Matossian (06:36):

Top six. Uh, where, how about Danielle, Brandon, uh, you, you know, uh, uh, fantastic. Only getting better, but, you know.

Brian Friend (06:44):

Yeah. And it, and in the women’s field right now is, especially when you’re, you know, you’re talking about a lot of top 20, top 30, maybe top 10 athletes. There’s opportunity that hasn’t been there for a while at the very top. And there’s this same thing as on the men’s side. There’s a bunch of young women. It’s a big range. When I say young women, 17 to 25 range that are get still getting better and already very good. And then there’s this other group of women that’s like 28 to 33. And some of them are still extremely relevant. Some of ’em were, were not so sure if they’ll ever be relevant the way they were. Again,

Sevan Matossian (07:19):

Uh, Emma Carey. Was Brian impressed with her, her, her waza palooza or, and her rogues? Or, or was he disappointed

Brian Friend (07:27):

And complicating things on the women’s side? Uh, last week or maybe earlier this week, Patrick Clark wrote an article on the Bar Bend. Oh my God. On the bar Bend. That’s Hello

Sevan Matossian (07:36):

Brian Friend here. How can I help you?

Brian Friend (07:38):

Why is that making a noise? There should never be any noise. Why

Sevan Matossian (07:41):

Do you have a, a guitar as your, that’s so fucking 1980s.

Brian Friend (07:44):

There. There’s no way that, that

Sevan Matossian (07:45):

Function. That’s your ringer. Any

Brian Friend (07:46):

Noise? No. I never have. I never have it on. It should never make a noise. I don’t know why that

Sevan Matossian (07:50):

Happens. Change your ringer. Anyway. Um, oh, that means it must be someone important. I have to still call you twice. Did you ever put me in your favorites?

Brian Friend (07:57):

Yeah. You’re,

Sevan Matossian (07:58):

It’s not working. I I still have to call you twice. Okay. Sorry. What were you talking about? Uh, article Pandemic. Article Patrick wrote earlier. Oh,

Brian Friend (08:05):

Patrick Park. And that he, he has dressed, uh, there’s like 20 something women that he mentioned who were not in the individual field last year for one reason or another, that are gonna be this year. And in some of those cases, we haven’t seen them do anything. Uh, and in other cases, we have had a chance to see them in the off season. Um, but nevertheless, sorting them accordingly is quite challenging. And like I said, some people have, uh, are a little bit more sensitive when it comes to women’s field for whatever reason. And of course, for every single one of those people, there’s gonna be a group of supporters that are, you know, very excited to see. Well, what, what’s he gonna do with Amis, Anika Greer, Sarah Sas daughter, Jamie Simmons that weren’t in the game season last year. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (08:50):

Bethany, Bethany, SHA, Bethany, chap Burn, Carrie Pie, Bethany

Brian Friend (08:52):

Chadburn, Al Emily. Look, all these women on here. Um, Maddy St didn’t make the games. Michelle ba not missed the game. Shelby Neil, Lauren Fisher coming back to individual and ths that are coming back to individual. Wow. Look

Sevan Matossian (09:05):

At the visual. Caleb just put up. That’s nice. So where would you, where would you rank, let me ask you a really tough question here. Just, where would you rank Patrick Clark in terms of, uh, uh, game’s? Knowledge? CrossFit knowledge?

Brian Friend (09:22):

He, uh, you mean like relative to other people or

Sevan Matossian (09:25):

Just Yeah. Yeah. Re like in the, let’s give him a A through F. Just in terms of his f being the worst, a being. He gets to pass to the, to the, to the next grade level.

Brian Friend (09:36):

Where are you? Where would you rank yourself?

Sevan Matossian (09:38):

Uh, I’m an A. I’m an A.

Brian Friend (09:40):

Oh, then he’s a plus.

Sevan Matossian (09:42):

Yeah, I think so too.

Brian Friend (09:43):

Relative to you. He’s an A plus.

Sevan Matossian (09:45):

I agree. <laugh>. He, um, he, he has the greatest contributions in the, uh, comments of any, um, well, the, for his category of just, of just CrossFit knowledge, he, he, he’s the a There’s people who might have better questions. There’s people who might be funnier. But in terms of CrossFit, knowledge, contribution, um,

Brian Friend (10:07):

I wouldn’t have given him an A plus on an arbitrary scale. But once you ranked yourself on it, it was the only option left.

Sevan Matossian (10:13):

Understood. Relativity is, um, the only way things, uh, I, I, no, there’s, I mean, there’s, I mean, I would say yours is, are the posts that make me have the biggest smile, Christine, like, you’re an A and when I see you post, you’re the shortest person who posts. How’s that? Uh, wad, zombie, uh, Brian. People used to get very up in arms about your rankings. Has that calmed down over the years, or are people still losing it? Get your athlete cards at wa the wa wad zombie, uh, website. I love my athlete cards. I wish I would’ve brought them with me.

Brian Friend (10:43):

<laugh>, bring ’em with you set ’em up for every

Sevan Matossian (10:45):

Studio. Yeah. At least my Lexus. At least my Lexus wrapped this one. I have two of those. And so I feel comfortable taking one out of the den. You

Brian Friend (10:51):

Have two? I don’t even have one yet.

Sevan Matossian (10:53):

No, that’s, uh, I’m an A, I’m an A

Brian Friend (10:57):

I wrote all the captions on the packet. I don’t even have a card. Unbelievable.

Sevan Matossian (11:00):

<laugh>.

Brian Friend (11:03):

Oh, man. Anyway, uh, to answer his question, I think people who’ve been around for a while are more, uh, and they know what to expect. And they also know that generally they’ll be something like this to follow it up for a little bit more explanation. And then maybe people are seeing it for the first time, um, can have a little bit more of an emotional reaction. So just depends on, not so much on how long I’ve been doing it, but how long the people interacting with it have been aware of it.

Sevan Matossian (11:30):

Um, I want, do you get, I I’m assuming you get a lot of people who are like, personally involved. Like for instance, Shannon does not like what’s happening to Ellie because, uh, you know, her, her son is dating Ellie. So she’s, you know, she’s pretty active in the comments like, yo, let Ellie free Ellie. You know what I mean?

Brian Friend (11:45):

Yeah. But I don’t think that she would take exception to, uh, rankings of, of Ellie, because when it comes to the athletes, I mean, there’s only really, first of all, a lot of athletes don’t care too much about this. You know, cuz it doesn’t really matter.

Sevan Matossian (12:00):

Let me lemme amend that with an asterisk. They pretend to not care. Go on.

Brian Friend (12:03):

They pretend to not care. The ones that do look at it, um, they will hopefully have one of two reactions and either be like, fuck yeah, that guy believes in me and I want to go and prove him. Right? Or fuck that guy <laugh>, he doesn’t think I can do it and I’m gonna prove him wrong. And either way, uh, that can be motivating for the athlete.

Sevan Matossian (12:22):

Um, I, I think, uh, if I was an athlete, I definitely wouldn’t want to be ranked too high.

Brian Friend (12:29):

It’s always,

Sevan Matossian (12:29):

If, if I didn’t deserve it, it would be weird. It would be weird. If you didn’t deserve it to be ranked high, you’d feel like a douche.

Brian Friend (12:36):

Yeah. And it, and it is always interesting, you know, there are certain athletes, a couple that come to mind are, are Laar Juki, um, Jeff Adler, that throughout the history of their careers that I’ve been doing these rankings or predictions for, they almost always, I think maybe, maybe even always beat my prediction, have beaten. But now they’re getting so good that I can’t sandbag him. Like, you know, the worst I’m gonna rank Jeff Adler is fifth this year. That’s not a lot of room for, for

Sevan Matossian (13:04):

Air

Brian Friend (13:05):

Dudes on his end, you know? Oh, right. Continue to beat that. And when it comes to a semi-final, if you pick him first or second, like if you pick him first, the only thing you can do is match it at this point. If you pick him second, then there’s like only one spot that he can do better than that. So the margins get really small for some of those people. But, but we’ll get to some examples of what you’re talking about. Where I think in August I was just a little overzealous with a few, and therefore it’s gonna look like they dropped really far down the rankings. But really it’s, it’s on me, not on them in those cases.

Sevan Matossian (13:35):

And, and I, I also think that there’s athletes that if you’re ranked higher than them, it should make you feel a little uncomfortable. Like if you’re ranked higher than Haley Adams on the female side, like you should be like, do I really deserve this? Or like Scott Panche, like you had him ranked pretty low, I think yesterday and all those other guys, except for like, except for maybe like Justin Maderas, everyone else should feel uncomfortable. <laugh>, I don’t know. I

Brian Friend (13:56):

Mean, I had him right, 25th and, and I think I might,

Sevan Matossian (13:58):

I mean, there’s no way that Jason Hopper’s better than, uh, Scott Panik as a CrossFit athlete. I don’t think, I I think you put him 10 event, you, we picked 10 events outta the hopper and Scott beats ’em every day.

Brian Friend (14:08):

Is Scott healthy enough to do that? Yeah,

Sevan Matossian (14:10):

I, I, that’s

Brian Friend (14:10):

The question. And that’s why, uh, you have a, you know, guys like that and we’ll get to some women

Sevan Matossian (14:15):

Like that. Same with Haley pick 10 events outta the hopper. But, but I man, those five people you have ranked ahead of her. I don’t know, I haven’t looked at the rankings yet. Whatever you have her, those people, but those people I don’t think can win. I, I mean, I don’t know if Laura Horak can beat Haley Adams or Mal O’Brien can beat Haley Adams if you just randomly pick 10 things outta the hopper. I know it’s not random and

Brian Friend (14:32):

If you’re talking about, but she’s good. Just a head to head matchup, Haley versus Laura, 10 random events. Yeah. Then, then I think that’s a different conversation because Right. Haley’s not gonna be punished for, uh, not being able to move a barbell with a score of two. She’s just gonna get a, a one to zero in Laura’s favor. And same thing with the handstand

Sevan Matossian (14:50):

Pushups for Laura. Good point.

Brian Friend (14:51):

But if you, you know, so it depends what comes out because on just pure capacity tests and this, this is what’s gonna happen in the op open, uh, announcement 23.1, which we’re gonna talk about tonight. There’s very specific things that Gabby Macow has no chance to beat Laura Horvath. But on a majority of things that we’ve see in the open, she should, she should beat Laura. Does that mean she’s better than Laura? And that’s where the conversations gets fun.

Sevan Matossian (15:13):

Right. And this ranking. Oh, that, that’s a great question. So this ranking, oh, you’re gonna hate this <laugh>. I’m going to try it, I’m gonna try to do it. Anyway, this ranking is based on what you, um, uh, how they would place, I guess if the CrossFit games happen today based on how you think that the CrossFit games would be programmed. And the most simplest way to think of it, if the CrossFit games were to happen today, this is how they would place one through a hundred if all 100 went to the games based on what you know of Adrian’s programming and these athletes, how they perform.

Brian Friend (15:45):

Yeah. I think that’s fair to say.

Sevan Matossian (15:46):

Oh, that’s awesome. Okay. I like it. God, it’s so simple compared to the strength of quotient worldwide rankings, understanding <laugh> so simple.

Brian Friend (15:54):

Yeah, and, and, and honestly the, you know, the one of the things I showed last night that’s kind of cool, and it was actually a good reflection for me also because I wasn’t thinking about this, putting this list together. But because we were end up doing these so close to when the worldwide rankings and strength of field came out, that I did do a little side by side comparison and I wanted to see how I was, you know, cuz I’ve, you know, I’ve, I’ve been making a strong case that Europe is not getting the representation they need. But when I actually put it on paper, I saw that in my own rankings. I was still favoring them. The North American women over the European women. Now there’s a huge amount of women in general that are not on this list because they’re, uh, not competing in the individual field this year. And a bunch of those are also from Europe. So it’s a little skewed in that regard. But either way, um, you know, there are a lot of North American women on in this top 100 for sure.

Sevan Matossian (16:46):

Uh, so let’s let this show begin. We’ll sort of first we’re going to look, I think we did this yesterday too, right? We’re gonna look at the women who were on last year, but who have not made it this year for one reason or another. And Brian will, uh, give us a quick overview of what happened. Uh, what, what are some of the main reasons Brian, uh, going team? Is that usually the main reason why they’re off the list?

Brian Friend (17:09):

Yeah, I mean you’ll see here, so it’s, uh, pregnancy, obviously a lot of team athletes.

Sevan Matossian (17:14):

Isn’t it weird that there’s only one pregnant? Uh, it, I mean that’s what girls do. They get pregnant and yet yeah, only one. It’s kind of weird.

Brian Friend (17:23):

That’s should say Caroline Spencer, my fault. But, um, yeah. And then the rest of these are basically going team. Olivia sks only 20 years old, but she’s retired for now from competition and then a few masters. Wait,

Sevan Matossian (17:33):

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is she going to a different sport?

Brian Friend (17:37):

No, she just like doesn’t have the passion for it.

Sevan Matossian (17:40):

Wow.

Brian Friend (17:41):

She put a post up a month or two ago. Um,

Sevan Matossian (17:45):

She

Brian Friend (17:45):

Was, uh, up and comer to watch. She was training with that brute camp down in Naples. And uh, I think she still actually might be training with him. She’s just not competing anymore. And I commend her for that. I mean, it’s, I, this is what I’ve, you know, when it comes to the team conversations that we’ve been having, I’ve always said, uh, yeah, Steven and Flores, yes, there’s a few others that can be added to this list too. So we’ll get to those later on. But, um, you know, if you don’t have the passion to be on the team, then I don’t want you on the team is what I’ve been saying. And I think that as a, a coach or a parent or a training partner, if she’s just not feeling inspired to compete this season, then it’s, uh, it’s, I would be supportive of her to, to step aside for now. And maybe she’ll have that fire rekindled at some point and maybe not. It’s not for everyone, which is fine.

Sevan Matossian (18:28):

Isn’t Lucy Campbell the girl out of the UK who won the swim event?

Brian Friend (18:32):

Yeah, so what he’s talking about here is that Lucy

Sevan Matossian (18:34):

Campbell, you can’t quit if you won an event the previous year.

Brian Friend (18:37):

Well she’s, she’s injured, so she’s taking the year off to get healthy and she said she’s, that wrist has been bothering her since before quarter finals last year. And finally she’s realizing that she’s not, it’s not worth it to go through this year with that same injury. So she’s gonna sit this season out. She said she intends to come back and then Car Saunders, uh, you know, I have known that it was possible that she wasn’t gonna compete this year. I decided to keep her on the list because I thought that there was a good chance she was actually gonna be motivated by a Tia not being there. And we’ve, as we’ve talked about before, but at the end of the day, uh, yesterday, she put out a post, um, that confirmed she also will not be participating in this season. So I’ll remove those athletes and a few others from the list after this show. But as I said in the post and yesterday with the men, at some point I had to send these to the graphics guy. And so, you know, I’m just going with what I had at that time. For now,

Sevan Matossian (19:29):

If you’re going masters, you can’t be on the list.

Brian Friend (19:31):

No, you can be on the list. I just, I basically, I didn’t think that any of ’em would have a chance this year to actually make it in an individual field, but I didn’t, there was not like a specific reason and I just wanted to acknowledge that they’re in the master’s category and still might be one of the best 100 or one 50 in the world.

Sevan Matossian (19:46):

So, so is Amy Morton on your list?

Brian Friend (19:48):

She’s not, she was, she’s not anymore,

Sevan Matossian (19:50):

But, but the reason why they’re not on your list is supposed to be this category over on, oh, she was 86 last year and Emily, uh, Lapin was 88. Is she from the same country that Henry Happel Lapin is?

Brian Friend (20:03):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (20:04):

Just tell me. Oh, good. Smart as shit. Um, uh, masters, but that’s not the reason they’re off. You’re just saying they’re, they’re they’re not on the list because they got pushed out cuz they weren’t good enough.

Brian Friend (20:15):

Yeah. And I’m just acknowledging that they’re, that they’re in the master’s

Sevan Matossian (20:19):

Category. Okay. Okay. All right. And then, uh, uh, another notable person is, uh, Chandler Smith’s, uh, wife. Uh, she was, uh, right on the cusp and now she’s team. I guess those, there’s always gonna be those people, right, who are 99 and a hundred mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I guess a hundred will always fall off or climb <laugh> or stay the same. The same. That

Brian Friend (20:41):

Was only 100. So anyway, that’s, you know, some, some women, uh, Kelly Stone, I saw some people were asking about.

Sevan Matossian (20:48):

She’s Who is that? Do I know who that is? Is that, that’s not Kelly Baker. Kelly Baker’s a different Kelly?

Brian Friend (20:52):

No. Oh no. Kelly Baker will be on this list. Kelly Stone,

Sevan Matossian (20:55):

She is on the list.

Brian Friend (20:56):

Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (20:57):

Yeah. Like Kelly Baker,

Brian Friend (20:58):

I think. I think Kelly Baker, you know, not necessarily a top 10 20 games athlete, but can I have a resurgence in the individual field this year and yeah. Kelly Stone,

Sevan Matossian (21:08):

She doesn’t have a chance in hell. Who’s which Kelly is that?

Brian Friend (21:11):

That’s Kelly Stone.

Sevan Matossian (21:12):

Uh, Kelly Baker doesn’t have a chance in hell going to the games though, right?

Brian Friend (21:18):

We’ll see.

Sevan Matossian (21:19):

Wow. That would be awesome if she went, yeah, look at this girl. I don’t know if that’s her. I can’t recognize

Brian Friend (21:25):

That was Kelly Baker the second one. The first one was Kelly Stone. She’s on a team with CrossFit Omnia this year and their team actually I think is gonna be very, very good.

Sevan Matossian (21:33):

Does Kelly Baker have kids?

Brian Friend (21:36):

Uh, she’s married. I don’t think she has kids yet, but I’m, I’m, I’m not a hundred percent

Sevan Matossian (21:41):

Sure. You know, she’s a school teacher, right?

Brian Friend (21:44):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Sevan Matossian (21:46):

That’s not her. Wait, that’s her. You see pull up, pull, pull up a picture of her.

Brian Friend (21:52):

That’s her on the

Sevan Matossian (21:53):

Right. Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remembered God, I’m such, I remember when I interviewed her, I probably shouldn’t say this out loud, but I think she was a school teacher for like second and third graders and I just imagined like going to parent teacher conference and that’s the teacher just keeping, trying to keep your shit together.

Brian Friend (22:13):

<laugh>, first thing you do at the start of the year. When’s the parent-teacher conference? Get that on the calendar. Not missing that one. Yeah,

Sevan Matossian (22:19):

<laugh>. Um, and, and she has crazy presence too. Anyway, did we should do a whole show on how beautiful she is anyway. Probably not, probably not. Probably get canceled again. Triple Quadri Cancer.

Brian Friend (22:30):

Let’s go to the, the next subset of list. Thank

Sevan Matossian (22:32):

You Brian. It’s not on the list. Save, save me. Don’t ever mention Kelly’s name again. What number is she? Can we skip that? Nine? Yeah. Don’t, great

Brian Friend (22:41):

<laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (22:41):

Uh, there’s no coincidences. Um, okay. Uh, who, who, these are people who are the, oh, these are people who were very close to making it on the list but did not make it on the list.

Brian Friend (22:54):

Yeah. So, you know, there’s four or five that we’re gonna talk about who are on the list, who need to be removed from it. And some of these will slide into those spots.

Sevan Matossian (23:03):

Uh, and, and one of these people is, uh, had the most viral video for 2022 in the, uh, CrossFit space. Uh, do you know who that is? Kayla?

Brian Friend (23:14):

It involved the barbell?

Sevan Matossian (23:15):

Yes. Uh, Roe Scott. Roe Scott. That was, uh, CrossFit’s claim to fame.

Caleb Beaver (23:23):

Yeah, that was wild to watch. That was actually terrifying. I thought she died. I was on the other side of the field when it happened.

Sevan Matossian (23:28):

Oh, you were there at that event?

Caleb Beaver (23:29):

Yeah, and I was like on medical staff. I literally watched it happen. I was like, oh, she’s, she’s dead. <laugh>.

Sevan Matossian (23:36):

God, that was amazing. I really enjoyed

Caleb Beaver (23:39):

That. I was like about to fucking call the ambulance.

Sevan Matossian (23:42):

I watched that 100, 200 times. Yeah.

Caleb Beaver (23:45):

And then she just popped up and I was like, oh, thank God.

Sevan Matossian (23:50):

Oh look, there’s an Armenian girl on there. Jessica Callaghan. What do the colors mean, Brian?

Brian Friend (23:55):

So that the red is North America, yellow is Europe, pinkies South America, and Gray in this case is Africa.

Sevan Matossian (24:04):

Okay. Uh, can I ask you some questions before you say what you want to say? Sure. Uh, Michelle, uh, Basse, uh, I think that she is training, she’s either a coach or training with, um, Taylor Self now she’s doing the s m T. Uh,

Brian Friend (24:18):

Taylor is, Taylor is coaching her. She will, I will put her in in, uh, probably be the first one from this list that I’ll move into the top 100 in part because I think that that’s a really good training environment for her and she’ll get better with him. Secondly, because she’s a landslide favorite to win in Africa.

Sevan Matossian (24:35):

Okay. Awesome. Well, that’s cool. Uh, yeah, I think that I had, I’m guessing that that girl is arming in j Harle. Jessica Kali. Kali. I a n there it is.

Brian Friend (24:44):

So she was on the, um, mayhem justice team last year, but I’ve been told she’s going to make a run as individual this year and that, uh, she has, um, I think some like, uh, power lifting or a strong man background. Um, and she’s, but you know, which is I think a decent background. She’s only 27 or 28 years old, and I think can, you know, can make a, an impression possibly this year in the, in the semi-final.

Sevan Matossian (25:11):

Uh, Zoe Warren, she’s not related to Joey Warren. Is she the guy from the, or the like 2010 crossing games?

Brian Friend (25:19):

I don’t know who that is.

Sevan Matossian (25:20):

Okay. Uh, he was in California.

Brian Friend (25:22):

That’s, so you’re an a on the knowledge of cross list and I’m a b

Sevan Matossian (25:26):

Uh, uh, Reagan, uh, Huckabee. That, that’s a, um,

Brian Friend (25:31):

Yeah, don’t know. I don’t know what her intentions are, but she’s, you know, she’s still very, she, she has still been good in the past, so I just like peripherally keeping her on my radar in case she ends up competing again this year.

Sevan Matossian (25:42):

Uh, Brenda Castro, that, that’s Mexico, right? Right.

Brian Friend (25:46):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (25:48):

Uh, what, what’s her, uh, is her career over, I mean, falling off the list when you fall off the list of the top 100? I just assume you’re not going to the games.

Brian Friend (25:57):

Uh, so a lot of these athletes are, uh, you know, um, either coming up and don’t know, uh, necessarily that much about them yet, or have been good in the past and we haven’t seen ’em in the a year or two, but if they come back in, um, they might, you know, they could be relevant again.

Sevan Matossian (26:14):

And, uh, how about, uh, Nicole? Uh, uh, this girl, is that a typo? She has a G and an H all in a row in her name. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, go ahead.

Brian Friend (26:24):

Say she was on Patrick’s, uh, list of 20 athletes who’s coming back into the individual field this year. So we’ll see

Sevan Matossian (26:31):

How she goes. Magni, magney,

Brian Friend (26:33):

Magi. I think that’s pretty good. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (26:35):

Magni.

Brian Friend (26:35):

And then I sent, I did send Caleb one other list, which is just a, a, a small list of women who are all competing on teams this year that, uh, I, if they were going individual, I would give strong consideration to having in the top 100. And there’s some, oh,

Sevan Matossian (26:49):

Why did I, going back to that other list just real quick, you don’t have to pull it up, but there was Jordan Adcock. I know that name too. Was that a games athlete?

Brian Friend (26:55):

You know every name that has a cock in it.

Sevan Matossian (26:57):

Yeah, that’s true. Uh, what is, where is she from? Was she, how do I know her? Was she actually on the Oh,

Brian Friend (27:02):

She’s been around for a while. I mean, she used to actually used to train with, uh, Meredith Root and, uh, and the, and they were competing in the, um, E West, west regionals back in like 2017, 18. She made maybe top ten one year there, top 12. And now she’s with training Think Tank, I think. And, uh, yeah. So just by your name, you recognize how,

Sevan Matossian (27:27):

How about, um, uh, Meredith and

Brian Friend (27:32):

Alex Parker

Sevan Matossian (27:32):

Griffin? Yeah. Are are they still in contention? I don’t see their names. Oh,

Brian Friend (27:36):

No, they’re, I don’t think they’re, they’re not training to compete. Okay. They’re still very fit. I think one or both of them maybe does some long distance running races, even

Sevan Matossian (27:45):

Going team, these are some great names, right? Alexis Johnson, uh, Brittany Weiss, uh, Devin Kim, Hannah Carlson. Kyra Milligan. Lena Richter. Oh, Lena Richter. Uh, really good. Right. Is she the best one on the list?

Brian Friend (27:59):

I don’t know. I don’t know because most of, a lot of these are team athletes in general. Um,

Sevan Matossian (28:04):

Last year the Devin Kim, I think is going team also, by the way. I mean, she, she has, she has individual aspirations,

Brian Friend (28:10):

Right? I think so. Yeah. So all, I would give all of these women consideration for the list. Some of ’em I would immediately put in the list, but they’re all on teams. So just to kind of paint a picture that across these three lists we’ve just shown, there’s, you know, 20 to 30 women that, uh, could easily be in the top 100 but are not competing this year. Or, um, maybe we just don’t know enough about them. But that, you know, there were a couple names on the previous list that I think could do something this year to warrant a spot in the top 100 going forward.

Sevan Matossian (28:39):

Is Reagan Huggett be going masters?

Brian Friend (28:41):

I don’t know who her intentions are in general, but she is, uh, eligible for Masters. Yeah.

Sevan Matossian (28:47):

Uh, Michelle Moran, how do I know that name? She

Brian Friend (28:50):

Won in Africa two years ago and we competed at the, or last year, I mean, and competed at the games. Okay. But I believe she’s competing on a team this year. Uh, probab probably the best team in Africa, so she’ll probably be at the games again this year if things go accordingly just on a team.

Sevan Matossian (29:06):

Why does she get an asterisk?

Brian Friend (29:09):

Uh, I don’t know.

Sevan Matossian (29:10):

Okay. Um, and, uh, what, tell me one more time what the colors mean here?

Brian Friend (29:15):

Continents.

Sevan Matossian (29:16):

Continents, right. Okay. Consonants. Uh, okay. Uh, anything else you wanna say about these people? Any, anyone, any of these people? Mayhem athletes? Uh, going on, uh,

Brian Friend (29:27):

Uh, Kyra Milligan will be on the Mayhem Independence team.

Sevan Matossian (29:31):

And, and, uh, who?

Brian Friend (29:32):

Molina Rodriguez will be on the Mayhem La Latin America team.

Sevan Matossian (29:36):

So, so, uh, mayhem is not gonna make the podium this year on the teams, huh?

Brian Friend (29:41):

I have some, uh, team rankings and I think their top team is somewhere between eight and 10 on that list currently.

Sevan Matossian (29:48):

Wow. I wonder if Rich would ever come back. I mean, he didn’t do it for individual, but I wonder if he’d ever come back to team. I.

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

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