Brian Friend (00:00):
Did you see the, uh, the story I put up on my personal Instagram this morning?
Sevan Matossian (00:05):
Bam. We’re live. Uh, no,
Brian Friend (00:07):
I tagged you in it.
Sevan Matossian (00:09):
I don’t do that heart thing, but I, uh, you know what I mean? Where you have to see the, the who tagged you. I need to start doing that more. I always forget to do that. Uh, you’re Brian friend. Uh,
Brian Friend (00:24):
CrossFit. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (00:25):
CrossFit.
Brian Friend (00:29):
I wanted to, just wanted to let you know I was getting ready for you today.
Sevan Matossian (00:32):
Is, is it, um, God, this would be awesome if it’s you in the shower.
Brian Friend (00:36):
Uh, not, not, not that. It’s, uh, it’s the last one. These are just from
Sevan Matossian (00:41):
Yesterday. Little love from Mr. Spin announcing the launch of your website. Uh, something about,
Brian Friend (00:47):
Actually, I mention, I mentioned this on our podcast yesterday. M two performance put up a post I thought was very good. If you haven’t checked that out. And then this is just a reminder, because some media outlets and athletes have been announcing that they’ve qualified for the CrossFit Games as a result of the online qualifier for semi-finals. And that is not the case. Those results are pending, pending video review. CrossFit has told us that by May 10th, we will know those results. But even then, we have seen this year already that CrossFit has announced results as final and then gone back and made changes to those results that have affected the Cutline for certain athletes. So never, you know, just don’t, don’t, you know, it is exciting the athletes that are in positions to qualify, but they have not qualified yet.
Sevan Matossian (01:30):
Uh, SS Sorry, I was fiddling around with this. Did I hear that right? You’re telling me? Did I just heard that in glancing, you’re telling me that Justin Maderas has already announced that he qualified for semi-finals, but he can’t be sure he did. No, because CrossFit has not made any official announcements yet.
Brian Friend (01:49):
No, this is for the age group, semi-final athletes who competed this past weekend. And our
Sevan Matossian (01:54):
No one’s in for sure. No, they haven’t had a single confirmation. Correct. For all we know, rich Froning is gonna be punished for something he didn’t do. Uh, let some number rule he broke and not get in, get a dq.
Brian Friend (02:06):
I mean, it could.
Sevan Matossian (02:07):
Why are they doing that? Why are the athletes confused? Why are they, because they looked at a leader. It’s
Brian Friend (02:10):
Not just the athletes. I mean, the Morning Chaa published this morning an article highlighting athletes who are games legends that are going to Madison based on their performances this last weekend. And while that is likely the case for some of ’em, for a lot of ’em, the, the cut line is very tight. There’s a few points separating a few people on, on the cut line. Oh, this is the one there at the end. Oh, that’s how I got ready for you today.
Sevan Matossian (02:34):
Oh, a little C b D cream,
Brian Friend (02:35):
Uh, two shows
Sevan Matossian (02:37):
How to prepare for two shows with sev rinse today. Oh my God, dude, I’m so ready. Thi listen, I, I, I beg if you give us one more chance with the Frisbee show, this Frisbee show is gonna be dope. It’s tight, it’s concise. It’s the two best players in the world. It’s tonight at 6:30 PM I might get pushed to 6 45. Okay. So you rubbed c b, uh, stuff all over you,
Brian Friend (02:59):
Neck and shoulders. That’s how I can deal with you for, for two shows in a day.
Sevan Matossian (03:04):
Um, do you put it on yourself
Brian Friend (03:06):
This morning? I did.
Sevan Matossian (03:08):
Um, you know what’s funny is, you know, what I did, uh, this morning is I just, uh, I, I have, um, I have, um, I have a manscape and I only use it on my face, and I didn’t use it on my face this morning. And it’s great for your face, by the way, but this morning I just grabbed a handful of pubes and just took some scissors and chopped them off and put ’em in.
Brian Friend (03:27):
And you’re ready to go.
Sevan Matossian (03:28):
I was ready to go. That’s, there’s something almost, um,
Brian Friend (03:33):
Cathartic.
Sevan Matossian (03:34):
No. Well, that too, but there’s almost something, um, an oxymoron about this thing. Manscape <laugh>. I, I just don’t, I, it’s like, it’s like a trans men or manscape. I just don’t see, um, it’s not, it doesn’t, just doesn’t seem like real, real man stuff. Just, just, I don’t know. But, but thank you for the sponsorship, manscape. I appreciate it. And I like using it on my face.
Brian Friend (03:58):
They sponsor you.
Sevan Matossian (03:59):
They do.
Brian Friend (03:59):
Oh, that’s excellent.
Sevan Matossian (04:00):
Yeah, it is cool. Maybe not after I just said that, but I do use it on my face regularly. It’s great. Hey, um, someone, someone in the, uh, CrossFit space who, um, I would argue is the, the, the most influential person in the entire CrossFit space, uh, powerful, uh, uh, text me the other day. Does, this person does not text me very often. I get like two texts a year from this person, and they just said, it looks like you have a mullet. <laugh>. It sucks because like, I’m pretty happy to get the text, but I’m not, I’m, I’m not so happy about the message,
Brian Friend (04:36):
But you text yourself.
Sevan Matossian (04:39):
No, I should have text. I, I should have texted myself. No, you don’t have a mullet. Oh, but I appreciate that I caught that. Oh, that was nice to you, Brian. Thank you. Oh, okay. Even, even Jesus had a teacher, right? Is that true?
Brian Friend (04:54):
I would say it is true.
Sevan Matossian (04:57):
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, uh, today, uh, yesterday, we, um, we appreciated, and if you don’t know, know the definition of appreciate, I will look it up, uh, here for you. Appreciate, um, spelled it wrong. Uh, the definition of appreciate is to recognize the full worth, understanding a sit. And then the second definition is understanding a situation. Fully recognizing the full implications of today. We will appreciate, I, I, I first went with the word ale, but AAL means it’s like, lets behavior, which kind of sucks. I was gonna say, we were gonna a, yesterday we aled the men, and today we aled the women. But you can’t use that word. Uh, so, um, so appreciate is more accurate, not
Brian Friend (05:42):
Because it’s a bad word, it’s just not as accurate.
Sevan Matossian (05:44):
Yeah. Not as accurate. Well, it is kind of a bad word. I looked it up. Yeah. It has the, uh, implications of being lecherous like oversexualizing. Hmm. Uh, and, and, and there will be no sexualizing. I don’t, I don’t sexualize the athletes at all, no matter how much anyone claims
Brian Friend (05:59):
I do. I know we’re gonna have a problem then,
Sevan Matossian (06:01):
But we are going to appreciate, uh, the athletes like we did yesterday. Uh, like that guy Brian, huh?
Brian Friend (06:08):
<laugh> <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (06:10):
He’s my new favorite guy. <laugh>.
(06:15):
And, uh, and man, what, what a list, what a crazy situation we have here. Uh, this is gonna be an amazing year, uh, to watch the semi-finals and CrossFit games, uh, in the women’s division for CrossFit. Brian has, um, updated his 100. Um, it’s, he calls it the power rankings. I call it the 100, uh, uh, best CrossFit women, uh, in order. And if you wanna follow along, you can go to this, um, article that is up on the new website. Just go to b friendly fitness.com and, uh, it’ll take you to its homepage. And then there’ll be a picture of Mall O’Brien, who is no doubt, I’m guessing at the top of this list. I actually have not even, uh, glanced at the list.
Brian Friend (06:58):
You know, most of these pictures are, are Patrick’s
Sevan Matossian (07:00):
Oh, uh, Patrick Clark.
Brian Friend (07:02):
Yeah. Almost. Okay. A majority of the pictures we’ll use are his, but anytime we use a picture, we do want to give credit to the photographers, and we will be using some other ones as well.
Sevan Matossian (07:10):
Oh, fantastic. Okay. That’s nice of you. Uh, Jody Lynn, uh, you’ll have to suppress your misogyny today. Absolutely. I’ll push it way down. Uh, and Pool boy will also, um, uh, be making a guest appearance in today’s show. Brian is unaware of that, but I, uh, guarantee it. Uh, yes. And, uh, and Mr. Kuck, uh, who, uh, who barely made the, uh, list, uh, Brian’s list yesterday at 100, um, we did appreciate him yesterday. What is the protocol? Anyone on this flag? Um, having creases in it is that is, I mean, is that cool?
Brian Friend (07:47):
I think that someone in the stands had, you know, folded it up to bring it into the stadium, maybe in a bag or a backpack or something like that. And then at the time of the award ceremony, took it out, unfolded and gave it to
Sevan Matossian (07:59):
No shit. You don’t think she planned that someone g that was spontaneous? If that was spontaneous mals of beast,
Brian Friend (08:06):
I think that in certain,
Sevan Matossian (08:07):
Even if it wasn’t spontaneous, she’s a beast. Sorry.
Brian Friend (08:10):
In, in, I think in years past, there have been some spontaneous occurrences. None, none more spontaneous than Lucas Hoberg in 2018. Do you remember that?
Sevan Matossian (08:20):
No. What happened?
Brian Friend (08:21):
<laugh>
Sevan Matossian (08:22):
Put up the wrong flag. You need to find a picture of making flag. You
Brian Friend (08:24):
Need to, you need to find a picture of the men’s podium from the cross ends in 2018. And keep in mind, Lucas Hoberg was a, are you looking for that?
Sevan Matossian (08:33):
Yeah.
Brian Friend (08:34):
You know, Lucas Hoberg was a massive underdog in terms of a podium contender that year. You know, if someone told me he made the top 10 that year, I’d be like, man, that’d be a great year for Lucas Hoberg. Well, he had a phenomenal year. It came right down to the wire. He actually ended up tied on points with Brent Falkowski.
Sevan Matossian (08:50):
Oh, yeah,
Brian Friend (08:50):
I see. He won the tiebreaker because of winning an event that morning, the two stroke pool on Sunday morning. Uh, and then he was looking for a flag for the podium to represent his country of Sweden.
Sevan Matossian (09:01):
And he found one, and he,
Brian Friend (09:03):
And he found one <laugh>. And Lucas is such a, I mean, if you follow him on Instagram, you know that he’s got a great personality. And he’s obviously was, was a, a very fit competitor, but also gregarious. And he totally embraced that and made the most of it. But I think now the athletes who feel that they have a chance to make the podium do have some sort of a plan so they can represent their country if they, if they do,
Sevan Matossian (09:26):
Uh, hi, Jessica Valenzuela, his tiny flag. So she knew
Brian Friend (09:31):
Yeah. This, I mean, it was, yeah, if you were watching then you, you’ll remember that.
Sevan Matossian (09:38):
I think I was watching, oh, no, I wasn’t watching. I think I was somewhere pouting that
Brian Friend (09:41):
Year. You were pr you were, I think you were standing in the way of the clock. So the athletes couldn’t see it as they were trying to get their Pac right.
Sevan Matossian (09:47):
Was 2018 the last year
Brian Friend (09:49):
JR. Will get that.
Sevan Matossian (09:50):
I wonder. I get that <laugh>. I don’t, I God was 2018. That year was 2018, the year I stood in front of the clock. So that was the last year I did it behind the scenes. That
Brian Friend (09:58):
Was 2017, I think.
Sevan Matossian (09:59):
Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. 2018 was just miserable for
Brian Friend (10:02):
Me. You did nothing.
Sevan Matossian (10:03):
Yeah, nothing.
Brian Friend (10:05):
You said hi to me on, uh, day Wondering the crit race. I saw you at one of the corners there, and I’m like, you know, you made sure I was, uh, good to go with Tyson and his team, and you’re like, I’m gonna just, I’m just gonna be with Greg at the Health Summit.
Sevan Matossian (10:18):
<laugh>. I flew out an entire team to do the behind the scenes that year, and we didn’t do shit.
Brian Friend (10:23):
Yeah. And we were gonna do the podcast. It was gonna be fun.
Sevan Matossian (10:26):
Oh, my back feel my back getting tight, just thinking about it, getting angry.
Brian Friend (10:30):
Need some cbd B cream.
Sevan Matossian (10:32):
Look at already, uh, JR Howell text me. He knew exactly who I was talking about that said I had a mullet. He knew exactly. He knows exactly who the most influential person in CrossFit is. That’s awesome. Maybe in the fitness world, to be honest. Okay. Uh, here we go. Um, the incredible list. B Brian, anything, anything. So if you wanna know more about the list, um, go to the beginning of yesterday’s show. We may skip over some of this, but let me, let me ask this and maybe we’ll, we’ll get a lot of answers. Question. Is this list, the way you make the, the, the women’s list, uh, those are the people who, those you don’t know, those are people with vaginas and the men’s list, people with penises and the scrotum dangling below. Are any, any, any difference in the way you make them? Any like, uh, hey, for women, the shot puts really important for men, it’s, uh, waap polo is really important. Is there anything that skews them, that changes your thinking, changes your methodology for, uh, ranking them?
Brian Friend (11:32):
Can can you pull up that clip from yesterday?
Sevan Matossian (11:34):
Uh, yes. Yes, yes. A absolutely. I think, I think I know what you’re, um, referencing. Let me see. I think going rogue already, uh, posted it, right? Mm-hmm.
Brian Friend (11:42):
<affirmative>
Sevan Matossian (11:44):
There any, what, what a great thing this is, uh, Trina, by the way, for those of who don’t know, Trina does this, I dunno if I’m supposed to say that, but she Oh, Brian are, she takes these clips. Okay, here we go. This is from yesterday’s show. Are there any things that you take into account, uh, sexual orientation, skin color, anything that, that affects the ranking? No. No. Is it strictly performance? Performance? God so shallow. I cannot believe how shallow this list is. Okay. Are there any, is that that’s accurate with this clip also with this list? Well, another shallow list just, just based on performance.
Brian Friend (12:19):
Well, now I’m in, now I’m in a tough spot.
Sevan Matossian (12:21):
Why, why is that?
Brian Friend (12:23):
Because I, I, I listened to that back yesterday when I saw it posted, and I realized that, uh, maybe I should consider some other things. So I redid the entire list based on anything other than performance.
Sevan Matossian (12:35):
Wow. And what was the criteria this time?
Brian Friend (12:40):
Many of the things that you listed there.
Sevan Matossian (12:42):
Okay, so this list is finally, this is the woke 100 <laugh>, the CrossFit woke 100
Brian Friend (12:48):
<laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (12:50):
Uh, that would be a great, I might put that list together.
Brian Friend (12:55):
I think that, uh, I think that Andrew already did that.
Sevan Matossian (12:58):
You may, you may
Brian Friend (12:59):
Remember he made his predictions based on followers.
Sevan Matossian (13:02):
Yeah. I, I actually, that was good. Hey, that was effective too, right? It actually was a pretty,
Brian Friend (13:07):
There was some, I mean, you, you know, there are reasons that those athletes have a lot of followers. And in the, and in, if you’ve made it to the CrossFit games, obviously you’re fit enough, at least against your region of the world to get there. And the ones that have the most followers are probably the ones that have the most marketability, and they have the most marketability because they’re have done really well, have good sponsors. And just by the kind of the nature of the sport, most of the women, especially that are doing well in this sport, other men too, are attractive. And the combination of those things will obviously increase followers.
Sevan Matossian (13:41):
Yeah, fair enough. Makes sense. Trust Instagram.
Brian Friend (13:45):
Now I do, I did wanna, j obviously, I’m joking about that. I didn’t revamp the list. This is, uh, very much based on, um, performance and expectation. We will get to some specific cases where there are, you know, other things that I kind of factor into that, uh, age, competitive age injury, you know, um, maybe experience or lack of experience. And there’s some sections of this list that I thought were very, very challenging to do, including in the top 25. Um, I did want to
Sevan Matossian (14:15):
Acknowledge more, more challenging than the men. Less challenging.
Brian Friend (14:18):
I, I think, uh, more challenging for the men, uh, than the men for a, in, in a specific range, for some specific reasons. Basically, because over the last couple years, there are certain athletes who are highly competitive in the space that haven’t competed for a variety of different reasons. And so we don’t necessarily know where they’re at. And like I mentioned yesterday, putting too much stock into online performance in the open and quarter finals can sometimes be a misrepresentation of what to expect at semi-finals in the games.
(14:50):
Okay. So, for example, Emma Carey and Sarah Sigma’s daughter are good, good conversation pieces here. You know, Emma Carey has a history of being incredible, an online competition. In 2021, she was top four three in the world in the open and quarter finals. She, she also did good in semi-finals, and then she didn’t do as well at the games. Sarah Sigma Sutter has had an up and down career when it comes to online competition. There was a period of time where she was great, and it correlated to greatness, uh, in live competition as well. More recently, she hasn’t been as good an online competition, and she’s had ups and downs in live competition. So we’re, you know, she’s a, a big question mark this season, but there are a lot of those on the women’s field.
Sevan Matossian (15:32):
Uh, I’m, I’m glad you brought up Sarah and Emma. Are they both in the top 25? Can you gimme a little sneak peek?
Brian Friend (15:38):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (15:39):
Okay, good. You, you, you, you’re, we’re already off to a, a good, um, start.
Brian Friend (15:46):
Can I address a big picture issue? Yeah. I’m kind of interested in your perspective on this too.
Sevan Matossian (15:51):
Do you, well, I’ve never heard you say that before.
Brian Friend (15:53):
What do you do when you make a mistake?
Sevan Matossian (15:56):
Um, ap uh, simultaneously, uh, fix it and, um, attend to the people who, um, are, are affected by, uh, the mistake. So, and that happens with my kids all the time, make mistakes, and I tend to the, uh, issue, I I, I tend to them if, if they’re the recipients or they’re the benefactors, <laugh>, benefactors of the mistake. If they, if they’re, if they’re wounded by the mistake, and then I try to remedy the situation.
Brian Friend (16:25):
Yeah, I mean, it’s a, I think it’s a, obviously this lesson applies to life in general, but, you
Sevan Matossian (16:32):
Know, did I answer that right? That’s what you’re supposed to do, right?
Brian Friend (16:36):
I mean, I think that that is a, an ideal situation. If you have the opportunity to do that. You don’t, you know, depending on the situation, you may not always have the opportunity to atone for the mistake in the ways that might, might be most preferred.
Sevan Matossian (16:50):
But you hit someone’s car, you’re driving down the street, you hit someone’s car, and there’s traffic building up behind you. You don’t have time to wait for ’em. You write a note and you leave it on the person’s, uh, under the person’s windshield and say, Hey, I hit your car and, uh, here’s my phone number. Uh, call me.
(17:02):
Yeah. Simple. And then you, and then you keep driving. So the people behind you aren’t, um, I’ll give you another great one. Sorry. Uh, uh, another great one is you’re in the, uh, you’re, you want to be in the left hand turning lane, but you’re not. And the light turns green and you have to go straight. Don’t be one of those assholes that’s made a mistake and then, and then just waits till the arrow turns. But everyone behind you misses their light because you fucked up. No, go straight, go down the street, make a u-turn, come back. Just be cool. Right? Take responsibility for your error.
Brian Friend (17:31):
Yeah. Anyway, there were some mistakes on our website yesterday, and there was
Sevan Matossian (17:36):
On the Brian Friend, on the Brian Friend website mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Okay.
Brian Friend (17:39):
And there were, and some of ’em were very minor. Some of ’em were kind of technical. Some of ’em were on me. And, but there were some people in the community who reached out and, uh, not, not in an offensive way, but just in a, hey, just so you know, and let us know. And I really appreciated that. So I wanted to, uh, acknowledge those people and thank them.
Sevan Matossian (17:58):
Uh, yeah. Uh, Brian, huh uh, reached out to me also and said that, um, Hey, don’t listen to Brian. You’re saying my name. Perfect. And he was a little angry at you.
Brian Friend (18:09):
Alright, I’ll, I’ll, uh, make sure to acknowledge him when I see him in person.
Sevan Matossian (18:13):
Did you fix the problems?
Brian Friend (18:15):
Um, most of the problems I have fixed, I had, I’m having an internal debate about if I should fix. Uh, so I have made my best effort to make these lists as accurate as possible of the athletes who are still competing in the 2023 CrossFit game season as an individual. But I had two errors on the men’s side where I included athletes that will actually be competing as part of a team at semi-finals. So they’re still showing on the leaderboard. I’m not sure if I should change them or not. Um,
Sevan Matossian (18:45):
But are they in the top, uh, 25?
Brian Friend (18:47):
They’re like, no, and they’re on bottom 15.
Sevan Matossian (18:49):
Uh, it does not matter
Brian Friend (18:51):
To me. It does.
Sevan Matossian (18:52):
Oh, okay. There’s degrees of mistakes also. That’s a beautiful cup.
Brian Friend (19:01):
Thank you.
Sevan Matossian (19:04):
Okay, so, so, um, and you started making this list in 2014, uh, as a hobby? Uh, uh, the same way. A lot, a lot of great things started. It was to, uh, help you with a, uh, fantasy CrossFit league. Uh, and it has grown into a, uh, something, everyone in the community appreciates it. It’s the only thing. Is there anything comparable to this?
Brian Friend (19:29):
I mean, there hasn’t been, you could, I mean, you could say that the worldwide rankings are No,
Sevan Matossian (19:32):
You can’t. No, you can’t
Brian Friend (19:34):
Are a list that has a way of categorizing athletes based on performance over the last two years. Mm-hmm. But I think that there are things that are missing in that, that, uh, I can account for a little bit differently here. As we can see, if you look online on the Instagram, you won’t be able to see it. We have a team preview coming out later this week, Scott, and yes, it is very, very challenging to follow. Um, but on the, on the website, we did put the worldwide rankings there so that you can see what their system accounts for that, uh, or doesn’t account for that. Ours can’t,
Sevan Matossian (20:06):
Uh, Cly Dale Media. Scott Schweitzer team is impossible to follow. What’s he talking about? Uh, and then he says he follows it up with CrossFit needs to post. Who has declared? And does that affect your list of the, uh,
Brian Friend (20:16):
Well, it, it makes it, you know, the reason why I have, I still have athletes on that list, that are also on the teams is because it’s not clear. And I, like, I tried my, I did do my, my best to vet the lists against the registrations, but when you’re talking about, you know, there’s a hundred athletes on the list, there’s 25 more that I included that are not on the list. And then there’s, you know, another 175 athletes competing at semi-finals as individual. And I’m looking at all of those names and seeing, you know, should any of these be on this 25 or this 100, it’s a lot of people. And, um, you know, sometimes it falls through the cracks. I have been for several years suggestive of the possibility of declaring your intent in terms of competition for the season. At the start of the season, when you register for the open, you register as a master’s athlete, you register as an individual, or you register as a member of a team. And that’s your path for the season. Not everyone agrees with that. The crossword has not chosen to do that. We still see that there are athletes right now competing in multiple parts of the season, either as an age group athlete and an individual or as, uh, at this point, they do have to decide whether they’re going team or individual. But in the previous two stages they did not.
Sevan Matossian (21:31):
Uh, w um, uh, Mike Halpin, uh, it’s a mess. Uh, Mr. Schweitzer, I have reached out to multiple athletes where I ended up asking an alternate,
Brian Friend (21:39):
Basically. So Mike and I, uh, basically I’m on behalf. Mike has reached out to all of the athletes, individual and team who have made it to semi-finals and given them an opportunity to give us some insight into their preparation this year. Something that we should know about them. Um, some, you know, kind of basic facts that we can help the broadcast communicate to the fans and audience at home. Well also on site, hopefully, cuz we’ll work with MCs a little bit, but, um, in some cases he has reached out to athletes who he thought were part of the team, but they’re actually the alternate on the team. So
Sevan Matossian (22:18):
Mike, the pool boy, I just realized I’m a habitual. I just realized I am a habitual listener of the show and I have not yet subscribed my apologies to sev whom this mistake has affected. I shall correct my mistake by now. Subscribing a very honest and open of you, you are forgiven my son. Don’t forget to click that little bell and hit the notifications too. I did that, uh, yesterday. I don’t know if you guys know, but Rich Froning is, looks like he’s starting up a podcast. And so you can go over to you just type in Rich Froning podcast or something in Instagram and then you can go over there and then I click that little notification thing and it’s like, if they go live, anything they post, I just, I just make it so it automatically jumps up to the front. So I, so you can know exactly, uh, what kind of underwear Rich Wears every day.
(23:03):
Uh, this show is brought to you by Paper Street Coffee and the list is brought to you by Paper Street Coffee. Use the code word Sevan. I think you get 20% off. If you don’t get the 20% off when you put in the code word, that means you’re at the wrong Paper Street Coffee website. It’s paper s st coffee.com. Don’t, do not spell out street. I don’t know if they still have it, but I prefer the 50 50 Blend. Uh, Jake Chapman, uh, get Rich or Die Trying. I think he’s coming on this show very soon. And I, and I just, uh, in re in real time just now, I got confirmation that Sarah’s coming back on here in a minute. So that’s kind of fun. That’ll be fun. Uh, okay, here we go. The top 25, uh, female athletes, the Fittest, top 25 Fittest Women in the world. Here it is. How cool. Now your website is now the home of this list. You are the caretaker, the, um, the, the, what’s that called? The epicenter.
(24:00):
The epicenter. I like that of this list. It’s really cool. Congratulations. This is awesome. This is a long time coming. I didn’t realize the significance of this yesterday when I said it when we, when we did the show, but this is huge. This is the, I remember when I first started getting into arm wrestling, I don’t know, in 2002 or three, it was like, that’s what you wanted to do. You wanted to look around and find the best arm wrestlers in the world, and here’s your list. Hey, as this list gets bigger, it’ll be cool if these are like hot links or as time goes on, right? And you click on it and it’s a picture of Mal, you know, being like hoisted up onto Rich’s shoulder or, uh, what’s the other guy’s name? Matt Shoulders.
Brian Friend (24:37):
The other guy. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, I mean that would obviously be amazing if we could, you know, link to, uh, a page that has some information about her. So you can say like, well, why, why is she number one?
Sevan Matossian (24:48):
Yeah, this is awesome. Okay. Um, at the very top of the list, mall O’Brien, uh, Brian, why is not Tia Tumi the five time champ? Easy champ at the top of this list.
Brian Friend (25:01):
Well, well, six Time Champ and okay. Yeah. Not, not competing this year. She’s pregnant and she’s, I think, due rather soon.
Sevan Matossian (25:10):
And the last time you made the list, you uh, you also know, knew that because she wasn’t on the list last time and so she hasn’t changed positions. Look at this. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The top five people have not changed position, uh, since you updated the list in January.
Brian Friend (25:26):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (25:28):
Uh, mall O’Brien, Laura Hort, Annie Thor’s daughter, Danielle, Brandon, Emma Lawson. Is it difficult, um, uh, dealing with Laura Hort in a list like this, knowing that she’s probably, uh, maybe even fitter than Mal, um, but has a whole, uh, so massive compared to all the other athletes, even in the top 10.
Brian Friend (25:49):
I mean, it should be acknowledged that this is not a predictions for how the season will unfold.
Sevan Matossian (25:54):
Wait a second, why not?
Brian Friend (25:56):
Because there’s still variables that we might not know.
Sevan Matossian (25:59):
Well, yeah. Okay. But I’m saying if, if the games happen tomorrow morning, this is a predictions
Brian Friend (26:04):
Not necessarily. Oh, I would, if the games are happening tomorrow morning and we knew nothing about it. I’m not saying that I would def definitely pick Mel to win. I do think that she’s the most complete and well-rounded in the world right now. But Laura’s Horvath skillset does give her a legitimate and serious opportunity to beat everyone at the CrossFit Games because of the nature of the CrossFit games. Um, she will have many opportunities to do very, very well on specific events and could have one opportunity to get a last place or near last place finish. But, um, that hasn’t happened every year. You don’t get a strict deficit handstand pushup every year at the CrossFit games. In fact, you don’t often get them two years in a row. And last year we had the most difficult version of it that we’ve ever seen. So if you are hedging your bets on that and, and expecting there to be some kind of handstand pushup test, but not the one that is crippling for her, then I would probably advise picking her to win. Because outside of that singular event last year, she would’ve won relative to male,
Sevan Matossian (27:13):
Uh, chicken nugget. Did Savon Not Know to you as pregnant? I’m gonna share with you something, uh, absolutely mind boggling to most people. And if you are an interviewer, a journalist, uh, take note of this. This will, this is the only thing that can make you even close to my level. You never, you never, uh, if if I, if I, if I went based on what I know, I wouldn’t even have a podcast cuz I know fucking everything. There’s, I don’t need to ever ask another question. I know. The thing is, is that all the best answers in my entire career come from me asking questions that I presuppose that I knew the answer to, and then, and then something else comes. So I would ask Brian that and he would say, actually, did, you know? And then he would tell me something about Tia.
(28:01):
And so, uh, it, my questions aren’t predicated on the fact of whether I know the answers or not. And, and, and second of all, uh, I, I really don’t know anything. So, but, but, um, the whole point of, of asking questions is to, uh, contextualize and paint a mosaic so that, uh, everyone, including myself, has an understanding of what’s going on. I hope that helps. It’s not, uh, insincere, uh, the questioning if some people like to take it there too. It’s not, it’s, it’s absolutely not that either. Yeah. Davon is better than Diane Sawyer. I you would’ve been nice if you had picked someone else, but I’ll, I’ll, I’ll take it. <laugh>. Um, I don’t, I don’t know if you answered the question, Brian. Is she, is she the most difficult to deal with Adam Mallow, Bryan, Laura Hort, Annie Thor’s daughter, Danielle, Brandon, Emma Lawson, Brook Wells, Gabriela Manawa, Alexis RTIs, and Amanda Barnhardt. Is she always, is she always the most difficult to deal with in turn in inside between your ears when you place her?
Brian Friend (29:00):
No. Third place, second place, 2020 was whatever, 2021 or 2019, whatever prior to that second place, the three times that she showed up to the games and been able to take the entire test, she’s been in the podium.
Sevan Matossian (29:15):
Okay, let, let me, let me rephrase the question. Fair, uh, point, uh, Mr. Friend, there’s this thing that athletes have been saying since the dawn of time. Uh, anyone can win it. It, it’s really up to the programming. And I’ve always thought up loser like you, like you don’t hear Rich or Matt say that shit. Right? You don’t hear Tia say that shit. You’re not hearing Justin Madera say that shit. It’s always like dudes who like are dying to get on the podium. It’s like a fourth place person. But with, with Laura, I That’s true, right? It act that is actually true. She makes that statement true.
Brian Friend (29:51):
Yeah. I mean,
Sevan Matossian (29:52):
Right or no.
Brian Friend (29:53):
Yeah. But so in my opinion, there are only two women that can win the CrossFit games this year.
Sevan Matossian (29:57):
It’s
Brian Friend (29:58):
Like this and it’s between Mel and Laura.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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