Sevan Matossian (00:00):
It starts in an hour that they’re gonna
Brian Friend (00:01):
Explain, damn, we’re live. Okay, come on.
Sevan Matossian (00:05):
Nope.
Brian Friend (00:06):
<laugh>, listen, listen. No one’s watching anything else. Put that other shit on. Just save
John Young (00:14):
<laugh>. That was funny.
Brian Friend (00:17):
Uh, hi. Good morning. You
Sevan Matossian (00:19):
Talking to us?
Brian Friend (00:20):
Yeah. Hey, uh, people in the, after this week, I noticed that, uh, there’s a crew that will now, uh, that got John Young’s back. That’s like, have you seen, noticed the Tide is kind of changing. It was, it was like fucking a year of just beat on John Young. And now there’s like some people who are like, fuck that. John’s on our homeboy.
Sevan Matossian (00:39):
They like picking for the lesser analyst.
Brian Friend (00:41):
I gu I guess I don’t, I don’t know. Well, you have to. He was with, he was with Tyler and Spin. He was with Tyler and
Sevan Matossian (00:47):
Spin. Maybe he was the best one over there.
Brian Friend (00:50):
<laugh> there, there’s people who’ve, uh, who aren’t, who aren’t gonna tolerate the John Young jokes.
John Young (00:55):
I go back and forth between the A team and the B team. We don’t know where to put me yet. You,
Brian Friend (00:59):
You swing both ways. <laugh>,
Sevan Matossian (01:02):
Did you get the results I sent you from last week’s prediction? Savan?
Brian Friend (01:05):
Oh, I did. I did. Oh, I didn’t, did you? I didn’t. Where was that? Was that in a text?
Sevan Matossian (01:09):
Text? Just a private text. You to me. The one you have pinned at the top of your favorites list. Yeah.
Brian Friend (01:14):
I didn’t even open the Google Doc yet. Shit. Where is that?
John Young (01:17):
He doesn’t send you that text when my predictions are better than his, but
Brian Friend (01:21):
Brian’s
John Young (01:22):
Better. He’ll send it.
Brian Friend (01:23):
<laugh> Brian, you did send me that Google doc again?
Sevan Matossian (01:26):
Yeah, I removed you from it and replaced and gave it to you again last night. Oh, okay.
Brian Friend (01:30):
Yep. Here it is. It popped up. I didn’t really understand, um, the score, I did see the score was 9 8 9 8, but I didn’t understand what that was in reference to. Can you, can you help me out?
Sevan Matossian (01:42):
Oh, that was just the raw number of qualifiers that each of us got. Correct.
Brian Friend (01:46):
So I didn’t Oh, okay.
Sevan Matossian (01:47):
It didn’t take Oh, we
John Young (01:48):
Both, we both got nine and eight.
Brian Friend (01:50):
No, no, he got nine. You got eight
Sevan Matossian (01:53):
For both men and women, which is kind of interesting actually.
Brian Friend (01:57):
Yeah, that is, that is impressive.
Sevan Matossian (02:00):
And like, um, and, and, and quite frankly last week it, it, I don’t think it was actually that difficult to get a lot of them. Correct. And the ones that we missed and probably everyone missed are mostly the same. We both Miss Brooke Wells. We both Miss Carolyn Prevo and then Silver Cindy
John Young (02:16):
Wells.
Sevan Matossian (02:17):
Uh, I was, I’m saying, uh, the ones that we had making at that didn’t make it. Oh, okay. I was starting there.
Brian Friend (02:22):
Prevo didn’t make it, huh? God, that’s kind
Sevan Matossian (02:24):
Of, that’s no, the, the women, the women’s competition in the North America East was super competitive. If you haven’t seen the stat anywhere else, from eighth Place to 15th Place was separated by 20 points. So Carolyn Prevo was in 15th, which just doesn’t appear to be close to making it, but she was actually only 20 points away from being in eighth, which is a, you know,
John Young (02:45):
Same for Brooke.
Sevan Matossian (02:46):
Brooke was just behind that. So she had a, or was she 14th? I can’t quite remember. She might have been 14th to, cuz it was, uh,
John Young (02:54):
She was eight points out of making the last, the last one,
Sevan Matossian (02:57):
Yeah. Yeah. So she was the one in between Carolyn and then Jordan Chefs and, um, Annika Greer. So yeah. And it basically, you know, just a, a, a few, you know, one thing goes differently for any number of those women here or there. And, and one or two different women might be going to the games than not. Um, so anyway, the only, the only person that, um, I had in that John didn’t, that made it was fee. And the only person he had in that didn’t make it that I didn’t was Annika. And then, I mean, it was, the margins were incredible. I know you didn’t have Shelby ne in there. Well, after Mel O’Brien was removed, then she would’ve, she was the next person up.
Brian Friend (03:35):
Oh, damn. I
Sevan Matossian (03:36):
Just, but I like, if like, I gave you credit for Carolyn Prevo as a pick, and if she would’ve got in, then you would’ve got her as well, you know? Yeah, I just slid it down one and I mean, look, the girls that we had just on the outside, I had Anika next in line. She was next in line, then I had Sydnee Wells, she made it, then I had Carolyn Stanley, she made it, and John had Sidney Wells next in line. She made it fee, made it, Carolyn made it. So the ones that we missed on, we were very close, you know, it’s just, and we kind of knew that that bubble was gonna be tight. So all in all, no one, you know, no one thought this weekend would go the way it did for Brook Wells. And then the, you know, for the girls on the bubble, we were, you know, we all knew who was gonna be right there.
(04:15):
And just a matter of a few points, uh, separating and the men was very similar. You know, obviously we both missed on Sax and Pancheck. We both missed on Alexander Corone and those guys, you know, they didn’t make it be, you know, for, well, they didn’t even finish the competition. And I would think that most people would’ve expected them to, to both make it. Um, and then we also both missed on Tyler Kristopher. And again, I think that from a fitness perspective, he’s certainly good enough and is just didn’t have the execution. And so the only difference between us was, uh, I had Will mot in and he had Jake Berman in Will Maiden and Jake didn’t.
Brian Friend (04:52):
How uh, will Moad, huh? What a, what a stud.
John Young (04:56):
He did fantastic this weekend.
Sevan Matossian (04:59):
Yeah. And then, I mean, the thing about Will is like we, you know, we talked about it in the, uh, preview last week, is that you, like, you, you know, you, you never really want bet against, you know, he’s kind of always defying the odds and, and this work, this slate of test was pretty good for him. Like snatching is probably the best thing he could hope for in terms of, uh, a weightlifting test. He’s a great runner. Um, the fact that there were a lot of machines is maybe not that great for a smaller athlete in general, but, uh, Will’s solid man. And, uh, I think I would parallel him to some of the guys that we’re gonna talk about, um, in the West this week who, uh, you know, you might also not want to be sleeping on a little bit.
Brian Friend (05:38):
Who, who’s, who’s better, um, uh, John Young at, uh, CrossFit, an analyzing, uh, analysis, uh, data breakdown, uh, sports commentator or Will Moad as a CrossFitter?
Sevan Matossian (05:53):
Ah, I think Will Moad.
Brian Friend (05:54):
Oh shit. You didn’t even fucking like even pretend to,
Sevan Matossian (05:58):
I mean, Will’s good. Like the thing is, yeah, I mean, you know, well, it’s tough. Like, what are you gonna say? I would say John’s one of the top, you know, I’m sure I don’t know all of ’em, but John’s one of the top analysts in the sport. It’s not an accident. We have him on this show. And I would say there are less people that are better than him at this than there are better than Will at CrossFit. But I also think there’s a lot more competition to be good at CrossFit than there is to be good at this
Brian Friend (06:19):
Deeper field. Easy for John to be at the top of the heap here because so many people suck and there’s so few people top. Yeah. Okay.
John Young (06:27):
I think we should take more ads, analytical ability and my CrossFit ability, and then we can, we can compare those two.
Sevan Matossian (06:33):
It still will
John Young (06:35):
<laugh>, uh,
Brian Friend (06:37):
Uh, Jack, Jack Farlow, James Sprague, Spencer Panche, all great. It’s gonna be great seeing them in the games. Uh, Luke Parker, let me just ask one question, uh, of, of these guys. Will Mo, Noah Olson, Luke Parker, Alex Vineo, Jack Farlow, James Sprague. How do you think Not
Sevan Matossian (06:55):
Spencer Panche.
Brian Friend (06:56):
Oh, sorry, sorry. Spencer Pan. Spencer Panik. Yep. Perfect. Ooh, that fits nicely. Okay. Rank them in order of how they’ll finish at the games for me. You, I don’t need to know what place there, Leanne.
Sevan Matossian (07:09):
Okay. Uh, well, interesting thing I just found out about Alex Vineo is that he has recently had his second child and he’s on paternity leave for the rest of the summer.
Brian Friend (07:19):
Okay.
Sevan Matossian (07:20):
I think that is bad news for the games field. Okay. I think that that will give him some freedom, not just in terms of training, but in terms of recovery, sleep, whatever. Obviously having a kid is a thing, but his family’s very, you know, when it comes to sleep. But his family’s very supportive of that. So I think he’ll have, um, and it’s not his first child, so like they already know how to get through one. I think that he’s gonna come into the games pretty good. So against the, this specific group of athletes, I think there’s a clear top three and bottom four. I would say Vineo, Olson and Moad will beat the other four at the games. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, of those three, I probably would Govin then Olson and Moad.
John Young (07:57):
I think Vin will be top 10.
Sevan Matossian (08:00):
Uh,
John Young (08:01):
Or I guess flirting with that territory.
Sevan Matossian (08:03):
Yeah, I, I think more likely like 11 through 15 seems like a realistic range for him. I think Noah also probably likely in that range, and Will’s probably gonna be more like 16 to 23. Um, of the other guys, you know, obviously Spencer has a, has the, he’s second year coming to the games and, you know, uh, that’s, I think there is a big advantage of being, of having one year of games competition under your belt. So I probably give him the edge over the other others. And then I’d probably, man, I gotta just say like Luke Parker. Absolute, I’ve never seen that version of Luke Parker in a competition before. I was, I mean, test after test after test, I was in impressed with what Luke was doing. Um, the game’s a different animal. I mean, the thing, the good thing for Luke is that he’s in an environment where he has, you know, a lot of people to train with that are also doing it, Jack and, and James similarly. So I think they’ll all come in pretty well prepared. But I probably take,
John Young (08:56):
I’d take Sprague over those
Sevan Matossian (08:58):
Guys. I was, I was gonna say, I’d probably take Sprague then. It’s tough between Farlow and Parker. Maybe Sprague Farlow Parker.
Brian Friend (09:05):
That, that’s a great analysis of Alex Vineo you gave, uh, Brian. But here’s the problem. Alex Vineo will pull out of the games <laugh>, he will not make it. Uh, too, you
John Young (09:15):
Think you just won’t try hard enough in one of the events?
Brian Friend (09:18):
No, I, I, I think something’s gonna happen to him. I think he has a, uh, I gotta pull one. I don’t wanna say cursed. That’s a little, uh, strong. I, uh, but, uh, he, he will not, it’s like a draw. It’s like, it’s crazy to bet that there’ll be a draw on a boxing match, just like it’s crazy to, but Vineo will not make it till the, uh, till Sunday.
Sevan Matossian (09:34):
Who’s the other guy that you’re, uh, on your list of will not make it till Sunday.
Brian Friend (09:39):
And, and, and here. Uh, I, I forget. Hold on one second. One. Uh, and, and Luke Parker, out of all these guys is the only one that after the semi files went back to his room and wept like a baby. Uh, James probably like teared up as he hugged his dad, but I guarantee you Luke Parker had a massive cathartic emotional dump when he went back to his room. He, he can’t believe he made it. Uh, he, he was faking it until he made it. I know he really, that
John Young (10:05):
He’s been saying for a while.
Brian Friend (10:06):
I know, but I don’t believe it the way in the world. I I don’t believe it. The way I hear Sam Wil corn, why? I said it. I, I think for Luke, this was a huge personal growth. I mean this all as a compliment to Luke, by the way, but I think he, uh, I think, I think he tricked himself and it worked.
Sevan Matossian (10:21):
I can’t remember who posted it. Oh, I might have been fee actually that posted.
Brian Friend (10:25):
Oh, did Sam answer by the way? Pull out? Is he already outta the games? Did I hear
Sevan Matossian (10:27):
That’s the other guy that, that’s on your
Brian Friend (10:29):
List? Is he toast already? I
Sevan Matossian (10:31):
I don’t, I actually haven’t looked to see cuz the masters that qualified for the games already got their invites. Um, I think if we, I wonder if we go to the games page if we can see who has accepted those invites already.
John Young (10:43):
He’s somebody that’s something always happens to him.
Brian Friend (10:45):
Where would I go? Games, masters
Sevan Matossian (10:47):
Division 2023 games age group and then sort by division. I’m going through it right now and he’s accepted his invite.
Brian Friend (10:55):
Uh, I don’t know who posts more, uh, who posts more pictures in the hospital? Uh, Sam Dancer or Gordon Ryan, for those of you who follow Gordon Ryan. It’s like, it’s crazy. Two guys who I don’t see Sam’s name. Oh, there he is. Okay. Oh God, I haven’t seen that name in a while. Steve Faucet. He’s good.
John Young (11:13):
Scott Pan.
Sevan Matossian (11:14):
He’s actually gonna be competing in Europe as well in the individual field.
Brian Friend (11:19):
No shit.
Sevan Matossian (11:20):
Yep.
John Young (11:21):
Scott’s the guy to beat here in this division. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (11:25):
For sure. For sure. I mean, he, him, he and Rich were so far ahead of everyone else at the, at the, um, quarter finals that, I mean it was like a hundred points.
Brian Friend (11:35):
Um, from Brandon Lakehawk, uh, anyone in the Colorado Springs area. I want you to know, especially if you’re in Colorado or in the area or if you’re not in the area. We are hosting a sweet, I prefer spicy but sweet’s fine. Sweet. Barbecue and Merf event. Come on down. Uh, Josh Bridges was invited, but who knows if he’ll show up. Uh, how about a date and a, um, how about a date? How about more information for $5? I’ll give you a little bit more. Uh, Eaton Beaver, uh, great job this weekend. Brian, you did us proud. That’s nice. Uh, Brian is, uh, Hiller’s therapist. Brian has given GI is giving you 100% credit for CrossFit podcast going live. There’s no way they did that on their own. You definitely made the show for them. Good job, Ryan.
Sevan Matossian (12:21):
I was, I was certainly involved, but there’s, there’s no chance that I could have pulled that off on my own. There were a lot of people that stepped up to make that happen and I’m, I’m glad that we were able to do it.
Brian Friend (12:31):
Uh, guy, do we have anybody
John Young (12:32):
In Pasadena?
Sevan Matossian (12:34):
We’re working on it. Yes.
John Young (12:35):
So my mom is gonna be there if we need extra hand. She’s told me to let Savon know.
Brian Friend (12:41):
Oh, where? In
John Young (12:41):
Pasadena phone. Her phone will be ready if you
Brian Friend (12:44):
Need her. Oh, that’s awesome. She she’s a good dude. That’s really sweet.
Sevan Matossian (12:49):
Where does she live? Out there?
John Young (12:51):
They, does your mom
Brian Friend (12:51):
Watch the show, John? That’s gonna fuck me up if I find out she watches the show if I have to like turn it down a notch.
John Young (12:57):
No, you’re fine. Uh, she watches some of them. Some of them she does it. I don’t think they watch it live. So they, uh, read the comments as people are going and they don’t understand why people think I look like all of these other people.
Brian Friend (13:09):
<laugh>.
John Young (13:10):
Um, the <laugh>, the, uh, but no, my parents live in South Dakota, so they’re not far away from Pasadena.
Brian Friend (13:18):
Uh, uh, lampshade. It’s murf. Savon don’t be a dip. Shit. The date is known. Alright, well thank you, uh, Heidi Crew, uh, Savon, you and the crew are cordially invited to my backside this weekend. Uh, sorry. Backyard barbecue this weekend. Oh, that’s nice. You, that’s cool. Ribs Savon. Are you during Murf? No. I don’t know maybe. Fuck no. I can’t even do pull. If I do, I’ll have to scale it. I still can’t do, I haven’t, I’ve done a Pullup in four months or something. Longest I’ve, it’s been in my life since that one time. I did my first pull up in the backyard on a tree branch while while high on ecstasy. Uh, sorry. There’s no leaderboards that match that. What am I doing here? Oh, okay. Um, games individual. Let’s go back to semi finals. Oh, one more quick thing. God, Brian, you were right. Hi Dilly Dolly. Brian was telling me I dilly dolly and I was like, I’ll show him tomorrow, but I’m already dilly dolly. Um, uh, women’s division. Uh, let’s go down here. Uh, we got, uh, so Anika Greer didn’t make it
John Young (14:16):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, correct?
Brian Friend (14:18):
Oh, that sucks.
Sevan Matossian (14:21):
Yeah. And it was, I mean it was super tight and there’s, uh, I know that there were a couple very controversial moments for her on the last day. And I think that, uh, if you, you know, people have different opinions about both of them. I think that the very clear and obvious one was with the sandbag and it was, I, what I learned after the fact was it wasn’t that her sandbag was over the line that she got called back. It was that her feet were over the line. And cuz there were definitely a lot of sandbags over the line that didn’t get called back. But if you slow it down or zoom in on it, you can see your toes over the line. I believe the judge made the right call calling her back there. And that might have been the difference. The one that’s a little less clear to me is the, you know, the no rep on the Lego rope climb. I haven’t gone back and watched it super closely. It looked like a pretty obvious missed call by the judge. But I’ve, I have seen some people that said the judge, that they think the judge got that right. So, you know,
John Young (15:10):
They went back and changed it so they didn’t agree in the moment.
Sevan Matossian (15:14):
Right. And then, so, you know, the question is, cause I, I’m, I’m pretty sure she appealed to get some time back on that they didn’t give her any time back on it. And I think that that’s where the kind of uncertainty is, is, uh, is
Brian Friend (15:27):
Oh, that’s her. That you don’t see that very often. That through Brian for a loop. Did you see that? I put up that no one’s invited to my backside and Brian, I just
Sevan Matossian (15:33):
Was no, I was just was ho hoping you know that she doesn’t get a sunburn on her back in case what you meant to be offering this <laugh> to apply Sun 10
Brian Friend (15:40):
<laugh>. Brian Twitched for a second.
Sevan Matossian (15:42):
It’s getting warm here in the Midwest. Finally,
Brian Friend (15:44):
It was like you were up for the challenge. Someone told you no, and you’re like, we’ll see Heidi
Sevan Matossian (15:48):
<laugh>. We’ll see. Anyway, so, but I mean this, like, if you’ve been watching this sport for a long time, you will know that there are people that have missed and made the games by margins that small at regionals and semi-finals for years and years and years. I mean, it, it, it sometimes it’s on the, it’s on the athletes. Sometimes it does come, come down to a judge’s call. And I know that there are people that are making efforts to improve the, the judging situation in the BI as far as big picture goes. But it’s, you know, it’s, it’s just like any other sport. At the end of the day, it’s human air. It’s humans that are making those decisions. And you know, in a, in an N F L game, there’s like five, six refs on the field and in, in a and a fif, you know, 22 athletes and in CrossFit there’s 10 and 10 an individual most of the time.
(16:34):
And that means that there’s, there’s 10 opportunities for a judge to to, to get it right or get it wrong. And there’s a lot of different movements and there’s a lot of different, you know, standards. And that’s the main reason why I think, and what I think CrossFit needs to improve is if they wanna have these mysterious standards for athletes. And you guys have heard me say this before, I can, I can understand that. I still think that that needs to be approached differently during the semi-finals from the CrossFit games. The CrossFit Games is a one-off competition and whatever kind of mysterious standards that you impose there obviously only affect the athletes in that field. This is over three weeks. And you heard if you watched, uh, Andrew Hiller’s video on Alex Corone, you heard him talk about it. He’s like, I reached out to try to get information and they gave me a vague answer said I find out on site.
(17:19):
I don’t really love that because if I was competing in week two or three, I would’ve had that opportunity to get that information, uh, ahead of time and make a decision with that information, uh, that I asked for. So I don’t like that that’s an exact exact example. While I don’t like the withholding information from the athletes in week one when you know that it’s gonna get out to athletes in week two and three, they didn’t have the same opportunity to practice pulling a sled that would be proce as heavy as the one ended up being. That’s it’s, and I know that it’s, it’s everyone in the field still has the same opportunity or lack of opportunity there, but they don’t have the same opportunity that everyone who’s going next week or the week aft after have. And it’s, it’s starting to show why that’s a problem.
(18:01):
Even if you wanna have that lack of transparency with athletes don’t have it with the judges, you need to set up at least one of those two groups for success. And I think that that’s probably the area right now that, um, CrossFit can make a, a big improvement quickly is to make sure that the, you know, set the judges up for success. They’re already, like, they’re volunteering their time. They’re, they’re on the center stage, they’re in the spotlight, people are being critical of them and they’re doing it for the competition. Give them the best chance to do it. Well.
Brian Friend (18:33):
Uh, are you saying that in the back there wasn’t a sled with 225 pounds on it for anyone to pull?
Sevan Matossian (18:43):
I’m saying that before any of the athletes in week one got on site, they didn’t know what that sled was. Oh, oh, okay. And they didn’t know how, like you see athletes that are competing in week two and three now posting videos of them pulling the heaviest version of a sled that they can find. But you could go, you know, go watch anyone who posted a video, even someone like me, like I, I did that workout and I finished in 25 minutes and I thought I was doing something that would be comparable to what the athletes were doing. And I was nowhere near that. I needed to make it at least twice, if not three or four times as hard as it was to simulate what they were actually experiencing out there
Brian Friend (19:14):
Because that, it makes it a
John Young (19:15):
Way different workout.
Brian Friend (19:16):
That sled was hard to pull because it detect extreme, extremely ground
Sevan Matossian (19:19):
To pull. I I, I did it with a only two plates on there and it was difficult to pull in after one length of the field. My grip was already starting to feel it.
Brian Friend (19:27):
Oh, crazy. Okay.
Sevan Matossian (19:28):
Okay. And I would’ve had to do nine lengths of that to, uh, you know, to complete the workout in the way that it was laid out.
John Young (19:34):
Ryan, do you think, um, do you think that makes the machines irrelevant? Cause it’s set up as a cardio endurance workout and it kind of turned out to be who can just pull the sled the best?
Brian Friend (19:46):
Uh, just so you know, you guys we’re talking about workout one. It had the, the runner, the skier and the rower in it, and then in between there were basically, uh, the bike, sorry, the bike. And there were basically, uh, a hundred foot rope pools in it. Okay. Uh, with two.
Sevan Matossian (20:01):
Yeah. And I know that there, I know that there are athletes that in the, in the course of play realize, oh, well I can pull this sled a lot better than everyone else, so I’m just gonna, I’m just gonna run slow because I know I can make up the time on the last two sled pools. And so where I thought that, and we talked about this coming in, I thought that this workout would come down to who’s willing to hurt on the second half of the run and the second half of the ski. It didn’t matter nearly at all. John? Yeah.
Brian Friend (20:25):
I I, well I’m gonna say this, I am glad that they used the sled, not the torque tank, and I am appreciative of how, uh, uh, how long it was and that we did get to see some exciting passes in the, uh, sled pool. Uh, where was that comment? Someone said, Hey, se, are you gonna shoot up some, uh, oh, here we go. Uh, William, uh, harden Se are you, when are you start using peptides? I would shoot anything into my arm to make this, uh, pain go away. I, and I mean that, uh, Brian, um, uh, from Barry Macer, uh, $5 Thank you Brian, uh, Perrin from training Think Tank. Is that the girl that trains, um, is that the Asian girl that trains, um, Sarah. Oh yeah. I like her parents from train tin Think Tank said that she did not see anything in the rule book about the feet sandbag over the line as others were doing it.
Sevan Matossian (21:17):
What rule book?
Brian Friend (21:18):
Yeah, that’s a good question. Justin
John Young (21:20):
Said, just read between the lines and then that’s where it’s at.
Brian Friend (21:24):
Did he really say that? No, I’m just joking. <laugh>. Uh, well, where, wherever the rules were written, he probably, I mean, this
Sevan Matossian (21:29):
Is one, but this is, this is one of the problems is that I, I was not able to go to all of the athlete briefings and I don’t know if what was briefed at the athlete briefings was given to the athletes and coaches in a written format as well. I am of the belief that those things should have been known when the workouts came out, so that all of the athletes and the coaches would’ve opportunity to have a clear understanding of that ahead of time. Because the, the last thing that I want is that people are getting games, qualification spots, um, for anything other than their fitness. And if they’re, and in this case, you know, because we’re, remember we’re not talking about the CrossFit games here. We’re talking about qualifying athletes to the CrossFit games. And so I think that we need to make sure that the playing field is level, the sta CrossFit has to have the confidence to put out the standards in a clear and easy to understand way.
(22:15):
You have to remember this is seven semi-finals on six continents with dozens of different languages that athletes are speaking. These should be extremely simple and easy to understand standards. In the case of the final test, if you, if you looked at the whole field of play, there was a big amount of space from the second red line to the finish line, I think very clear standard move both those red lines three feet forward. So there’s enough space between the domer and the first one so that athletes can stand and the bag can be there and the standard should have been the bag starts behind the line and finishes over the line. Period. Don’t make it any more complicated than that. Make it easy on yourself.
Brian Friend (22:54):
I did, I did like getting that sprint at the end in the last event that they made it, that just the bag has to go over the line.
Sevan Matossian (22:59):
Yeah. And it’s, that’s why
Brian Friend (23:01):
If someone would’ve thrown it, someone would’ve thrown it over the line and they would’ve had to calm back and be like, Hey, your feet weren’t over first. That would’ve been so
Sevan Matossian (23:07):
Stupid that the finishing rule was great. It was very clear.
Brian Friend (23:11):
Yeah. Yeah. The starting
Sevan Matossian (23:12):
Rule should have been the same. And just as clear the athlete in the bag, well the, just say the bag, the bag starts behind the line and finishes over the line period on the legless rope climbs. They had a, similarly, similarly, in my opinion, un unnecessarily confusing standard at the bottom. The hands clearly had to be below the red, but at the top they had to be at or above the red. Just eliminate the word at. There was a foot and a half a space up there. Hands both clearly below hands, both clearly above hands, both clearly below
Brian Friend (23:39):
Or, or, or to be honest, I would do it the other way. I would do it both. Uh, one hand has to be above and one hand has to be at on both sides. And the reason why is just because the ref might not be able to see what’s going on up there, but either way make it consistent.
Sevan Matossian (23:50):
Consistent, yeah.
Brian Friend (23:51):
Right. Uh, helping, um, uh, just some, a tidbit of information. The issue with that sled is that when it turned, it can pull under itself. So what does that mean, Brian? The, the athletes would get to the end and fuck, we’re so off subject and you would have to rotate the sled 180 degrees yourself as the athlete. Okay.
Sevan Matossian (24:09):
And as the sleds rotating, this can happen. So now it’s folded up underneath so that when it pulls, it’s getting caught on itself. Okay.
Brian Friend (24:17):
Okay.
Sevan Matossian (24:17):
And then if you, and so now you have a choice, if you’ve folded it up under itself, you can go out on the field and try to lift up the weight and flatten it out, which will make the pole a lot easier. Or you can try to pull it like that. But the friction is increased and it makes every pole hard.
Brian Friend (24:31):
If you don’t actually turn the sled around by the carpet, you just, you just yanked the rope and, and force it around is what people were doing. Yeah. Oh,
John Young (24:38):
Some of the judges weren’t letting their people go fix it. Like some were letting them fix it and some said, no, you can’t fix it. We got that from a athletes said they wouldn’t let me go fix it.
Brian Friend (24:52):
Um, someone, oh wait, someone’s telling me which peptides to shoot. Uh, uh, seven BPC 1 57 and TB 500. Good peptide combo. Okay. We
Sevan Matossian (25:00):
Got three semifinals coming up this week.
Brian Friend (25:02):
I, I did my elbow, my, my bicep, not my elbow. My bicep, uh, is fucked up. I gotta get it fixed
Sevan Matossian (25:07):
Because your, is it your right one?
Brian Friend (25:09):
Uh, uh, it’s my left one <laugh>.
Sevan Matossian (25:12):
Lucky.
Brian Friend (25:13):
Uh, I know what you did there. Uh, what? There’s some, I think someone said something mean about me here. Uh, what? That’s uh, where is that? Um, oh, here. Okay. Kenneth, the lab, uh, don’t act like you care about being on subject just cuz Brian is here. I’m fine. Okay, fine. That was insincere. You’re right. Okay. Uh, one, one more quick thing, uh, before we go to, uh, north America, west week two semi-finals, uh, what’s the other one? Oceana and what’s the third one? South America. South America. South America. Okay. I’ll do South America right now. Gee’s gonna win. Um, the, these ladies here, let me scroll down a little bit. Uh, sorry. Annika, uh, see you next year. Uh, Alexis. Wow. So the women’s field’s kind of deeper man, like the fact, wow, look
Sevan Matossian (25:56):
At that. Look at six to seven’s points. Gap.
John Young (25:58):
We talked about this.
Brian Friend (26:00):
Yeah. Oh, you mean, oh, right Matter. We talked to
Sevan Matossian (26:02):
Seven about it five minutes ago. You forgot, right.
Brian Friend (26:04):
<laugh>. Right, right. Uh, okay. Yeah, let’s just
Sevan Matossian (26:07):
Scroll up to the top. This is what, because
Brian Friend (26:09):
Alexis Raps and Paige Powers are not in the same, uh, category. Sydnee Wells love Sydnee Wells excited she’s there, but
Sevan Matossian (26:14):
So the athletes one through six on the women’s field. Yeah. All of them are top 10 contenders for the games in North America. East. Yeah. That’s a total, the, what you saw from those six athletes through this weekend is some of the best women in the world. And I think that we’re gonna, some of the times they set on some of these workouts will be competitive, if not hold up across the next two weeks. If you want to do your little, um, experiment here, like I did with the men, seven through 11 is where we should look because this is a totally different caliber of athlete than those top six.
Brian Friend (26:43):
Hey, um, everyone’s fr uh, all the women in the world are freaking out, right about Emma Carey. Like, everyone’s like, oh, well they shouldn’t be her, her and Danielle Brandon. They’re like, fuck, the games is done.
Sevan Matossian (26:53):
No, I mean, Emma Carey was, as we talked about in the buildup, she has shown it two years ago that she has the capacity to win a semi-final. And she know, uh, if she made up, but
Brian Friend (27:02):
With Emma Lawson there and Danielle, Brandon and Alexis rap, us and Paige Powers, I mean, geez Louise.
Sevan Matossian (27:08):
So last time that she was in a position to do that, the best athletes that she was beating was Mall O’Brien and Ar and Ariel alone. Oh. And that was before Mall O’Brien was of the caliber that she, that we knew she has potential now, now she’s beaten Daniel Brandon, who is a legitimate podium contender. She’s beat Emma Lawson, who’s a legitimate podium contender. She’s beaten Amanda Barnhart, who’s had several top 10 finishes at the games. Alexis Raps, who’s coming off at top 10 finish of the games. Paige Powers who beat Emma Carey at Waap Polooza, and she’s just beat all of them. So yes, this is, this is the best version we’ve seen of Emma Care yet. But I don’t think it’s a surprising version. Like you have to keep in mind, she, we knew she had this potential, we still need to see her show it over the totality of a CrossFit games test. So just because she won this this semi-final does not necessarily mean that I’ll pick her to beat every one of these women at the games.
Brian Friend (27:56):
Well, you’ll be making a mistake. This, this is ridiculous.
Sevan Matossian (27:58):
I’ll make a bet with you right now that Emma Carey does not beat all five of those women at the games that at least one of them beats her
Brian Friend (28:04):
At, at the those, uh, at the CrossFit games. Yeah. Oh, done. Did you take with bet? Yeah. Why you, what, what do you think her hole is? You don’t think she’s strong enough?
Sevan Matossian (28:18):
Uh,
Brian Friend (28:19):
You saw something in one of the workouts.
Sevan Matossian (28:20):
No, sh I mean, look at her finishes there. Oh, where were her lowest finishes? 10th. Who do you,
Brian Friend (28:25):
Who do you think is gonna, who do you think is gonna beat her? Who do you think is gonna beat her Lawson?
Sevan Matossian (28:28):
Well were those workouts three and four where she was 10th?
Brian Friend (28:32):
Oh, sorry.
Sevan Matossian (28:33):
Sorry. So can you scroll
John Young (28:34):
A little bit? Yeah. Uh, yeah, so
Sevan Matossian (28:36):
You know Linda
John Young (28:37):
And, uh, max Snatch
Sevan Matossian (28:39):
And then eighth on workout six. So I would say that most likely her upper body pressing gymnastics is a, is up area that she has some, uh, to improve on. And the, the Max Snatch test, um, I actually think in a different format of, of snatching, she might do better than this relative to the field. I think she could probably snatch 200 pounds plus. I think she probably made a good decision by not going for it. Think ab Um, I was, I was, uh, thinking about this with Jason Hopper. You know, Jason’s a decent runner, like he’s a pretty good runner and he took his worst finish on the second half of that workout and he did a 2 95 snatch and then a 3 0 5 snatch. Like that’s a lot of, and then you have a two minute forced stretch
John Young (29:16):
Within, within like 30 seconds of each other too.
Sevan Matossian (29:19):
And then you have a forced rest after that. And look what happens to the body after a maximal effort and then you’re forced to come down from it is kind of weird. And I was kind of wondering if maybe he wasn’t able to push on that run because of the back to back heavy snatches. His finishes ended up being first and 12th, which I think scores better than Emma’s 10th and second in terms of total points or I think her and second score is better. I mean, so maybe the choice to not go for an extra snatch. So I’m not too worried about our snatch there. So if there was a, any, any perceived hole relative to her other elite fitness. Maybe it’s upper body pressing gymnastics. Well, the upper body pressing say press pressing. Oh yeah. The dumbbell bench and the, and the hand sample.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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