2022 CrossFit Games Men's Predictions

The 2022 CrossFit Games looks like it's going to be one to remember!

Chad is joined by Ian Childs, a local CrossFit fan and sports analyst who sits down and dives into the Men's competition at the 2022 CrossFit Games.

Will Pat Vellner finally take the crown, or will Justin Medeiros continue to hold on?
Will Roman Khrennikov finally make a big splash in his debut on North American soil?
Will we have a change of the guard? Will the young guns emerge and make themselves a household name?

The guys toss out some serious hot takes.
Tune in to find out about podium finishers, Top 10, Dark Horse performance, Breakout performance and Rookie of the year.

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Transcript

Chad [0:00 - 0:15]
Hey everyone. Thanks for tuning in. Just a quick item before we start the pod. I apologize for the sound quality in this episode. We're working a new setup and unfortunately didn't work out so well this time we take quality as a high priority for our listeners and we're sure we fix this moving forward. Thanks again for listening. And I hope you enjoyed the episode

Chad [0:22 - 0:25]
community of members, coaches and professionals, working as a team of like minded individuals

Ian [0:25 - 0:26]
like minded individuals

Chad [0:26 - 0:52]
in constant pursuit, connecting this exclusive group with the tools and resources they require to live a high performance lifestyle, conquering what life has thrown at them. We are living the fit life. Yes. Welcome to Living in fit like podcast, episode 56. I'm your host, chad miller and I'm joined by special guest today in Child's Crossfit Analysis, what you call it,

Ian [0:52 - 0:53]
but they

Chad [0:53 - 0:55]
have many facts. There's nobody

Ian [0:55 - 1:03]
good, glad to be in the Mueller studio over here, live in person. My internet doesn't have to be relied upon as heavily

Chad [1:03 - 1:06]
we

Ian [1:06 - 1:18]
have but no excited. Talk about the crossfit open or crossfit open the crossfit games coming up in a couple of weeks and see what another great season has. I think we're gonna see some great stuff. We'll talk about that coming up.

Chad [1:21 - 1:23]
Yes, yes. Today we

Ian [1:23 - 1:24]
gonna talk about

Chad [1:24 - 1:34]
crossfit games predictions what kind of stories we're gonna see. We're gonna break this down to men Mhm and females. Um

Ian [1:35 - 1:35]
yeah, it's

Chad [1:35 - 1:39]
super exciting, right where I think we're two weeks in.

Ian [1:39 - 2:01]
Yeah, it's two weeks. Two weeks, they'll be in Madison. Everyone's probably wrapping up training camps. getting ready to head down there and I know we're excited. I think it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait to to watch what these guys have and like I was saying, I think this year is gonna be a big turnover year, we're gonna see some pretty cool new faces in the sport and uh I'm looking forward to what they got to offer, See how I'll stack up against their numbers.

Chad [2:02 - 2:03]
Yes,

Ian [2:03 - 2:04]
for sure.

Chad [2:05 - 2:12]
What what what is your 20, Yeah,

Ian [2:12 - 2:30]
2029. They need to open separate divisions. Um somehow I'm gonna squeeze in. I've based on my current fitness, it might take me till 2029 to get myself back into some reasonable shape. So, but you know what? It's a good time of year, summer, Beautiful. You enjoying yourself having a good summer.

Chad [2:30 - 2:36]
Yes, of course, golf season and fitness. Golf

Ian [2:36 - 2:45]
season is fully in the motion right now. I'm loving it chad got me back addicted to it and I'm happy for it. My wife is not.

Chad [2:45 - 2:49]
But yeah,

Ian [2:49 - 2:50]
sounds good.

Chad [2:51 - 2:55]
Alright, well let's do do men's predictions. Let's start off with that

Ian [2:55 - 2:57]
sounds good. Can't wait.

Chad [2:57 - 3:16]
We're just gonna kind of go through talk about podium finishers, top tens, throw, throw a few extra little hot takes in there probably. Um So I think I think first off we should just like throw out The podium, the top five,

Ian [3:16 - 3:18]
top five guys,

Chad [3:18 - 3:20]
Top five guys in order

Ian [3:21 - 3:32]
From one down. Alright, so should we start at five to reverse order so we can come down to our number one Like one at a time. You like that? Alright, so who do you have? Number five?

Chad [3:33 - 3:34]
Okay,

Ian [3:34 - 3:37]
I'll go. Okay.

Chad [3:37 - 3:40]
What is your

Ian [3:41 - 3:58]
I have in 5th. This is one of my takes. I'm gonna take we'll start here. I think Lazar do do do do get I think that's it, that sounds right. He's my number five. I think we're gonna see a bit of a change in which continent is being represented in the top of the sport.

Chad [3:59 - 4:06]
Okay. I mean there's been a lot of talk about the Europeans kind of making a splash this

Ian [4:06 - 4:07]
year. I

Chad [4:07 - 4:20]
mean, I think, I think that euros have always kind of put a spot in the top five, but what was his just pulling up here? Let me see if I can check what place last year.

Ian [4:21 - 4:49]
I just like the fact that it's like his training involves him and his brother big into it, right? I like anytime they have some sort of real reason to compete and what other competition is better than with your brother or your siblings. And so I like that kind of training environment for guys like this. And I also like the whole outsiders mentality that under underdog thing, I think is so powerful in sports. I can't wait for my next guy will talk about in a minute, but I think it's gonna be cool seeing some new faces.

Chad [4:50 - 4:57]
I hear it. Yeah, he was placed 9th last year, so that was pretty solid for first year.

Ian [4:57 - 5:00]
Okay, what do you got? What's your number 5?

Chad [5:00 - 5:10]
Number five, just make up my numbers, right? Yeah, I got Saxon Yeah,

Ian [5:10 - 5:16]
I think one of the pancake, you know what, he's gonna stand up for the family, I think you're gonna see a pancake back up there possibly.

Chad [5:17 - 5:31]
Yeah, I think so. I mean scott's been there for a long time sacks has been with TIA and proven he's been looking pretty good, so pretty Placed 5th last year, so I think he's gonna stay steady. I

Ian [5:31 - 6:07]
think he'll be right there. Alright, My number four who I think is just gonna rock this entire thing because he's just found his way to come over to North America is roman Khrennikov Khrennikov. I think he's coming over with a lot to prove and I think he is going to legitimately light it up. I think he is going to be a big story this entire weekend because he's been hiding behind the iron curtain. Is that what it's called over in like eastern europe or something that he's back there and no one knows what's going on and now this guy's in, I'm telling you, he's going to turn heads for sure,

Chad [6:08 - 6:25]
I love that, I love the excitement. The enthusiasm. I mean I think a lot of people are really excited to see what he can do just nu american audience right? So I mean, yeah, I mean why not

Ian [6:25 - 6:35]
just look to its like Ivan drago in Rocky four who just came over and you knew he was gonna do damage and I feel like romans got the same vibes come over. I think he is here to break people.

Chad [6:36 - 6:40]
I like the reference, I can see that for sure. Yeah,

Ian [6:40 - 6:48]
I want him to go up to Justin at one point and just say I must break you and just like hit him on the ask or something like that. I don't know one of those.

Chad [6:51 - 6:55]
That's great. Alright four

Ian [6:55 - 7:02]
oh that's a that's in my hot takes as well. I have him in here a few times. That name is in here. I think there's gonna be something

Chad [7:02 - 7:14]
you gotta give it up for. You. Got a big um, who have gotten before here and I mean I have to say it's tough to

Ian [7:14 - 7:14]
pick

Chad [7:15 - 7:22]
The top four. Yeah. Yeah, this ain't easy people like we're we're doing the hard work for you

Ian [7:22 - 7:23]
for

Chad [7:23 - 7:32]
sure. Jeff Adler As # one. # four, just missing your reporting.

Ian [7:33 - 7:44]
He had a really strong uh, semifinals. He does look ready to do some damage. He was a name that I definitely played around with, He looks good, he looks strong for sure. Yeah,

Chad [7:44 - 7:45]
sure you finished

Ian [7:45 - 7:46]
13

Chad [7:46 - 8:10]
and he did beat the owner at this. I'm curious on whether you can put through a large weekend at the games, but I mean he's been climbing every year, Every year and he seems like he's one of those guys, I mean he's one of those guys we'll talk about like he's an individual training on his own training camp style, like he's just kind of grinding in his garage.

Ian [8:11 - 8:41]
I always worry for some of these guys who have these awesome performances at the semis because I almost feel like you watched them peaking right in front of your eyes and you're like, is this just too early? And he looked really legit and strong. So I think it's just hard to carry that over another 8, 10 weeks or whatever the time is between. So that was my only concern with him is he just looked so good at the semifinals. I'm like, is this a version of him peeking right now? Is he going to continue to elevate? I don't know, I don't know the answer only. We do only you

Chad [8:41 - 8:48]
do think for

Ian [8:48 - 8:49]
sure he does.

Chad [8:49 - 9:00]
You know, he's give me a gamer for the strength events. Um I don't know. I know it's not really a specialist in anything, but I think it'll do pretty good. I think you can stay in the top

Ian [9:01 - 9:55]
as is always the case, so many of these guys, it's like once the events are announced, some of them just break for these guys right there, just stronger in certain things. Alright. My number three speaking of stronger and performances is the dab king himself, Guillermo eros, I think it's gonna be a podium finisher, he's gonna be top three, I think he's been working now with Rich for a good solid year and you'd think his main focus for Rich would have to just be engine, like all of the mayhem people are known for the G. H. D. S and the grinding and like you think about Haley Adams and what kind of work she loves I think has just been doing that, I think that's kind of work which has probably been focusing on and I really think he's going to make a splash for sure and he's gonna get himself on the podium continuing the climb,

Chad [9:55 - 10:05]
that's a big thing. I considered In the top five and I'm just like, I don't know like, so we know

Ian [10:05 - 10:06]
for sure he's got the

Chad [10:06 - 10:15]
strength of it, he's gonna win maybe a handful events, actually actually won a few events, he's got whatever, I wonder if that's whatever complex he's got down the bank

Ian [10:15 - 10:16]
for sure

Chad [10:16 - 10:24]
and you're right, if if these were done some of the other things, he's a threat for sure man, that would be huge.

Ian [10:24 - 10:42]
I think he could, I just think he's like if he gets rolling early on, he's just such a streaky kind of performer, like he watching me just feeds off the energy of everyone if he just gets going early on the thursday or even the friday night workout, I think he's going to be an absolute load to try and handle for the weekend.

Chad [10:42 - 10:48]
I feel like I stayed a bit closer to traditional

Ian [10:48 - 10:49]
things.

Chad [10:49 - 10:51]
You kind of, that

Ian [10:51 - 10:55]
I can't do this, good for content. I just thought, you know, let's make some splashes.

Chad [10:55 - 11:19]
Yeah. So yeah, so I, I have B K G and third, the guys steady, he's always there. I thought about, but I'm like, well you guys got B K. G, you got like Falkowski, you have guys that have been there all the time and it's so hard to say no to them. So like is just, he just hangs around all weekend.

Ian [11:19 - 11:20]
He's always there

Chad [11:20 - 11:28]
and again, he's my Euro pick on this. Um, so I had to represent a sort of a Euro Euro slash,

Ian [11:28 - 11:32]
you know, it's not a bad choice because B K G just, he continues to do it.

Chad [11:32 - 11:43]
Yeah, for sure finished 4th. So

Ian [11:43 - 12:20]
he's always there. He's always hunting. I and I have him later on, we'll talk about him, but I just think there's gonna be some new guys coming in that are going to really, I think this is a transition year. I think we saw it during like the quarterfinals and semifinals, you're seeing all these new faces and at some point it's gonna happen on the biggest stage because we've been watching these guys, the B K G. S and the and the is for now a number of years And there's these teenage kids who are now 24, years old who are here and they want their moment, they all want their moment and I think it's this looks like it could be a turnover time

Chad [12:22 - 12:25]
for sure. Two

Ian [12:25 - 12:42]
and one, it looks like from here, I did go traditional here, I think the champ is always tough to beat. I think Jesse Medeiros is going to be a second place finisher this year because I think our boy Patty Fellner is going to finally do it. I think felner,

Chad [12:42 - 12:45]
I agree, I

Ian [12:45 - 13:40]
just think is ready. I think this is his moment. I don't even know if this is the right pick, it's just what I want, but I also think if he's gonna do it, this is his year, I don't think he's going to continue to going up, this is going to be as high as the mountaintop is, he's got the experience, which I think does help. Um if he has a couple of bad events to start the weekend, I don't think he's gonna panic. He knows he can chip away and he's just so consistent. Like when you watch him at any of these things, any of the, you know, chipper chipper ones, he just sticks around, he's there high output ones, he's good, he's got good lifting strength, he's just overall, you know, overall, I think he's really strong and I think Medeiros, I haven't seen much from him this year. I don't know, maybe you know maybe a bit cocky, maybe a bit complacent at the top. He just thinks no one's there to beat him and I think someone's gonna knock him off and this might be the wake up call for just that next season. He has a big comeback but I don't think this is here I think is going for

Chad [13:40 - 14:16]
it. Yeah I think I think if you're right it's either gonna happen this year and the owner is not going to finish in the top five or he's gonna take advantage of his quote unquote sort of last peak here and then the changes will happen. I think we're a little advice because I think I think everyone's advice, everyone wants to see the owner finally win. And I think if he wins this year that'll be sort of the top reaches because next year he's getting older the change is happening, it's gonna be even harder and harder. So I think he feels that too and I think he's just gonna go and full send mode.

Ian [14:16 - 14:29]
I think he's going for it and I think as well he has a young kid we know what it's like having kids, it's getting to that point where it's getting harder and I'm sure at some point they're gonna want a second kid. Well it's just gonna get harder and harder for him so I think this is

Chad [14:29 - 14:30]
this

Ian [14:30 - 14:32]
is his window. This is window, I think this is

Chad [14:32 - 14:34]
it. Yeah,

Ian [14:34 - 14:35]
and

Chad [14:35 - 14:39]
yeah, is gonna fall in there some more celebrity house maybe.

Ian [14:40 - 15:14]
Yeah, I don't know. I just don't I wasn't it wasn't easy for him last year when he won. Right? So, I think sometimes you just get breaks and you get through and he's an amazing competitor and he totally rises to the occasion, like when you watch him in the lifting events, and I feel like he is just feeding off that energy in the in the stadium and he's dangerous that way. Kind of like, Guillermo is they both just really feed off the crowd, but I just think Fellner is just so ready and so composed To do this and I wanted to I want to win one.

Chad [15:14 - 15:29]
Well, let me put my because it's related finally takes the top 10, whatever. I don't care, he's gonna get a top 10 finish

Ian [15:29 - 15:31]
and that'll just Yeah,

Chad [15:31 - 15:32]
I

Ian [15:32 - 15:40]
like it. It's been a struggle bust for him for the last few years. So, you'd think he'd figure it out ginger power, You know, it's got to work for him

Chad [15:40 - 15:41]
at some point.

Ian [15:41 - 15:42]
Yeah.

Chad [15:42 - 15:49]
All right. So, I mean, some obvious notable athletes, not in the top five. What? Who's running out your

Ian [15:50 - 16:52]
My top 10? I definitely have Adler in there because I thought Adler was impressive, and I think he's gonna have one of those. These are in no particular order, but I think Adler's gonna be in the top 10 and I think there's gonna be a wake up call for him to maybe like reformat some of his season training because I think he's gonna realize maybe he was a couple of weeks ahead of schedule as far as speaking. Um B K. G. I have up there again. Same reason, I think he's just so steady. I don't think he's going to do anything wrong to fall out of the top five. I just think other guys are gonna rise up to the moment. I just, I can't picture him making mistakes because he does make mistakes. I just think some of these guys do get complacent. They've been here year after year and I think other people are gonna want it more. The hungrier guys, hungry wolves are gonna eat first. Um Jason hopper, I want to see him, I put him on here reluctantly. He hasn't really shown us much, but it's like his breakout, what was it last season or two seasons ago where he showed up two years ago, showed up on the scene and it's just

Chad [16:52 - 16:53]
last

Ian [16:53 - 17:13]
year, he struggled, but it's like when he first showed up and I think those seasons, I think this is an opportunity for him to have a bounce back year after a season last year and he showed a little bit more during the quarterfinals and semis, like he saw his name a few more times in the other child. I, I just want to see him. I think he looks like the kind of guy who could do well in this

Chad [17:13 - 17:14]
sport

Ian [17:15 - 17:16]
um

Chad [17:18 - 17:19]
that you

Ian [17:19 - 17:20]
think that was too much for

Chad [17:20 - 17:25]
him. Like the americans just love the football

Ian [17:25 - 17:25]
player,

Chad [17:26 - 17:33]
good looking dude, wholesome family kind of thing and they just like just jumped all over that.

Ian [17:33 - 17:40]
Yeah, I think, I don't know now my next guy, I don't, I'm gonna say Ricky gerard.

Chad [17:41 - 17:42]
Yes, I,

Ian [17:42 - 18:18]
I think he's gonna do top 10 because I think he is just here to tell everyone to f off like just stop asking questions. Yes, we know what happened to him, We know he got caught using some extra vitamins to help his performance. Um, but you can't fault the guy, he did his paid his dues or did his penalty time and I think he might be able to top 10, do I think there's still shady business, possibly, I'm not gonna put it past the guy, I don't know, but I still think he's found a way, I think he's going to be a top tenor. Um and

Chad [18:18 - 18:23]
well, I mean if he's top five in china, I think the questions will be this guy,

Ian [18:23 - 18:47]
Colton martins is the one with the, the mullet, right. I think martin's, it might be a top tenor just because of the mullet, just throwing them in now because I wish one short, let's do quote Mertens and his mullet make rounding out the top 10 in a surprise tent

Chad [18:47 - 19:32]
Some of the guys you got on top of. So I got Roman in the top 10, I got Ricky, he just missed the top five. I think Ricky these. I think we'll just quietly do take care of business and just prove that he still belongs. Um and that's what I'll do. I think Romans, I think top 10 for Roman would be a huge win. Um And I think even like a six or seven, a huge book. Um And the other two I got I have rookie dallin pepper. Yes, I see that he's a monster the rig shaker. Um I noticed from your list you dropped at the top 10 right there. I think he's still,

Ian [19:32 - 19:37]
I don't know if he's hungry anymore. Just looks like he's just happy doing olympic lifting in his garage.

Chad [19:38 - 20:11]
I think he always figures out a way to perform so well in competition to clutch like during my competition. I think that's where he has a huge as sort of it. Here's the edge on a lot of veterans roman Ricky. They've been in a competition for a while. Down cover hasn't been on the stage Even like even on flipping the top five and being there somehow. Sure. So it's like can we see three Canadians?

Ian [20:12 - 20:27]
I know I just worried because the last last year Falkowski it kinda when I was watching him like I guess he's done. I think he's okay Just like running a personal training gym in B. C. Or something like that.

Chad [20:27 - 20:29]
I

Ian [20:29 - 20:33]
know I just I don't know but anyway he's in he's on my list somewhere else.

Chad [20:33 - 20:58]
Okay. Okay. All right so I mean that's your option. I think that's somewhat consistent first. I mean I think there's a few edge cases there. Um Yeah I want to go back to like when you were coming together before like who's your dark horse? Pick someone that's gonna sort of someone has a chance to just you know just just

Ian [20:58 - 21:54]
who we were talking about who I call fit kowski instead of Tchaikovsky. Um I think he could mess up the leader board. I know that's not really a dark horse. He's been there before. Yeah my leaderboard. I just think there's a chance. Yeah he can still hang around because he's been here before he knows what's going on. He knows the ins and outs and he can maybe come to form. I also did take from one from one from your list with dallin pepper. I think there's always room for that really young guy. I know I have other young guys on my list but down Pepper does look like maybe he's ready to make a little noise. I just think again you were talking about overhype with hopper. I think Dallin Pepper we've been hearing his name for a number of years in the lookout this teenager he's gonna go elite field and I think he has to get a bit of an eye opening experience that first time in the main field, but that doesn't rule out the fact that he might come in and just, you know, like the house on fire a little bit.

Chad [21:55 - 22:16]
Yeah, he's the guy that's not, didn't like win any of them, but again, he's a big guy, like, like they're all sort of like uh he seems like he's kind of going off, trying to build like a mr consistent vibe and just kind of study and just, I

Ian [22:16 - 22:28]
like how he's carrying himself to write, like he's not overly hyping himself, he's just quietly doing his business, which I think is always a good way to start, instead of coming in with flags and sirens raising kind of like Guillermo?

Chad [22:28 - 23:12]
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got, I got to talk about Saxon, I think they're both gonna surprise people this year with some, some high, like they're gonna place higher than people give them credit for, and I think they're gonna be like, their top five, Top 10 finishes, it's gonna mess up the leader board because you know, both of those guys can beat all those guys can beat in the workout. So like if you if you're beating you know the podium guys, like if you're beating those guys, I think that makes a huge difference. So I think those two guys would really kind of make it, make the a little more interesting

Ian [23:13 - 23:13]
for sure,

Chad [23:14 - 23:26]
little steady, steady guys. That's what scott right to always be there and he would always insert himself where between

Ian [23:26 - 23:28]
Absolutely! For sure

Chad [23:29 - 23:43]
I'm gonna throw this, just didn't realize that. But with both of our picks, I think going back to what you were saying about Madero, I do think

Ian [23:44 - 23:44]
so

Chad [23:45 - 23:49]
a non american Will win for the first time since 2000

Ian [23:49 - 23:51]
nine. I

Chad [23:51 - 24:02]
Did some research on this. I was like looking back and like when was the last time an American happened? We had Frazier phoning. It goes back to 2009. Nico sailor was the last non-American to win in Medfield.

Ian [24:02 - 24:04]
I 100% agree.

Chad [24:04 - 24:12]
So if it's not, is it the kg, is it ki is it Ricky? Is it roman?

Ian [24:12 - 24:13]
Yeah, because

Chad [24:13 - 24:17]
Really if you look at the top 10, we have Medeiros and we have Saxon,

Ian [24:17 - 24:44]
right? Yeah. And then everyone else is international for sure. That was one of my hot takes here is I think it's just going to be an international show this year Throughout the top 10, you're gonna get the American on the men's side. You're going to get the red, white and blue flags a couple of times in the top 10, but I don't think it's gonna be six or seven of the guys. I think there's international flavors coming to the crossfit world starting this year. For

Chad [24:44 - 24:59]
sure. I've thrown my hot takes over but it just feels appropriate because we were not mentioning another big american name, which is Olson and I didn't think he falls. I

Ian [24:59 - 25:08]
know, I thought that's a hot take for sure. I think he definitely is like, I love it, don't get me wrong, I love him falling out of the top 20. Yeah,

Chad [25:08 - 25:09]
like last year he'll

Ian [25:09 - 25:14]
have to go back to the shire and live with the other habits once this is over.

Chad [25:15 - 25:29]
Yeah, I mean, uh, cole Sager is still around mayors around uh cole

Ian [25:29 - 25:33]
Sager is here just for like a final curtain call. I think there's no way that guys competing,

Chad [25:36 - 25:38]
they're still there. So I think that,

Ian [25:39 - 25:42]
yeah, I agree.

Chad [25:42 - 25:46]
Which would be his first time outside of

Ian [25:47 - 25:58]
I don't hate it. I just think like we were saying earlier the sport is turning over, there is a lot of young people coming in and it's going to happen

Chad [25:58 - 26:02]
Dodgers. So give me your performer based flash.

Ian [26:02 - 26:20]
I think it's gonna be roman. I think roman coming over with some hype. People are expecting something from him. But I think this is gonna be like, think about when Guillermo two years ago when he had his first thing and all of a sudden he was huge. He was everywhere. You see him snatching three,

Chad [26:20 - 26:21]
15, you

Ian [26:21 - 26:23]
know, last year was, I

Chad [26:23 - 26:25]
think it was

Ian [26:25 - 26:59]
last year's first game and that's where he did the snatch. So think about that moment, like as, as you were watching that happen last year, you were like, oh this guy is here, this is it. He that is the definition of breakout and I think roman is going to come and I think it is going to, I honestly think it's gonna be a bit of his weekend. I think he's gonna be a big part of the story because people know about him but haven't seen him perform on the stage and I think he is going to rise up to all of the hype or not even the hype all of like the mystery surrounding him I guess. I think he's gonna be amazing.

Chad [26:59 - 27:04]
I mean, yeah, I mean media team play the the Russian.

Ian [27:04 - 27:07]
Absolutely, absolutely.

Chad [27:07 - 27:22]
The media loves making story. I agree with you. That story line will be, He's gonna be top 20. So you know, he's gonna be in every event last year. Can he get himself into the last heat in the last day? Yeah, you think so?

Ian [27:22 - 27:40]
I think so and that's it. I think he's just gonna come in guns blazing. Like if he has one of those first couple events and he has a performance, puts himself there in the conversation. I think then he gets in people's head because no one knows him again. He's like Ivan drago another same same reference. They didn't know what was going on with him. I think the same thing is going on.

Chad [27:41 - 27:49]
Yeah, I can agree with that. I think he's not a specialist anyway, but I think a greedy workout or

Ian [27:50 - 27:50]
sort

Chad [27:50 - 27:50]
of a standard.

Ian [27:55 - 27:56]
Yeah, for sure.

Chad [27:57 - 28:01]
Yeah. Just crushing and getting a big one. Mhm That's awesome.

Ian [28:01 - 28:09]
And just keeping that name going, you said rookie of the year. I think Roman wins rookie of the year two. I just think he I think honestly, I think there's gonna be a big weekend for him, which is great.

Chad [28:09 - 28:12]
You're hard on. I

Ian [28:12 - 28:22]
think this I think this is gonna be a big, just from the little bits that you see of him. I think he's here for it. We have to look it

Chad [28:22 - 28:25]
up, you

Ian [28:25 - 28:25]
know, romans

Chad [28:25 - 28:48]
yet. I sort of put roman here with a question mark because I was wondering like is he a rookie? But I guess like he is a rookie. He's been around for so long. It's for sports so he has it somewhat of an advantage there for sure. The only other one I was thinking it was Pepper. I don't, I personally don't think

Ian [28:49 - 28:54]
just one.

Chad [28:55 - 28:56]
I don't think it's gonna be a

Ian [28:57 - 29:02]
okay, I don't think it will either. Then if that's the case, I'll have to check into

Chad [29:02 - 29:02]
that.

Ian [29:04 - 29:06]
Yeah, I think he's

Chad [29:06 - 29:29]
uh okay. I wanted to ask you more about the training camps. Like we talked about a few athletes here. We've talked about Kowski, we've talked about. Uh huh. I don't know. I think Ricky Ricky Like there's a bunch of guys in our top 10 that are individual

Ian [29:29 - 29:30]
training on their

Chad [29:30 - 29:31]
own versus sort

Ian [29:31 - 29:42]
of the team. Well, right, so I think he gets pulled in by Michelle into like a pretty tight group when they get close,

Chad [29:43 - 29:58]
I think has been over here training with some folks training camp, he's

Ian [29:58 - 30:00]
just got a bunch of daughters telling him what to

Chad [30:00 - 30:08]
do. What are your thoughts like you, you

Ian [30:08 - 31:42]
do see them all, if you watch them on social and everything, you do see them kind of coming into little crews, usually the closer they get to the event, but there are still some, you know, some wolves, some lone wolves out there. I think the training camp think is key because having those moments to compete during your training obviously is really important and if you're competing against other people who are going to be a threat to you, maybe on the stage. My one concern with training in those team environments is it becomes, I think it takes a special person to be able to flip the switch and be super competitive with your colleagues essentially you've been training with. So it might get a little fun when you're just having some fun with your buddies on a big stage where I like the guys coming in who are truly do feel like outsiders. I always love the underdog or the outsider storyline in any sport and I think the same is true in crossfit. I think it's such a powerful motivator to think that no one respects you or that you don't belong here or any of those things and I think some of these guys, it is a bit of a love fest, they're just chummy and hugging this and that where they talked about this in the NBA like Michael Jordan wasn't high fiving and hugging his opponents if he lost, if he loses, he walked off and start to think about how to get better. So I, I love as far as being a fan of the sport, I love the training camps because you get to see all of them together. One thing, it's great to watch them all going, but there's still something threatening about these guys who train kind of in secret in a garage alone with only a picture of their competitor on a mirror in front of them or something like that. So

Chad [31:42 - 32:25]
yeah, Valerie because he's part of a training program, but he lives on his own and he said that they tried it with new very few different people, he said that it was hard to flip the switch competing or staying at the level you're supposed to train out. So like if Newberry goes a little faster, then competitive will go faster and then all of a sudden you're outside of your train sort of protocol and now you're competing, training. So yeah, it would be tough and that's what Frazier said right, like I will not train with another man always, it seems like is doing the same thing with freedom.

Chad [32:29 - 32:30]
I

Ian [32:30 - 32:40]
think it is. Ellie turner turner is with deck I think and moose burger. She might be there too. Yeah.

Chad [32:40 - 32:44]
Against some of your

Ian [32:45 - 32:46]
right in a couple of

Chad [32:46 - 32:48]
weeks you

Ian [32:48 - 32:58]
do have to learn to hate them and I think it's like when you see the footage of them hard training day and then they're playing that night together around the table. I just don't I think you're losing your edge a little bit there.

Chad [32:58 - 33:00]
Okay, so what else? We can hear any other

Ian [33:00 - 33:31]
politics? Yeah. Which I said hot takes internationally said that Madeira's this is my one Hot take. I had him on my podium up above, but I think a hot take might be he finishes out of the top three. I haven't finishing second, but I feel like there that's a possibility. And my last one is Guillermo breaks out a new cellie instead of dabbing after his saying something new comes, everyone tells him it's time to come up with something new. Maybe he dabs the other way, I don't know, but something new. I knew sally coming from Guillermo.

Chad [33:32 - 33:48]
Okay, I like it. I mean, I mean let's go back to the real house. Maderas jumping or falling out of the top three. I mean with what we talked about, there's enough competitors that we can envision on the podium questions, you know,

Ian [33:48 - 33:51]
that's it. I feel like I believe in

Chad [33:52 - 34:05]
like I didn't think he was gonna. Yeah, I still always thought that every time tried to sort of attack overcoat Yeah,

Ian [34:05 - 34:05]
is right

Chad [34:05 - 34:07]
there. Yeah,

Ian [34:07 - 34:08]
that's and that's

Chad [34:10 - 34:12]
for sure. Yeah,

Ian [34:12 - 34:44]
that's true. I just think again Madero is amazing And I think he is probably gonna be top three. I just wanted to come up with some nice content, but I think there's a chance that if a couple of these new guys catch fire, that's all I'm banking on is I'm really leaning on this new blood kind of thing happening this year and I think at any time if you get these new guys in anything is possible because if they just get, you know that excitement or that confidence going then they just get dangerous really quickly.

Chad [34:46 - 35:11]
So I was gonna ask you about the games and stuff like so any thoughts on what sort of the, the premier event is gonna be like last year was match was pretty big because of the moment. We didn't talk about that other dude, the kid, I think everyone's pretty sure that he's gonna any

Ian [35:11 - 35:14]
strength, well any any olympic lifting event kind of thing. Like if it's a

Chad [35:14 - 35:16]
complex,

Ian [35:17 - 36:37]
but they don't seem as clean right, like I don't think you've even seen Guillermo pushed in those events because he's just put an extra weight on the bar for the fans but never put himself in doubt like even when you watch them do the complex at the semi finals this year that he easily won, it didn't look like he was under pressure really to do that. So I don't even know we, I don't think we have seen the upper limits of what he can actually do. So if you have some of these new young guys coming in pushing the weights on the bar higher, I think all of a sudden you just see Guillermo show even more of what he's capable of because when you watch him, even if you watch some of the Youtube videos where it's actual olympic lifting guys watching his videos, they all pick apart every single crossfit guy and then when he goes, they say, oh, that's an actual, just a lifter who's doing crossfit, not a crossfit or trying to lift. So again, I think the big events always are the in the stadium at night, that's the saturday night, I think, right, And I don't know, we just had, you know, they did a max snatch last year, they did that big clean um complex at the semifinals. So I don't think it's gonna be another complex, but maybe we, we had the crossfit total last year, right? I think that was it. So clean and jerk will be cool.

Chad [36:38 - 36:42]
I almost want to see them bring back the max or red squad.

Ian [36:43 - 36:44]
Okay,

Chad [36:44 - 36:55]
I think fraser's first games, quarterfinals,

Ian [36:55 - 37:11]
quarterfinals, there was, that was part of it. They had that weird total, that was overhead squat bench with your back on the bench and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, I don't know what the, I don't know what the big event is gonna be, you gotta remember it's got to it has to be contained in the stadium, right? So it's gonna be

Chad [37:11 - 37:16]
the complexes seem to be the training thing everyone's doing. Yeah,

Ian [37:17 - 37:18]
yeah, maybe

Chad [37:21 - 37:21]
interesting.

Ian [37:21 - 37:45]
Yeah, I love it. I'm looking forward actually. I've seen that they're thinking about moving the games out of Madison right, doing a bit of a rotation. I think that'll be cool spreading it out a little bit but watching it in Madison because it's so familiar now and you know, all these venues, it is really fun knowing it's like all right, here we are, saturday night, let's do this. So I always love it. I love the games every year. It's always fun to watch.

Chad [37:46 - 38:16]
Yeah. Yeah. I know the family like a permit. I think w a long bike ride some sort on the first day. I think they're doing Wednesday and friday saturday sunday for the individuals. Uh huh. So yeah, so I'm curious and it's, we didn't talk about this, but this is the first year X day Castro, right? Dave Castro's watching Adrian, I mean I could bring it up that can bring a whole new, that has changed everything or I mean he's kind of been a a second

Ian [38:16 - 38:16]
second.

Chad [38:17 - 38:25]
So I mean I think he's going to stay consistent. It does, but right.

Ian [38:25 - 39:08]
I think you have to kind of Dave has built, I don't think you can change the legacy of the sport in one year if they want to move away from what Castro has done, they'll have to do it over a couple of years. So you're gonna have to, you know, have some parts of it. I would love to just see a triathlon straight up, just a sprint triathlon to start where it's swim bike run, get those out of the way and it's, you know, if you have it, if the distances are right, it's just a full red line sprint event, swim as hard as you can bike as hard as you can. You can even do it on a concept to one of the bikers if you want and then even do the run on a air runner kind of thing and just have it all right there. They did that actually one of the semi finals, there was something like that

Chad [39:08 - 39:09]
where they

Ian [39:09 - 39:28]
water pollution. That's right. They swam from the one venue to the other and then Yeah, yeah, the rowing, That's right, the rowing and the running, wasn't it? So I would love to just see that straight up, just put these guys in a dry grace against each other and make them red line three, it's almost like a modern, an acid bath kind of thing, right? Just go for it. I love

Chad [39:28 - 39:32]
it,

Ian [39:32 - 39:34]
Yeah, that's right.

Chad [39:34 - 40:14]
Love it, awesome. And this has been cool. This is sort of the guys and we're gonna break down the ladies in a little bit, but you'll stay tuned today on the next episode to listen to that. So super excited. The games super excited. I mean, again, since Frasier is kind of left, I think the men's skill has become more exciting. It always has felt that the ladies was the more excited. I feel just like freaking them out. I feel like, like you said, there's a lot of the new characters going to play the battle of, I think it's a man's game and I think it's super exciting and

Ian [40:14 - 40:22]
I think that's valuable. I think it's good to not know who's gonna win just knowing already picking your second place person got kind of boring after a while,

Chad [40:22 - 40:25]
right? And we're gonna talk with that. Yeah,

Ian [40:25 - 40:26]
for sure we will,

Chad [40:26 - 40:32]
awesome. Well, thanks for listening, appreciate it. And we'll talk