2022 CrossFit Games Debrief

The 2022 CrossFit Games didn't disappoint! Adrian Bozman showed us a new flair for the games. What a weekend it was! Non-stop entertainment. Tia-Clair Toomey continues to establish her dominance, and Justin Medeiros racks up another top spot as Fittest of the year!

Chad is joined again by Ian Childs, a local CrossFit fan and sports analyst, as they dive into their hot takes, predictions and podium finishers. The guys review the Men's and Women's divisions and also put their spin on the overall games experience and test.

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Transcript

Chad [0:24 - 0:32]
Welcome to podcast, episode 58 This is the crossfit debrief with Ian Child's. What a weekend buddy. What a weekend.

Ian [0:32 - 0:49]
What a weekend. I just loved it the whole weekend I was I feel like in the past I've always kept up with the events through the weekend but I felt like it was must watch Tv because you did not know what was gonna happen. The tests were challenging and pushing these guys. I loved it.

Chad [0:50 - 1:23]
Yeah, I love it, must watch TV00%. That's I think I heard that from a few different people I've talked to like they they missed the event because they're busy. They didn't want to check the leaderboard, they don't want to check their messages, wanted to go back and watch it for themselves, they see it, see it out, so must watch Tv for any sort of fitness enthusiasts doesn't even matter like you don't need to be crossfit. I saw I had a few friends that are on the outskirts of Crossfit and they were still somewhat interested maybe because of the mixed model sort of fitness test with the endurance stuff and they had other other strongman stuff so I think it was pretty cool entertaining weekend for sure.

Ian [1:23 - 1:32]
Absolutely, I think it was great for the sport. I think it was just, it really broadened everything out a little bit, which was going to grab some more interest from other places.

Chad [1:33 - 1:48]
Yeah, and yeah, looking at our, our list, I hope that most people listen to this, listen to our hot take episodes for female and then I think we were pretty close on a few, we had a few hot takes that are a little bit out there, but I think we nailed a few,

Ian [1:48 - 2:12]
I think we definitely nailed a few and like going over our top tens even I think for both of us we had six or seven of the 10 athletes, they might not have been in the right order, but we knew who was going to kind of be there, but even within the athletes that were right, it was just the way that some of them got to these positions that were just wild and we'll talk about Laura Horvath later, but she looked out of it until saturday afternoon, like it looked like it was over

Chad [2:12 - 2:13]
for her and

Ian [2:13 - 2:14]
then you see where she finished, it was amazing.

Chad [2:14 - 2:28]
Yeah, yeah. Where you, at the start of the weekend, like freaking out like, what is this leaderboard? Because like for I would say half of the competition, the leaderboard was strange or like really, really different from previous years.

Ian [2:29 - 2:55]
Yeah, I think I was genuinely excited because of Emma, like, I didn't think Emma was going to be in a podium spot and then watching her up until saturday being in third, I thought was incredible and just exciting for us locally as well, it was just great, she was unbelievable. Um so that was exciting, and then you're like, oh Horvath though in 12th or 13th at the time, and you just, you didn't know when that was gonna happen, but the fact that she still found a way to be

Chad [2:55 - 2:57]
there, she

Ian [2:57 - 3:01]
was amazing on saturday night and sunday, she was unbelievable.

Chad [3:02 - 3:44]
Yeah, but yeah, I think like, I mean, yeah, I don't know how to steal this conversation, but I think we can just get into it really, because like, I think the order of events was interesting um because I think the order of events dictated the leader board a little bit, because I think at the start, the leaderboard looked a little different than what we're used to, it wasn't very much crossfit specific, there was a lot of specialty events and a bit more endurance events, there's a lot of different things and then later in the week it became more heavy, right? Which leverages some of the athletes and so it was interesting to see a different schedule of events and I think Bose did that purposely to be different from cash through in previous years,

Ian [3:45 - 4:02]
I think if he did do it purposely that was really cool because there was just a shake up on the leaderboards because of how he uh format of the weekend and how I feel bad for Haley Adams, I was really excited for Haley Adams where she was, she looked like she was in a great spot and then she

Chad [4:03 - 4:03]
the

Ian [4:03 - 4:07]
heavy heavy stuff again got in her way. So

Chad [4:07 - 4:08]
but

Ian [4:08 - 4:27]
everything else up to that point, we talked in the last episodes about if the events broke for certain athletes that they would have a better chance and I felt when the weekend started, I was like, this is this is Haley's shot for sure. Um But yeah, anyway, let's I think we should go right into the females first because that's obviously we're talking mostly

Chad [4:27 - 5:13]
about alright. Yeah, well, I mean Tia again, her her sixth, I think some people might have had doubts in my opinion. I was never in doubt. I I always felt even though she wasn't leading in the first day or so, which was a little strange for some people, I think it's a little strange that goes back to the order events because I think if you flipped sunday and Wednesday, she's first, all weekend long, Laura's second and they're duking it out in the storyline is completely different. But like Tia dominated. She only took two event wins, which I mean, I guess is a little bit subpar for her, but I don't think she was out of the top five much at all. I think her biggest finish, which was that interesting skill work out where she tripped up on a single

Ian [5:13 - 5:15]
under on

Chad [5:15 - 5:28]
The 74th rep of 75 and she had to start again, so she took 23rd, but outside of that, like she was consistent as always, she basically made it interesting for us because she tripped up on a single under

Ian [5:28 - 5:30]
right, you know what?

Chad [5:30 - 5:31]
But

Ian [5:31 - 6:11]
she did, but you almost for the first time ever sensed panic in her. It was after the second day they interviewed her and Tia who's usually pretty like, you know, you know all the girls are doing great, I'm really proud of everyone. She was a bit spicy in the interview and you could tell she was ready for a different weekend than she'd ever experienced and I think we got that from her, but I think to say that there wasn't a little bit of doubt in her mind would have been an understatement. I think she definitely had some fear when she's like, who are these other people who are taking me down and why am I faltering? Like I am So

Chad [6:12 - 6:48]
yeah, she was spicy for sure and I didn't, it seemed weird because I didn't like the way she was handling herself the first few days because like usually she put it like some sort of video on youtube of the day, they put instagram post, there was like very, there's nothing from her team. She was basically like as soon as the event was done, she was off the floor and then that and then she sort of throws the f bomb done down to kind of just clarify war, but like and then and then and then after she gets the leader's jersey, guess what she's doing? She's high fiving people, she's she's doing all the stuff that we're not really used to, but when she wasn't wearing that jersey, she looks happy. She

Ian [6:48 - 7:15]
did not look like someone who's gonna be approachable for the new people being like, hey, where do I go after the event? She was not gonna be helping anybody out. That was for sure. And it was so different. And I think she you said you never doubted it. I had a moment where I was like, she might not win, there might be a chance that she's second, but I just didn't know. It was just surprising her reaction and I felt like you could almost sense her panic, which then it made me think maybe she maybe something's going on

Chad [7:15 - 7:45]
that we don't know and the different athletes, like, overall this year there's so many different event winners. Like there wasn't one like matt fraser Dominy, there wasn't like the only one to events lower 12 events, Like winning two events is not a huge thing for uh Tia, like she usually has like five or six, right? So like the diversity of different individual athletes competing against her and taking the win was really cool. It almost looked like a like the ladies versus

Ian [7:52 - 8:37]
um I'm looking back at some of our hot takes and one of our hot takes was Tia will only win one or two events and other stars will dominate and that is exactly what happened. I just it was it was amazing. It was better for the weekend I think because every every event, someone else was going to get a moment and I think it's so valuable, especially with the opportunities for sponsorship money for these guys for winning winning events. Um you know that it's like when you watch the Tour de France, there's always a guy who shoots himself to the front of the pack who's not going to win because he needs his time on tv for sponsorships and it's the same with these guys, you're giving these other athletes an opportunity to have that moment on tv to be interviewed after the event and you know, share some love with all the people in there

Chad [8:37 - 8:38]
and I think, I

Ian [8:38 - 8:41]
think, I think it's so cool that it was a variety of, we

Chad [8:41 - 9:26]
also talked about the rookies, we also talked about like the young generation coming in and it's and it's like, I mean, I think that was that wasn't no hot take, I think everyone expected the young guns that kind of come in because I mean the sport is getting younger, like carl Saunders is one of the oldest, she is not old, but she's up there. Um but yeah, like Emma mao Alexis raptor gets a win like like this like and Emma and even Haley, I mean everyone doesn't really talk about him because he's been there a few years but like those three athletes if Tia retires is it seems like she is or she said she didn't say she is, what someone else said, she is, but if you look at Hayley Mellon, Emma, we are basically looking at The three ladies going head to head for the next 5, 10 years.

Ian [9:28 - 9:28]
Yeah,

Ian [9:34 - 9:37]
yeah, you know what, as we're talking about now

Chad [9:37 - 9:38]
mal

Ian [9:38 - 9:41]
actually was so impressive and I think the reason

Chad [9:41 - 9:42]
I loved her

Ian [9:42 - 10:26]
performance was it wasn't flashy, it wasn't showy, she just was always there and even in events when it got when the, when the sandbags got heavy and like the events got really heavy implements, I thought she may fall by the wayside a little bit kind of like we saw Emma looked like she kind of the the weekend got her down and the weight started getting her down but mouth just showing her her brand, the hard work pays off brand and just the grittiness and the fact that she was, she was very impressive and I don't even think she was talked that much about the whole games as soon as as soon as Tia got the leader's jersey, it was all the T a story and to be honest before that the story was Emma lawson

Chad [10:26 - 10:26]
like

Ian [10:26 - 10:30]
she was getting a lot of she was there and it was

Chad [10:30 - 10:52]
just it was like a head to head versus mouth thing. Um it definitely felt like Mel and Emma are grouped together with Haley and Gabby and Laura and like the next gen we're going to take care of like the sport after he is gone. But we're still not gonna be able to be to, you know, she's the goat, but we'll be happy to to fight for first next year.

Ian [11:00 - 11:06]
Yeah, I think it's gonna be a great battle next year for mm l and honestly, I

Chad [11:06 - 11:07]
this is one of

Ian [11:07 - 11:08]
my heartaches.

Chad [11:08 - 11:09]
Do

Ian [11:09 - 11:46]
we think Haley's gonna stick with Rich? She's now had three seasons. I think with Mayhem, she is a better athlete for it. But has she addressed her weaknesses enough over three years? Like she when you watched her run, she looks like a runner when you watch her do any of the cardio stuff, She is unbelievable. But she was getting mangled by the heavy stuff again. I know Rich can't do anything about her slow build to build the strength, but she's now tried three years with them and these athletes do change coaches. I think there might be a switch. I think she may

Chad [11:46 - 11:47]
jump from

Ian [11:47 - 11:48]
Mayhem. I don't know where she looks like

Chad [11:49 - 12:37]
she's a great runner and now this year, like she looked even better like she looks like but like this is a thing like that last workout, the One of the really heavy front squats and dead lifts, she couldn't, that was would have been like a pr clean by like £25 I think Hayley has hit her ceiling and strength like she her body type isn't going to be a strong body type, right? Like built different than Haley and Haley will always benefit from the insurance. I think the sport and the numbers like the strong heavy numbers, you know, there's always gonna be two or three events that required to be strong and I don't think Hillary is ever gonna win those, can she still win the games without that? That's one of the questions, but you have to be so much strong, I just don't think

Ian [12:37 - 12:38]
she's got

Chad [12:38 - 12:42]
that and she's ever gonna get that, it's just you know, it's just not in the cards.

Ian [12:48 - 13:00]
I was really one thing that said, you know, we say this because she has been here for so long, but she is 21 or 22 like these are prime strength building years, so there is a chance you might see it, but I agree, I think she

Chad [13:00 - 13:01]
did the best,

Ian [13:01 - 13:26]
she couldn't striking when the iron was hot and took the events that she was supposed to take or be right by the top. Um I just felt, yeah, it was actually, I didn't you love that moment where they interviewed her after and said, so what's it gonna feel like wearing the leader's jersey and she's like, I literally haven't even thought about that. Yeah, that was great. You realize how young they are when they get these moments on camera and

Chad [13:27 - 14:18]
obviously start with the endurance. She came out hot with one of the one bike event, but she sort of stumbled but she ended up still top five, like she was pretty consistent, but then that handstand work out, she just got crushed, which again, it's just like going back to Haley, right, there's these athletes other than Tia don't have like most of them have one or two weaknesses, right? And usually there's an event that just takes that and you're just gonna get crumbled, you know, someone like Emma doesn't, we're not really sure what her weaknesses yet, but like even Tia with overhead some of the overhead stuff with the dips, like she seemed a little bit struggling that, but like Laura has such a weakness with the handstands, it's unfortunate but outside of that, like she just kept getting better as the week progressed and that's probably just maturity and just like being there and basically she's podium every time she's been at the games, it's impressive.

Ian [14:24 - 15:16]
Yeah, that is impressive. I will say for Emma who Emma, if you listen to this, you were so great. My kids were instantly Emma fans because they knew she was from town and now want to meet Emma and it's all, you know, she's made a big impression on some young people in the region, I hope she realizes that um I don't know if it was the weekend got to her because it was did seem really long, it seemed longer this year than it has in previous years. Um but on the sandbag night you saw a moment where she reached for her lower back and after that moment I felt like the air seemed to blow out of the balloon a little bit and I don't, I would be interested to know if something if she tweaked anything because even the next day when you watched her doing the cleans and the dead lifts, she actually struggled with the yolk, but the yolk was huge, like a lot of athletes struggled with that

Chad [15:16 - 15:17]
yolk,

Ian [15:17 - 15:30]
but then when you watch her on the cleans and the dead lift, she was being very, very careful with everything doing single, stepping back, taking a break and I was starting to wonder if maybe there's a little tweak, um that happened, but I still

Chad [15:30 - 15:31]
think that

Ian [15:31 - 15:34]
she should be so proud of herself, it was an amazing

Chad [15:34 - 16:42]
The first few days and like just coming out of nowhere where in the leader's Jersey, a 17 year old first like that, that those first few days were really impressive, but yet they always talk about like the full test, right, and like the experience, athletes are always like, there's a ton of time left, there's a ton of events left. They always talk about, you know, sunday is like a whole another level, right? And It I think that's really just just experience and just like longevity, right? Like there's a lot of fitness and she's 17. Like if you put those heavy Midline type workouts at the end of the day, they're gonna crush a lot of people. So like her last, her last four events were 15th, 10th, 33rd and 24. So like a completely different, you know, if that those events were at the start, then she's, you know, she's at the bottom somewhere. She just climbs eventually, but she doesn't get the same attention. So like I think she did amazing kudos Emma. And Yeah, just just yeah, she's she's the future. I mean she's 17, so she's going to get stronger in the next every year. She's stronger and she's gonna be every single year and she's such a great ambassador for the sport. So it's super awesome.

Chad [16:46 - 16:47]
Yes,

Ian [16:48 - 17:18]
absolutely. I do want to switch over to someone you mentioned before, Gabby, my gala. We knew that crew from, we knew that crew from me, Orca, their little secret, Gabby Magallon Jacqueline Dahlstrom, Sola said daughter, what's her name? Sola, I can't remember the last, I can't remember how to say your last name, Those three, all three of them. Well, Gabby, especially, I think Gabby something we're overlooking. I I was getting so frustrated. Like where are

Chad [17:18 - 17:22]
you? Like you're supposed to come here and talk about like the Euro is taking

Ian [17:22 - 17:23]
over and she was like her and

Chad [17:23 - 17:29]
laura, in my opinion, we're going to lead the charge and like I saw laura kind of pick up some momentum. Gabby got an event

Ian [17:29 - 17:30]
in at

Chad [17:30 - 17:41]
the capitol, it was capital. Yeah. Um But I was just like, man, I want so much. She got like 27th and the 30th and I'm just like, come on Gary, let's go.

Ian [17:46 - 18:04]
But when you see she was able to do everything, like the way she handled the heavy implements, it will look like Laura Horvath, but in a smaller frame, right? But then you watch, she's agile enough to do some of the other things. I'm like, wow, she is going to be exciting

Chad [18:04 - 18:05]
I think over the next few years.

Ian [18:08 - 18:11]
Yeah. And I will take a moment to say,

Chad [18:12 - 18:13]
I

Ian [18:13 - 18:48]
will say that Jacqueline, Dahlstrom, saturday night sandbag, that was one of the most impressive physical feats I have ever watched. And when you watched her and Danny Spiegel sitting side by side on the bench waiting for the next bags, the actual difference in their size and stature was comical. It looked like there was tv camera tricks and she was unbelievable and watching all the other girls when they kept doing shots of the other girls watching her and they all were just astounded that this tiny little stick of dynamite continued to make her

Chad [18:48 - 18:49]
way through. It

Ian [18:49 - 18:50]
was awesome

Chad [18:51 - 19:20]
and how they were even like nick Matthew like he was quite successful versus like someone like but like Yeah, for sure like Danny, I mean she got her moment like she's a fan favorite for sure. I know she's, I know some people have different thoughts but like she's a fan favorite for sure and she brings a lot of life to the games and she had her moments saturday night like she made that look insanely easy. I think she could have went to more bags probably and

Ian [19:22 - 19:23]
I think so too.

Chad [19:25 - 19:34]
It was impressive. She was lifting, it was over £100 of body body weight, like £100 of body weight, which is in

Ian [19:39 - 19:48]
Yeah. Yes. They said she's 64 kg or something and she was lifting 120 years. I was just incredible.

Chad [19:52 - 19:52]
Yeah.

Ian [19:56 - 20:10]
Honestly, that was one of my favorite moments when I first heard it, I was like sandbags. Really? How good is this gonna be? Um this is getting into one of my other I guess like picking nits if you want to talk about that is I think they need to improve

Chad [20:10 - 20:11]
the, the

Ian [20:11 - 20:35]
watchability of this. They need to find a way where they have cameras on every athlete and then you, the viewer get to pick who you want to watch. Like imagine being able to pick 1234 athletes and then you get little cameras on each of those people because we got a lot of footage of Tia or whoever the leaders were and then you might get a flash to someone else you want to watch. But in the sandbag, those first few rounds when they had five guys and five girls wide,

Chad [20:36 - 20:36]
they

Ian [20:36 - 20:57]
would zoom in and do like a close up shot on the person in the middle and you would just miss some of these lifts, right? Um so yeah, I was worried about the event, it didn't feel like it was going to be the same as a barbell, but when we got further and further into it, it was awesome. And when they, with the guys, when they rolled out the secret bag with the weight covered up on it, that was it

Chad [20:57 - 20:59]
was yeah,

Ian [20:59 - 20:59]
it

Chad [20:59 - 21:01]
was, I

Ian [21:01 - 21:01]
was so

Chad [21:01 - 21:03]
impressed with

Ian [21:03 - 21:06]
the fact that it did hold up the excitement of last year's snatch

Chad [21:06 - 21:07]
event because

Ian [21:07 - 21:11]
I was like, is this going to be as good? But

Chad [21:13 - 21:36]
yeah, I didn't have any thoughts going into it, but then when it was happening, I was starting to worry like, oh my God, there's been so many bad memes of this because like some of those back breakers like hit like someone like Brooke Brooke wells did I mean good for her, she crushed that event a year later after, you know, being on that stage, but like some of those moments, we just got like a 200 plus sandbag on your back and she looks like her back is ready to snap. I'm like, oh my God, please please

Ian [21:37 - 21:37]
let

Chad [21:37 - 22:15]
nothing happen. I'm just waiting for the internet trolls will be like, but like yeah, I was it was it was exciting, you know, it's a saturday night, I think it's just, you know, one of those things and then yeah, those I yeah, we can flip this the men's side because like I was excited. Like honestly thought when it was like 3, 20, I was like, they need more bags, like these guys are making this look easy and it's like Falkowski hopper G I'm like, these guys aren't going to stop anytime soon. And then like, Matthew keeps holding like, and even Madero, Madero has such great technique. It was just so many of them were just doing so well, it's like please don't let this.

Ian [22:17 - 22:40]
I'm so surprised I actually rewatched that event. The last couple of bags and you see at 3 20 there was still a bunch of guys 3 30 it was still like eight or nine guys were in the girls, it was down to the last kind of three or four, the last two, the last couple of bags, But when they rolled that, so was that bag 350 and they just had or do we?

Chad [22:40 - 22:49]
I think it was a 3 40 bag and they added more sand to make it 3 50. And that's why they, that's why they sort of took the stuff off and just like marked it off

Ian [22:49 - 23:07]
because as I'm watching it A £10 jump when you watch around before he just launched the 340 onto his shoulder, looked easy and he saw them, I'll pick up this bag and it almost surprised them and none of them could get. I was expecting at least one of those guys to pop it up.

Chad [23:07 - 23:16]
I thought one would get it too. But dan bailey, he said a lot of times on the, on the broadcast, he was saying like every jump is significantly harder than you can

Ian [23:16 - 23:17]
imagine and how big

Chad [23:17 - 23:23]
and like how many, how many did they do that was like, that's that's so exhausting

Ian [23:23 - 23:31]
and they were huge. Like just the sheer size. They couldn't even wrap their arms around it. It was awesome.

Chad [23:31 - 23:47]
Watch a strong watch a strong man do it and it looks like a little bit of like a little volleyball. But if you watch someone that's you know, six ft max, you know, most of these guys are like 5, 10, 5 11 is not a tall person and he was able to have that really cool technique he had no problem with.

Ian [23:47 - 23:48]
Yeah, he's one of the guys who

Chad [23:49 - 23:50]
was hoping he

Ian [23:50 - 23:59]
was one of the guys carrying it long ways onto his lap and then doing the rolling it up his chest and then rotating it, which looked really awkward to pick up, but it worked

Chad [23:59 - 24:21]
for him. Yeah, like I think as soon as he, if he was able to pick that up and put it in his lap, he would have had it for sure, it's just a dead lift to get to his lap and I think that's how the strong man do it too, so I think he would, there wasn't many of them that looked like they were taught how to do it, but it definitely does seem like himself, Falkowski Danny, they all had some sort of technique that was a bit better than the others

Ian [24:21 - 24:45]
now I will say also I know that Justin and mao when they were earlier training together with matt, they had um what's his name, rob Kearney, I think who's a strong man come, come and do like a three day session with them. So it's like obviously they, this is another part of the game that matt made sure that they had at least some experience in like he kind of knew this was coming, it was amazing,

Chad [24:46 - 25:02]
yeah, for sure, for sure before we jump to the guys um two more athletes, Car owners, I had her in my I think fourth, which was probably a little bit hot take but and she finished seventh, she came back, she came back, pretty good, pretty

Ian [25:02 - 25:07]
good looks and having her kid there for so many of the events, I thought that was a nice touch, it's really cool to see her

Chad [25:07 - 25:15]
and then the other one Daniel Brennan, like she came in with a huge spotlight on her fourth, I think that's that's pretty good. I

Ian [25:15 - 25:52]
think, I think it's good. Were you not surprised? I think she needs work, not in the gym, but just in some of the other stuff, she did not take some of the things that were happening to her. Well you saw her getting pretty lippy with some of the judges and there was one event, I'm trying to remember what it was. It was the crossovers on the skipping and you could see her mouthing like with some pretty colorful language to the judges about why they're not counting her reps and what the hell have stupid this is. And I feel like her attitude definitely goes on a bit of a roller coaster ride over these weekends and I think that

Chad [25:52 - 26:08]
that's what they've always said, that that's her brand alright. That's what always said, like she's continuing to learn both. I think I like it. I think that's why she's, she's edgy. I like it. Yes, she's, she's kind of like the john roman golf a few years

Ian [26:08 - 26:09]
ago,

Chad [26:09 - 26:43]
she's got a little edge to her, given that last event with the front squats and dead lifts, like she tried it and the the judge no rapture and she's like, like she not like yeah, I know that like I realized and it's just like I was just doing his job right, Like she's the one person that's just gonna be confrontational, but I love it. I think it brings a cool little and she might play the villain sometimes. I think she did a pretty good weekend. I wasn't exactly sure, you know from a power output. Like I think some of the events that she didn't do good, but I think she like she was right there almost all events expected more certain events, but

Ian [26:43 - 26:52]
I think she was I think she was kind of where we thought she was gonna be. I think I had her in fifth when we were talking about that and she finished up where she did in fourth. Um

Chad [26:53 - 26:53]
I

Ian [26:53 - 27:17]
thought she was good, she was consistent all weekend. But yeah, I just feel like there's times where when you're talking about last the yolk event as soon as she missed one, you see her, she just goes and stood and leaned against the yoke, not even willing to try and just was waiting for the time to expire. And you'd like to see some of these athletes be like, I'm going to actually do this for the people here watching, but she's like I don't care, I'm not doing this and just step off to the side.

Chad [27:19 - 27:22]
Yeah, for sure before we get the guys anything left for the ladies.

Ian [27:23 - 27:37]
Um No, I feel like we've talked about most of the people, but yeah, like the young people, great Jacqueline Dahlstrom saturday night, awesome And Gabby McCalla was, I think it's going to be a top three, top four next year. For sure.

Chad [27:38 - 27:58]
Yeah, man, I had her in my top five. I was talking a lot about her in the last episode. I think she's uh she's gonna be a huge player in the next few years. Let's switch over the men's side. Medeiros makes it two years in a row, gets the win again and the guy hasn't even, he's won one event in two years.

Ian [27:58 - 28:49]
He wins competitions, that's it. I feel like he's just always there and he really does rise to the moment, right? Like I think there's events where he is performing out of his shoes. Um just because he knows he has to like the sandbag event. You didn't expect that to happen and there he was, he just finds a way to be there for those things, right? So I'm impressed. I didn't think, I think there was, I thought there was a chance that he might not win. And then we saw there was a very close second place finisher with, I think the person who actually won the weekend, which was roman Khrennikov, what a weekend for this guy. Um we were expecting some fireworks. He was everything he was ever, he did everything well, every single event he was somewhere there. It was

Chad [28:49 - 28:51]
amazing. I

Ian [28:51 - 29:24]
don't know what else to say he was. I feel like he won the weekend if he said who got the most of the weekend roman, he got his visa now for five more years to stay in the United States, he met his son for the first time. His wife is over here like it was literally every single part of what a story and he performed up to the moment he was, it was wildly entertaining. He looked like he enjoyed this the moment he was happy the whole weekend. It was, I just loved it and now I'm interested to know who is he going to train with now that he's here in America full time, who's going to gobble up this? He

Chad [29:24 - 29:58]
has he has he has an american coach that I remember him from back in the day, he was on some bookends and battery bro episodes, I forget what his name is. Um Yeah, does he go to the training camp? Who knows? But like yeah he was cool because the crowd was was with him the whole weekend, he was interacting with the crowd. I mean I don't I don't know like I know you expected him to do this good, I didn't expect him to get second, I did not expect that I thought he'd come and make a splash, I wasn't sure if he'd be able to manage the whole weekend but like and he was right there, it was it was awesome. Really awesome.

Ian [29:58 - 30:20]
I had him in fourth, I didn't expect him to be like this every single event, it was like and romans out front, he was out front so many times this weekend and he might not have won every single one of them, but he was it was unbelievable everything. You're like oh a different kind of test now, it's strength now, it's endurance now. Every single one he was there

Chad [30:20 - 31:16]
Taking two things to 1st place. Yeah. To first place in his worst finish was 13 on the Sandbag Ladder. Yeah, 13th was his last was his lowest finish at £320 in the same bag and he didn't do so great in the tiebreaker. So like he crushed it. What a great weekend. And I mean having him and Ricky being in the entire conversation of the entire weekend. You know what sort of like complete dark horses, right? Like the two guys with such a backstory and you haven't seen them for so long and they're in the conversation all week, you know we're not talking about Goellner, we're not talking about P. K. G. We're not talking about, we're talking about two guys that have been in the shadows and just come out and just like steal the show.

Ian [31:50 - 32:50]
Yeah. Yeah and I will say Ricky, I started the weekend just being like I don't want this guy to win. Um I didn't like the way he was wearing the leader's jersey, he just was a bit too big for his own good, he did look like he faded and the only thing that got him was the volume of work over the weekend other than that, I think he was going to win that those games. He was so, he was amazing. He really was so impressive all weekend long. And I kept thinking, oh, here's this event, He's not a huge guy, He'll struggle here with the implementer of like the capital, watching the capital. I was like, okay, he's finally gonna get, have struggled a little bit here and he still didn't, he was, it was amazing. I don't know what this guy's doing for training, but he seemed to have all the bases covered, just like roman and again, that's why it's, I don't know how Justin squeaked this out just by kind of being close to them all weekend, right?

Chad [32:50 - 32:57]
Yeah, Ricky did great Ricky. I would agree. I I was worried for a minute he was gonna win,

Ian [32:59 - 33:16]
I was worried he was gonna win because I thought this doesn't look good. You know, you have a five year, five year ban from the sport and you come back and dominate like it looked like he was going to dominate even through kind of friday night, it looked like he was just going to walk away with this,

Chad [33:16 - 33:17]
but

Ian [33:17 - 33:31]
the men's, the men's competition was good. But the story really was those three guys, got his, his moments with some of the strength underwhelmed, underwhelmed,

Chad [33:31 - 33:35]
I thought he'd come in a little bit hotter and, and

Ian [33:35 - 33:35]
you know,

Chad [33:35 - 34:03]
Knowing him in his year, that he had, he had his 15 minutes of fame last year and I thought he'd come in and steal the show. But like, as you know, the first few days he was like 24 36 30th 30th, like he was the bottom of the barrel until like the last day, I mean that that one snatch event, the DB snatches, that was impressive, but I thought he did good, he did good on the, on the shuttle, the overhead, I thought he'd be crushing that, but underwhelmed

Ian [34:03 - 34:10]
the 100 £100 Dbs, he did make it look like it

Chad [34:10 - 34:11]
was like

Ian [34:12 - 34:43]
he and he drops into an absolutely perfect bottom position, which we know is so hard to do with a single dumbbell overhead and just was popping though. It was, it was, it was great. That was really amazing. Another guy I want to say was, I thought, I knew he was gonna be good and I think he put himself, he looked like he went out a little hot in a few events because he was right at the front and then he'd fade in the last couple of minutes of an event. But I think he's another guy moving forward who's gonna, you know, be a top five or for a couple

Chad [34:43 - 34:52]
more years. Yeah, again, I was underwhelmed, I think with the, with the, I mean the girls competition is always more exciting for whatever reason, right? And

Ian [34:52 - 34:53]
yeah, the

Chad [34:53 - 35:33]
guys, I had high hopes that it would be more exciting. I did find a little bit more exciting um because the three guys at the top, but I was a little bit underwhelmed by a bunch of athletes like Lazar like, gosh, I mean Fellner, it's too bad. It's too bad. He just in events that we would expect him to not do good in, right? Like it was like surely endurance and swimming events. But then like just some of the events were just like, oh man, like the shuttle, the overhead when he failed those jerks was like, no, it's like, please please, you know, like,

Ian [35:33 - 35:36]
and that's it, I don't know how much longer he's going to do. He was

Chad [35:36 - 35:37]
never in it. He was never,

Ian [35:38 - 35:38]
he was never in it,

Chad [35:38 - 36:09]
which was like really unfortunate cause it's always fun to see him. I mean when he won that event and he kind of was playing up to the crowd like that was awesome. The swagger was awesome. It's like we didn't have enough moments like that to really enjoy, you know what he brings to the table, right? It's just like, man, it's just, it's just unfortunate because he is awesome to watch. But like Saxon, like some of these guys that I thought were gonna be there. I mean Falkowski like they've taken like this was just not a good game for them overall, like

Ian [36:10 - 36:26]
at least had a bit of a bounce back, right? Because he didn't even make it last year. And then this year he came back and I thought he had a couple of moments where you're like, oh I guess he still has some relevance, but I think you know who I really liked and I can't remember his name now, which isn't great podcasting. But the young italian guy, the young italian kid

Chad [36:26 - 36:27]
who

Ian [36:29 - 36:49]
Yeah, like he had his little flashes, especially with the the wall facing handstand push ups where he just went through that, No problem. Um He looks good. Honestly, I feel like he's the guy who you're going to see more of next year, for sure. He looks like he's got a lot a good little package together there that I think

Chad [36:49 - 36:50]
a little more work and he's

Ian [36:50 - 36:51]
going to be someone.

Chad [36:51 - 37:11]
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think, I mean, I think for our our leaderboard with the guys, I think we're much further off. Like I had guys like P. K. G. I mean I'd add Adler and Adler had a great weekend, loved seeing him. Like he had a great like I thought he did fantastic either is he the new Canadian? Maybe,

Ian [37:12 - 37:13]
I think maybe,

Chad [37:14 - 37:14]
but

Ian [37:14 - 37:23]
even you said B K. G were just like, oh B K. G. But if you look at the top 10 kg is still in the top 10, right? Like the top 10 ended up

Chad [37:23 - 37:25]
being uh

Ian [37:26 - 37:33]
Garrard sam quant, I did not have him on my bingo card, that's for

Chad [37:33 - 37:38]
sure.

Ian [37:39 - 37:48]
Yeah, Hopper, I think was really actually pretty good. He had a good weekend we save did finish six, which I know I kind

Chad [37:48 - 38:27]
of struggle like we I think he I think most people say that when he's like, I don't think he's ever placed outside the podium. Like, I think every year he's taken second or third. And same with Falkowski, I think might have missed a podium once. Like any, like, you know, like I know it's I think maybe the men's are just getting more competitive. I mean, again, not many of the guys one more than two events, right, just doesn't win an event. You know, Khrennikov wins to Ricky wins to I think want doesn't win any either wins too, you know, So some of these guys, Yeah. Speaking

Ian [38:27 - 38:29]
of Bennie B, I felt like Amanda

Chad [38:29 - 38:31]
Barnhart

Ian [38:31 - 38:37]
showed. Well, I think this I know we're jumping back to the women's but Benny B's athletes. Quant and Barnhart

Chad [38:37 - 38:38]
like Amanda,

Ian [38:38 - 38:50]
I just thought, you know, she's getting to the point where maybe she's gonna, you know, disappear a little bit from the sport, but she still had her moments and she still see she is well rounded athlete as well, but I don't want to I think

Chad [38:50 - 39:51]
everyone's turned their their eye off of comp train. I mean, maybe he had a lot of attention when he had Frazier that had a lot of attention when he had captured and and then he started growing the comp train camp and that was one of the first sort of camps around and obviously catching leaves and a few people sort of disband Brooke wells leaves and now it's kind of like you got Chandler smith Brooke wells and they're not really flashy athletes kind of like captured and Brooke were so it's like, like people kind of just ignore them. But sam put up a decent weekend. Amanda Barnhart put up a decent, they're just consistent right there. Just, it's like the conversation I had this week and was like, you know, it's just consistent athletes. If you're in the top 10 in this sport, you are an elite level sport, like your elite level, like you don't need to win, you don't need to be in the games to win. Like, scott pan check for all those years. He is an elite level crossover. He never once won, never once be kg. He's always there. I think Hopper is gonna be one of those athletes where he's just kind of like, he's never going to win, but he's always gonna be there. Same, Same kind of idea.

Ian [39:52 - 39:54]
Hopper went over with.

Chad [39:56 - 39:57]
So yeah,

Ian [39:57 - 40:10]
I thought Hopper Hopper had a great bounce back year, considering we talked about him on the other podcast how he had that moment it looked like, oh, look at this guy and then last year he really faltered and then this year I thought, you know, he was there

Chad [40:10 - 40:13]
expectations for sure. For sure.

Ian [40:13 - 40:14]
Yeah. I

Chad [40:14 - 40:16]
wanted to ask you about events. What did you think about the,

Ian [40:17 - 40:18]
what

Chad [40:18 - 40:19]
was your favorite event?

Ian [40:21 - 40:22]
The capital is my favorite event. There's no

Chad [40:22 - 40:23]
doubt about it. The

Ian [40:23 - 41:15]
capital was epic. Epic viewing. I've even put it top three all time. It was, that was wild. I did not know what to expect, but when you watch the start with the pig flips, which I would love to know what the dead lift equivalent is of these pig flips. But when you see the numbers that those pigs were, I was like, I don't even know what, how impressive this is, but they seemed heavy. So they do 20 pig flips. Then you watch them run Now. These are huge people who are just so muscular and they're running really, really impressive 6, 5.5 kilometer times and Haley Adams looking like the cream of the crop when it comes to running. I thought she was gonna run past every one of the males, which would have been awesome. But she was right. There

Chad [41:15 - 41:27]
is such a cool crossover event, right? When we have crossfit endurance. I love when they do these events happen because it's like this was the event that I talked to. A few endurance guys and they're just like, it's impressive. It's impressive. Seeing them run.

Ian [41:28 - 42:01]
Yeah. And I loved how it was an open course. They talked about that on the broadcast, but you see them walking past just your regular Wisconsinites who just were out for their morning jog and then all these like tarps off people are just running by. But then watching them then struggle with the groceries with the big bags that they bricked up first, down the street was unbelievable knowing what that would do to your devastate your grip and the fact that it's kind of like a farmer's carry. But when you're holding a handle like that, I feel like it's even more on your grip and then

Chad [42:02 - 42:02]
Lucifer,

Ian [42:03 - 42:20]
Oh my gosh, that was carnage, Carnage. It was unbelievable. I would actually, I didn't hear many of the athletes talking about it, but I think that would have devastated them for a lot of the weekend. That

Chad [42:20 - 42:37]
I think, I think this week, when we hear about sort of the podcasts and the different interviews, I think that's gonna be the highlight. I think it's a no brainer that that was just entertaining the carnage. Like we love seeing athletes struggle and that was a struggle bus up those stairs, That was insanity.

Ian [42:38 - 42:57]
And it's that one detail having it, the stairs was as far as the spectacle was amazing. It looked great on tv. But adding that last thing and that's what broke them, right? The thing that broke them was when he said, okay, now you gotta switch the sandbag to in front of you carry it on your chest and walk

Chad [42:57 - 42:58]
up these stairs

Ian [42:58 - 43:29]
and it's and it seemed like bozeman's whole idea when you look at it, We knew that he was talking a lot about going back to the basics, all the basic movements, but you can see, he's like, alright, people carry groceries, so let's make really heavy bags of groceries. People have to carry soil into their backyard to do a top dressing on their lawn. Let's make the bags of soil, really, £200 cheese slices. Um people have to walk up staircase, like so many of the details he put into this weekend. I feel like I could have been related back to

Chad [43:29 - 43:30]
the

Ian [43:30 - 43:38]
whole heart of profit, which is functional fitness and a lot of the movements were functional movements, just extreme ends

Chad [43:38 - 43:39]
of the

Ian [43:39 - 43:41]
weight variants, by

Chad [43:41 - 44:14]
far by far the best event. And it was a great event to broadcast. It was exciting going back to what you said before, they do need to fix the broadcast for sure. It needs they need to figure out a way to show more athletes that event is great because you got to see every single athlete cross the finish line. Like you got to see it and it was cool having both men and females going at the same time. That was super cool, so many different storylines having at the same time, you're just like telling Hayley to get your ASAP, get up and they're struggling so much, but people are passing them, it was just epic, epic workout.

Ian [44:14 - 44:44]
I also loved when you watch some of the athletes when they almost like old W. W. E. Wrestling where the referee would turn their back and they'd get the steel chair and smashed over the head where with these guys, when the judges would turn their back, they were putting the sandbag down on the ledge, like the side instead of the ground and then getting busted for that. But you these athletes were desperate for just get Haley Adams was heartbreaking watching and you're like just you have literally seven steps left, just get up these stairs.

Chad [44:44 - 45:00]
I don't think ever understand what max failure means. Like she was up to the point where she probably couldn't even squeeze like an egg or a piece of bread, like,

Ian [45:00 - 45:01]
like I

Chad [45:01 - 45:05]
don't think we'll ever understand that what, you know,

Ian [45:05 - 45:08]
I would love to hear

Chad [45:09 - 45:10]
the most disliked

Ian [45:10 - 45:11]
event um

Chad [45:12 - 45:14]
or just just or just event you just wish

Ian [45:14 - 46:04]
was I honestly, the handstand one where they're doing the wall facing handstands, there was too much variance in the judging, like we were watching live on the stream, some people getting no reps and looking like they got to depth and then other people clearly not getting to depth or their their bun or their ponytails are getting to depth, but not their head and I think the problem is with judges, they are human beings and they're doing the best they can and some of them, you know, don't want to be the reason why these athletes fail where other people have no problem calling them on their their reps or there no reps. So um I thought that that was my one complaint was a few of the events left, some of the a bit too much up to the judges to decide on things where I think you need the standards that are easier to be clear. Yes or clear. No, that will be

Chad [46:04 - 46:10]
talked about for sure. Hillary fit is just waiting, just salivating, trying to get that for sure. Um

Ian [46:11 - 46:15]
yeah, what about you? What was your favorite?

Chad [46:16 - 46:48]
I have two that I have a beef with the skill speed mentally I think was it was such an amped up event with the single owners and then like just quick race and then it was so amped and then they get to the very final round with a great like with a great spread of athletes and it was a double cross over and they just looked silly. I wish it was either triple unders or heavy double under the rope and made the handstand course more exciting like get them there, get them racing on their hands. I would have thought that would have been one of the, probably the best event of the weekend if they were able to do that. Um

Ian [46:49 - 46:52]
Yeah, the l sit into a handstand. I wanted to see people do

Chad [46:55 - 47:12]
Like that and then race through that because I think there's been mistakes. I was just, it was unfortunate that they wanted a crossover thing got in the way. I just didn't like that. So, but the one I was really hoping to like really like was the shuttle overhead, which was the 400 m and then very

Ian [47:13 - 47:13]
six

Chad [47:13 - 47:38]
108 100. That's a really cool event. Still really cool event. But the broadcasting let that down for sure. It was just like, you couldn't tell you wanted to see a whole bunch of people lift these jerks, They gotta figure out a way because it's like that, that's a that's a I think that's a really cool test. Like being able to run 400 m in two minutes and then get max jerks at £200 for the ladies and £300 for the girls or for the guys. That's insane

Ian [47:38 - 47:44]
For the guys. Yeah, it is crazy. Even when you see the distance is like an 800

Chad [47:44 - 47:45]
meter on

Ian [47:45 - 48:18]
A track. Like for even really fast track athletes, you're running a minute 55 seconds. These are track athletes. So now we're talking about crossfit athletes they're running a lap in a minute, five a minute, 10, maybe a little slower. So in a four minute window to run 800 m, which is going to take them to 40 and they're gonna be zapped to now say now jerk this bar bell under fatigue. I thought the potential was great. Again, like I said, I think they can do something to make the broadcast more user friendly by allowing us the viewer to choose who we

Chad [48:18 - 48:19]
want to watch.

Ian [48:19 - 48:21]
I don't think that would be too difficult.

Chad [48:21 - 48:41]
Like you just said like that's insane. Like I'm not running background, but like, again, for endurance people to watch that and say like, holy sh it like and all of a sudden the guys had to put £300 in their front wreck. Like, can you even imagine like, like it's just like the amount of like, man, it's just nuts. It's just nuts that you have to do that to your body. You're just like gasping for air.

Ian [48:41 - 49:01]
I another one I did like I looked up and over where it was the three different up and over implements where it's first the log and then it was the tall box jump, which I think for the men, it looks like they got the height right, because it looks like a struggle for the women. It looked like maybe they needed a few more inches of height on the box because

Chad [49:01 - 49:06]
like but

Ian [49:08 - 49:30]
yeah, I just thought they could, it looked a bit too easy for some of them. Like, again, I feel like this is bozeman's first time doing it. Um I think he'll iron out some of these wrinkles and some of these judging hearts, but I honestly, I thought it was great. I've watched every year for the last, I don't know, six or seven years and I've seen lots of footage from the old stuff. This was the most exciting

Chad [49:30 - 49:34]
watch this whole

Ian [49:37 - 49:58]
um no, I feel like one hot take, I'll probably end up buying a pair of those tear shoes, t Yr shoes. They were sweet all over the, all over the weekend. I love the looks of those um Hot Take. Maybe Casher was never good at programming when you see how it can really be.

Chad [49:58 - 50:37]
Bosman worked so closely with Castro. I have to assume most of these events. They they thought of them together at some point in the past few years and he picked from them. I don't think he went brand new and just decided all this sort of stuff. I think boston is the perfect person to do it outside of Castro. He put his own little spin on it for sure. Like he put some gymnastics and it was very fundamental fitness test, which was kind of cool. I think he's a great ambassador. He didn't take the attention that Castro does, even though I don't think Castro wants the attention. I think he's just been put in that spot. I think it's a good I think it's good. This is in good hands, I think

Ian [50:39 - 50:50]
Yeah, there's no footage of Boseman doing the pre event thing being like you are going to be scared for your life. Remember there's like footage of Castro trying to put on the show. Like,

Chad [50:51 - 50:54]
like Yeah,

Ian [50:55 - 51:19]
we're Bozman. Yeah. I just think no, last takeaway. Honestly, I just congratulations to all the people, all the athletes out there and again, we talked about her and I know that you're gonna probably have a conversation with her on here. But Emma, amazing performance. We are so proud in Waterloo, Kitchener area. And you made all the uh you made a lot of new young fans. That's for sure.

Chad [51:21 - 51:30]
I couldn't say it better myself. Awesome. Thanks everyone for listening. This was a fun, quick episode. Talk to you next time. Bye.