Europe Is Coming
Europe Is Coming
Weekly Update - 26.2 Review/Open Leaderboard/CrossFit CEO News/French Throwdown Qualification
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Good evening everyone. Welcome back to the Europe is Coming podcast. We are live on YouTube. And yeah, welcome, welcome back to the pod. If you are listening to the recording the next day or later in the week, hope you're having a good day, morning, evening, wherever, whatever time it is when you're listening to us. And I'd like to start by saying hello to John. How are you, John?
SPEAKER_00I am good. I think as I just mentioned, it's been a pretty standard week, which is which is nice, just allows uh to get lots of work in. But it's also an eventful, another eventful week in the fitness world as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. So you've not you've not been doing any backcountry skiing this week or snowboarding. It's back to back to normality. But like you said, the the fitness world that seems with the open going on and lots of other things, we've had an eventful week from that perspective.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's um it's it's just uh I mean obviously we're gonna cover everything, but uh the last two weeks things have really seemed to take off, which is following our prediction.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, very much so, very much so. So, where would you like to start this week? Have you got something on my uh on top of mind that you want us to start with?
SPEAKER_00Uh no, I mean I was speaking of predictions, you take another you take another win of the Colton. I was forced into a corner though with that one.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know. You um you asked me first, so I kind of felt bad because I I basically got to kind of choose which which avenue we went down on that one. But if you didn't listen to last week's podcast, John is referring to whether Colton Mertens would get beaten for last week's open workout, 26.1, and he just got pipped. And I and I I the the thing I will say that I was quite pleased I managed to call was that that would be one guy that went like sub sub-11.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, one second.
SPEAKER_02One second.
SPEAKER_00Actually, those guys Bjartney was the winner of the 24 crown, so those two and the two I stand. Yeah, so it's it was quite cool to see because Bjartney and Rockvey, who were one and two in the guys, they were both at the crown 24, and then Bergross, who's also at the crown 24, was then fifth in the female, so it's like just I mean, that next generation. The obviously we've spoken about the depth a lot. There might not be the depth, but the fitness, the fitness of the ones that are there is uh pretty phenomenal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, unreal. So I'll pull up the leaderboard so we if you are catching us on video and on the live stream, you will be able to see what we we are talking about. And I was actually gonna ask because I didn't recognize uh either of the gents who uh from from Iceland. Uh, I won't try and pronounce their names. You did a much better job than I'm gonna do by doing it. So apologies, fellas. But I I their names I'm not familiar with, and I was assuming they were kind of new talent coming out coming out. Can you tell the the people listening a little bit more about them? I know you went into detail that they kind of they were part of the crowd. Do you know anything else that you could share?
SPEAKER_00I mean, I think they're I mean, honestly, they're they're both Icelandic specimens. I mean, I think I always have a bit of a bias towards Iceland as well because you know it's got so much history in the sports, obviously spending so much time there. But they both train at Crossit Reykjavik, which has just been like brought out by Bjrgvin. They're like the biggest fans of Björkvin you could ever meet. Actually, at the World Fitness Project, they've like they've got like a whole group of them and like painted on their chest Björgvin's name to like.
SPEAKER_02I remember seeing that on the broadcast.
SPEAKER_00No way. Yeah, you could you know which would have been those guys, and and then you know they're super talents. Uh they've suffered a bit with injuries, which is a shame, but you you know, you kind of get to see what they do when they're when they're healthy. So I mean hopefully they they come through and actually they just announced they're gonna be doing a team. Oh no way, yeah. These two guys, um Gucci, who's uh another Icelandic girl who actually trained, and this is a name I always get wrong, but in Björgvin's hometown, which is called Kfulligadi, which is uh just butchered as well, but that's where the his basement gym was. Gucci was a coach there, and also is now on that team, and then also I forget the girl's name, but she's was with CrossFit Sport, which is where Thury was for a few years. So actually, it's gonna be like a very competitive team. A lot of people might not know the team members as such, but it's actually gonna be quite competitive.
SPEAKER_02One to look out for, and we'll obviously cover it on on the podcast, I'm sure, in in weeks to come. And that's the reason I asked you about them because I do think there'll be a lot of people who like you know, suddenly being trying to look up who these guys are. How old, how old are they out of interest?
SPEAKER_00Oh, I I don't know, but they're gonna be like 19, maybe.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. So some future prospects out of Iceland, as you mentioned, steep it steeped in history, and and actually, this is probably the first time we've not had Icelandics kind of vying for the crown of Fistist or North for for quite a while. Like usually the you know, the Icelandics have always been podium contenders and in the top 10. But yeah, you you know, with with aging out and and some some you know, Annie and um retiring and and some of the other athletes kind of not in and around it, Bjorgvin obviously um sort of still still competing, which is amazing, but uh we haven't really got the Icelandic core that we're used to, so it's cool to see some some younger athletes coming through.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, 100%. And you know, for such a small population, they've really dominated the sport.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and they both I mean the times are again really, really strong for for for this workout on the guy's side. 1059. Thank you very much for for helping me not look like a fool saying that I reckon a guy would go sub-11 and then 1105, so unreal times, unreal times from both of them. And I'm pipping Colton, unfortunately. So, yeah, that's that's pretty much uh 26.1 on the guy side. On the let me switch it over.
SPEAKER_00You will say though, the do we mention Miriam? We did Miriam's time was already in, but she put her put her video out.
SPEAKER_02I saw her video, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's just it's it's pretty insane to watch. I think it might be one of the the best CrossFit performances of all time, which is is not a small statement to make. Yeah, that is a big call, but it's just incredible. I mean, she runs to the box, and it's almost like sometimes she's running so quickly from the box back to the wall balls that when she picks up the wall ball, she's falling forward. It's like just a ridiculous time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it does show you just how far she's going. And and uh again, if you're with us on video, you'll be able to see that I'm hovering over. There's a little video icon on the leaderboard now, so you can click on there. It's also on YouTube. Um, if you just search for it, you'll you'll find it. But it is as John mentioned. Oh no, sorry, this the video on on the leaderboard here is for 26.2. I do apologize, but the the video is on YouTube. You can watch it. Highly recommend watching 26.1 minute Miriam Van Roor's time. It was, yeah, it's pretty phenomenal, pretty, pretty outstanding stuff. So this is overall. Uh let me quickly just flip back to 26.1 so we can see the standings for that. So, as we talked about last time, Miriam Van Roor came in at top and Lucy Campbell in second. And then we also got Kira McManus jumping up there as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, who I actually believe is another team, I think she's only like 16 or 17 years old. Wow, which is pretty crazy.
SPEAKER_02Then Andra Moistus from Estonia in in fourth. And then oh god, I'm I'm really sorry. I'm gonna I'm gonna have a crack.
SPEAKER_00Okay, sorry.
SPEAKER_02Bjorn's Dotter from Iceland in in fifth. So a top, well, top six seven from from Europe on the on the women's side for 26.1, which is which is awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you know, thankfully we had the Icelandic guys, otherwise, Europe would not have looked as good on the male side.
SPEAKER_02No, for sure. So, yeah, I mean, reasons to be really cheerful for our podcast, and then we talk we talk a bit about high rocks. So we mentioned Lauren Weeks last last week, excuse the pun. She's she stuck around in eighth in the end, 11-10, which is a really serious time. So just showing um how well rounded her fitness is, and obviously it plays the high rocks, the first workout, a lot of commentary around that, but still still a really great time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, agreed. I you know it's it's very impressive, these cross sport athletes.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. So, should we have a look at 26.2 and then review the scores of that? What did you think of this workout?
SPEAKER_00I quite liked it. I think actually that was my my prediction came in with the like ascending uh difficulty of gymnastics. I I like that format of uh especially a qualifier workout because it gives everyone a bit of a shot. I think I think in general it was it was like a really solid workout. I thought it was interesting. The one interesting thing about it was that last week basically no one finished, and then this week a lot of people had a lot of time looking at looking at the rings. But I you know, I think that since the inception of the open, they've kind of used it as people love the first muscle up, and so it gives that opportunity for people to have the time to try and get that. So I think that's probably one of the positives of it.
SPEAKER_02I agree. I know that there's a lot of people that get a bit disheartened when it comes to workouts with movements that they can't do. And I've spoken to people in gyms about this for years, but one of the the the first time I got muscle ups was in 2015 in 15. I think it was 15.1, and it started with seven ring muscle-ups. So you couldn't even start the workout if you couldn't do single seven ring muscle ups. Then it was a hundred double unders and fifty wall balls, I think. I think that was a workout, and it was an am route. Um, and I managed to get set, I didn't I managed to finish an entire round, right? But it was the first time I'd ever done ring muscle ups. And I I wouldn't have done it if I the alternative was basically me just standing under a set of rings for that time. So, you know, I kind of got this just everyone looking at you and shouting at you, you just find a way to get some muscle ups. And I appreciate that if you can't pull up yet, you're probably unlikely to start getting high school gymnastics. But that it was it was one of those moments. I think there's a lot of people have probably had this moment where they did something they didn't think they could do, and it was because of the open that they got that. So I I kind of always try and encourage people to frame it in that way. And I think a workout like this where you get to finish with that. I mean, the challenge of that is that you're so fatigued by the time you get there that sometimes it means that you're maybe not as fresh as you when as you could be when when trying to attempt it. But I do think it's really a good opportunity for people to get their first muscle ups or even first chester. One thing I did want to ask you though, there does seem to be, and I know this is pretty common in 2026 CrossFit, seems to be a lot of chat around standards of movements, especially on the ring muscle ups. I want to get your perspective on what you thought around some of the movement standards for this and changes and things like that.
SPEAKER_00Oh, is is it something specific this time?
SPEAKER_02What people uh the two things that I've seen the most conversation around are the lockout and the rings. So a lot of people doing a wide lockout rather than having shoulders over hands, and then the other thing is around the walking lunges and turning as you stand the last walking lunge up, which seems to be something that people are talking about because supposedly the standard is that you're supposed to stand over the line, stand fully, then turn around and then turn back.
SPEAKER_00So I think in going with like the most known one because it's shown up so much, like the ring muscle ups is uh an interesting one. So there's some interesting rules that have come with the ring muscle up and crossfit. Like one interesting one is that like the feet can't pass like the height of the ring, and then the other being that you have to go through a portion of the dip as you go up. Then obviously, like the another common thing is that the it's very easy on the rings to kind of push away as you're descending so you don't get this full lockout at the top, and then as you're saying, I you know, I imagine what's happening is people are getting fatigued, you know, they they're trying to recruit other musculature in order to finish out this rep. And obviously, if you've been dipping close, the next easiest thing is to try and get as wide as possible to go there. And there's no no it's an interesting one that because there's never really been a standard, I believe, about like how close to the rings have to be to the body in order to get that lockout to happen. So that's probably like I can see why that creates a bit of controversy because I think you know you saw it in the open announcement when when the athletes are getting fatigued, they're kind of the rings start going a bit, especially when you do those little like jump reps, you know, like your dip's gone, you start kind of kipping, and as you kip, it gets wider, wider, wider as you go out. It also shortens the range a bit. But my guess is with no standard, no set stand, there's something you can't really enforce right now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think there were some standards obviously with the workout release, and there was talk of shoulders being over hand position, uh, which I think is why the discussion's so been kind of ramping up a little bit on it this week. But I kind of I guess just on a sport mechanics point of view, what's your viewpoint on what the standard should be? Do you think there's a an issue with the hands creeping out, like from a if we're testing it as a sport, if we're trying to like have a fair playing field, or do you think the standard actually does need to be a bit stricter on these?
SPEAKER_00So it makes the rep easier because you're reducing the range of motion. But an interesting one I kind of put this down to is like the the power snatch, for example. So it used to be that you'd kind of they make you bring your feet in under hips again when you finish the rep, and it kind of got taken out because it's a really hard thing to enforce. And I think the thing with putting a standard in, I think really you should only put the standard in if you can enforce it in a good way. And when you get these movements that, you know, they're okay, arguably they're objective, but often they become quite subjective. The judge is like, how far out are you gonna allow the rings to go in order before and this is why I presume the power snatch example got there, it's like how far in do you have to bring the legs? And at a certain point, it's not gonna become um advantage to the athlete, you know, it's not they're gonna be doing like an iron cross in order to get the lockout, but that caveat I would probably say it's not necessarily something to add in as a standard because it's gonna be hard to judge, and because most athletes will only go there at the very end, it's not gonna be like a repeated thing when they're struggling to get lockouts, and when they're struggling to get lockout, it's something that you kind of wait to quite clearly see. You know, you can see the elbows going into extension, and it probably adds too much confusion if you then go, Well, are the rings moving out from the the body or whatever that may be?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, got you, got you. And do like, sorry, last question on this do the you're closest to the athletes. Do they kind of think about this when they see someone else repping out muscle ups? Is this something that goes through their mind where they're like, oh, they're catching a bit wide, or do they not even really think about it?
SPEAKER_00Um, I think the first the no, this is a generalization, but the first thought process is like, How does this affect me? So it's like so it's like uh how is this related to them straight away? And I think that if the athlete has a tendency to do that, they would probably look at it in that way. But if they don't, the athlete doesn't have a tendency to do it, they probably don't they probably don't look at it. Yeah, fair. It's um it's just in answer to the other one about the lunges, I think this is the thing with CrossFit, like people always try to find a way to make the work around the edges somehow, and you you know you probably do save a a couple of seconds by not having to fully extend after the last rep. And this is the hard thing with CrossFit is there's no real standardization in terms of like throughout the years, and so all of a sudden you might test something with like I don't know, even you test it with a handful of people, then all of a sudden you give it to 200,000 people, and there will be all these things that you haven't anticipated uh being done, which is where CrossFit has this like uncommon movement clause, which I think is you know again, it's a bit ambiguous, but uh maybe a sensible thing they hold in their back pocket for for these occasions.
SPEAKER_02For sure. And I all I was gonna add was that I think this is kind of maybe where when we've talked about this a fair bit on the podcast, that the difference between the training methodology and the sport and where they those edges blur in something like the open.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and this is where the Xenom that we talked about last time will be interesting. And and HyROX has shown that because you get to learn from your mistakes. Like I remember watching some of the first HyROX races, and you know, there's lots of if you watch back, you already see the improvements they've been able to make. And it's a lot easier to make improvements because you keep doing it. Uh yeah, it'd be interesting to see like the wall balls, but I know that they had a big incentive to be a lot stricter on the wall balls this year to kind of really reach that standard, and maybe you know, maybe they can introduce some technology or whatever it may be, um, and it'd be worth their investment because they're gonna keep repeating it. Whereas, you know, how often do we see an overhead walking lunge where you have so many short transitions in in CrossFit?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Should we shift and have a look at the results for 26.2? Let me uh bring this up. So looking at the women's leaderboards, a lot of a lot of Europeans again. I know we're we're sorry if you are a listener and you're from something like Australia or the US, but we are very much a Europe biased podcast. Um, but the the French ladies are the moment on top for 26.2.
SPEAKER_00I guess sorry, my guess is poor Alice is probably a I know, I no, I might say this completely wrong, but it may well be a tie break score that she has put in.
SPEAKER_02Uh I was gonna say five four five forty is uh sensational. But yes, I think you're probably right looking looking at the 26.1 score. So the moment then Claudia got unless Alice is just a weapon when it comes to yeah, Alice Alice really like excelled in this workout. Yeah, yeah. She was like, Warball's not my friend, but but then that's it. So Apollo apologies Alice if you are a ninja and we've discredited you there. But otherwise, Claudia Gluck at the moment um leading the way with 633, which is really fast time. Then uh Alina Caratalia or Tala. Sorry, Alina, if I've if I've butchered your name there, but sitting in second with 650, and then Lucy Campbell, um, another good result for her at 650. Uh so strong results for for the women here.
SPEAKER_00Um you also think with Lucy, like it's open announcement, first time doing it. And and this is why I talked about so hard to win an open workout from the announcement because I imagine if Lucy repeated this again, she could find um actually a better time, which and I think it actually shows just how good her her time was at the open announcement, how strongly it's been holding.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. And and we're recording on Monday night, so there are still scores to come in. So this leaderboard could change, but um, but yeah, that's a that's a strong time. So it'll be it'll be interesting to see if she manages to keep in the in the top five for this one. Um uh a bit further down we've got Maddie Stir and Kira Karim Milligan for Australia and USA, and then Amy Kringle. So Amy doing really well in this workout as well, the sub seven-minute time. I have uh a few of the top scores there because it's gonna be really interesting.
SPEAKER_00Lucy's competing at what have losers this weekend. Miriam's not so he's got more opportunity for this final workout. Um, like points wise, you know, obviously there's there's more people to come in, and it's most likely that Miriam's gonna get suffer a bit more on the points. But who do you think's gonna take the or who's gonna take the open?
SPEAKER_02Well, let's um why don't I shift the leaderboards overall and we can have a look at the overall standings? So at the moment it's uh it's Lucy in first and then Miriam in second.
SPEAKER_00Uh so it's crazy that all the way down to seventh currently is uh Europe.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the women, the women's side of the fence, they are doing bits on the European scene at the moment. It's unreal. Taylor Howe, good to see her up in seventh at the moment, uh, as well. So yeah, it's really, really cool to see just how strong the female side is when it comes to Europe.
SPEAKER_00How far down do we have to go to find an American?
SPEAKER_02Oh 13th, yeah, 13th with Maddy Fout. And sorry, Maddie, I'm not not familiar with your work, so uh so we will, I'm sure, pay pay attention to her, see her later in the later stages. But yeah, even then, the next American isn't till isn't till we get to Paige Rogers in 20th. So there's only one US lady in the top 20, and then we've got Michelle Hayes and from New Zealand and Annika Greer from Canada, as well as Ellie Turner and Emma Lawson. So Ellie Turner from Australia and Emma Lawson from Canada as well. So the rest are Europeans, which is amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. The I mean European females have just dominated this sport. For so long. I mean, Tia's T is the GOAT that has outshone. But you know, aside from that, like the European female depth is just crazy that we've always had.
SPEAKER_02It's just unreal, right? So I think your question was who but to me, who's gonna win the open? Is it gonna be Miriam or is it gonna be Lucy?
SPEAKER_00Hmm. Well, I tell you what, there's that there are probably currently down to like sixth, maybe. I would say Bergros time this week is is not the best. That might take her along with Leia because more people are gonna come in. But I think what you've got Aline in there, and Elena, who I would say there's four girls uh on the scores at the moment that could actually take this between Lucy, Miriam, Aline, and Elena. And it's gonna be it's gonna be really interesting.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Do you know what? I think I think Miriam, I think I'd edge Miriam because I have a feeling that the next event's gonna have something weightlifting focused, and knowing Miriam's strengths, I wouldn't put it if it if there's a barbel involved, I'm gonna say Miriam's gonna win the open again.
SPEAKER_00Okay, it's that's a good shout. Well, I'm gonna so I'm gonna take the I feel like you served me up a softball here, so I'm gonna take Lucy. I'm not gonna miss this opportunity.
SPEAKER_02Okay, we'll see next week who uh who clinches it. And also, there are like like we said, there are some other scores to come in for 26.2. So I do think this this top 10 is gonna change somewhat. There were and we were just saying how many Europeans are in this top 20. That is also caveated the fact that there are probably some Americans and Australians and other nationalities that haven't yet put their scores in for 26.2. So I I think that might change. So watch this space team. Okay, let's switch over to the men's side and have a look at 26.2. And uh, I love to see it. Yonakoske is in the lead at the moment with 6'10. Great to see Yonk.
SPEAKER_00I tell you what, we have to do a huge shootout shout out to uh Ole because he is the 2025 crown champion.
SPEAKER_02Oh, amazing!
SPEAKER_00The crown athletes are just representing it's insane to see. Very cool, very cool.
SPEAKER_02So, again, if you're a first-time listener of the pod, please go back and listen to other episodes. But and you're not sure what the crown is, the program has a youth competition which basically hunts down and finds the best emerging CrossFit talent in the younger age categories. And Ollie Bosman won the male division this year, so very cool to see uh see him come in second so far in this workout. Again, caveat, there are some scores to come in still, but six six sixteen is a fast time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, crazy. So shout out to Olive for that.
SPEAKER_02Question Do you think anyone's gonna get sub-six?
SPEAKER_01I mean I'm I'm gonna say yes.
SPEAKER_00And I could I could be wrong. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go for it.
SPEAKER_02Nice follow-up question. Any guesses who you think it might be.
SPEAKER_00So I'm gonna give it to him this week. I think it's gonna be Colton. What do you think? Uh his you know, his his obviously his cycle speed of gymnastics is so good that's I think like you know, in the same way as Miriam, like he's gonna smash the first part. It's just those 20 ring muscle. So we we were looking at this, someone put a score up, like we were kind of discussing like what's physically possible to go. So Miriam and more or less Miriam, even with the no rep on the lunges, was around 4.30 finishing. So, in theory, you know, that well, we know that 430 is possible. The big question is can you then hang on for 20 ring muscle-ups at the end? And you know, some people are great at ring muscle-ups, and you've still got quite a lot of time. So I do think it's possible that we might see um uh a five on the on the leaderboard. And I think someone like Colton or there might also be some, you know, like you mentioned earlier, gymnastic ninjas that are just uh just can hold on and keep going on this stuff. And it's a crazy uh time discrepancy again. You know, you've got like Yonny down in in at the moment at 6'10, and you've got some great athletes that are like you know 90 seconds off his time in a pretty classic short workout.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I was gonna actually ask on on the workout, because you can actually see, especially in some of these, some of these results, quite, you know, obviously we've got Lucy and Miriam on the female side who were just like banging bang both workouts to a very high standard, but on the men's, you can see some real like you know, the top top five were not the top five in um in workout one. So there's quite a big separation between those two. I I know that there's been a fair bit made on some podcasts about how it workout one was harder for the guys and potentially I mean there were some there were some quite big comments about it perhaps being being scaled for.
SPEAKER_00I saw on the mayhem podcast and they were talking about how it's triple scaled, and then Angelo made the point that it was quadruple scaled. But actually, if you think about it, there is a a fifth element of scaling in there because as they do the stepovers with the ball, they also have the reduced box. So you could you could make the argument that they're it's kind of scaled five times in essence. This has always been an interesting discussion we've had with wall balls, you know. Like, why is it light and shorter? And I I think one of the reasons is probably the adoption of I think there's two things. If you look at back at the history of CrossFit 20 years ago, females in training was nowhere near as popular as it is now, and therefore the and therefore the uh like adoption of females doing CrossFit was less, and so there was like you know, it was just a less of an athlete pool that was there, whereas today that's just not the case, and so start uh start a petition to take the uh scaling away from from females to make us all feel better.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, I I do think that that look, I think the quadrooper scale that they were talking about is maybe a bit a bit strong, but I do think that you know, I mean, if you've trained with uh a very strong female athlete and you've done war walls next to them, chance and there's a like a wall ball box jump workout, are chances you're gonna lose that workout. So I do think it probably needs to be reviewed, like you say, you know, the the strength of of the athletes, the power they can they can move the ball so so well. Um but it was just interesting to see that on the guy side, how you know, yeah, for instance, Dallin Pepper came fifth in this workout, but came 340's also interesting that Dallin didn't finish the first workout.
SPEAKER_00I'd have thought that'd been like a great workout for him.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, same. Uh, but there's a few, there's a few like Jay Crouch as well, came in 50th, didn't finish the workout.
SPEAKER_00It's interesting.
SPEAKER_02So I was just it was just kind of interesting to me to see that there's quite a big disparity between the the result that their performance in from one to to two. And the other thing I was gonna ask as well, because some one of the things that we've been talking about in some of the competitions recently is how programming has started to bias the bigger athlete. How do you feel about these first two workouts in in that regard?
SPEAKER_00No, I don't think it has in these first two workouts, and I but I think if you were to ask people you know to describe these, they go it's classic CrossFit, and I think that's the interesting thing, is like these two first workouts, classic CrossFit, but you see some of the the big names in there. Um, and I think this is also a bit of a thing, is that it's always been considered that for the open, you should be good at high rep movements. Then as you get to semis, you know, okay, it's in a gym, but it'd be probably slightly heavier, and then you know, or sorry, quarterfinals, then when when it was online semis, and then you move on to these different stages, and things get gradually more complex until you get to the games. But I I don't necessarily agree with the hypothesis that things have to get like heavier in order to get harder. There's so many examples of workouts that are a lighter, high rep and just really, really destroy the the athletes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00And I you know, you know, not in the not in a not in a bad, you know, you know what I mean? It gives you that uh you don't have to go heavier in order to get the stimulus or to be able to find the fittest. Um that's kind of the argument with machines, you know, it's the same kind of thing. Like typically, you know, there's a reason that they have weight classes in rowing and different machine-based sports because it gives you an advantage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's the thing I've been pleased to see in the first two workouts. I mean, I think personally feel like the first workout had a few too many wools in it, but but that's a personal opinion by the by. But but yeah, it's kind of nice to see that their simple functional fitness so far ticking the boxes of the methodology really nicely and and still testing and challenging all athletes. So it's it's really cool. Looking at the overall leaderboard for the guys, Jeffrey Adler sits atop of it at the moment, and then Peter Ellis outside Australia, Yona Koski's in third. Great to see Yona up there, James Sprague in fourth. I feel like I mean, it's much me, but I feel like James has gone a bit under the radar this open. But so he's snuck into fourth.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, it's he's he's such an impressive athlete. Like he's not your classic CrossFit build, but still manages to just perform, you know, in squat-based workouts, or you know, you'd say with his with his morphology, he's not necessarily you know built for workouts like this with uh you know chester bars, the ring muscle ups, etc. But he still manages to place so high.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 15th finish for him, and then Nika, or can you help me with this surname?
SPEAKER_00Mazra, I should he's uh he's a program athlete, so you know I should uh an interesting, you know, an interesting fact though, I will tell you about the first name, is it's spelt Nika but pronounced Nico. Oh makes it very confusing.
SPEAKER_02Um there you go for for everyone listening, Nico Masrasade, Masrasade. Sorry, bud, if I've hashed your name there, but from Georgia sitting in uh in fifth in the open at the moment with an 11th place finish in 26.2 and 14th in in 26.1. So doing great, uh going great, guns there and uh awesome to hear that he's a uh a program athlete. Uh one of the and then we have Harry Lightfoot in sixth.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, yeah, he's not qualified this yet to the game, so he's still in his rookie. He's always kind of close at French last year, so it'd be interesting to see if he can make it through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, amazing. Well, we'll be keeping an eye on Nico now and and hopefully bring him up on the podcast again. And then Harry Lightfoot in in sixth, which is great to see. So we've got a few guys in the top in the top six at the moment on the on the gents, and then uh Enrico Zanoni is in tenth at the moment, so another European athlete handing out the top 10. So not quite as strong as on the female side, but but definitely getting some more European athletes up and amongst it on the open.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and it's an interesting because the one argument we've kind of always had with the on the guys' side is we're not necessarily as strong as the European, as the Americans, Europeans. So is that interesting? Is that reflected like in you know, if you're to take we should speak to Mike for known, known and knowable? It's an interesting stat. Like, if you take these workouts that we would say, you know, are more high rep bodyweight dependent, does Europe classically do better than the workouts that are then heavier, etc.? Oh, sorry, I just clicked on something. Can you still hear me?
SPEAKER_02I can still hear you, and we can still see.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, sorry, I clicked on to my uh my headphones clicked on to my phone.
SPEAKER_02All good. Yeah, I think that's a really good point, you know, because like you said, we do seem to do well in these types of workouts from a European perspective. And whether the heavy machines or heavy barbells start to skew that, it'd be really interesting to see whether there's any data around that for sure.
SPEAKER_00And this would be the interesting thing next week, like if if the prediction's right that it's gonna be heavier with a barbell, do we then see like a very different uh picture for the results?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Any any predictions for who you think is gonna win on the men's side?
SPEAKER_00When when Jeffrey Adler's in in shape and in form, he's pretty unstoppable. And based on these first two results, you know, top 10, 26.1, and now he I mean, we're gonna predict he's gonna be in and around top 10, if not top five or 26.2. So it's good. I Peter Ellis, I don't know as well. We know you know you're near with the if it goes heavier barbell, then it it might get tricky. We we could uh we could probably take it down. You know, if we look at the 26.2, it's Ryan Haynes. I also don't know. Ben Fowler's competed at a couple of competitions, so maybe down to this, like maybe Tude is very good with the barber. So I'd say down to ninth, with some exceptions, you've probably got they've got the opportunity to take the win, and it's it's pretty decent. It's like$15,000 prize money. So I I think this is you know, is the open worth repeating? Well, if you've got an opportunity to win fifteen thousand dollars, probably yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. All right, well, look, we've got one more week to go. Like you said, it's it's Wadapalooza weekend as well. So we've got lots lots of action. I thought I quickly mentioned this, but the elite individuals um uh has been has been put out recently. We won't go over all of them, but that is on the Wadapalooza Instagram and for the for the elite teams as well. So if you want to know who's who's competing on the elite individuals and the elite teams, that's the Latam Cup. That's all on uh on their Instagram. But we should probably have a chat about about this news that broke last week, which is quite big news, that Don Fall, who is uh CEO of CrossFit, has stepped out. Uh it got announced last week, and then it and then the news said that it was gonna be enacted on uh the 6th of March, which was Friday, was gonna be his last day. So now CrossFit is looking for a new CEO. What did you make of this?
SPEAKER_00I mean it it's just super strange. Like during the open, steps down. I mean, you know, it's just weird, Dave. Like one of the big things when he first came in was talking about transparency, you know, like we're gonna be transparent in this, transparent that. And it's like, oh, stepping down, done, out. Um, and we, you know, okay, we we do get some kind of statement, but it you know, it's lacking a lot of details and information as to why this happened. You know, did he step down? Was he encouraged to step down? Was there some kind of you know, maybe that he met some kind of bonus criteria set by the board that he achieved with revenue? It's just hard to know what the the reason is for stepping down now, but the middle of the open seems like a strange time to to do it. I know I think even ironically, you know, even though the sports and the business are not one and the same, CrossFit does kind of have a season. And it seemed to be that things tend to change like after the games or in and around the game's time. So stepping down this early is an interesting one.
SPEAKER_02I was gonna say that the timing seems really odd as well. So yeah, I echo that. It's also strange that the noise just before the open at the end of last year was building and building and building around the CrossFit sale, and then a few months later, in the middle of sort of like you say, the kickoff to the CrossFit year, effectively, um, he decides to step down, or potentially there was some some pressure applied. It's all very it is all very up up in the air and very vague, and yeah, it's interesting to try and pick it apart. What do you think happens next?
SPEAKER_00I think this is where CrossFit's obviously very different from back in the day when it was owned by Greg Glassman or you know when it was Greg and the partnership they had. It's like it's moved into this very corporate world that I think have very objective numbers that probably want to put someone in who's my guess is they've announced the sale, so they want a CEO who has experience in getting this sale through in order to present it in the best way possible. Uh you know, it's kind of I would say like a logical thing from the the board to want is that the best thing for you know the CrossFit space as it is now? I I would say the intention of someone just wanting to get through the sale in a good way is probably not, probably needs like a long-term plan and long-term growth, and someone who's like one has experience and two obviously very passionate about seeing it grow. Being able to put in the work in order to make that happen. I'm not sure. I mean, uh what are your thoughts around it?
SPEAKER_02I think I think you're right that it would I'd be really surprised if this wasn't linked to the sale and that it was perhaps part of getting someone on board that could facilitate that that sale. Or the flip side is perhaps it's a change of heart and actually we want to we actually want to grow this thing or take it in a different direction. We want to get someone who reflects our our intent around that. But I have a feeling that it would be linked to that uh either in one way or shape, one shape or form. But it's hard to say because, like you say, there's so much ambiguity around the statement and the direction of the company, it's hard to it's hard to say what's going on.
SPEAKER_00You've also got to think though that the board right now, uh you know, surely they must be looking at other fitness aspects that are doing so well, you know, high rocks being the main one. And you would think that they you know they must be asking the question of like, well, no, maybe there is more in this than than we're realizing right now. And I think what one thing that's unified a lot of people in the space is seeing the potential of CrossFit. I think a lot of a lot of people, and especially through that momentum that we've always spoken about, there was a common goal that everyone saw this huge potential of the space and the sport that never necessarily felt realized. Um, and I think having you know a group on board that can help realize that potential would be would be very exciting.
SPEAKER_02I do too, yeah. Well, hopefully it's there's positive direction for for the business and and uh there's a you know a a new direction, or they get the right person in in to to help drive CrossFit forward. Yeah, really interesting. It felt weird as well because we hadn't really seen much of Don for quite a while. He when he when he got announced, I feel like we saw him all the time, and then for the last year, I don't feel like Don's been that front and center as well. So wish him well, but but yeah, it was a bit of an odd one from my perspective.
SPEAKER_00I think it'll also be interesting to see if they just like promote someone internally, just to like you know, I suppose fill the gap of the sale if the sale is still happening.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Well, we'll um like everyone else in the space, keep an eye on it. And probably I'm sure this probably won't be the last time we'll talk about the leadership of CrossFit or the or the ownership of CrossFit. I'm sure there'll be some more twists and turns coming. And before we wrap up for the day, you mentioned a story about the French throwdown. So I wanted to just ask you what what's gone on there because I I didn't see this, so I just wanted to keep your thoughts.
SPEAKER_00I put the Instagram post in the chat, but uh I can't remember exactly when it was. I think it was on on the weekend. The French throwdown announced that Roman Krenikoff is got an invitation to the to the competition. And this just set up like a whole way. So like other athletes, including Moritz, who you know last year when he was with us, he ended up winning French, and he sent them a message saying, Hey, are you going to give invites out? So you've got Moritz there, one French, sends them a DM. And on the DM they reply, being like, No, the only way to get there is like through our qualifier or through finishing like top in quarterfinals in the uh like top 20 in Europe in the quarterfinals. Okay. So then this announcement comes out that they've just like invited uh Krenikov. No way. Obviously, everyone is like, Well, what do you mean? And so you know, you've got all the athletes posting, like all the European athletes are not very happy about it. But you know, I I think if if you go in the chat, there's this inst can I bring it up actually.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'll show you. Let me I've got it.
SPEAKER_02I'll put it across. Now sorry, if you're just listening, we are just pulling this up on the screen. So if you go and look at the video, you'll actually be able to see it what we're talking about. Here we go. I got it. I got it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so there are two paths to qualify for French Showdown. Top 20 worldwide on the French Showdown qualifier, pretty straightforward. And then top 20 Europe in the quarterfinals. Again, everyone's like, okay, like the clarity, etc. Then, you know, they kind of go into details on the rule book that this is what it says in the rule book. And then Roman ends up getting this invite. And you know, I'm I'm sure it's no coincidence that he happens to be a mayhem athlete. Mayhem happened to be programming in close relationship to French. I mean, it's just pretty the hard thing is there's like such a long history of this happening throughout the sport, and it's just pretty shitty for the athletes. Like you want to think that you're competing on this fair playing field, that everything feels just. You go, well, I think everyone accepts. Like, if you say you've got to do the qualifier, then we do the qualifier, but then you just go and randomly invite people who happen to be following the program. And also, Krenikov was in Spain last year because Madrid program, mayhem program Madrid came over, took the spot from there, even not as a European athlete. Um, so it opens up like a whole world of discussions about like how how do these qualifications process work, how do we have any standardization? But you know, if I'm honest, it's like the same story that we've been having for decades. It's like, okay, well, another another instance that's honestly just a bit shitty for the athletes, but what's gonna happen? Like the competition's gonna run, the athletes are gonna go because they want to get their opportunity for the game sport or get the prize money, whatever it'll be. So be in essence, there's no real consequences for doing things like this, and this is what Brent over all the years with the PFAA, etc., wanted to try and do. He's he he understood that the only real way to make change was to have the athletes in unison, but as uh to bring an English saying into the podcast, it's kind of like herding cats, you know, you're just getting any kind of unity or or voice together. Because I don't think these things should happen, but they do happen all the time, and they don't really seem to change because I don't know if the French, apart from like athletes giving them shit on on social, I don't really see any consequence for them.
SPEAKER_02And the reality really is that by the time we probably get to the games, m a lot of people won't really remember it. I mean, I'm sure there'll be athletes who you know lose out as a result, we certainly will, but on the wider picture, a lot of unfortunately, a lot of things like this do seem to we've had you know short memories and things move on, and and like you say, there's no real consequences to it. And I mean again, we've talked at length about things like this coming back to HQ, CrossFit Company, and what their direction is. And if they're not setting out strict guidelines around these things or having consequences for people who are breaking rules that they set, and they're not really policing these things, then it's it's hard to it's hard to have uniformity and a solid structure, I guess.
SPEAKER_00And it is in the same vein of like the workouts getting released. How many years and years and years and years are there of just workouts being released? And it's okay, the French throwdown workouts were released for a qualifier, and you go, okay, the implications are not as big as when it's the games workouts. You know, we've seen so many examples year after year of certain people getting access to information because of friendships, and then using that information to their advantage, and there's no there's zero consequences. I remember one year, I can't remember the year, but basically everything got leaked. Like the whole semi-finals got leaked, so they had to publish it because everyone knew. And like then there was a statement made, oh, from this point on, you know, we're gonna be like super strict on everything, nothing's gonna be released. And then literally up the games, like workouts were being released, and obviously, you know, you you hear this information, it then came to light that the workouts released were the real workouts, so people had access to this, like you know, at least a month before before other people got the publicly available information, and you know, it's it's not fair, uh, but there's no consequences as to anything that happens. Like the athletes still compete, the athletes still go to do this thing, and so it just continues really.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's a tough situation, and I didn't realise how um I didn't realise how widespread it was in other competitions outside of the games. I actually was talking to a local athlete at one of the gyms I train at, and she was mentioning I think it was French or one of the competitions, and saying that people knew already knew the qualifiers and I and you know, someone who's trying to qualify and and and also some athletes who are towards you know their 30s are slightly older, they're only got a few more years being able to potentially qualify for some of the bigger competitions in the games and stuff, and might miss out because they didn't have the advantage of knowing qualifying workouts. So it it does it does have ripples to individuals, which is which is sad.
SPEAKER_00And I think it's just there's this you know common, very common sense of people in fitness as well. It's like people just want a fair fair race, and it's not fair, that tends to piss people off, especially when it's these you know silly little things that go around. And I think this is where you know someone leading the company in that way, like a new CEO coming in and actually taking these these aspects and trying to improve the sport. And I I would I again I would shout out to Hyrux because I think that they really do listen to the athletes, and you know, they they're in constant communication trying to find out how to improve things. I think the high ROX's job is easier because it's standardized format, so it makes it easy to improve each time. But there are so many things like from equipment use to you know we uh this this subject we can go on for a long time. I mean, we spoke with Alex from Concept regarding this, but like the sleds at the games, you know, like knowing that okay, it it was probably due to the condensation on the floor that some lanes of sleds were easier.
SPEAKER_02Well, even the even the uh pegboard last year, and apparently haven't seen the documentary yet, but apparently there was a clip of Tia sort of sharing her opinions with Dave about it after the workout. I think that clip's gone up on social media as well. So so yeah, it's it's not isolated and it often doesn't it kind of gets a bit of a every lane's the same, just deal with it kind of attitude a lot of the time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I I think this is this is the big thing as well with you know if we like the three goats of CrossFit with Froning, Fraser, and Tia, because they've had stuff go against them as well, um, but they've been so good that it's not mattered, that they've always managed to win. And I would not say because, but despite of the programming, no matter what was thrown at them, no matter the mistakes, the penalties, etc. etc., they could just come back and win. And I think the argument is they're because they're not only the best, they're like a step percentage, like 10 to 20% better than the second place. But where these things have a humongous impact is for everyone. I would say at the games now, because you don't have one of the big three who are like percentage step above everyone else, that the leaderboard does get determined by these things as well, be it that you know, in one of the workouts, the leader ends up getting an easy lane and the second place end up getting a slow lane. So, you know, you're not really objectively testing the fitness of these people because you've got these other obstacles in the way that are impacting those results, so it becomes not a fair or legitimate test in that way, and then then you get into this whole interesting debate, which less so now it's speaking about for years of like, well, is it just entertainment or is it legitimacy of the test? Like, what matters more? Does it really matter what 10 tests you give the athletes? You kind of got this like random mix of what we would associate with CrossFit, you know, who's defining if it's balanced or not. Okay, we've just got this entertainment, and then that serves its purpose, and we we move on.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's it's an interesting topic and something we sort of visit a lot in our in our discussions, and I'm sure we will going forward. But it like you say, it's because obviously you're very you're connected to loads of athletes and have kind of been on this uh on multiple different things as a as a fan, like I am, and and and someone involved in the sport, but then also from your profession and from dealing with athletes and having to watch what they go through and and seeing it from both sides. So I think it's it's something worth talking about. And a lot of the time, I think actually this discussion ends up going towards standard standards and things like that a bit more than actually this standardization, the standards of the actual sport rather than just like the standards of movements within the sport. And I think it is a I hope that it does get addressed by CrossFit or some of the competitions in some way going forward because, like you say, Brent's had a crack crack at trying to sort stuff out, and it it does dilute what, especially when you I mean, I know it's not as big as it used to be, but when you're saying that you're the winner is the fittest on earth and crowning someone with that kind of gravitas of a title, to then have lots of things that people can point at and be like, well, this and that and this and that, it does it it doesn't help.
SPEAKER_00And and also I think that you know, because always the arguments being okay for the unknown and unknownable, like preparing for this test, Trigette. I just wonder if, you know, for example, say you've got a list of 30-40 movements that you know could appear in the season, they're standardized, etc. etc. Then the athletes are at least like preparing for this. It makes the judging life easier. I think some of the biggest judging issues have happened at the games where the judges get briefed at the same time as the athletes. A classic one was the strict Bosman program, it's like strict power handstand push-ups, but they didn't want to use an object for the head to touch, and so you had to get the judges, and like you know, some of the judges like leaning down on the floor, some of the yeah, you know, I think it was like wall-facing plate hands, or whatever it was. You know, you've got judges looking from all different angles, a new movement that just randomly being introduced, and there's just no time to for the athletes and the judges to really learn this, and it's just boom, and it creates you know, all you've got to do is go and watch the video and see the discrepancy in judging, and that leads to the problem that we just mentioned that if the objective is to find the fittest, you need the test in order to do that. The test can't be biased because then you're you're missing your objective.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Well, look, we'll I'm sure we'll talk about this again. I know like I'm sure people listening as well have got their own opinions. And if you do have uh an opinion, one you can join us at 6 p.m. UK time, 7 p.m. Spanish time on the Programme Academy YouTube channel where we are now live streaming. If you're listening to us on your usual podcast feed, you can also either comment on there or there's an email address in the description. Feel free to shoot us an email, let us know your thoughts. We'd love to hear your your thoughts actually. It's a it's a wide topic and something that's that's that you can tell we're quite passionate about and having the sport be kind of fair and standardized. And that's why you know Xenon coming out and and that that idea has got a lot of people talking because it's a standardized test that is more cross-fit leaning than some of the other ones out there. So it'll be really interesting to see how that comes about and how athletes fare with that. Um, but look, we're um we're wrapping up now. John, is there anything else you want to touch on before we we do close out?
SPEAKER_00No, no, I'm I could go down the rabbit hole now. So better we leave it.
SPEAKER_02Uh okay, we'll pause that discussion for for next week or the week after. As mentioned, Water Pleasures this weekend, the final of the CrossFit Open as well, the last workout announcing Thursday. So next week, I'm sure we'll have loads to talk about around those things and whether CrossFit have decided to employ a new CEO or sell, or who knows what's happening. So that I'm sure there'll be loads to talk about next week. And yeah, thank you very much for joining us. John, thank you as ever. Thank you, and uh yeah, we'll catch you next week, team.