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We cover the sport of CrossFit from all angles. We talk with athletes, coaches and celebrities that compete and surround in the sport of CrossFit at all levels. We also bring you Breaking News, Human Interest Stories and report on the Methodology of CrossFit. We also use the methodology to make ourselves the fittest we can be.
I was born to kill it.
I was meant to win.
I am down and willing,
so I will find a way.
It took a minute,
now it didn't have to ride away.
When it get hot in the kitchen,
you decide to stay.
That's how a winner's made.
Stick a fork in the hater on
my dinner plate.
What is going on, everybody?
Welcome to the Clydesdale Media Podcast,
where we're talking to the
athletes of the 2024 semifinals.
This guy needs no introduction.
Saxon Pancheck, what's going on, man?
What's going on, man?
Thanks for having me on.
Yeah, excited to have you.
You know, we've known each other a very,
very long time now, it seems.
I was just telling someone
in my gym the story of how we met.
Do you remember?
Yeah.
It was a 2016 regionals, right?
2015.
You're running security.
Yep.
Yep.
Yeah.
And you're the first person ever.
We took a picture together
and I was telling people in
the gym and then you came
and you judged me for the
rogue invitational.
And it's cool that, you know, from 2000,
it's almost nine years.
So that's crazy to think about.
And then, like,
our paths have crossed with, like,
having similar friends and
you coming to my old gym to
do charity work and, like,
just really crazy stuff.
But, yeah,
you're just one of my favorite
people in the space, of course,
and you're one of my friends,
and I love this.
And I haven't had you on in
a couple years.
Yeah, I know.
It's been a while.
Last year was a hard year, obviously,
going through everything,
and we're back this year, baby.
I know.
So I...
I want to start with a
performance you had in quarterfinals.
We're going to start really high, right?
Yeah.
And I'm going to pull up a
graphic that my stats and
information person, Holly Dugan, did.
And she just popped in the chat,
so that's cool.
Here we go.
So this is 24.3 of quarterfinals.
I don't even know if they
dot them or whatever, but...
You had such a dominant performance.
I'll blow this up a little.
So this was the workout.
Three rounds, 10 handstand push-ups,
20 toes to bar, two rounds,
10 strict handstand push-ups,
five rope climbs,
and then one round of chest
to bar while facing with 20 muscle-ups.
Your time in North America
East was 30 seconds faster
than anybody else in North America East.
Some would say the most
difficult region in the world.
And that person that was
behind you was your brother.
And he was ahead of the next person.
So what's it like when you
do a workout like that and
it's so dominant?
It...
It's great.
I needed it.
But for me,
I was looking at the other workouts,
the ones that weren't so good.
For me,
I held myself to the expectation that,
you know,
that's where I would like every
workout to be.
So I walked away from that
quarterfinals weekend of like, hey,
you know,
where can we dial in on these
other things to make sure
that we get all of our
other workouts and our
movements up to that standard.
Is it just hereditary that
panchecks have upper body pulling?
I just think we've been in
this space for so long.
And if you go back and you look at 2012,
they did Diane in 2012.
It was the first workout at regionals.
it was 21,
59 handstand pushups and
deadlifts and not one
single person kept everyone
just did strict handstand pushups.
And I think if you,
if you go back and you look
at really like the OG error of CrossFit,
a lot of movements were strict.
A lot of it was high skill
gymnastics because people
were working towards that.
People were working towards, you know,
stringing together muscle ups.
I mean, even if you look at 2000 and 2000,
13, I want to say it was 13,
the final regional workout that they had,
it was five ring muscle ups
at the end and people were doing singles.
And that's kind of where, you know,
you had a lot of big boys
and the sport at that time, um,
you had people that were
playing college sports and, you know,
you look at the evolution
of our sport now.
you know, you look at me,
I just came up through CrossFit, you know,
and I played sports growing
up and everything, but, you know,
I was able to step into the
competitive scene in 2015.
We were just saying, you know,
it was my first regionals and I was 17,
18 years old.
So I think it was just
coming up through that era and, you know,
it was more gymnastics
dominant and barbells just
kind of happened.
And now you're seeing that
evolution start to change where it's like,
okay, everything needs to be like that.
And,
know that's kind of where
looking at those
quarterfinal workouts I was
like all right you know we
need to stay on the barbell
we need to stay on you know
high high volume but also
heavy load barbell cycling
like to be able to do 245
for you know I i was
looking at you if you go
and you look at the it was
the I think it was the fifth or fourth
sorry four four workouts
yeah the um fourth
quarterfinal workout you
know you had 30 clean and
jerks to cash in you know
10 at 135 10 and 185 and 10
at 225 like that's that's
uh grace they're alone and
athletes are doing it in
three four minute three
minutes you know and
if you go back and you look in, you know,
those older times in the early, you know,
2010, 11, 12,
people weren't doing grace
at one 35 in that time.
Um, so to be able to see that,
and not only that, but they hit, you know,
most athletes hit the 30
clean and jerks at the ascending weight.
And then you hit another 30
clean and jerks at two 45, you know,
all under 10 minutes and you have three,
four minutes of resting in it.
Like that's impressive.
So I just think the
evolution of the sport is coming very,
very far away.
We might not see it on a day-to-day,
but if you go back and you
look at some of these old
regional workouts, open workouts,
it's very clear what's happening.
So it's funny you say that
because it's been said all
over the internet that
these semifinal workouts
that were released, leaked,
whatever you want to say,
you could drop in 2015 and
it'd be an appropriate workout.
Absolutely.
I agree.
I think,
and as I'm going through the
training on this, you know,
at first I was like, oh, you know,
we don't have much gymnastics.
We don't have, you know,
much handstand pushups and, you know,
kind of the kind of the
movements that I really like.
So it's been very good
training for me because
those are clearly some of
the things that I needed to work on.
But as I'm going through this training,
what I'm noticing is.
My machines are getting
better because we have a
lot of power output on the machines.
My running is getting better
because we have a lot of running.
my weightlifting and my leg
endurance you know we have
50 clean and drinks at 185
and then another 50 front
squats at 225 the next day
and then another snatch
ladder it's like okay well
you have your pulling you
have your your squat
snatches which we consider
more of a strength but even
mobility test I would say
for like like you need to
be able to squat there's
squat snatches like it's
not like you can have you
know someone that just
comes in and just pure
strength you know muscling
these like you got a squat
snatch and you got to be
able to do that under fatigue
um and like I said you have
the the biking the seven
rounds of 12 kills on the
echo bike with high skilled
legless rope climbs um so
as I'm going through this
I'm like man you know I'm
kind of like I have three
four weeks doing these
workouts and uh
progressions on these
workouts and it's like I'm
building a nice foundation
around these and I was like
is this gonna affect
training you know after
semifinals going into the games and
I reflected and was like, this is good.
Like I said, this is good training.
I feel that there isn't one
thing that I'm missing in this.
Maybe a heavy deadlift and
maybe heavy pulling.
But you can get that four or
five weeks pretty easy
going into the games.
But us, for everything else,
these are good tests.
What blew me away is
everything that I would say
a person would be strong at,
they add something that a
typical person would be weak at, right?
Like there's a yin and a
yang to almost every workout.
Like handstand walks, but I echo bike,
right?
Or rowing.
Rowing.
That's it.
They all blurted.
I've been doing age group
and the time and all the
workouts are just a mishmash in my head.
But, you know,
you have the clean and jerks,
but you have the 800 meter
runs like everything seems
to be a yin and yang this year,
which I find fascinating.
And it's going to be to see
to be interesting to see
how it plays out.
Well, and if you look at,
so we have one event on Friday,
two on Saturday, three on Sunday.
And I think you're going to
have a really good gauge of
what the final leaderboard
is going to look like going into Sunday,
given you're only halfway
through the weekend going
into Sunday that, you know,
you got to be able to focus
and execute on that last day.
But I mean, you look at that first workout,
like conditioning, barbell cycling,
you got to be able to have
the aerobic capacity to do that.
Like that's a hard workout
that comes down to fitness.
You look at the second workout, you know,
50 front squats, 100 toes to bar,
500 double unders.
Same thing,
a lot of metabolic conditioning there.
And then you look at the third workout.
It's the seven rounds, 10 cal echo,
one legless, 10 box jump overs,
one legless, high skill gymnastics.
high intensity on the echo bike.
And again,
your conditioning is going to be up there,
but when you get to Sunday,
you see a big shift in that,
that you have a lot of the
conditioning front end on that,
but the back end, you know,
going through the rowing
handstand workout,
you gotta be able to row hard,
but you gotta be able to also, you know,
do three, 400 feet on your hands quickly.
then you look at the next
workout and I wouldn't say
the handstand one as much
conditioning as it is more
of a skill and execution
the snatch execution but
also you have to keep in mind
what is the fatigue doing to
you up to that point in 2016,
when we went through that snatch ladder,
that was the first event.
Now this is,
we're talking the fifth event
after 50 heavy pulls from the ground,
clean and jerks, 50 heavy front squats,
a lot of high output on the
machines and a lot of
shoulder endurance on the hands.
And then we're going to do
the snatch ladder.
Uh,
And I think that that's,
I think that's a very
interesting spot to put it,
that you need to be able to execute.
You need to also be able to
recover through those events.
And then that final workout,
that's just straight power output,
gut check execution that
like that last day, in my opinion,
is all about execution.
And that first day is all
about the fitness or those
first two days are about the fitness.
That's a cool perspective.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I saw the snatch ladder in,
in 21 at West coast classic.
And it was the first workout
that weekend too.
Yeah.
And so those times that they
were blown out,
I don't think people are
going to do that on the final day.
No, I think we'll see most people around.
I think, I think you might see, you know,
a sub six in, you know,
one or two semifinals,
but I think most people
will be that six to eight minute mark.
And yeah,
yeah I think like I said
it's going to be I think
it's going to be execution
on those last two barbells
for sure and who's willing
to kind of go for it on
those um but like I said
the fatigue up to that
point it's going to be in
my opinion about recovery
and who's recovering well
over those those days
before we get into your
last year um the other
night on barbell spin they
did a thing with boz on
their their top um final
events of regionals or semi-finals
And I was surprised that
2018 wasn't there.
Yeah.
And I don't know if it's
because of what happened
with you and Scott and
jumping on each other at the end of that,
that just, in my mind,
made it so exhilarating as
the best final event I'd
ever seen at a regionals.
Yeah.
But it didn't even come up on their list.
Any thoughts on that?
I'm a little biased.
But, um, no,
I think they're looking for more,
more of a race and more
things that are impacting this sport.
And, um,
I think people look at it
from different perspectives.
I think,
and this is something that I'm
really diving into,
especially over this last year and,
you know,
missing last year's games and even,
you know,
the back half of semifinals is
how are you impacting the sport?
You know,
are you impacting it through your
performance or are you
impacting it through the
relationships that you're building,
the community that you're building?
some people are all about
you know how many gold
medals do you have and I
think that that's great but
like what can you do with
that platform uh whether
you got a gold medal a
silver medal bronze medal
maybe you didn't even step
on the podium before um
that I think it's I think
it's just super important to focus on
Like I said,
how can we move this sport in
a positive direction?
Not just the sport,
but also the community.
I think that they're two
different things completely,
but they're the same.
You know,
I think if you were to go into
any affiliate and, you know,
when I ran my affiliate,
I would say 95% of the
people that walked into the door,
never watched the CrossFit
games before that they were
in there because of, you know,
what they heard from the
community and from their friends.
And I think that that's
something that us as
athletes need to start to
lean into just a little bit more,
because if we want our sport to grow,
we need to be willing to
grow this community and.
The sport isn't,
it wouldn't be anything if
it wasn't for the community.
And I think that that's
something that we don't want to forget.
Like if you look back at 2012,
like athletes didn't have
sponsorships at the time
that it was all built
around the community.
Your income was built around, you know,
maybe it was coaching,
maybe it was running an affiliate,
maybe it was personal
training or whatever it was at the time.
I mean,
the sport was so early on and
you've seen the evolution
of the sport that like
athletes are treating this
like a full-time job now.
And I think that is absolutely incredible,
but how do we bring both
along to be able to grow the sport,
but also the methodology as well.
And I guess going back to your point is,
i think that those guys
whenever they were speaking
of their top five moments
at semifinals chances are
they were speaking more
from a performance thing
not an impact thing on on
what's happening in the sport
So it's cool you brought
that up because that was
really where I wanted to go.
I was watching Hiller's video from Mayhem.
At the end of it, you become the star,
cooling down on a C2 bike
and espousing so much
wisdom that I just was engrossed in that.
So I want to dive into that a little bit.
And it's kind of what you
touched on right there is
that your time off last
year kind of gave you time to reflect.
And it's the first time since 2015,
maybe even before that,
that you weren't
participating in this sport.
Yeah,
it was the first time that I missed
going to the CrossFit Games,
whether it was as a
spectator or as a coach.
or as an athlete since 2012, you know,
those 12 years straight
going to the CrossFit games
and due to sit back and
watch it from my couches, that was hard.
it opened up so many more
doors for me and it's
something that needs to
happen and you know hard
times lead to some of your
best times and I think you
walk away with some of your
best wisdom and you know I
went through that for a
reason and that's really
what I want to make a mark
on this year is like okay
you know I went through a
really hard time not
competing last year and
nothing's guaranteed you
know what are you going to
do with the platform us as
athletes right like
speaking for myself what am
I going to do with the
platform that I have and
the relationships that I'm
building you know like like
I said in hillary's thing
when I'm 37 38 39 40
whenever I decide to stop
competing you know do
people really want to see
what I'm doing you know
every single day and what
my training looks like maybe um
But like,
can we have a bigger impact and
can I capitalize on having
a bigger reach now as an
athlete and growing the sport, you know,
while I'm competing in it?
Absolutely.
And, um,
I don't want to sit back and waste any,
any years, you know,
just sitting in a gym by myself,
stepping out on the
competition floor to compete, you know,
one or two times a year,
and then go back into my
cave and continue to compete.
Can that create champions?
Absolutely.
But can a champion also be
created through an affiliate,
through a community and
through relationships?
I believe so.
Yes.
And I think Rich is a great
example of that.
Like you've seen him do it,
like he's done it.
And yeah,
for me,
and that's another thing that drove
me to Mayhem and getting
back with Facundo and
Mayhem and those guys down there is like,
when I walk into their gym,
their gym is packed.
Like,
I think they're running like three or
four classes, you know,
throughout the gym and you
have a ton of incredible
athletes down there,
but like the impact that
they're having on the community,
I would say anyone,
if you live in Cookville,
you're at that gym that, um,
imagine if every affiliate could do that,
that, you know, whatever city you're in,
like, this is the gym to go to,
this is the community that
you're building.
And it's, it's far greater in my opinion.
And I I've been into global
gym fitnesses and
Yeah,
it can be uncomfortable going into those,
but like going into Mayhem
and seeing the community
that they have and even
CrossFit Nolensville,
the gym that I'm in now,
like just how welcoming they are.
Like if we could have these
in every single city where
you're building this
community and people that are willing to,
like me as an athlete,
like people are willing to
rally behind me
you know they want to see me
succeed but I also want to
see them succeed every
single day in the gym I
want to see them get their
first muscle up I want to
see I want to see that
entire gym go to
quarterfinals and anyone
that wants to go to
semifinals I want to see
them go to semifinals and
you know somebody wants to
be a better fitter dad I
want to see them do that um
and it's a two-way
relationship and um in my
opinion like when we want
to see each other succeed
we all rise together and
i think the the bigger the
group that you can create
with that movement I think
that that's where the magic
happens and that's where
things start to spread and
that's where growth happens
so linda jiri asks wait
saxon did you say coach you
were coaching at the games
and and you were coaching
oh yeah right yeah
I don't want to say like,
I'm not sitting there
programming for him and
think coaching is a lot
different now than it is,
than it was then.
Then it was like, Hey man, you know,
run hard on this first lap
and then settle it.
Like just little things like that.
But yeah, I mean,
you know,
and that was something that
helped me grow as an athlete as well.
And that was the
conversations that I had
with my brother at the time was, Hey,
you know, I want you,
I want to see you back here.
I want to see you to see
what this is like.
I want you to see how
athletes carry themselves.
And it's something, you know,
like I was at Waterpalooza
this last year watching
Spence compete and I wasn't competing,
but to be able to sit back
and watch athletes from a
different perspective of not competing,
you can kind of see like,
I don't want to say tension,
but nerves with athletes and like,
you're kind of like, you reflect like, man,
how do I carry myself when I'm competing?
And it's a lot easier to see
that when you're not in
that competitive zone.
Yeah.
And gosh, I have so many questions.
So this reflection that you had,
did a lot of it come from
just being off and taking
some time off or you're a
dad now too like when I
became a dad my whole
perspective changed in life
yeah um so was it is it
more that or just what you
saw and you had a lot of
changes also with that year
off and right before did
and you said you went back
to facundo and all of that
stuff did all of that big
ball make you see things differently
Well, here's the thing,
and this is the truth,
is when I didn't qualify for the games,
I was like, man,
what am I going to do now?
I support my family through competing.
And you realize people that
you had close to you at the time,
they're nowhere to be found.
You know,
people keep moving on with life
and it's easy to sit there
and feel sorry for yourself of like, man,
you know, like, what do I do next?
You know, I just need some guidance.
And nobody was there.
I had no community, you know, I had no.
gym,
no coaches at the time that were
willing to reach out and
work through me with this of like, Hey,
this is the plan.
You know,
there was one person that reached out to,
I have, you know,
my circle was very small at the time.
And I have a guy, Greg Russo,
who has been with me since 2018.
It's him, my wife.
And then I got a message from Facundo.
You know, Facundo wasn't coaching me.
He reached out to me to
check in on me and see how I was doing.
And I didn't, like I said,
I didn't have a gym or a
community at the time either.
And it was very, it's very lonely.
And I didn't like that feeling.
And it was time to evaluate that of like,
okay, well, when you're not competing,
what's like, if I'm feeling this now,
what am I going to feel when I'm 37, 38?
And, you know, that same feeling,
I'm blessed that I had that
feeling now by missing the games.
Because when I'm 37, 38, and you know,
I have these people around me that, you
you know,
I thought was going to be the end
all be all and everybody
rides off into the sunset and, you know,
we all win and we love life.
That wasn't there.
That's not what I thought
and that's not what I expected.
So it allowed me to really
rebuild a foundation of, okay,
I want to put myself around people that
care about me and I care about them.
I want to see them win and
they want to see me win.
And whether that's through
success or through failure,
we ride together.
And I feel that I finally
have a circle around me
that believes in that and I
believe in that.
And we're in all of this
together and we have each
other to lean on.
And I just think that that's
super important
If I was training in my gym by myself,
same thing.
You're going to sit there by yourself,
you know, no one to lean on, no one to.
um, keep you moving forward.
You know, that circle was very small and,
uh, yeah, it was just very eyeopening.
And like I said,
it just drove me back into an affiliate,
back into community,
back to what allowed me to
fall in love with,
with CrossFit and what it was.
And that's the community.
That's an incredible coach like Facundo.
That's, you know,
mayhem and what they're doing for me.
And, um, that's, you know, great.
My,
my guy that's worked with me since 2018
and my wife and my kids, like,
Yeah, man, it was a hard time.
It wasn't so much like the reflection,
I had more time with my wife and my kids,
but it was really hard to
enjoy that because I wanted
to be competing.
And I just kept being super
mindful of like, listen, you know,
I've been doing this since 2008.
It's okay.
It's okay to take six months
here and reevaluate and set
yourself up for success to
this for another six to seven years.
And that's really kind of
what I spent that time doing of like,
okay,
how do I set myself up for an
enjoyable career?
successful next six years
not like let's just get by
this year get by this year
get by this year
I love that because it
sounds like you almost needed the reset.
And it was a hard pill to
swallow at the time,
but it gave you truly what
was important and what you
needed to have around you
and set you up for the future.
I know you don't have a lot of time today,
and I have so much I want to dive into,
but I want to finish up with this,
and that is that
in addition to all that, right?
You said the people weren't
there that you thought would be there.
You've been out,
you've been out one season
and sports are so harsh.
You know, the,
it's almost like the
internet forgot how good you were, right?
Two top finishes at the games.
The last year you competed there at 11th.
There's,
there is nobody as good at classic
CrossFit as Saxon Panchik.
And this year seems to be
setting up in that direction.
Why is it hard when you're,
when you're so good in this sport and,
and maybe you block out the internet,
but the internet is, it's like,
it's honestly, it's just noise, man.
And, um,
you're going to find noise
anywhere you go and people are going to,
people want it.
People will want to jump on.
people want to be with
anyone that's succeeding at the time.
And when you're not there, no, it's, it's,
it's no different than, you know,
what I was talking about
and the feelings that I had.
Everybody wants to be with the winner.
Everybody wants to be doing
the fun things and the
enjoying things and, um,
hyping up the guys and the
people that are, like I said,
winning and at the top, um,
But we only learn from failure.
And it's not failure.
We're not failing.
We're learning.
We're walking away with it.
Like, if we're always succeeding,
we're always winning, in my opinion,
you're never growing, right?
Like, I think that's great and everything,
but, like, we need those moments to grow.
And, you know,
if people want to root for
people that are always at the top, 100%,
like, anyone that's at the top,
they absolutely deserve it.
They deserve everything
that's coming to them.
And I...
if anything I learned,
we're not entitled to anything, you know,
like what someone's opinion
is and what they say of like, Oh,
this is my projection for, you know,
my top 10 power rankings, or, you know,
these are the people that I
projected beyond the mountain.
That's great and everything, but man,
we all have to earn a seat at the table.
Nothing's guaranteed to anybody.
And I learned that very
quickly last year that, you know,
it might give you
confidence if they're speaking your name,
but they're not the ones
stepping on the floor.
They're not the ones going
through and the anxiety and
the nerves and,
you know,
everything that the athlete's feeling,
I guarantee you,
and I know it every single athlete,
whether you're,
whether you're at the top
of the sport winning year
after year after year,
you're nervous when you're
stepping out on the floor
and you know that it's not guaranteed,
you know, anything can happen.
And that's it, you know,
and I think a lot of people
that are projecting these
things don't understand that.
And they think that it's
easy for some of these
athletes to be able to do
that just because they've
done it year after year after year.
But
know those athletes have
gone through hard things to
get to that point um and
I'm gonna I'll use ricky
garrard as an example like
it's inspiring what he's
what he's done you know
like obviously you know
everything that he's gone
through and you know I'm
not saying it was right but
like to be able to stay
motivated and to be able to
come off of a four-year ban
and then to come step back
in and be able to compete and and um
like I said, a lot of noise.
Like I remember it was the
first year that he was
there and people were
booing him in the crowd.
And, you know,
he just steps on the floor
and he competes.
And like,
I couldn't imagine what he was
feeling at the time,
but to be able to step on
the floor and ignore that
noise and to be able to compete, you know,
like that's, I think that's,
I think that's awesome.
And that's just one example, right?
I think, you know,
comebacks for athletes as well.
You know, you see a lot of Sam dancer.
He's another great example.
I think he's 38, 39.
You know, I'm sure you have people saying,
oh, you're old, you did masters,
you did this, you did that.
But, like, you can see it.
Like,
he believes in himself and he knows
what he's stepping on the floor to do.
And all that matters is
what's going on between his ears.
And when he can walk on and
step on the floor with
confidence and be able to, you know,
shut that noise out,
you're going to perform and
you're going to do well.
And I think any athlete that
can master that and figure
out how to block that noise out,
they're going to do very well.
Can you use that noise as motivation,
or is that too short-sighted?
I think it's temporary.
I've gone through this, right?
It's a great example of having a brother,
oh,
here comes Saxon in his brother's shadow,
or he paved the way for him,
this and that.
You have people saying things like that,
and then you go and compete,
and you do well.
And then all of a sudden it's like, oh,
you know, oh, Saxon's here.
You know,
and then all of a sudden Saxon gets hurt.
And it's like, oh, you know.
we'll see how he does next year.
Right.
And it's just like,
it's this constant roller
coaster that nobody, nobody knows.
And nobody knows what an
athlete's going through.
And to me, I just think projections.
And like I said, the noise that,
that people are putting out,
it is what it is.
And, you know,
I think a lot of people look at,
I think this is another
thing I'll speak on it as
people look at out of season events.
And as an athlete, I was one that was like,
Oh man, you know,
Rogue, for example, it's a great example.
You step into it and you're like, man,
this is my redemption time.
I didn't come off my best games finish.
I'm going to go step in here
and I want to win this.
And I've talked to other
athletes and they spoke the same way.
And you start to put this
pressure on yourself to compete.
And you're like, this is it.
Sponsors are looking at this.
People are looking at this.
Media is looking at this.
This is what's going to put
me back on the map.
And then you don't perform and it's like,
oh, well, you know,
now I'm starting to feel burned out.
You know,
maybe I shouldn't have done that.
And it's like,
I think people put power
rankings on these odysseys and events,
but like athletes should be
able to go to these
odysseys and events because
they want to go one,
be able to make some money
and be able to provide for
their families and themselves,
because this is where the sports at now.
Like this is how a lot of
athletes make their income.
but also because they love
it and because they want to
gain the experience because
they want to take this
experience and take it into
their next season.
And however they decide to do that,
they can do that.
But I think that there's
just so much pressure and
people put these power
rankings on things like that,
that athletes start to lose
sight of that.
And like I said,
I didn't figure that out
until this last year that it's like,
You can't go into a competition because of,
you know,
this is my comeback or this is this,
this is that.
You need to go into it
because you love the sport,
because it's just another
opportunity to compete.
And, you know,
you have this gift to
compete and that's not
always going to be there.
And yeah,
that's kind of my opinion on that.
Well, I'm glad you talked about all that.
But there's so much I want
to talk about about you
becoming a part of the community again,
but I know you have to go.
So I'm going to have you
back between semis and the
games because I'm confident
in your ability that you'll
be going to the games again this year.
And we'll talk...
Because you have a much
bigger runway between the
semis and the games than you do now.
Absolutely.
I'm going to have a little longer talk.
Because I love what you said
on Hiller about the
community getting
reattached to that and all
the things you're doing there.
And I want to really dive into that.
But I want to thank you so
much for jumping on with me today.
This was so insightful.
And I have a million more questions,
but we'll talk to them at a later time.
Amazing.
Good luck at semis,
and we're always in your
corner rooting for you.
I appreciate it, Scott.
With that, everybody in the chat,
thank you for being here.
We'll see everybody next
time on Clydesdale Media Podcast.
Bye, guys.