Bret Owsley | The Athletes of the 2024 Legends Masters CrossFit Games

We meet Bret Owsley as this Mayhem athlete prepares for the CrossFit Games. how has the Journey been? When did he find CrossFit? What are his Goals for this year?

What is Clydesdale Media Podcast?

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 it winners me.

Stick a fork in the hater on my

what is going on everybody

welcome to the Clydesdale

media podcast my name is

Scott Switzer I am the

Clydesdale we are

celebrating the

achievements of the 2024

legends masters crossfit

games athletes and with me

right now is Brett Owsley

correct that's right and

you qualified in the 40 to

44 year old division yes sir um

I wanted to get a sense of

you of like how this all came to be.

So what is your athletic background?

Yeah, so, you know,

I probably was the typical Midwest kid,

played sports all, you know,

growing up as a kid.

Every sport you could imagine, junior high,

basketball, baseball, track.

We came from a small town in

West Central Illinois,

really known for their football team.

So high school came around

and really just dove head

deep into football and basketball.

Really probably was very

fortunate actually our

defensive coordinator and

then our offensive line

coach our offensive line

coach was NFL football player.

So he was a long snapper and

we're probably one of the

few programs I would say

that had a really involved

strength and conditioning program.

And so always been into

fitness and then just been

super competitive my whole life.

Went to college at Iowa State University.

Didn't play any sports there

due to kind of my major and

what I was going to do outside of school.

Then just getting older, you know,

I was probably the standard

person who went to the gym,

played slow pitch softball two,

three days a week,

and then was really kind of

introduced into CrossFit.

Other than like watching it

on the CrossFit games on

ESPN back in the day with Rich,

seeing it on ESPN to

finally trying to figure

out a way to scratch that

competition itch,

meet some new people and

got into CrossFit.

I think late 2017, I would say,

was probably my first time

first actually going into a

CrossFit box from there.

So but I've been always

active playing sports,

really just probably my

natural personality is just

to be really competitive over everything.

And so this is kind of a

blend of my two things of

being able to work out a

lot and competing with others.

Or Aaron Scheibel says, go Cyclones.

Yeah,

I'm waiting for some of my friends

who've been messaging me saying,

I'm going to get into this

chat and try and throw you off base.

you're probably going to see

some of those individuals.

Aaron is a great coach.

He coaches at the local affiliate,

working on his own programs and stuff.

So he's one of those individuals,

got into CrossFit and has

really kind of dove in headfirst.

So Aaron's

My judge usually at all events,

I train 100% basically out of my garage.

And so Aaron is one who

shows up and judges.

But yeah, he's done a lot in CrossFit,

really diving in and

getting more interested into it.

So I thought Ariel Lowen was

the only person there.

I would like to say I did

that before Ariel, but yes.

I saw her shirt.

My wife and I both immediately said,

we should have came up with this.

We should have trademarked that statement.

Yeah, you were truly the trendsetter.

You're right.

Yeah.

So let's go back.

First, I have to know,

you grew up in Illinois.

Do you cheer for an NFL football team?

Well, I see the big C behind you,

and so I'm right there with you.

Unfortunately, I live in Wisconsin.

And so you can just imagine

what it's like to be a

Chicago Bears fan sitting

in Green Bay Packer country.

But, you know, I've got high hopes now.

The Bears are climbing.

I'm an optimistic Bears fan

for the first time in a while.

The trailer dropped for Hard Knocks.

And I lost myself.

The closest I get to that is,

do you know who Justin Kotler is?

Yep.

So his wife is a diehard

Green Bay Packers fan.

I won't be joining underdogs anytime soon.

Well, Justin is not.

Justin is a New York Giants fan, I think,

because that's where he had

his gym before, underdogs.

But his wife will text me during games,

just needling, needling.

I spend my Sundays alone, usually.

All of my friends are almost

all Packers fans.

Actually,

one of my best friends growing up

in Illinois, he was a Packers fan.

So I've been used to it.

It's just been a little bit

rougher when you live here

in Wisconsin and where the

Bears have kind of gone those last, well,

decade.

So I'm looking forward to some brighter,

brighter skies ahead.

Ben Washburn,

none of Brett's friends are

going to be surprised when

Brett is on the podium.

Another good friend of mine.

Then he throws this stuff in.

Yeah, yeah.

yeah that's why he stays

home on sundays during

football season so I can

watch the watch the bears

game yeah so speaking of

wisconsin one of the

benefits of being there is

the games have been there

for since 2017 you finally

make it to the crossfit

games and they move away yeah uh

You know, and in reality, you know,

kind of them coming to

Madison was part of the

reason I got in to CrossFit.

You know, it's like, oh, I'd seen this,

you know, in Aromas, in California,

just on TV.

Oh, here, it's coming to Madison.

Let's get...

kind of drove my interest

and quite frankly,

we had moved here in 2012,

dove in headfirst, bought a house,

had our child and then full

on career and hadn't really

met a lot of people.

And so A,

CrossFit coming to Madison was like,

oh gosh,

they did an open announcement I

think that year.

Um,

and so really knowing that CrossFit

talks a lot about community,

that's what really got me into CrossFit.

Quite frankly, it was like, oh,

I should meet.

This would be an opportunity

for us to meet some new people.

And actually my closest

friends in Wisconsin have

all come from the CrossFit space,

you know, from,

from that time in the gym.

And so, um,

That was really nice.

And then, yeah,

we've gone to the

campground the last couple of years,

you know, so we've always camped there,

done the whole thing.

We take the whole week off, you know,

just really a great group

of people just in general

and just being around

everybody is really pretty inspiring.

And so you turn 40, right?

And it's like, all right,

we're going to push our chips in.

Let's try this.

Maybe there's an opportunity here.

Let's see where this trip can go.

And quite frankly,

wasn't set on going to the games.

I think I had told my coach,

Mike McElroy from Mayhem saying like,

my goal was really to make semifinals.

I'd probably struggle in the

CrossFit space on some confidence.

Like if I just get to the semifinals,

I'll be happy.

And then this Wadapalooza

event in Southern California,

maybe everybody else will

be too tired from the games

and I can compete there.

It's like, let's go there.

And then probably my wife and my coach,

quite frankly, were like, Brett,

what are you worried about

the semifinals?

Like, you'll get there, no problem.

Let's actually get you to the games.

And so started like, oh,

how cool would it be if it

was in Madison?

I could sleep in my own bed.

I live 45 minutes away.

And Birmingham's a little bit further,

but no complaints out of me, though.

Yeah,

it's still got to be pretty special

when you qualify for something this epic.

And what's even cooler is

that you did it in a way

that you would have

qualified under the old rules.

Right, yeah.

In that part, I'll be honest, overall,

just semifinals to the games,

I'm not sure the games in

qualifying has even set in yet.

I mean, we're 20-some-odd days out.

And it was just something

that I thought personally

was so far out of reach for

me that I hadn't, you know,

I can't tell mentally if I

was saying I wasn't

thinking about it because I

didn't want to disappoint myself,

you know?

So there's a little bit of

that mental battle that

people go through.

But still like going through there and,

and ended up where I ended

up in the semifinals within

the top 10 to like,

I really hope and I think it

will happen that a month

clear from the games to be

able to step back and really be like, oh,

wow, this was something to be proud of.

This is pretty cool.

And I'm trying to get myself

there right now.

You've done a great job with

highlighting some of these

people that have gone to

the games a few times.

to where they say the first

time they didn't,

they were so stressed out

and they took it so seriously,

like they didn't take the

time to look around and like soak it in.

And, you know,

you've got a friend in Ryan

Rettke who has been kind of

a very good person for me to talk to.

He probably kept me off the

ledge even in quarterfinals

when I was messaging my time.

So I'm like,

I'm not even going to make the semifinals,

Ryan.

What am I going to do?

And he's like, what are you talking about?

And so having him who's been

to the games before to kind

of lean on him and I share a coach.

And so having him to lean on to like, hey,

don't forget to look around.

This is pretty cool,

what we're getting to do here.

And you should be proud of

what you've been able to accomplish.

Yeah,

I love this community and everybody's

so supportive.

And yeah,

I cannot wait to get down there

to Birmingham myself.

And it's going to be your show only,

which I think in some ways

it can be disappointing.

And I have friends that are

disappointed that they

didn't get that opportunity

at the festival.

But hopefully we can make this a festival.

Yeah,

I think that's – I think I've always

felt with CrossFit,

the community and the

people is what makes it so special,

you know,

and what you're able to accomplish.

And just being around those

individuals in that space, I think,

whether you're there to

spectate or there to participate,

I think –

really the people involved

is what makes it special.

My, you know,

my mom and my stepdad are

going to be there.

They don't even know what

CrossFit is and they're

going to go there.

And one of the things that I

think is so special about masters,

like there's going to be 70

year old ladies that are

doing things that a lot of

people can't do in their teens, you know,

and just being able to say like, Holy cow,

look at that.

That's possible.

You know,

I can still think I can remember

my mother turning 40 and

was like over the hill.

Everything was black

balloons like your life was

over and this is how old you are.

And then you're like,

now we're in our 40s.

And I'm like, well,

I got to go see how many

muscle ups I can do on broken.

You know,

it's just I think the space in

the community and what CrossFit,

the methodology is done is amazing.

you know,

really opened the eyes to what's

possible as you age.

And, you know,

I've worked out my entire life.

I was part of a pretty

well-developed high school

fitness program that was all strength,

a lot of bars.

We had bumper plates, you know,

this is in the late nineties,

we were using bumper plates

and I'm stronger at 40 than I was at 24.

And, um,

And I worked out six days a week.

It wasn't that I never

worked out or anything.

I've always been fairly strong.

And now I would probably put

the 40-year-old version

against the 24-year-old

version up in a battle.

And I think the 40-year-old

version is better.

One of my favorite stories

is about my dear friend, Lana Marcin.

She's 70 plus.

And I asked her if she was

going to compete in a competition.

And she said, no, I'm not going there.

They won't let me do rope climbs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Susan Holt,

we've met her at the games the

last few years.

She's won her age division

the last two years.

And she had a camper next to us.

And just talking to her, I was just...

I was telling her, I'm like,

you're incredible.

Just what she's able to do.

And it's just, it's,

it's really inspirational

from a family that, you know,

I would say our lifespan isn't real long,

you know, and it's like,

look what you can do at 64, you know,

these they're incredible.

And it's, and I,

I think being our own show

maybe lowers the barrier to

entry for people to attend and,

And so that maybe there's an

opportunity for folks there to say like,

oh, wow, this is really special.

So I think we'll be able to

create an environment there

that will be a lot of fun, I hope.

So who all are you taking with you?

So my wife will be there.

I have an 11-year-old daughter.

So she's in full tow and

she'll be coming with us.

And then my mom and stepdad

will all be coming down.

Yeah.

We've got to pack that place down there.

Yeah.

Oh yeah.

We're, we're excited to go down there.

We'll get down there Tuesday

before competition,

just drive down there and yeah, it'll be,

I think with the team

competition that they're

doing and stuff like that,

it'll be interesting to see

how many people are in attendance,

but I hope everybody comes

there and supports everyone.

Yeah,

so you mentioned you went to Iowa

State University and you studied biology?

Natural resources management.

Okay.

And so you work in that field today.

You're one of the few people who went,

got a degree,

and actually are doing what

you got a degree in.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

So right now I work for I

work in our wildlife

management programs for the

Wisconsin Department of

Natural Resources.

So kind of oversee all of

the wildlife management

aspect that occurs in southern Wisconsin.

So we have a team of about

60 people that are kind of

indirectly under my

supervision and so work for

a state government agency.

set hunting seasons, population surveys,

that sort of thing,

habitat management across

public lands here in Wisconsin,

which we're fortunate to

have quite a few of.

And yeah,

I've been doing that really since

I graduated college.

I was out West for a few

years and then I was a

wildlife biologist in

Florida for five before

coming to Wisconsin here in 2012.

Awesome.

Yeah.

I worked for the state of

Ohio and I worked on a

project where we were

hiring short-term I work in

re-employment services so

we were short-term

employment uh after a

natural disaster and we

were working with natural

resources to make sure that

we didn't damage endangered species

And it was fascinating.

They actually like came in

and gave a presentation on

what might be in this creek

bed that we need to like be careful of.

And this is what it looks

like to make sure you don't

step on this or do that.

And it was really

fascinating for someone who

doesn't like get into the

weeds of that on a normal basis.

Yeah, and that's so we'll do some of that.

You know,

we have another branch of our

agency that handles like

endangered resources.

So they'll cover that.

But yeah, it's.

You know,

I always say I have a lot of

people that work for me

that are significantly

smarter and better at their

job than I am.

I've just been very

fortunate throughout the

course of my career to have

some really great people to

lean on and kind of turned

into what it's turned into.

So, yeah,

very fortunate to be a part of

the state of Wisconsin here.

Yeah.

And you're an avid hunter as well, right?

For sure.

Yeah.

That's my, I would say, you know,

you ask like kind of what

my hobbies are from

probably all of my friends,

they would say Brett hunts

and he works out, you know,

that's kind of,

that's kind of my two

hobbies that I have that, uh,

really kind of spin,

take up most of my free time when,

and if there is some free time.

Uh, is, so you're a mayhem athlete, right?

Um,

that is there, they do mayhem hunts now.

Is that something that you

like dive into look into,

or is that reserved for

time when you have some more free time?

Yeah.

So as far as the programming goes,

you know, like I,

so I do their mayhem

performance coaching.

So it's a service where it's one-on-one,

they provide individual

programming for me and we

did that this year.

But yeah, mayhem hunt.

I mean, really that's part of, you know,

being a part of a Mayhem

Athlete was really about

their community and basically, gosh,

everything they do,

they just do phenomenally well.

And so being a part of that

and actually probably my

relationship and

conversations with Rich

have all been hunting based.

It's very rarely been CrossFit focused.

Now he's,

when I was down there for semifinals,

talked to him for a little bit,

but I ran into him like the

day before at the coffee shop

And he remembered a

conversation when Legends

was in Mayhem that I competed in.

Oh, you're the DNR guy, you know,

and we started talking

about different hunting trips.

And so we messaged each

other back and forth.

And so, yeah,

I'd like to say I was trying

to figure out when Mayhem

Hunt launched with Angelo and Rich.

I think maybe earlier this year,

I sat there and laughed

because I think three years ago,

I posted something on

Instagram that said Mayhem

Hunter and saying, hey, Rich,

we should get a hunting aspect back.

And so it's good to see.

I really enjoy watching kind

of their growth in that space.

It certainly is cool and

interesting to see.

What's your favorite season to hunt in?

Yeah, so in Wisconsin, you know,

we're a big deer state,

so we're going to shoot, you know,

whitetail season is probably my favorite.

And actually probably spring turkey season,

honestly,

is probably my favorite here in

Wisconsin.

And then I try every other

year to go out west to bow hunt for elk.

And so that I'd probably say

is my overall favorite.

But here at home,

spring turkey season is really nice.

You have a breakthrough, the long,

drawn-out winter that can

be in Wisconsin.

Spring, things are starting to get warmer.

You haven't really done

anything a whole lot for a few months.

And so turkey season is

always a good time.

But we try to get out pretty

heavily pretty much any season.

Yeah, I grew up in Western Pennsylvania,

and hunting is a rite of passage.

For sure, yeah.

I mean, that's...

Wisconsin,

I was introduced to the deer

season widow's weekend,

deer hunter widow weekend.

It's opening weekend.

It's the weekend before

Thanksgiving for our gun season.

Places shut down.

You're allowed to be gone from school.

And I grew up in a community like that.

You had to bring your deer tag to school.

And as a seventh, eighth grader,

you could get out of school

and have an excused absence there.

So I grew up in kind of that

rural community sort of thing.

And so, yeah, it's a, it's a big deal.

Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania, Michigan,

Wisconsin,

I would say are probably three

of the real big States when

it comes to just like

hunter numbers and the

emphasis they put on, you know,

from a hunting season.

Yeah.

We didn't even have to take

a tag and they just,

they just care on first day of buck.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

There was,

it was pointless to even hold

school because nobody would be there.

Right.

Yeah.

I mean, that's, that's where we'll start,

you know,

where I grew up was similar to that,

you know,

in that rural community where we

had quite a few people leave, but yeah,

it's, you know, and that's,

I think a little bit similar, you know,

I kind of look at it from a

CrossFit space as I've kind

of gotten older.

I mean,

my favorite part of hunting is the

people and interacting.

Like there are people in my

direct family that I did not see, uh,

all year other than during

deer season and so you know

and so they would come in

and it was deer season and

so just the community

aspect uh the socialization

that occurs uh to me is is really

What I look back now is

probably one of the things

that I enjoy the most.

And then when you look at CrossFit,

just the people and

everything in the community

and camaraderie that comes

with it is also probably

one of the things that I enjoy the most.

Yeah, I agree.

Community is everything.

So you're doing this thing, right,

where you're going to

compete on the world's

biggest stage for your age group.

And that takes a lot of support.

You've got a wife, you've got a daughter.

How do you balance all that?

And how much support do they

give you during the season?

Yeah.

Oh gosh.

A ton.

I would say, you know,

and I think I've probably

done it on any of my posts,

it's never an I. I didn't

qualify for the games.

We did.

You know, it takes a team.

And I have probably a

slightly different look on

balance in that I look at

balance long term and that

at times there is going to

be an imbalance from what I would like.

And so, yeah.

We talked,

I would say it was after the

games last year, a little bit before,

I think after the quarterfinals,

maybe last year, semis potentially.

And my wife and I talked about, hey,

you're turning 40.

what do you think?

Do you want to give this a go?

And we talked about what the

expectations were when we

made that decision, like, Hey,

we're going to,

there's probably going to be an imbalance,

you know, for training.

She said, well, and she knows me, you know,

I always live by the slogan.

If you're

anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

I, when I dive in to something, you know,

hunting, building a garage gym, it's like,

well,

we're going to have the nicest

garage gym you can potentially have,

you know?

And so we

kind of dove in knowing that, Hey,

when this is,

this is going to be a priority and,

and we have, and really dove in.

And I think there's two

resources when I talk about balance,

it's usually time and then financially.

And so financially you put

in the resources to say, Hey,

I want an individual coach.

I want to work on weaknesses.

This is what I see.

So let's financially let's commit.

And then when it comes to time, um,

And it's OK in order to do this,

let's go all in.

And so rightfully so,

I would probably say this

year it's been out of

balance and that I've trained, you know,

trying to keep everything else in line.

You know, work still costs to come.

It pays all the bills.

And then but, you know,

we've got to get training done.

And that's usually front

front and center for for us right now.

It's, you know, friends want to go.

out on the boat on a Saturday.

It's like, well, we will,

but I'm going to train first.

you know, I got to get my, my piece in,

or we were in on vacation

to Florida for a week and

friends are saying, Hey,

let's go do this.

Yep.

Okay.

But by eight to 10 AM,

I'm going to be at the gym.

And so still trying to get

everything in and trying to

be really deliberate is,

is how I view it in order

to keep those things.

But yeah,

sometimes they're a little bit

out of balance.

Friends want to go do something.

It's like, well,

I'm not going to be able to

go out to eat on Friday

night because I've got a

long set for Friday.

And so,

But but understanding that

being deliberate and quite honestly,

knowing there's a time

frame where that ends, you know,

it was extended for me, honestly,

because I really honestly

just felt like if I could

get the semifinals, it's a success.

And so I'll have all summer.

Don't worry about it.

And then then you qualify

for the games and it's like, OK,

we're going to we're going

to keep this up for another few months.

But, you know,

I think being very

deliberate with your time

is is one thing that we do.

And then my wife is extremely supportive.

Whatever we need is always helping out.

And then I have an 11 year

old daughter who is super active.

She does gymnastics.

four days a week you know

she's running around during

the school year she'll be

she's on the volleyball

team she's on basketball

team she did track and so

just really setting up this

calendar to be very

deliberate at work getting

all my work done getting

training done and taking

care of everything that's

needed at the family at the

family level but you know

it the amount of support we

receive is is is unmatched

you know my wife and

daughter do a great job and

then my friends you see

they're in the chat

of just knowing like, Hey,

what do you need?

You need help with something has been,

has been really helpful.

And just the mayhem community.

You've interviewed quite a

few mayhem masters.

There's a ton of us that are,

that are gone to the games

and just having that

community of just regular check-ins like,

Hey, how are you feeling today?

Jonathan Varela, Chuck Bream, Brian,

you know, all these folks,

Brandon Fontenot that you

get to meet and they're like, Hey,

how are you doing?

You know, it just, it's,

this checking in, you know,

some of us were competitors

against one another,

but you wouldn't know by

how we speak to one another.

It's, it's really, you know,

trying to lift up everyone.

And I think that's, again, like you said,

Scott,

that's part of why the community is

so great.

So I've, I've,

I have two questions left for you.

I'm trying to keep these

less than 30 minutes.

I am not good at that, but here we go.

I'm a bit of a talker,

so you can just yell at me and say, Hey,

be quiet here.

Um,

Is that balance that you have right now,

the off balance, is one year?

Say you go to the games and you podium,

right?

Is it sustainable beyond this year?

For me personally, probably not.

I would say, I think that's,

there's an element there that,

that I know.

And I, you know, it's,

it's the countdown to when

things get to change to

where just mentality wise, what,

you know,

If you want to go do something,

friends want to go do something,

family wants to go do something.

My first thought isn't how

that impacts my training

that because that's where

it's at right now.

And so do I think that's I

don't feel that's sustainable for me.

You know,

I would certainly need to take a

break from from that.

And that's part, you know,

I can't remember who it is

that I know they go to the

games every other year.

Because they say,

I just need that mental break.

And I've thought about it.

I've told a few people like, hey,

let's start booking trips

for next summer because we

won't have to worry about

training like I am now.

And then, of course, when I get there,

I know I'm going to be at

the games and be like,

that was so much fun.

We have to do this again.

But I think there's other ways to do it.

And I think that's what I'm

learning more and more is that, you know,

I can still plan to do the open.

I'm still planning to do quarterfinals.

I'm still planning on hoping

to make semifinals for next year.

And if I qualified, I'd do it.

But there might be a

different way to do things.

And I think that would be

something to test out.

But I've really enjoyed the training.

But I would be honest to say

I'm looking forward to not

saying how does that impact

my training as being my

first internal question

that I ask myself.

So I asked if you podium this year,

the follow up to that is

what if you finish fourth?

Yeah.

And you can honestly answer that.

I just know.

And I haven't really thought

about placing.

I mean,

I think that's the the the question

folks ask, right,

is where do you think

you're going to fall?

And yeah.

I think of,

this probably shouldn't be what you say,

but I think of the line

from the movie Miracle, you know,

with the demon says, well,

I guess the only thing

that's left is to win the damn thing.

And I've thought about that and I like it.

Inside of me, I'm like, yep, oh yeah,

let's go.

But part of me is just like,

There's so many great people in there.

I can't be mad if I show up

in every workout.

Let's say every workout is a

benchmark and the lifts are

all one rep maxes and I PR

all my benchmarks and I PR

all my lifts and I get 37th.

I can't look at that and say, wow,

I did really poorly.

And so I think the way I'm

looking at it is just make

sure I leave everything out there.

And if I can walk off the

field and be like,

I don't know if I could have done more,

then that's the placing that I deserve.

So I just know the plan is

to lay it out there.

I feel prepared and ready.

There's going to be a ton of

people out there and a ton

of friends that I'm competing against,

and we're going to throw

down together and have a lot of fun.

So that's really what I'm excited about.

What I think is wild,

and it is kind of like an

experiment this year,

is if you look at the men's

division of the games last

year in the Masters, the 35 through 49,

the three winners won by over 100 points.

Wow.

But that was only letting 10

people in in a flawed

online qualification.

It's going to be interesting

to see now that 40 get in

and you're probably going

to catch more athletes that

should be there.

What is that going to look like this year?

Yeah,

I think you bring up a great point

that there's going to be

more players in there,

likely more specialists, you know,

that are going to come in and say,

you know, I've been,

my strength is just pure squat strength.

You know, I probably, you know,

I could probably go in

there and then the 40-44,

let's say not even be in the top five.

And if there was a one rep max front squat,

I'd probably be close to winning that.

And that wouldn't have happened elsewhere.

So I think you're just going

to have more players coming in.

It'll be interesting to see.

I'll be curious on your thoughts on it.

With only having 10,

the average finish of the

winner versus having 40,

what's the average finish?

And exponentially, is that...

you know, does the,

does Rudy Berger average a

three and when there's 10

or does he average a 15, you know, what's,

what's going to be the,

the numbers there.

So it'll just be great.

Cause I mean, you look down the line,

I think you interviewed Josh Boonstra,

who's a mayhem athlete, you know,

that qualified and he is

incredibly strong and, you know,

you're just going to show up and be like,

Oh man,

He came in and won a workout,

and then I come in and

finish third in something,

and we never would have

been at the games previously.

And so that'll be really

interesting just to see the play scenes.

I always think it's exciting

when there's a leaderboard

shuffle after each event,

and hopefully with 40 and

having some people that are

just really good at

CrossFit are shaking the leaderboard up.

Yeah.

And what's crazy on the women's side,

it was completely opposite.

You didn't know who was

going to win until the final event.

Yeah.

Which was insane.

So it's going to be

interesting to see how it goes.

It could have been just a

fluke or a coincidence,

but it's something I'm

going to keep an eye out on

when we get to the end of the weekend.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, I've been I was in Waterpalooza.

Master Fitness Collective

and then did Legends over

the last like three years.

And outside of Wadapalooza,

there seemed to be quite a

bit of shakeup on the leaderboards.

And I think that's what's really exciting.

I try not to spend a lot of

time looking at them.

But yeah,

it'll be really interesting to

have 40 people.

I've never competed in a

field that I think that

would be this size and

certainly not at this magnitude.

So it'll be interesting to

see and I think exciting

for what I hope people are

tuning in to see, you know, holy cow,

we got a close race here

come Sunday that we should

be tuning into.

Yeah,

just to give you an idea at the

Syndicate Crown for the

elite in the women's

division on the final day,

someone from the first heat

finished in the top five of every event.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, that's pretty incredible, I think.

And that messes things up.

That's why Chloe, Gavin,

David jumped from 15th to

9th and got a game spot, right?

You can't do that if people

aren't middling like that.

Yeah, having that many people,

there's just a higher

element of people to get in between you.

And so, yeah,

you can get first or you could get 10th.

Previously, you can get first or 40th,

you know,

now and so I think that'll be

that I think that'll be

really interesting to kind

of see and watch how it plays out,

you know, across the age groups.

Yeah.

Super fun.

Well, we've gone long, right?

That's just typical for me.

So I want to thank you very

much for taking the time out.

I will be in Birmingham.

We are filming a behind the

scenes that weekend.

We have full access to the

back to the warmup area.

to just kind of have chats back there.

We're going to collect those,

make a documentary to put those out.

So just like the elite athletes,

you're going to have a

documentary to watch after

it's all done to kind of

see how it all played out

over the weekend.

Oh, that'd be great.

I think, you know, just,

I hope this community just

shares our support for

everything that you've done

to try and highlight the

masters that are going there.

Cause I think everybody

that's been able to go, you know,

that's going there competing,

even trying to compete,

it's pretty special.

And so having your support is great.

And I,

I'm sure to take my mind off

some of the workouts,

I'll come up and we can

chat Chicago Bears and

maybe relive the Super Bowl

shuffle glory days and

maybe forget about the last few years.

Yeah, perfect.

Awesome.

Well, thanks, Brett.

Have a great rest of your day.

We'll see you in Birmingham

in a few short weeks.

Yeah, I appreciate it, Scott.

Look forward to seeing you.

All right, have a great one.

And everybody in the chat,

thank you for being here.

We'll see you next time on

the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

Bye, guys.