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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 to will and so I
will find a way.
It took a minute and I
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 a hater on
my dinner plate.
what is going on everybody
welcome to glasdell media
podcast where we're
focusing on the athletes of
the 2024 crossfit
semifinals I'm so pumped to
have with me elia miller
what's going on man hey
scott I'm doing good how
are you I'm good man
earlier today I did a
master show I went to hit
the video and it just
kerflunk kaflui it was a cool video
Yeah.
I have different ones for
different shows and it just didn't,
it didn't start.
And I was like, well, okay,
I guess we're doing it live,
but it went today.
And I love that.
That is like one of the
coolest type songs in the
royalty free music category
that's out there.
And I just, and I love it.
So I'm hyped to see you.
How you been?
I've been good.
Just, uh, just training a lot.
Getting excited for semifinals.
Yeah.
And so this is the third
year in a row we've talked to Aaliyah.
And she's always one of
those bright faces when I
see at an event that just makes me happy.
I feel like I'm with my
people and I get to hang out.
And so, as always,
it's fun to catch up with you.
I know you made some big
changes this year.
You moved out west.
Mm-hmm.
Walk us through that thought
process and then kind of where you are.
Yeah.
So I was previously in Kansas.
I spent the past two seasons
in Kansas City, Kansas,
training with Jill Glasnap.
She was my coach.
And I obviously made very
good progress with her.
I made semifinals both years
I was with her.
Ended up finishing 20th in
the West at semifinals last year.
Getting close to that game spot.
Um,
and we were making a lot of good progress,
um,
but it got to a point where I was on
the verge of not being able
to pay rent anymore.
Um, and I was also,
I was training alone in Kansas.
I didn't have any training
partners out there.
And that was,
I think what I needed when I was there.
Um,
but it was getting to a point where
that was just becoming, um,
hard to maintain.
And like, I love going to the gym.
I love training,
but it was getting to a
point where I didn't want
to go to the gym anymore.
Just because training by
yourself day after day for
multiple years is,
it takes a very special
type of person to do that
for an extended period of time.
And I was really missing
having just people to talk to, people to,
you know, talk strategy with,
compare scores with,
all that kind of stuff.
So that combined with the
fact that I was becoming
very broke and couldn't
necessarily afford rent anymore.
The timing worked out
beautifully that Sean
Sweeney had posted on
Instagram that he was
looking for an athlete and
a coach to come move to Nevada,
train with him,
coach at his gym and live
on his property.
Um,
so I sent him a message and told him
the background.
Yeah.
Where's he at back there?
You can see his head up there.
Um, so I sent him a message and I was like,
Hey, you know,
I've been chasing the games
for a couple of years now.
I feel like I'm making progress,
but if I don't change something right now,
I'm going to basically have to give up.
this dream because I'm going to have to go,
you know,
get a grownup job and start
making money to pay.
Um,
and so this opportunity that he
presented was the perfect opportunity.
Um, he has a tiny house on his property.
It's like a little shed basically.
Um,
it's in his front yard and that was
what he was offering as, Hey,
come live in this tiny house.
You won't have to pay rent.
You won't have to pay bills,
just live here, coach at the gym.
And that's
you know, the,
the agreement that you're
here to help run the gym.
And in exchange,
you get to live on my property.
Um, so I sent him a message,
sent him a video, uh,
ended up coming out here to visit, uh,
that must've been like
November of last year,
spent a couple of days here,
Got to meet him, meet everybody at the gym,
coach a few classes, do some training.
And I ended up really loving it.
So a couple of days later,
I decided to pull the
trigger and move out here.
And by the beginning of December,
my life was packed up in a
trailer and I was driving
from Kansas to Fallon, Nevada.
So got here early December
and now I'm living in a
tiny house and coaching at
CrossFit Power Stroke.
So.
That leads to just a ton of
questions for me.
And how do you take your
belongings and whittle them
down to a point?
Or maybe you already were,
but you whittle them down
to something that fits in a tiny house.
It was very hard.
Anyone who knows me knows
that I'm a bit of a hoarder.
Wow.
And I had a lot of stuff.
So it was actually,
I think it was really good for me.
because it forced me to
actually take a hard look
at all of my belongings,
all of my possessions and
figure out what I actually
needed and what I didn't
need that I was holding
onto for whatever reason,
whether that was, Oh,
I might need this again in three years.
And, you know,
things like that or things that, you know,
I don't want to throw away
this concert ticket stub
because it has sentimental value.
Like,
All right,
I think it's time to move past
some of those things.
So it was a little bit of
like an emotional... For
the kids out there,
when you went to a concert,
you used to get a paper ticket.
Yeah, I forgot everything's digital now.
But it was kind of like an
emotional cleanse almost.
So it took a decent amount of time.
I donated a lot of stuff to
Goodwill and just some other...
donation centers out in Kansas,
sold some clothes on Posh
March and just did what I
could to downsize to really
just my essentials.
And then, you know, of course,
having two cats traveling
with me makes it a little
hard to shove everything in my car.
So I ended up having to,
I had to get a trailer
hitch installed on my car
and then rent a trailer and
pull that with me.
Um,
and so that also allowed me to bring my
air runner out here, which was nice.
So, yeah.
So I'm assuming the air
runner is not in the tiny house.
It's not,
it would take up the entire tiny house.
So my air runner is in the gym.
Uh, did you have other equipment?
Uh, just a couple of barbells,
barbells and an air runner.
And there,
you brought those two and just
threw them in the gym.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So what is tiny house living like?
It's interesting.
It was definitely an
adjustment and I feel like
I've adjusted fairly well
to it at this point.
So I have to light my stove
with an actual lighter.
So I turn on the gas and
then hold a lighter to it.
Never had to do that before.
I have, this is going to sound weird.
I have a compost toilet.
So my toilet doesn't actually flush.
it's a French drain and a compost toilet.
So, um, that's different for sure.
Um, I don't have a dishwasher.
Uh, I don't have an oven.
Um,
so I've had to get creative with my
meal prep.
I used to use my oven a lot for meal prep.
I was lucky enough that a
couple of months ago,
my parents bought me an air
fryer for my birthday.
So that helps a lot with the cooking.
Um, and then just, uh,
living small in general um
you know I i realize that I
i don't really spend too
much time at home I'm
mostly only home on my rest
days really uh every other
day I'm spending most of my
time at the gym or out
running errands or whatever
so it's just uh it's been
good I like it it's very
calm kenneth the lab says
air fryers are key yes
I don't know how I went so
long without one.
So shout out mom and dad.
Thanks for the air fryer.
So with that,
do you have any outdoor
living space around the tiny house?
I have a porch.
I have a really cute front porch.
I've never had a front porch before,
so that's pretty cool.
And then it's in his front yard,
basically.
So across from his driveway,
he's got the tiny house set up.
Um,
and we spend a decent amount of time
outside.
Um, Sean and his wife,
Emily just started a garden
in the front yard.
Um, so, you know,
a couple of days ago I was
out there helping them
plant some watermelons and
stuff like that.
Um, so, and you know, out doing runs,
bike rides, walking around, whatever.
Um, it's been getting nice out here.
So I've been able to spend
some more time outside.
what has the relationship
been like between sean and
his wife and you have you
become like part of the
family or I feel like yeah
they've been really great
um you know my birthday
they invited me over for
dinner and they cooked me
dinner um we hang out at
the house sometimes when
nobody's got anything going
on they've got two young
kids so their life is a
little hectic right now um but you know
I love the kids.
Their daughter, Tyler,
she can't say my name.
So she calls me Ia.
So I'm Ia.
It's really cute.
But yeah, it's been a lot of fun.
They've been so incredible, so welcoming.
They've basically become a
second family to me here.
So back in the CrossFit sense,
you come out there,
you're basically hired to
be a training partner.
Does that come with Sean
coaching you as well?
Yes, he is my coach now.
So I am part of the Cowboy
Way athlete program.
He runs and coaches that program.
So he's my coach and also my
training partner,
which is actually really cool.
It's interesting in some
instances where it's like, all right,
does he need to be my coach
for this workout or does he
need to be my training
partner for this workout?
So it's been...
interesting navigating that
and figuring that out.
Um, but it's been,
it's been so amazing and just having, um,
such a high caliber athlete
to train next to every day.
Um, I mean,
I feel like I've improved so
much since I've been here, uh,
just from this environment.
And I feel like I'm the
fittest I've ever been.
And I'm really excited for
semifinals this year.
So I've,
I've watched you all off season and I'm,
I'm going to make watching you for years.
You have been a very much,
very much a power output athlete, right?
It seems to me that over the last year,
there's been some
deconstruction down to kind
of like the bare bones and rebuilding.
Am I, am I correct in that?
Yeah.
And then where are you?
Trying to turn myself into a runner.
where are you in that journey?
Are you still in the process
of the rebuilding of the
new Aaliyah 2.0 or.
Yeah, I think, I think it's,
it's going to continually
be a process and an evolution.
And, you know,
even when I get through the
phase that I'm in right now,
there's going to be another evolution,
you know,
Aaliyah 3.0 or whatever you want
to call it.
But I have,
especially since coming here,
I've spent a lot of time
working on my aerobic base, my running,
burpees, things like that.
So, you know, high, heavy breathing,
longer workouts have tended
to not be great for me historically.
And I'm still not where I
would like to be with them,
but I'm getting significantly better.
The
quarterfinals workout this
year with the wall balls
and the burpee box jump
overs that's like two of my
weakness movements and if I
had done that workout a
year ago I don't know that
I would have even made it
into the last round of
burpee box jump overs and
when I did it this year I
did it twice um I still I
didn't finish the workout
that was kind of
disappointing but um by the
second time I did it I was
only six reps from
finishing my last set of
burpee box jump overs so
like seeing improvements and
that kind of stuff has been really cool.
I've been running more than
I've ever run in my life
since I've been here.
We live about two miles from
a place called Soda Lake.
It's just this big,
it's actually an active volcano,
but it's a lake with,
it's like in a crater.
And so we run around the rim
of the lake and we run like
downhill down to the lake,
do some burpees,
run back up the hill and
then keep running around
And we do that once a week.
The first time I did it,
when I first moved out here,
that run took me 59 minutes.
And now my PR is down to about 45 minutes.
So yeah, making big improvements.
There's still a ways to go,
but we're getting there.
And one of the big reasons I ask is if,
if people have watched you
and then they watch you in
some of these off season competitions,
like you would be the pick
to win some of the lifting events.
And that didn't necessarily
happen this off season.
And my assumption was
because you're going through this process,
you're probably not even
touching a barbell very much.
Yeah.
My, my lifting has changed, uh,
pretty significantly.
So, you know, I'm not on, uh,
you know,
eight to 12 week strength cycle
for anything specific right now,
because I don't need to be, um,
winning the lifting events
is awesome and so much fun
and who doesn't like winning an event.
Um,
but it's more important for me to be
focusing on bringing up the
things that I struggle with.
And that means that I might
not necessarily be winning
the lifting events anymore,
but I can still hang in the
lifting events.
And that's,
I need to just be more
well-rounded in that aspect of like,
I don't necessarily need to win.
I just need everything to come up more.
so when you're in these off season comps,
it's, it's Aaliyah 2.0.
And are you testing,
you testing that new Aaliyah out?
Like, like the,
the priority isn't the lifting event.
It's how well am I going to
do on this muscle up
workout or how well am I
going to do on this run?
Like, so does that priority shift?
Yeah, I think, um,
Previously, when I would compete,
I would go in thinking
about each event individually and say,
you know, oh, there's a lifting event.
I want to win that one.
And then there's this other
event that I know is going to crush me,
but that's OK because I'm
going to win the lifting
one and it doesn't matter.
And now I feel like I
approach competitions more
with a holistic approach of like, hey,
there's a lifting event and
that's going to be awesome for me.
But I'm also going to spend
just as much time focusing
on these other events
because I want my overall
placement to come up,
not just go crush a lifting
event and get crushed by everything else.
Okay.
So through all the,
let's call it
experimentation of the off season.
how do you feel you're doing
going into this game season?
Like even before the open,
did you feel like you were
ready to unleash whatever
it was that you created?
Yeah.
I mean, I, like I said,
there's still more work to
be done and still more
improvements to be made, but I,
I was really excited to
start this season because I
do feel like a different
athlete this year.
And I,
I don't know how much it'll show.
I don't know how to explain it.
I don't know how much it'll
show in terms of the leaderboard,
but I do know that I will feel it.
And I hope that it reflects
on the leaderboard.
But I know that I feel like
a very different athlete this season.
How hard is it for you to
wrap your head around that?
It's a, yeah, it's a process.
It's just another one of
those mental processes that
we go through as competitive athletes.
And I feel like everything in this sport,
once you get to this level,
it's all just mental and
it's learning how to
navigate all of the
additional things that come
with it that aren't just
your physical performance.
I,
it's so funny because I've talked to a
lot of these athletes, um,
like yourself and like
podcasting is very similar to that.
You know,
we're in a very competitive space
with a lot of third party outlets and,
and everybody's jockeying
for position and,
and what are you good at
and what do you need to
improve on and what do you like?
It's very similar in a very different way.
yeah yeah that makes sense
um and so like I can
commiserate a lot with a
semi-final athlete and yeah
um and it's so exciting for
me when when people have
these realizations these
epiphanies um and create
the 2.0s the 3.0s and and
move on um we'll come back
to semis in a second
But you have become quite
the media mogul yourself.
I'm having fun with it.
You cut out just a little bit there.
I said I've been having fun with it.
So you've made appearances on Death By,
which you gave this program
a huge shout out, which, you know, heart.
We just got it.
And I totally appreciate that.
You are currently the Jeopardy champion.
How fun is it that you are
the Jeopardy champ?
Pretty cool.
Chase had asked me a couple
weeks ago if I was
interested in going on Jeopardy.
And I was like, you know,
I don't think I'm going to win,
but I'll give it my best shot.
And then he reached out again last week.
He was like, Hey,
do you want to come on this Friday?
I was like, yeah, sure.
And then I found out that I
was going to be going against, uh,
Hiller.
I was like, Oh no,
I'm really not going to win this.
Um, but it ended up,
it ended up being so much fun.
Um, it was funny after the first question,
I think Chase made a comment about, um,
how's your heart rate right now?
Is it more stressful walking
onto a competition floor or
doing CrossFit Jeopardy?
And I think the answer is
pretty solidly doing CrossFit Jeopardy.
My heart rate was through the roof.
I was sweating.
I was nervous, but it was a lot of fun.
I have grown to love that show.
When you see someone like,
I know that you're a fan of
the sport as well as a competitor, right?
So I know you know a lot
about what's going on.
You have Hiller that does
nothing but study
everything so he can make videos.
And then you have Keith Knapp,
a walking encyclopedia of the L1 manual.
That was a pretty accurate description.
And so it's really fun to
watch it kind of play out.
And of course, you know, in my older age,
my wife and I watched the
real Jeopardy every night.
Yeah.
And so I play along and it's so much fun.
So much fun.
Have you been watching Jeopardy Masters?
Not yet.
What I do with those is I
wait till they pile up and
then I binge them.
Okay.
I was watching that.
I claimed it was preparation
for CrossFit Jeopardy,
but it was really just
because I love Jeopardy.
They make me feel very dumb.
Larry Young says, big win on Jeopardy.
Now you need to go on a long
run of winning.
Yes, sir.
I'm ready.
I'm excited about Jeopardy, Matt,
and please don't spoil this for me.
I grew up just outside of Pittsburgh.
And one of the Jeopardy
masters is from Pittsburgh.
And I'm a huge fan of her
because she is also a
chaser on the game show The Chase.
Oh, okay.
That's cool.
And on The Chase,
she knits while she answers
trivia questions and crushes people.
And I love it.
That's awesome.
Like how nonchalant can you
act while you're imposing
your will on this game show?
That's a pretty baller move.
I like that.
It is.
And she's on Masters.
So you probably have seen her.
Yeah, probably.
Larry Young also says the
Jeopardy Masters questions are tough.
Yes, they are.
Yeah.
It was so funny when they
were doing the tournament,
the invitational tournament champions.
Yeah.
Like the questions had
gotten harder and harder and harder.
And then they go back to regular jeopardy.
I'm like, man, all of a sudden,
like I can play.
Yeah.
That's how I feel too.
And then celebrity jeopardy.
I'm like, oh yeah, I'm good.
I'm good.
Let's go.
That's funny.
I feel really smart when I
watch celebrity jeopardy.
Yeah.
So I,
I had the honor of being on coffee
pods and wads, um,
around the whiteboard and
you've done death by how
nervous do you get during those?
My first one, I was super nervous.
Um, I,
Lauren had sent the questions the
day before and I was like studying,
making notes.
I was like, I have my answers ready to go.
Um, and the more that I've done it,
the less that I've stressed about it,
it gets a little bit easier.
Um, but it is.
It's always challenging
knowing that you're going
on a live video and you're
attempting to sound
intelligent to a large crowd.
I think that's challenging for anybody,
but it's also a lot of fun.
And I've got to meet and
talk with a lot of really
cool people through death by.
So that's been really cool.
Yeah.
On around the whiteboard,
you only have 60 seconds.
That's tough.
I want to explain way more
than I have time to.
Yeah.
I feel like if I ever did that,
I would get muted very quick.
Yeah.
Well, I won my round.
I'm on to semifinals,
which is this Wednesday.
Hell yeah.
I can do it again.
I got to go watch it.
Oh, man.
Yeah.
And I know with Peter to get points,
like you have to swing with haymakers.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so it's,
it's really prepping that and
getting ready for that, but it's,
and it's, let me say,
it's just awesome seeing
you in the media space.
Is that something you want
to do can even beyond your career?
Yeah.
I mean, I've,
I've been for a while trying
to figure out, you know,
what I want to do after
competitive CrossFit and, you know, every,
I think every competitor
should be thinking about
life beyond the competition
floor because you're only
going to be a competitor for so long.
I would love to be able to
do it my whole life,
but that's just not realistic.
And so trying to figure out
how I can add value to the
space and how I can stay in
the CrossFit world,
because this is what I love
and this is what I want to
do with my life and
figuring out ways to do
that beyond competing.
I think getting involved on
the media side of things has been
a lot of fun for me.
It allows me to stay in this
CrossFit world,
hopefully beyond my competitive years.
You know, things like podcasting.
I would love to at some
point get into broadcast announcing.
I think that would be a lot of fun.
And, you know, maybe,
maybe Lauren Khalil will
take me under her wing and
I can be the next Lauren Khalil.
Well,
You always have a friend
here if you ever have any questions.
And, you know,
we put together teams for
different events and, you know,
if you're available.
Oh, hell yeah.
I'd love that.
Anytime.
So, um, back to CrossFit, you, you're,
you get through the season with,
with the new version of
Aaliyah and you get to
quarterfinals and you learn
that they cut down how many
go to semis from 60 to 40.
How scary is that when you've,
when you flip the script on
yourself and now the room
for error has decreased by a third.
Yeah, it was pretty scary.
Um, it's.
especially knowing not only
are they cutting the field down the,
down to 40,
but they're also increasing
the number that they bring
into quarterfinals.
So now the room for error is really,
really small.
It was already getting
smaller and now it's even smaller.
Um, so that was, that was scary.
And when they announced the
workouts and I saw the
burpee box jump wall ball workout,
I was a little nervous that
my season wouldn't go past
quarterfinals this year.
Um,
because I know that I made a
lot of improvements, but like I said,
there's still a ways to go.
Um, and so I think, um,
seeing that made me very
nervous and I wasn't sure
how this season was going to go.
Um, but well,
and I will say after quarterfinals ended,
I was still very nervous
because I ended up
before the video review process,
I ended up at 48th in the West.
So I was outside of the cut
line when quarterfinals is over.
And I was pretty convinced
that my season was over at that point.
But then luckily I locked
out my box step ups and got
through the video review
process relatively unscathed.
And I was able to sneak in
there and all you got to do is get there.
So
a clean slate when I go down
to Carson and I'm ready to go.
So how confident were you
that you were going to get
through the video process
when you just see them
flying penalty after
penalty after penalty?
I've talked to some people
who they were already
validated when that happened.
Yeah.
So I hadn't had any scores
validated when all those
penalties started coming out.
And
I pride myself on doing good reps.
I did get one penalty this
year on the wall ball workout,
but it was because somebody
touched my equipment,
not because I did not meet
a movement standard.
And I try very hard to make
sure that I'm always
meeting movement standards
because I think that that
is the most important part
of the sport is doing it with integrity,
even still.
seeing all the penalties come out,
I got so stressed.
I was so nervous.
It was a situation where I'm like,
I know I do good reps.
And like,
I watched back my video and it looks good,
but you never know.
And so I got,
I got very nervous and went
about the email that my
workout one score was accepted.
I don't think I'd ever been
more relieved to get an email in my life.
You say you watch back your
videos before you submit.
Do you have anybody else
look at them or just you?
I, if there's anything questionable,
I will have somebody else
look at it or maybe even a
couple of people look at it just to see.
And if they also agree that
it's questionable, then, you know,
redo the workout.
But I think it's, I'm very,
critical of myself I always
have been and so I think
sometimes when I see
something that's like is
that questionable I don't
know if I have you know two
three four other people
saying no that looks fine
then that's kind of like my
um backstop of like hey
this might just be me being
overly critical of myself
if other eyes are seeing
this and think it's fine
then it's probably fine but
again if somebody else
looks at it and they're
like I don't know might be might be iffy
then I'm going to, you know,
redo that workout or do
whatever I need to do to fix that.
Oh, big friend of the show.
Jay Birch says afternoon,
Scott and Aaliyah.
What's that?
It's funny because my cohost
on the Sunday night show is
in the age group.
I mean,
it's this weekend and she sends me
her videos to review and
that is a, that is a,
I was a judge and it is a tough job.
Yes.
Like to be able to,
to be honest with your friend and say,
look at this, this, and this.
And I don't ever say like, this is wrong.
You need to redo.
I say, take a look at this, this, and this,
and you need to decide if
you are good with it or not.
Yeah.
And it's,
It's, it's so hard.
It's even like, you know,
I have somebody judging me
here in person when I do
the workouts and I have
judged people doing the
workouts and I do not envy
the job of a judge because
it is so challenging and
there's such a fine line between,
you know,
a good rep and a bad rep a lot
of times and having to make
that judgment call in an
instant on the spot, like it's,
That's, I don't envy it at all.
And thank you to all of the
judges out there.
I'm impressed by you guys every day.
So you get through quarters,
you make it in above the cut line,
essentially.
Yes.
And you're going to semis.
Then word comes out on
Friday and I'm going to share my screen.
The new allocation for the
semis this year.
And ba-bam.
So now we have the new allocations,
and the West actually loses three spots?
I think it was 10 last year,
so I think we lost two spots.
Okay,
I couldn't remember if it was 10 or 11.
So you're down to eight.
Yeah.
What does that do to your
psyche going into an event like this?
I mean, it's hard not to think about it,
but I,
I'm trying not to really put too
much weight into it because
all that's like, I can't,
I can't change how many they're taking.
All I can do is control the
effort that I bring to the competition.
And so I know that as long
as I go out and I execute
my workouts to the best of my abilities,
I'll be happy.
no matter how that falls,
whether I'm top eight or not,
as long as I know that I
put all of my effort into it,
whatever happens, happens.
With this rebuild going on
and you knowing that you have more to go,
does that make it easier to like,
if it doesn't happen this year,
it's okay because we are a
work in progress or will it
hurt just as bad?
I mean,
it's going to hurt if that happens.
It never doesn't hurt.
It hurt last year even.
It hurt two years ago when I
knew that I had no shot.
It still hurts.
But it is so much more
comforting to go into a
situation like that saying, hey,
I didn't make it this year,
but that's okay because I
still have so much
to improve on for next year
versus I went in at my absolute peak.
I'll never be better than this.
And I still wasn't good enough.
I feel like that hurts a
hell of a lot more.
So how,
where did you get the competitive drive?
Cause if our audience
doesn't remember you're,
you were a neuroscientist.
yes was it from the academic
world or did you compete in
something else so I
competed in dance and
gymnastics when I was
younger um but I think I
also I think a lot of it
just came from my dad my
dad has always been
somebody who has expected
um expected the best from
his kids and not in a bad
way not in a you know
expectations are too high or
anything like that.
He just knew what we were
capable of and he always
wanted us to perform to the
maximum of our capabilities.
And so even when I was younger,
competing in dance and
gymnastics and even academics,
he always wanted us to do
the best we could in school.
I competed in academic
decathlon when I was in middle school.
So I think
I think a lot of it came
from a desire to be
competitive with myself,
to always be pushing myself
to be the best version of me.
And then that kind of
parlays into competitive
sport and things like that.
Is there always a part of
you trying to impress him?
Yeah, I always want to impress my dad.
He's going to be at
semi-finals again this year.
And I'm really excited.
You say he pushed you and
not in a bad way.
What did that do for your
relationship with your dad?
It was tough when I was younger, um,
because you know, every kid wants to just,
you know,
not be a hundred percent locked
in all the time and just
have fun as a kid.
And, um,
there was some, uh,
I don't know if animosity
is the right word for it, but just,
you know,
me kind of wanting to be a kid
and him still wanting me to
be in perform at my best.
Um, but as I've gotten older,
our relationship has only improved.
Um,
and he's one of my best friends at this
point.
I love my dad's old age.
Um,
but it's just looking back
and realizing and
understanding that all of
those things that he did
was because he loved me and
he wanted the best for me.
And it's hard to see that as a kid,
but looking back on it,
it's a lot easier to understand.
Yeah.
You know, I,
I lost my dad a couple of years ago and,
and it's been really tough
because it is when I was a kid,
like I looked at things like,
why are you making me do this?
And then as an adult,
you understand it now.
And then your,
your relationship becomes so much closer.
Um, and I got a lot of good, I mean,
I'm 54 and we've,
we had a lot of good years together.
Um,
and so I appreciate every moment that I
had.
Um, but even to this day,
I'm still trying to impress
him and my mom, both like, um,
with everything I do.
So, um, I don't think it'll ever go away.
Right.
Right.
And that's a good thing.
It shows that they cared so
much parenting that you,
even as an adult child,
want to do what they think is best.
Yeah.
So what does your dad feel
about Tiny House on a Ranch?
He is into it because he
thinks that this is what's
going to get me to the games.
And I think it is too.
So he supports it 110%.
He's really excited.
He keeps telling me this is my year.
So yeah, he's a, when I,
when I first kind of
shifted my focus from
science and the army and
all that stuff onto CrossFit, he,
I think was a little
apprehensive just because, you know,
that's not traditional.
That's not what most parents
expect to hear from their kids.
And I think, you know, again,
he just always wants the best for me.
But since he has seen my
growth and my success in the sport so far,
and he's seen how much I love it,
he has been probably my
biggest supporter out of anyone ever,
I would say.
I've heard a lot of things
about Sean's ranch and I don't know,
is it ranch in name alone or are it,
is it a working ranch with,
with cattle or some kind of herd?
It's not a ranch.
He just has, um,
he has a decent amount of property.
I don't know property sizes,
so I can't even try to
estimate how big it is.
Um, but it's just,
we're out in the middle of
nowhere in Nevada where
people have a lot of land and, um,
they don't have any animals
on the land right now.
I think they might be
getting some chickens soon,
which is cool.
Um, but besides that, just some dogs.
Yeah.
Gotta love fresh eggs.
Yeah.
Oh, so good.
Yeah.
I'm excited.
Um, last question about Sean.
And that is,
does he train in the cowboy hat?
Not normally.
Every once in a while we get
him to put it on, but, uh,
I think at some point
CrossFit told him he wasn't
allowed to wear it on the
competition floor anymore.
Wow.
Yeah.
So, but you can see it hanging up there.
So dumb.
Gotta let people be
themselves and be individuals.
Yeah, right?
I know they told Nick
Matthew he could no longer
crop top his shirts.
I heard about that.
That was disappointing.
Yeah.
So it looks like they're
putting their foot down on everything.
Yeah.
I guess uniforms are, I mean,
it makes sense.
If you look at other sports, you know,
you don't see a football
player out there cropping
their football jersey.
I think they would get in
trouble for that.
Yeah.
They used to back in the day, you know,
show really riff and yeah,
their abs and all that stuff.
And it still happens in
college to some degree.
Yeah.
Where it's a little more loose, but yeah,
So what is your realistic
goal for this year?
I'm going to, this is our wrap up here.
You want to make the game.
I want to make the games.
That's always my goal.
Yeah.
Never lower the bar.
Always strive to be the best.
Yeah.
And big goals are scary,
but big goals should be scary.
And if you're not a little bit scared,
why are you doing it?
My last question.
you always rock the coolest
t-shirts on the comp floor.
Do you have that planned out
for this year or still working on it?
Still working on it a little bit.
I do have a,
today's the last day of my
t-shirt fundraiser.
So if anybody is interested
in supporting my semifinals journey,
you can check it out on my Instagram.
My brother designed a shirt
for me again this year.
He's designed my shirt for
the past three years and,
And then John McCrary,
one of the photographers in
the CrossFit space,
he designed a shirt for me
this year as well.
So I'm selling those and
I'll probably wear those on
the competition floor.
And then I'm also,
I'm working with Assault
Fitness this year.
So they're putting together
some outfits for me as well.
So that's the shirt my brother designed.
Okay, there it is.
Take no prisoners is a quote
that our dad tells us all the time.
He used to tell it to us
anytime we went to do anything,
whether it was a test in school,
a dance competition, whatever.
He would just tell us, hey,
take no prisoners.
Love the graphics.
Did he hand draw that or is
he a graphic artist?
I think he did it on a tablet,
but I think by hand.
So digital by hand, if that makes sense.
Very cool.
And then do you have a
picture of the other shirt?
Yeah.
If you,
I think you can click through those
pictures or just right
there to the right.
Oh, this one.
Yep.
Next one.
Next one.
And then that's the shirt
that John McCreary designed for me.
Wow.
One fun, one classic.
Yeah.
Depending on your mood.
Exactly.
Exactly.
I got options.
So which one of these two
shirts do you wear for
something you think is a home run?
Oh, I mean,
I'm going to go with my
brother's shirt because he's my brother.
He's been next to my mom and my dad.
My brother and my sister are
my other two biggest supporters.
So, yeah.
Awesome.
But I do absolutely love the
shirt that John designed.
And I think it's amazing.
And a lot of other people
have been loving it too.
So I'm really excited about it.
Love the colors.
Yeah.
Very cool colors.
Kind of like your hair and kind of.
Yeah, it actually works.
It's like the color of my hair.
And then CrossFit Power
Stroke is Power Stroke Blue.
So it's Power Stroke Blue and my hair.
Awesome.
Well, Leah, as always, you are the best.
I can't wait to see what you
do at semis this year.
You're going to be in Carson,
California and the home,
the original home of the CrossFit games.
Yep.
It was actually Sean's first
CrossFit games was the 2016
games in Carson.
Very cool.
Yeah.
Is he going to be with you?
He is.
So he'll be his first time
back to Carson since the
2016 games is to come coach
me at the tennis stadium.
So it's pretty cool.
Come in full circle.
Yeah, definitely got to get some pictures.
Someone take some pictures
of you out on that tennis stadium floor.
Yeah, yeah.
With that,
thank you to everybody in the chat.
Aaliyah, as always, you are the best.
I can't wait to see what you do,
and we will stay in touch for sure.
Yes, absolutely.
Thanks for having me on.
I don't think I'm making it to Carson,
but we're doing wrap-up shows,
so I may reach out to you
to get a comment or two.
Absolutely.
Awesome.
We'll talk soon, everybody,
and see you next time on
the Clydesdale Media Podcast.
Bye, guys.