Joe Pierro | The Clydesdale Media Semifinalist Series

We catch up with Joe Pierro who after going team last year is making his way back into the individual Competition and a run at the CrossFit Games.  Why that decision? What are his goals for this years Semifinals and what is new in his life?

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 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

what is going on everybody

welcome to the clydesdale

media podcast where we're

featuring the athletes of

the 2024 crossfit games

semifinals tonight I've got

none other than joe piero

what's going on man how you

doing how you doing scott

are you uh joe daddy I'm

joe daddy I identify as joe

daddy going forward okay

cool that's what they're

going to be calling me at

us that means when I beat

uh some people in events

All right, man.

I also have this huge shout

out to Kipping It Real.

I became a new member today.

You can support the channel by joining.

Hit that join button.

We made the lowest level to

join as cheap as YouTube will let us,

but that helps us pay for our trips,

going to events, things like that,

and the platform to put on the show.

So thank you, Kipping It Real.

So I got to start with this

question because last year you went team.

and a person that used to be

on this podcast way back in

the day is dex hopkins we

used to do a show called

clydesdale after dark and

he was my co-host on that

what's it like being on a

team with that man one of

the best experiences um

went from complete stranger

to a really great friend

you know we still talk weekly um

just a straight up good dude.

You know,

like I can't just positive things

about Dex to say.

Yeah.

Me too, man.

Like everything, every time I'm with him,

like the room lights up, like it's just a,

a better day when,

when Dex is hanging out.

Yeah.

I try, try again in the semis, man.

We,

you know,

we tried just picking some ways

to get a media pass and stuff, get them,

get them there.

And, you know, I have a camera guy,

you know,

video guys well up here that

we're trying to get down there,

but CrossFit's making it

real tough to really get

some people behind the

scenes at semis this year.

I got to pass.

People, people should call me just saying.

Okay.

Okay.

There you go.

So, yeah.

And I've been able to get

people in on my team in the past.

So I don't know.

I think we're going to be

doing some fun stuff next week.

There's a little lead right there, baby.

I'll be sliding the DMs after.

So you were on a team with Brooke Haas,

Christine Best.

Christine Best was on the

only team I ever sponsored

with this podcast for a

little event in Delaware.

It was her and Kelsey Keel

and Ashley Wozni did a little team,

and we sponsored them.

Christine's awesome.

The team kind of

underperformed at semis that year.

Was it disappointing in why

you kind of went back to the individual?

Yeah.

Um, no, not,

not the reason I went back to individual,

um, individual,

I think is a big buildup of, you know,

every, every,

a lot of people out there saying,

you know,

team doesn't matter and going

under move fast,

lift heavy last year was great,

but that's our identity, right?

Like me, KB,

Brooke and Dex were known as move fast,

lift heavy 365 last year.

And, you know,

I think there's something to the sport,

um,

where going individual has a

lot more impact and, you know,

about individual fitness as well.

You know, team,

I really think you can hide

certain people on certain

things and individual, you know,

you're left out there to dry.

If you do have a weakness.

Yeah.

Cause you were on this show

a couple of years ago in

our semifinal series with my partner cat.

Yes.

Yes, I was.

Yeah.

And that you went to the

granite games that year.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That granite games year was

a big year of learning.

Yeah.

Are you glad this year's inside?

I am.

I am glad it's inside.

You know, I'm more of a gamer now.

I would say that even if it was outside,

understanding that we're

all outside on an even playing field,

I wouldn't be sweating it at all,

to be honest.

Yeah.

And it was,

was that the year it was hot or

was it the year before that?

the year before it was

really hot when we were at

granite games in 2022 it

had its times where it was

hot on the turf but it was

very tolerable okay yeah

because I just watched the

end of the men's heat in in

carson and the men were

getting to the shade as

quickly as possible yeah I

mean I saw quick clips I

wouldn't get a chance to

sit down and watch it yet

but uh that that sun there

was nowhere to hide out there

Yeah.

And it's a long weekend.

You don't want the sun

draining you extra just because.

No, not at all.

Yeah.

Every bit of energy.

So this season you go individual.

Is that a Paper Street logo on your shirt?

That is.

That is.

Support Gabe all the way.

Great dude.

Frost right here.

Cheers.

I don't got my Paper Street

coffee cup downstairs.

It's a little too late to be drinking.

Yeah.

Today's my anniversary.

oh congratulations there you

go 27 years today I've been

with my wife the love of my

life and uh we just got

back from dinner and I am

exhausted it's working

tonight so I'm having a

little espresso yeah uh but

um well that's cool so are

you with them or just you like gabe a lot

Um, I'm with them.

I'm with them just through Gabe, you know,

friends.

Yeah.

We've been talking ever since, uh,

CrossFit crash, um,

last year when I went with the move fast,

lift heavy team out there

and me and him were sitting

in the airport and, you know,

we were talking for a while

cause our flight got

delayed like three hours, man.

And he's honestly the reason

I started drinking coffee again.

because I i stopped drinking

coffee because I didn't

want caffeine control me

because you know when I

drink it I'm off the walls

and stuff um but then the

paper street coffee showed

up to my door and I've been

honestly buying it ever

since yeah it's funny

because uh last year in

pasadena I was on a delayed

flight lax him and I sat

for like three hours in the

airport there so he's a

great dude yeah yeah

probably one of the best

people I've met in the

space over the last couple

years yeah and he's very

local as well right he just

opened a coffee shop that's

about 20 minutes away from

me so you do live in jersey

that's the jersey jp is

authentic yeah born and

raised uh and I know gabe

he's pretty close to new york city right

yeah yeah I'm not sure where

his current location he's

living now but definitely

paper street coffee is

probably 15 20 minutes away

from the george washington

bridge which is to new york

oh yeah so I uh when I went

to college uh my roommate

my roommates were all from New York.

Uh, one was from New Jersey.

So long Island.

And then, um, just across the river, uh,

Mike Bavona,

he was in a little town there

that you could see New York from.

Um,

and so we would go up there on weekends

just to hang out.

Nice.

Yeah.

Good spot up here.

Yeah.

I don't see myself leaving.

So I'm here to stay.

That was many, many moons ago, but it was,

we had a blast.

You got to relive it.

Yeah.

Um,

So, so back to you, you're,

you're doing the individual thing,

or do you have a coach this year?

Are you still with move fast,

lift heavier?

Are you separating from them?

I've had a coach for the last six years,

Sean Nevesy, um,

owner of four to two

fitness in Somerville, New Jersey.

uh very successful gym he

has I bought him for six

years um and he's been

every year I've gotten

better and better you know

obviously 2022 I made it

individually to semi-finals

and went to granite games

and you know the whole move

fast of heavy team thing um

was just me showing up to move fast and

being blessed and getting

involved with my teammates.

Um,

but throughout that whole process and

everything, you know,

I had my coach for the last

five years and I've stuck

with him ever since.

And every year has been

getting better and better.

And this is,

I believe this is going on

year five or going on year six with him.

And we're looking to put the

best performance out this

year so far out of all of them.

How,

how important is it to trust that guy?

I don't even question them.

I really don't.

Um,

You know, I,

he tells me what I need to work on.

You know,

I do have to let my guard down

and basically tell them all

the shit I suck at because

that's what I do weekly.

Hypothetically, legless row climbs,

or I'll call my weakness out.

Granite Games 2022, I got embarrassed.

My test of the workout,

it was 10 legless row

climbs for time with the run in between.

And

I got dead last.

I went out there messing

around because I knew I was

nowhere near close to the

slowest time in any other

semifinal or sanctional at that time.

I've been doing legless rope

climbs at least one to two

times a week for the last two years.

We're going to get to put

them to the test now coming up.

When you see that ahead of

you at a semifinal and

you've been working on it so hard,

do you look at that as an

opportunity or is there

still some fear there?

There's definitely still

fear there because watching

Europe go last week,

the legacy of times weren't

even a thought, right?

No guy was slowed down by them.

And I'm going to put myself

in a position this year to

make sure I can try to hang.

um, with the pack.

And if that includes me

blowing up to take a risk that, uh,

that Soviet, but you know,

just having a one at a time thing with,

uh,

may it be the echo bike or the box

jump overs in between.

I think I will fairly,

I think I'll be okay.

I really do.

Yeah.

I think people didn't

realize by breaking them up like that,

it gave the natural rest on that.

And that's why it just kind of,

it was a non-factor in Europe.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I tested it already.

And, you know, I'm not going to lie.

My times were close to some people.

So I know the haze in the barn.

And when I did test it,

I was coming off of a

little food poisoning situation.

So, you know,

I think I'm in a better spot right now.

May it be a few weeks later.

Food poisoning.

Dude, I don't know what it was.

That's the thing you want to

happen going into semis.

It was a natural cut.

Let me tell you that I,

I didn't eat for five days.

I was puking because I was puking.

I was puking because I smelled it.

I was puking because I tasted it.

I,

I literally slept on the bathroom floor.

Um, that's how bad it was.

And I think I weighed myself

and I was down 15 pounds or not.

Sorry, 15, 12.

And that was the last time I

weighed myself because, um,

You know, I got to eat for a performance.

So I try to tend to hold my

body weight below 200 just

for the whole cardio side of things.

But now is not the time to

do that with all the high

intensity involved.

How tall are you?

Five foot seven.

okay it's when I see

pictures of you and dex

it's hard to tell because

dex is just a monster right

yeah he's fucking huge and

so like it's it's hard for

me to gauge what your

height was and I couldn't

remember from from seeing

you live last year yeah I

gave him a hug and I'm

staring at his belly button

you know right right yeah

we call him he well when I

first had him on he was mad

because we stole the

clydesdale name he he

thought he that was his oh man

But he was late to the game.

So before we get into all

the semifinal stuff,

you tried to kill Taylor.

Yeah, I did.

And that was an experience

because I started talking shit.

I started getting a snowball rolling.

And then I'll pull out the

excuses a little later on.

When that food poisoning hit me,

the week before, I was too...

far in and I had to keep

backing it up so you know

with that being said I

brought my boy will carter

who was going to be at

semifinals as well um to

handle the business but we

both came up a little too

short so yeah and I'll be

back so I was watching live

as it all went down right

you you showed up in

sombreros and um I don't

even know what they're

called the garments over

guard just some guard dude

Uh, was, was that a last minute decision?

That was fresh off of Amazon Wednesday.

It's Cinco de Mayo on Sunday.

It's Saturday.

We gotta, we gotta put it on.

We were warming up with them on, um,

and hoping we were getting

on because we was an hour.

It was an hour we were

waiting and we were warming

up and we're doing our

muscle ups and the fricking

thing is flying over our heads.

And we're like, dude,

we cannot do this workout

with these things on.

So you show up in the full

garb and the antics and everything.

It was awesome.

Oh, yeah.

We had to definitely play

into it a little bit, you know?

So do you think in the

evolution of this premise

and show that more people

are going to do that stuff?

I hope so.

I mean, you know, it's a memory.

It's entertaining.

You know, some people, you know,

Not everybody knows if

they're going to get picked number one,

you know,

obviously they program a skier this week.

So nobody wanted to call in.

Yeah.

Cause not, not many people have a skier,

but I definitely think it should happen.

Right.

It's a memory, you know,

something funny for people

to look back on.

And I got that memory now,

but next time I go on, you know,

I might take a little more serious,

especially when I'm alone

because I'm coming for the money.

Yeah.

And you know, the skier thing is,

The dude that was there,

I actually interviewed him

a week and a half ago for

this semifinal series.

And I knew that his strength was engine.

And he tried to sell it all

out in that first round.

That was unreal.

It has so many cool moments with it.

I would have sold out, too,

after watching him on the

first round fumble the rings.

Or was that the second round

he fumbled the rings?

Whenever he fumbled the rings...

that's when you knew it's

doable to beat them.

And of course, I'm at work watching it.

And I'm like, damn, man,

that's my opportunity.

Any workouts under eight minutes,

sign me up.

You've been in this sport

for a little bit.

And things like that are

what's going to grow the sport, right?

More eyes, more attention.

It's something you can show

your friends that doesn't

take a weekend to explain

what the big thing is, right?

A hundred percent.

Yeah.

There's all, all storylines built in.

It's, it's a great time.

You know, they, they stir the pot, right?

Like they said earlier in the podcast, uh,

months and months podcast, if,

if they weren't talking shit,

nobody would be tuning in.

Right.

Right.

Well, and that's why the, um,

the Dallin Colton Hopper

Taylor thing worked, right?

A hundred percent.

And rising tide raise all ships.

You know,

those guys are very well known in

a sport and earn their spot.

And, uh,

having them four together,

I just watching them go, it,

you can't match that.

Like I can't match that intensity going,

doing quarterfinals

workouts in my gym alone, you know, solo.

So yeah.

Well,

and my argument is that quarterfinals

have to be programmed so

well because you're

threading a needle down so

small now with only 40

people getting into these

major regions that it has

to be programmed well,

and we don't usually get to

see the workouts as spectators and fans.

We need more of that,

and people are starving for it.

You could run five of those

shows throughout the weekend,

and everybody would tune in

to all of them.

Yeah.

I mean, it was,

it was to the point where I was, you know,

I watched them go,

but I was recording my videos,

making them public and

sending them to everybody

to get information, um, as well.

You know, their entertainment,

their entertainment was great.

I'm not a part of that.

So I'm on my own journey.

So I had my whole circle

going and I was texting everybody.

I didn't give it,

I didn't give a shit who knew my time,

right.

Everybody in the East.

I made all my videos public right away.

I was like,

I just want to get the information back.

And shout out to Marquand for lying to me.

Marquand Jones for lying to

me on all his scores.

Thank you, Marquand.

Wow.

Yeah.

So now you get to go up

head-to-head with him.

Yeah.

You going to destroy him?

I'm going to beat him in four workouts.

I don't care what they are.

Four workouts, I'm beating him.

He might beat me in two.

But I'll take the win over

him for the weekend.

I'm going to hurt more up here.

I'm going to hurt way more up here.

So we have someone talking

about a myth or a legend.

You got to tell me truth or false.

True or false.

I once saw Joe eat a pie, a pizza,

and then do Fran in under two minutes.

That is a myth.

That is a myth?

That is a myth.

I mean, we will do it.

Me and John will do it.

John is a stud.

We will get after it, though.

I'll use the I'll do the

challenge we got a nice

pizza spot close by uh

we'll stop there beforehand

and then I'll refer in

under two minutes I think I

got it in me that said john

shout out heard athletics

right there baby taking me

to semis uh jay birch is

the gauntlet has been

thrown down yeah you know

I'm I'm I'm going I'm

putting myself out there

man the hayes in the barn

this year um y'all enough of the nice guy

good job stuff.

You know, I hope to,

I hope on that last run in

that first workout,

the 800 meter run tank,

I passed somebody ass and say, yo,

you're running slow as fuck right now.

Yeah.

I hope so.

When you do the pizza Fran challenge,

let me know.

I'll send you a link.

We'll broadcast it live.

Oh, I'll do that.

I'll do that easily.

I will do that easily.

We'll, we'll get back.

We'll get back and I'll use

it as one of my prep

workouts for the next competition.

I have two weeks after semis

me and Will Carter signed up as a,

as a little support for a

local comp across the Danbury, um,

with some, some of his boys.

Awesome.

Uh, John Gonzalez to get hurt athletics.

That's called baby.

All right.

Um,

So cool.

So yeah, that whole,

that whole phenomenon that

Savan has started deserves

a huge applause.

It's,

I think it's what's going to grow the

sport and hopefully more people will,

will take that as an example and,

and create more and more

content like that so that

more athletes get exposure.

That's yeah.

I, I, I, like I said, I,

and I definitely put thought into my head,

like with trying to get

together with will posting it, going live,

like,

I'm not too tech.

I'm not, I'm not a techie guy.

I'm just a dirty construction worker.

So, um, I was just, it was a great idea,

but I just did not have all

the moving parts and pieces

to put it together.

So, so you're a construction worker.

That's what you do during

the day to support yourself.

Yes.

Yes.

Is the dream to be a pro athlete?

Yeah.

Yeah.

The dream is, you know, it was, it's a,

it's a battle.

Um,

it's definitely a battle

that whole pro athlete

thing because once

construction gets slow um

you know we I'm in the

electrical union so we get

laid off we sit on the

sidelines for a little bit

and you know not having

that work makes crossfit

start to feel like work you

know um on those days and

it's kind of a turn off

like I remember doing two

days three or four years ago

And man, I was, I was miserable.

I would text my coach

because he would have me do

monostructure.

Well, first thing in the morning,

I'll get up out of bed,

go right to the gym,

do like growing intervals.

And I would just be like, dude, I quit.

I'm not here.

So I think it's, it's a big balancing act,

but I'm definitely open to

giving it a try one more time.

You know,

if everything goes well and we

make some moves this year,

because I'm in a

trying to balance everything

out and in a pretty good

space mentally with the

whole fitness side of things right now.

I'm really surprised at how

many athletes I've talked

to that echo what you're just saying.

Like they don't, they want to work.

They being a pro athlete

only gives them too much time in the day.

Like I talked to Tetlo

Tetlo's like I'm in the Navy.

That's my full-time gig.

I have 90 minutes at lunch

to go work out and I have

to be efficient and I have to be on it.

Yeah, yeah,

especially got got two kids as well.

So I try to balance my time out.

I really don't work out much

during the week at all.

I really capitalize on the weekends,

Saturday and Sunday and Wednesday.

Those will be my long days.

But other than that,

it's a quick one hour

cardio session because

that's my always been my weakness.

So we're going to put that

to the test again after

just doing monostructural

for twice a week, four years now,

two years now for two years.

Yeah.

So now the workouts have been released.

You've known him for a couple of weeks.

You said you've tested some

of them with food poisoning.

Does that mean you'll be

that they'll feel different

when you get to the semis?

Whether I had food poisoning or not,

there is nothing wrong.

that can compare game speed.

I can't resemble it in training.

I did two comps this year,

actually last year into

this year over the offseason,

Meadowlands Classic,

local New Jersey comp close by,

and Metcon Rush in Maryland.

And Metcon Rush, you know,

Meadowlands Classic,

I had a lot of familiar faces there.

I went out to Metcon Rush.

I met Pete Mason, Dennis Samsonoff,

Ben Wise.

And I was just thrown down with them.

I'm in my own bubble a lot.

So they had great

performances at the

semifinals year before.

And just being able to be in

the mix with them and just

try to put myself in a position

to be at the same pace with

them and give myself a chance.

It, it came out, it worked out great.

I love the guys at Metcon rush.

Um,

I think those are the competitions that

are going to save CrossFit

and I'm calling them now the mid majors.

Like they're not rogue.

They're not Dubai.

They're not water Palooza.

They're that next tier down,

but they are phenomenal

competitions and they're

starting to get that group

of semifinalists that are getting really,

really good.

Yeah.

They, uh,

They crushed it last night.

I did not know what to expect.

Moved extremely smooth.

Time domains were all over the board,

which I got exposed on one

of them due to not eating, of course.

But they crushed it the weekend.

Great flow of competition.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like crashes doing it

with the crucible.

There's just a lot of them out there.

The beach brawls,

all those kinds of things.

I think that's where you're

going to see the most

growth over the next few years.

So go ahead.

No,

I was just going to say crashes growing

at another level, man, Jr.

That, that gym is impressive.

That is,

that's an honor to go to and try

to be a part of that going forward.

And I,

I'm going to try to

definitely prioritize that

this year to make sure I

get out there because if

there's anywhere I'm going

to get exposed it's at jr's

competition well he has all

the fun toys too yeah he's

got everything we've got uh

sean neefsy that's my coach there he is

There he is.

He's ready, folks.

Yeah,

he's got more belief in me than I do

in myself.

There's a lot of cardio at

this damn competition, man.

I feel like I should be an

Olympic weightlifter with

how much I love lifting weights.

And then Jay Birch is asking,

is Joe from Jersey?

Yeah,

we talked about that right off the top.

He's a Jersey guy.

Maybe I got to tag the

Instagram handle next time, you know?

Yeah.

And if you want to follow him on Instagram,

it's JerseyJP.

Oh, yeah.

I think there's an

underscore in there between

Jersey and JP.

Okay.

Yeah.

I was just doing it by memory.

Crushed it.

So you started talking about

all the cardio at semifinals this year.

I've heard a lot of the

athletes talk about how the

first three days or the

first three events are all fitness.

That is to test where your

fitness level is.

The last three events are

all about execution.

Correct.

I agree.

And I also think it's a big

spectacle on getting right.

They're trying.

I feel like they're trying

to get rid of moving day

and get people to go to Sunday to watch.

Right.

Because you got half the

amount of points on the table, you know,

get Saturday moving day out

of there because then

people want to go home Sunday.

But now I think you have to

go Sunday to see all the

points on the table and all

the storylines,

which it's kind of sad that

they're not reslotting

between workouts five and six.

That's that's a crime.

And I checked it out,

and I get the reason that

there's only 90 minutes of downtime,

I think, from basically heat to heat.

But it's a quick turnover,

and I think it's a turnover

we've never seen before in

speed and competition,

which is definitely going

to test us for our recoverability.

But I just think you have to

re-slot even if they lose

15 minutes of recovery.

you know,

Jr kind of debunked that because

he was like,

nobody's going to make that

big of a move to lose that

much time between those

last two events for the, and he said,

if you ask every single athlete,

if they've earned the right

to be in that final heat,

they'll want to be in that final heat,

regardless of the recovery time.

Correct.

Exactly.

I'm, you know,

speaking from athlete side of things,

a hundred percent.

I, I agree completely.

It, you, you know,

you rise to the heats too, right?

That's why the last heat, you know,

they move at speeds that, you know,

first heat, it looks like JV to varsity.

You know what I'm saying?

It's crazy.

Well, yeah, I,

you're going to put salt in

some stuff here and make me get pissy,

but, um,

that's because of online

competitions that we have

people that end up in that

first heat that aren't

ready for primetime.

But, um,

And I don't even know.

But, like, as a spectator,

the story it tells,

especially in the regions

where they get 10 people to the games,

when that final heat is 10

and you're coming in and

you know those are the 10 that are in,

depending on what happens

in this last event,

it tells the story so much better.

100%.

I agree.

And yeah, it's, it's truly,

I think something they'll,

they'll reevaluate because

it seems like you're listening this year.

At least we're not running on machines,

right?

We're running any hundred outside.

I was hoping they listened

before West coast classic and Oceana.

Yes.

And they did change the run-up,

which is kind of a bitch move.

I think let them run,

do the fricking berm run up the hill,

up the stairs for the spectacle.

I mean, that's an honor to do that.

I'm going to change it.

So they still ran up the stairs.

They just didn't do the berm.

Yeah, but I think you got to repeat it.

Come on now.

Like this ain't half ass.

Let's go.

Let's go all the way.

So you so you've admitted

that that's running is not your strength,

right?

No, but I still I don't care.

Expose me.

I'll do it.

But hey, listen, I don't know.

My coach,

he could run and I was in his

back pocket on intervals two weeks ago.

So I may I might come out.

I may come out and run.

You know, we'll find out.

But to have the opportunity

to run this iconic run from

the old days of the games,

I think that's more

important than is it exactly 800 meters.

I'll take 40 to play so I

can run that thing.

Gladly.

Exactly.

There's some things that,

like my nutrition coach always says,

memories over macros.

Memories over a little bit

falling two places behind in an event.

Correct.

And it doesn't matter.

You're not comparing event to event.

You're comparing everybody

at that one damn event.

They're all doing the same

workouts at the end of the day,

so it doesn't matter.

Right.

I'm so – and it didn't

matter at the end of the

day because I couldn't see it anyway.

All we got to see is people

in the tennis stadium

because there were no

cameras out there because

in North America,

we're just bitches and we

can't film day one even

though Australia did it beautifully.

Correct.

My limited tech side of things,

I think I probably could

figure that out if I had a solid week.

Yeah.

Which they had way more than

that to figure it out.

Give me an iPhone and I'll

send you a link and you can

film it and we'll put it on here.

Damn right.

It's so stupid.

All right.

So with that,

so you're going into the week,

you've been preparing.

What are you most looking forward to?

The after party.

No, I'm kidding.

I'm most looking forward to

the snatch event.

I mean, that's clearly.

But with looking forward to

that so much and really

going to try to make a move

and hammer it home,

I'd rather almost be

moderate in the snatch

event and crush workout one.

crushed the legless rope

climb one because then that

shows all that I've been

working on for all these

years is really paying off

yeah it was it was really

interesting in the west

because you know colton is

a big subject talk a

subject that people talk

about and everybody's like

there's no way he's going

to do well in that run

event I i saw his time

because I didn't watch the

event and I i was like that

shit's amazing he got what

do you got fourth right

Fifth?

Fifth, yes.

Third in his seat, fifth overall.

Yeah, I told that to my boy.

I was like, yo,

he just took fifth in that event.

This dude is the real deal.

Yeah.

There's no way he's not

making the games after

showing that much

improvement in something he was weak at.

Listen, all four foot 11,

I'm making that games.

Yeah.

But what he did is he proved

that if you do work on

those weaknesses...

you can pull stuff off like that.

And that's beautiful.

I agree.

And I do think a lot of it's mental,

right?

Because the big thing is you,

I put the work in, he put the work in,

you know,

but making it happen on the

competition floor and just

trusting all the training

is there is a complete

different animal and a game in itself.

Jay Burch says, Joe is my kind of guy,

blue collar badass.

We out here.

Let's go, baby.

So what is your realistic

goal going into the week?

My realistic goal?

My realistic goal is to try

to... You said realistic.

I'm going to go big here.

But realistic, I want top half.

I want top half.

And by top half...

Obviously, that's top 20, but every year,

seeing a little improvement,

a little improvement.

We placed 15th with the Mufasa Tevi team,

so I would love to match

that as Indy or go 14th.

Screw it.

I want that game spot this year,

the Hayes and the Barnes,

but I know the caliber of

competition there,

and I'm going to do my best

to be in the mix.

Do you have pride that

you're in North America East,

or is it like, shit,

why do I have to get this draw?

I would say I have pride

because it's their game and

we're playing it.

They can make whatever rule they want,

but I'm still going to play it.

And just like my coach said

during quarterfinals, dude,

it doesn't matter what these workouts are,

you're qualifying.

And I was like, dude, I honestly,

I believe that.

I believe that.

And it's truly a game of inches.

And North America East is...

Yeah, I thought it was the toughest.

But then you look at the

Europe when it comes to all

those statistics and stuff.

And Europe is clearly, I think,

the heaviest top and, you know,

top ended average wise.

But the top end performances

in North America East are just stacked.

And, you know, you see games,

athletes after games,

athletes and all the

training camps are on the East Coast.

Right.

So everybody and their

mother from the training

camps on the East Coast

that are at those camps are

showing up to.

And, you know,

I'm here sitting not in a training camp.

And that was one of the

things CrossFit told us.

We can't get a media pass.

They said, well,

are you a part of a training camp?

I said, no.

They said, well,

we're giving training camps media passes.

I was like, all right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for that one.

The rules, man.

Yeah.

Oh, my God.

So I've been doing this since.

So I was with Morning Chalk up in 2021.

I did semifinals with

Morning Chalk up in the games.

Left them, then started my own thing.

Good thing you left.

Yeah.

And ever since then,

I've had a media pass at everything.

But we have to apply for

every single event.

And so this year,

they didn't let me know I

was approved until two

weeks before West Coast.

How the hell do you get a

hotel and a plane ticket at

an affordable cost to fly

clear across the country?

You don't,

you truly don't your options

Creek without a paddle.

Yeah.

Just like,

just like teams going first to right.

Teams go first.

They book or they booking

all the big stuff up.

They're booking everything up.

Individuals go.

And now I'm like,

first house I saw I'm buying that.

I'm like, this is going to go.

I need a place to sleep.

The hotels in, in downtown Knoxville,

I know nothing about downtown Knoxville.

The hotels are through the roof.

So I'm like first Airbnb,

I saw spiderwebs in the corner.

I'm there.

I'm taking it.

That's what, that's what the review said.

I said, okay, I'm taking it.

Yeah.

Our hotel at the games had

bullet holes in it,

but we made it and we made

it through the night, man.

That's it.

Now you've got the memory.

Yeah.

And I'm staying like, so Knoxville,

I'm staying 10 miles outside of the city.

Cause I got notified.

Yeah, man.

It's I I'm 1.2 miles.

And that was the only spot.

One of three spots left,

and it was three bedrooms, and I was like,

I'm taking it.

I had no questions about it.

Yeah.

Yeah,

I just wish they'd figure out a

better way to do all this.

Communication is a big thing, but yeah.

Well, Joe, this is the last, man.

I try to keep these to 30 minutes.

We are well past that.

Oh, yeah, we are.

We're chilling.

But it's been a blast

hanging out with you.

Good luck in Knoxville.

I'll be there.

Apparently, I have pretty cool access.

So we'll be doing some

behind-the-scenes stuff while I'm there.

Hell yeah.

And we'll catch up with you then.

Until then, man, good luck.

And everybody in the chat,

thank you for being here.

Thank you for hanging out with us.

And we'll see everybody next

time on the Clydesdale Media Podcast.

You the man, Scott.

Thank you for everything you do, brother.