Here’s the full podcast episode transcript:

I can do that later I’m just gonna find the questions do you have the questions Marcus have all the questions but it’s not on paper it’s always good to work with Marcus I wrote I wrote intro and Berlin so you know that’s a lot isn’t it anyway covers everything doesn’t it yeah

let’s rock and roll so hi guys how you doing hello we hear each other well have you linked up so you can hear each other through the door so do you just hear each other through the thing they’re actually in the same apartment now as we speak this is. We’ve got the door closed we can’t actually hear each other

we could just see each other on the microphone that would be hilarious if you couldn’t hear each other whatsoever and we could just compare your answers like how in sync are they really now anyways are you guys having a good time are we having a good time Emma yeah we’re having a pretty good time relaxed that’s like have you like gotten into like all right it’s actually gonna happen

we’re both of us gonna go to the games this year no it’s not it’s not sunk in yet I don’t really feel like it has sunk in yet it probably won’t sink sink in until until I feel like still gonna sink in until we actually get there and we are you there and you pick it up

like you’re going register and then they take you round into where you get all of your swag and you got your kit and you’ve got your little locker there with all your with your name and all the stuff what when did you feel like it sunk in for you Emma last time uh probably after yeah probably

probably too late I was gonna say isn’t it like least a whirlwind when you get there you’re off the flight and you all check in and you see the guy who’s boss man and then you go over there that’s rich froning you open the competition floor you have all your gear on

and it’s over what happened yeah yeah yeah we spoke we spoke about this the other day the first time I qualified 2019 I said I shouldn’t have qualified I shouldn’t have been there I didn’t have enough experience and it was just yeah it was exactly like that you didn’t really realize

what happened until after it happened so are you a like a control person Emma or is it David that is the control person like you know I think one perk of having experiences like you know where the bathrooms are you know you know how the warm up area looks you know how it feels all these things

I think if you are like a control person I think it’s like it’s beneficial to have been at the games multiple times because it like like like you mentioned now the first time perhaps it’s like you get so many impressions for all this

but that you may be you know it it’s also like it’s also like a stressor I think it could be do is that what you what you meant or what do you mean like something else that you no it’s what I meant like everything is just a bit overwhelming yeah and yeah

a bit too much and you don’t really you don’t really know what you’re doing like you don’t know what you’re doing on the competition floor you don’t know what you’re doing off the competition floor you’re just standing there they’re like do burpees you’re like okay

burpees right it was like that one year though wasn’t it when they had that event the I can’t remember what it was called but you didn’t know how chaos movement that you would was that that was always cool yeah you didn’t know how many reps you were doing until until they basically said stop yeah was that the year Emma was there

was that the year you were there no that must have been completely awful I like basically just the worst yeah because you don’t just have to especially the first one was a ski and like I don’t know if it was like a 50 calorie ski in the end or something but like to road to ski like 20 calories versus like 100 calories is a very different pace

you have no idea how long the workouts gonna last that must have been tricky yeah think your Pat Valner said I just paced above the others and as soon as and soon as someone’s head got hand comes up someone’s judges hand comes up you’re like all right this probably not yeah that’s just

yeah but yeah I’ve always wondered if there actually is like the way I think it is when you when you go there there’s just such a blur that you know never really take your time to get into it and it’s you have to be like a 2 3 times games veteran to actually appreciate all of it I mean Marcus you’ve been through games

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yeah well it’s a lot a long time ago only but you don’t remember or it was it’s a I do recall that the sort of the process in getting to to the games Madison versus Downey Carson is similar it’s like the period leading up to it it’s like so we spend a lot of time in Carson prior and that time we’re like yeah that was pretty slow

you know it was but as soon as comp day it’s like you went into some sort of boom tube and like and then well it’s you’re doing handstands on the beach goodbye LA you know sort of that kind of thing that’s how I remembered it yeah so but you were you were alluding to something before there Marcus

that I think is gonna be very beneficial for David now because Emma you were there at this specific like venue so you know where the bathrooms are you know where the best place to warm up is you know where the best place to have a brekkie and all that stuff is I guess so at least you can relay that going there as a complete newcomer that’s funny

you know would you be surprised John and Emma feel free to correct me here if we go there and I am the one that remembers where the bathrooms are and Emma haven’t been there three times it’s still like David where are the bathrooms where are we warming up so you were

yeah of course you were there and you helped her out and you made sure to set everything up while she was focusing on being an athlete right exactly yeah yeah so now you got it now you can’t do that for each other anymore now you need like roadies well that’s the

that’s the thing that we’ve been doing up to this point and through every single competition through every single qualifying stage of every competition we did it through quarter finals through the open we’ve done it through all the previous stages and previous years is that we essentially support each other so and you get a lot of athletes that are with big

programming companies that are fortunate enough to basically go to a place everything set up for them they have a judge they have everything like that and just go there they do the workouts and then they go home they recover and rinse and repeat for the next however many workouts

and for us it’s always been that we set up our workouts we often judge each other we’re sometimes fortunate enough to have help with the judging which we did for a couple of the workouts this year for quarterfinals but it’s always at competitions it’s basically us taking care of each other and that’s been something that was easier to do when I wasn’t competing

but now when I have returned to competition it’s still been manageable but it definitely is it definitely is a little tricky at times because to an extent your performance is compromised because you need to help with the logistics of setting up of doing fine as doing open

that kind of thing and but in since we partnered with Philip Bisgaard who is our coach as of this year and he’s fulfilled a lot of those roles and so while he wasn’t able to come down here a rope and he was at semi finals and and that was a massive boost I feel to our performance during the weekend because we’re so used to doing everything ourselves

that when we add in that third person that’s and we continue to do all of the things that we should do efficiently you add in that first person to take some of the load off and you suddenly have more mind space and more time to recover more and everything wants a little bit smoother yeah that wasn’t

I was in a warm up area with you guys and what I noticed is like you mentioned now it’s like when you introduce the third person that third person becomes the hub that you like gravitate around sort of or he gravitated to you but he basically stood as a pillar in you know

in the middle of the warm up area and you guys came to him like doom like this and I guess that’s like a relief that you you’re not doing that with each other and having someone else to relay with I guess that’s like that’s probably awesome

even though you both are obviously a competent as coaches and athletes but still that’s the athlete everybody needs a coach right yeah that’s the athlete our competition you shouldn’t have to worry about when you need to be at a place where your gear is like that if you can put that aside to someone else

outsource that part it makes a tremendous difference on the court I would like to rewind a bit to when it was over because I think that was like it was really emotional you know and we watched you guys I just

I think we especially we watched David’s pain and we watched Emma’s joy I think that that sort of is epic finish to an event one of the better ones I’ve ever seen like I don’t even he doesn’t even touch like brace against the floor yeah yeah Emma

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please could you like take us through what went through your head when you like realized that it’s like it was a complete seal that you both were like a done deal going to Madison together I think before the last workout like we both put ourselves in a quite secure position so you kind of know that after event 6 is after the first workout on Sunday you kind of knew that it was going to happen

but you never want to you don’t really want to think about that because the job is just not done so I was held in doping control when David were doing his last event so I didn’t get to see any of it and I tried to really follow on on the live stream but it was like a good minute delayed so I heard the speakers while watching the live stream and it was just like

it was really stressful even though but I was never worried about him not qualifying it was just the whole situation just got really stressful and then when when they were done with the last event we got to we got to get out on the floor again and and yeah just to see David on the floor is I was just so emotional

it was just so it’s been it’s been a very very long journey back to do that and the weekend from Friday evening when David thought that it was over and then to Sunday evening it was he also felt just felt very long and very emotional yeah so take us through the whole Berlin semi finals we don’t have to be very like

you don’t have to go through every event for each and one of you then we’re gonna lose a few on the way but just day by day you said that you had moments where you thought it was over David and for you Emma you had a pretty good run as far as I could see the whole way through

what was the days like what was it like the day before the competition how what was your spirits like then let’s start with Emma it was good I think it was a very well run competition already from the day before and it was all like we both looked forward to all the events same time as being very nervous because it’s think it’s just one of the

like worst competition in terms of nervousness of the year because it’s just it’s just a lot on the line and everyone wants to make it everyone wants one of those 11 spots yeah yeah yeah I would like to I would like to dwell the into champions mindset a bit which I experienced first hand we talked about this on

was it Sunday evening yeah I think a bit but I didn’t frame it as champions mindset but like the process you went through David I think that’s it is spectacular it’s like it’s a whole podcast in itself I think those like 18 hours or so from a web event to to dropping the hammer in test number three that thought process and mental process how to come back from

you know you know doing what we all agree upon is like it was not according to plan and then be able to just wake up and fucking bring it could just like take us through that well Marcus you know is just such an easy process so just turned around and I thought I’m just gonna smash the next next event and it was as simple as that of course

right right right yeah yeah Why didn’t I think of that? so to provide some backstory the event to the second event was the intervals of the ring complex that pistol and the box jump over and like all of the other events we were able to practice this beforehand

but unlike a lot of the other events we were able to practice it very accurately like we know we know the reps we know the weight in the backpack we know the height of the box like there’s not so many factors there that are not known and so we had a lot of experience practicing different interval formats getting very familiar with

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how does the ring complexes feel how did the pistols feel how did the burpee box jump overs feel and so I had we both had very good ideas in our head of what we were capable of and what we should stick to when it came to the actual event the ring straps were much longer than we have practiced on

and my particular ring muscle up technique did not go did not fit well with the long straps so we both had plans like plan of attack going into the event and they were fairly similar because in all the intervals we’ve done in training beforehand we were getting like pretty similar scores Emma went out and executed the plan perfectly

and won the event for the females I went out and got the worst placing that I’ve got that I got over the whole weekend and that specifically was like the the second round of ring muscle UPS where the ring complex where I didn’t get through the five complexes first round went to plan ring complexes unbroken pistols

smooth 15 burpee box jump overs second round the long straps combined with the fact that the ring didn’t move around the strap it was like it was looped through in a way that the ring was and the strap almost fixed together those two things my ring muscle up technique just didn’t work with

and so I failed a lot of ring muscle ups I accumulated fatigue I wasted a lot of time and didn’t get any burpee box jumps on the second round and then in the third round I managed to figure out what was going wrong got through the rings the pistols and then got back onto the burpee box jumps again

so it was a skill issue as opposed to fatigue otherwise I wouldn’t be able to come back on the third round but nevertheless the score that I got was so poor in my mind that I thought that my Crossfit Games journey was over and that it wasn’t possible for me to come back from that score to do well it was possible for me to come back from that score to qualify and that was my feeling for probably like

a good 30 to 60 minutes after the event Emma explained to me when we went outside that like this does not mean that you’re out of the competition was adamant that I was out of the competition and it was only when the leaderboard was released later on that I realized okay I’m in 13 I’ve moved down to 13th place but it’s not it’s not the end of the world

and then I think the like the when you call it like the champions mindset or like how you come back from that to us I don’t think I don’t feel like it’s so difficult to come back from that because the alternative which is just to give up is never it’s not an option anyway

like it would never it doesn’t matter if it was that and I had either either you’re in a position to that you can still qualify so you do everything that you can to come back and get as many points as you can and qualify or you’re completely out of the races and then you have nothing to lose hmm so in either scenario

it’s still an opportunity to to rally and come back and try and basically win every event after that wasn’t right after very much in your ballpark and you want it if I remember correctly the the next event the lint one Saturday yeah

yeah so that was um that was an event I was confident I could do well in and yeah that doesn’t help a little bit you know that even if this was a bad thing next thing I’m gonna do is gonna be you know wheelhouse territory it’s gonna be one didn’t think it was gonna go as well as it did I knew it could do well

but I didn’t think I didn’t I wasn’t I wasn’t convinced that I would win the event but I did convince myself that I would win the event if you know if if you get what I mean and but I don’t think we don’t really categorize events as good or bad for us they just we don’t attach like emotions or predictions to the events

it’s just that they are what they are so even if it had been a bad event or an event that I wouldn’t have won or and the approach still would have been the same like I’m gonna I’m gonna end myself on this next event and then I’m gonna go home and recover and I’ll come back and I’m gonna do the same thing again there is no option to do anything otherwise hmm

did you need to talk to Emma a lot during did you talk a lot about this obviously you talk some about this predicament you put yourself in there oh yeah yeah yeah what’s the best way to am I what’s the best way to talk to somebody that is sort of reeling from a heavy blow and and needs to be picked up is what’s your approach

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like you talk to them try to reason with them or just try to let them let them get the feelings out or what’s the best way to do it I think it depends on who it is and how they work like obviously I know David very well and he’s been in the same ish emotional state in training before and I think it’s difficult because all I want is for him to not be sad

all I want is for him to be happy and believe that is still possible but he is in an emotional state where he is like devastated about that performance and without without even like really caring or knowing how it actually went like for him it went so bad that that’s that’s the only thing he thinks about so I like it’s just a bit of mix of letting him like process that and just being there at the same time hmm

I know this is tricky I have some experience with my wife was an athlete and she when she had a rough competition I decided to just let her talk because everybody’s different you know if I said it wasn’t so bad and it was bad it’s not good you know like you have to always be as honest as possible

you know what’s the worst thing I’ve ever done you know you can’t talk people out of bad performance because everyone knows it was bad and saying it was not bad does not help but what I’m interested in it’s like I would like to draw a chart or like a diagram you know there are things going on there are hormones that affects us you know we have like

the chimpanzee mind that like brings cortisol you know it’s skyrocketing and we you can’t be reasoned with for a set time and you can continue that by self programming you by saying certain things if you would like you know probably there were something okay it was like you know something going really steep downwards but it was like a time when you hit like

the lowest point and from there on you started to like reprogram yourself leading up to the next thing whether it’s just natural or you know just naturally happening because you are you’re bouncing back or you actually take action

and saying something to yourself you think there was like such a period in that process so even as I just as I said earlier even though the event went terribly at no point did I ever feel like did I ever think to myself I am not going to I’m not gonna try and win Linda tomorrow and I’m not gonna try and win event 4

and I’m not gonna try and win event 5 like it even like right after it happened although I’m not consciously thinking about it in the back of my mind I am also thinking like well got nothing to lose now so I guess I’m just gonna fucking end myself on the next four events more like deflated

yeah you were more like it was yeah it was more case of like like that is almost a separate entity in itself like how I’m gonna perform the events but then that part would be there was like a my CrossFit Games is finished well like the classic Games journey that was the part that was

I was I was absolutely destroyed and so I think and then that continued and through the night into the next day and because obviously because of that I’ve been struggling to sleep for a while and then like this happened

and we slept we both slept very poorly that night I think I got about four hours sleep from just stressing what had happened and then what was going to come the next day and so that was I would say like the point at which emotionally I came back from that

I don’t know if it I don’t know when it happened really because I didn’t really feel particularly positive the next day it was just like well it is what it is and you’re gonna have to you’re just gonna have to deal with it and get through the next and like do the best I can

on the next events hmm yeah watching you closely I did yeah they were they were you had you had you had different faces throughout the entire weekend I promise you so it’s like it was a sternness there was something else coming out on Day 2

you couldn’t tell if you were like going to get rid of someone kill someone or it’s like you know you could tell that you we’re on a mission for sure you were like determined Day 1 but it’s like it was something else so

yeah anyway we shouldn’t dwell too much about this I thrive by analyzing these kind of things because this is like what makes competition so cool you know but it’s not like you know you had a plan it’s like oh what happened to the plan it’s like following Tia Claire to me

behind the scenes so like the games two years ago was just this is the first first first first and the first and the first first it’s just like something happening here it’s nothing really I’m sure there is but on the outside

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it’s just like oh yeah you’re winning a lot that’s great for you congratulations this is much more like like I said this is much more exciting for the lack of better word like this something really happy really reeled from a big blow

and you came back you know I think with the with the the emotional response to events like something that Emma and I pride ourselves on doing is that we have very little emotional response to any event usually and that so it does it if the event goes poorly we don’t allow it to pull us down

if the event goes well we don’t allow us to hype us up it’s just you want to try and keep yourself as steady and consistent emotionally throughout the weekend because that’s gonna reduce the kind of the toll that it takes on you as opposed to like you do well and you’re really happy you do bad you bomb again

like you just end up like this all weekend like it doesn’t make for a it doesn’t make for an efficient like use like management of your energy and things like that so the only reason that this was probably the worst performance in the worst possible scenario that I’ve had in my entire career hence the like

hence the like the huge the much bigger than usual emotional response so I am I think after getting back from that it was it was as lame as it sounds it was just like business as usual I’m just gonna go out there I’m gonna try and build the event again but it’s not much talked upon just because of this this finish that we had

you did really good in Event 1 oh yeah fourth place in event one yeah yeah that is we don’t we don’t I don’t think we’ve even mentioned when we talked about the semis you know between each other like oh yeah like fourth place in a semi with 60 people was it was it 60 people

then it’s that is basically like winning like that’s no no it’s not winning John it’s not winning it’s a good place but it’s not winning it’s very very good man DM my my three the I got that first I got the first place in Linda

I got fourth place in that first event and I got fourth place in event 5 so two of the things that one of the things that we’ve really been working a lot working on a lot this season is running and I got two fourth places in two running events I was like that to me is like like Linda was called Linda was a really

really cool experience and but it was kind of like I knew I knew I was going to do well and I went out there the intention of well like Marcus says killing people so but the running events my performance on the running events and also my performance on event 6 which was one that I was really worried about

personally for me the highlights of the competition even though they’re not necessarily the highest placings because they just show for me they showed what we have been working on has worked we don’t we don’t usually make you know promote other brands and stuff but it seems like hard work pays off at this point but not with HWPO

no now it’s almost like if you really commit to something you get better at it it’s weird it’s weird Emma do you think that everything went did everything go to according to your plans during the weekend or what were you like lows and highs yeah the thing is that I didn’t really have

so much lows and highs it was just like mellanmjölk for most of the weekend yeah that’s all like up our plan looks right a well executed plan I guess yeah I think both yes and no I but I went into the competition with a bit too low confidence I think

just like one thing to qualify and not feel like I went there one thing to qualify I didn’t go there like to compete to win yeah and I think that shows a bit as well and that is probably what I’m the most like disappointed with after the weekend like placing and results is all I’m very happy with it but going in with like

too little believe in myself and not getting everything out off myself throughout the competition it’s it’s the next goal you think you could you could have gotten way better results if you would have had a little more fire to just get the last inch it’s difficult to say like way better

but it’s definitely more in me but isn’t this what happens when you realize that you actually you know you belong there it’s like when you realize okay I beat that girl I beat that girl well we are like we are equal we are not not only people who I look up to

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it’s like we are equal and once you guess when you realize that your ambition like rises I guess yeah I think it’s very easy to put other athletes like on pedestals and think that they are amazing and that you are not there yet or yeah and why not realizing that when they say you walking in

they’re like oh this is gonna be tough you know like you have you have to flip it sometimes and have a look at yourself that way yes it’s like Angelica said the same thing after last year’s age group at the games she came fifth where going into the game

she was like just happy being there but like when everything was over she we sat in the car she was crying and I was like oh what’s happening and it’s like what’s happening babe like I don’t know if I’m sad or happy

but then what came out of that like sitting an hour in the car on the parking lot behind the warm up scene there was like exactly this I think it’s like she realized you know that she belong there it’s like it wasn’t just by chance that she came second in qualifiers and then she came fifth and you know

and beats you know won some events etc I think that’s like a big thing probably leading up to the games now try like change that mindset I guess you know yes so and I think you say I mean I think you’ve already experienced that when we talked on a Sunday

I think you were like hmm fourth I should have been top 3 right it was that part of that thing yeah definitely and I think as well the leaderboard changes a lot throughout the weekend because like every event is so different so but then being first after day 1 like even though

you know you you might not stay there like you want to stay there hmm yeah of course must be worse at the games if you when you have that shirt and you have to like give it up like no longer No. 1 even though being

being first the first day is like all right you can swim or whatever usually is you know but still you want to keep you want to stay first once you’ve gotten the taste of it yeah exactly once once you got a taste of it you you want to you want to keep it or you won’t have it

but it’s good like it’s more fire what do you think about you guys what do you guys think about programming in the semis this year I’ve heard some say that it favored strong tall athletes well what’s your take on it I think the programming was um the programming is always balanced

but in some sometimes it kind of that balance is skewed more towards a certain type of athlete right and I think that because of the nature right so and I agree that they probably was skewed a little bit more to like a bigger or stronger athlete which we can see from for instance

Jelle Hoste who is a very good athlete clearly proven that this weekend by qualifying in I think 5th or 6th position 4th 4th okay right and more impressive did very well over the weekend and but then like if you look at like I think probably the reason why it was it was said that it was geared more towards a bigger

strong athlete like you look at Event 1 and we’ve got like a really heavy sled that was that was stopping some people in some regions and in our region it ended up actually being that the sled was quite a bit lighter than other other semi finals which you could see by

the speed of which people were moving the sled I think that was something I think the sled weighs the same out in every semi final and the carpet thing that they use for the sled is the same but the flooring is different was it really yeah the floor is different in every region so that the friction

that that sled has against the floor then has it is a big factor in how fast it moves and you could see that in different regions like if you take like the east and west for instance and how how fast that athletes were moving that sled versus was it Oceano Emma or Africa that had like

people just like whipping the sled along the floor because there was this black floor with I was had a certain brand on it was in most regions and that seemed to me visually to be the same area at least to look exactly the same but obviously in Oceania and like

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South Africa whatever was they had another completely different flooring yeah I’m 99% sure that our flooring was not the same all right like I’m very very sure that the flooring was a material that meant that the sled moved faster also then there is there is a factor that

I don’t think anyone is talking about it but it’s like lanes aren’t equal it’s we know this because we had these kind of sleds at our gym and we know that some lanes you’re not pulling the sled in some lanes because the flooring is different I mean some of the lanes could be a bit oily oily because of the new rubber and such stuff like that even at even at the games

having artificial grass you know the big Bob it’s like exactly it’s it’s always hard having sleds on competitions I think because it’s like yeah it adds and I noticed one thing the teams had the handstand thing where they did the handstand piruett right before

we did the event one with the with the sled and in some places those teams they emptied bucket of chalk on the floor where somebody and they did something but it was not dry you know it was not oily

yeah so it was doing it as well yeah yeah so there’s that event the first event which is like the head the heavy sled potentially stops some smaller athletes in their tracks it’s a lot of machines as well which generally favors a bigger athlete like even the run was on a was on an air assault runner

not a regular not regular running like around so then again that potentially favors bigger athletes and in the second event you’ve got a lot of gymnastics but then you’ve got a weighted backpack like the heavier you are the smaller percentage that weight

and that backpack is as a percentage of your body weight so then it’s like is it relatively lighter for a heavy athlete Linda of course like it’s all it’s a set weight so again is the bigger heavier athlete dealing with a lower percentage of their one RM max snatch bigger

stronger athletes bigger and stronger although I did actually place very poorly in that event then the run again the touch and go the eight snatches of the run again like a big graphic cycle the barbell faster and then you’re running on an assault runner again instead of outside

event 6 is potentially the one where was more favored towards a smaller athlete which we saw in the scoring of that when like Victor Hoffer and Jonne Koski were like No. 1 and No. 2 in that event and then event 7 again like you’ve got an Echo bike which and that one sandbag carry

and that was largely down to that the toes to bar wasn’t really so much of a factor so like if you look across the board like the events are balanced in terms of that they’re testing lots of different things but there the balance may be skewed more towards the athlete that is stronger or even like just body weight wise heavier you think the program is gonna carry over like this

towards the game since gonna be that that’s the flavor of the year or would you guess that their boss man is gonna trip you up with some we were talking about this yesterday never said about but it’s the it’s the first year that Bosman has programmed open like the all stages of competition hmm and so it’s like

you could potentially see a bit more of a pattern like a carryover of like of themes from the first stage to the next stage to the next stage which we haven’t seen before because it’s I think it’s been different people programming different stages or it’s been like the sanctionals

where it was each sanctional was left to its own devices by two events so I think that we could potentially see like the certain things you can already see are evolutions of previous stages and you can see certain themes developing that and to give us a clue as to what might happen at the games hmm but the games are so long that they that they have much more time to give you an even test

right oh yeah definitely that there’s there is nothing that will not be covered at the games like there’s just so many opportunities to test everything in and every in every way I don’t know what’s happening with the cuts this year does anyone know that haven’t heard what

no haven’t heard anything about cuts yet isn’t that something they usually oh assume oh oh at the games so they are introducing cuts well they had them in previous years didn’t they and there is right there archive argue with the fact that they tested at this point

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they haven’t disclosed anything no okay yeah wouldn’t surprise me if they do what they did last year what element of the games are you guys looking forward to the most the kit gettin’ the kit right in terms of fitness what oh oh yeah yeah that okay

you know do you look forward to the capital thing stuff like that big events like that suffering like really suffer for an hour and a half not like training where it’s just like just chilling for an hour and a half I’m looking forward to everything I’m looking forward to I’ve waited so long to be able to go

and I’ve got so close to this point and like every year something’s got in the fucking way like I’m just looking forward to going there and enjoying everything every event doesn’t matter what it is I’m looking forward to it you’re not gonna let anything get in your way you’re gonna go real soon just to make sure that you won’t miss the fight

before yeah yeah I’ll be on that field like helping them put down the lane markers and stuff yeah it’d be an attempt not booking a trade with SC what do you look forward to in terms of tests just everything as well like I I really like the programming in all stages so far and I think what we talked about before that is being like biased to all that bigger tall people I think that most tests are more complete now than they were before

and they test more than just one thing like it feels like it’s more difficult for specialists to win win events like you have to be good at everything to do well yeah I really like yeah I really like it’s maturing into the proper sport we want instead of being some sort of not to take shots here

but some sort of weird Marine boot camp thing which sometimes turned into in the past like now it’s more of a let’s actually see who’s the best at these things combined or whatever if you want to be if you if you want to display your strength like you need to be able to run first right if you want to be able to display your running capacity

you need to be able to lift first there’s always something like that messing with the test you know yeah and like the and now it’s that that’s like it’s a good way that they’ve implemented that the semi finals like you’re strong

so you can like you’re good at deadlift bench and cleans well you also have to be really conditioned to be able to keep up the pace on those movements like if you’re big and heavy and you can move the sled or you also need to be able to you also get to spend half the event on the rudder as well yeah

so the question everybody is waiting for so how does it feel being a supermodel now David what I don’t know what you mean where’s the supermodel thing come from Marcus from the superstar you mean superstar did you hear sevans comments about you Marcus sent me he sent me a video and he said don’t get cocky

like a rock star yeah this guy’s a model yeah and yeah he also said some other stuff in there was a bit weird about changing the sport like Daniel Brandon at which point he’d lost me but the yeah it was nice it was it was funny the comments that he was making

like I came like top 4th 4th 4th and some of it in three events and it’s my first time back to the CrossFit Games season I qualified for the games all of his comments were just on appearance yeah yeah yeah Guy’s a model great thanks that’s what I’m training for yeah he almost sound a bit horny in my opinion yeah

love I love I just love the way that you came out of nowhere kind of thing I can see all the other guys in in that call we’re just like on the phones like who is this guy like going Instagram and then on the leaderboard

and she’s like who find something funny thing is that it’s like you guy like you guys everyone here knows that it hasn’t just come from nowhere yeah like it’s just like when Emma first popped up on the scene like even though she hadn’t been doing the sport for a very long time like

it hadn’t just come from nowhere I should be doing sport all her life and slowly building up to this it’s a little bit like the iceberg thing right like you’ve got this wealth of training and experience and time and effort that’s been put in and you just you break the surface and people like whoa where did this person come from

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and it’s like well it’s only because you haven’t been able to see below the surface that you actually see that this has been a very long time coming and it’s just it’s just now because I was fortunate enough to do events that were reposted by CrossFit Games that it’s that it looks like it’s like come out of nowhere yeah

where is the camera right yeah you know it’s it’s it’s like everyone gets so surprised every year when she when Kristin competed they’re like she came from nowhere yeah she didn’t know she no she didn’t you didn’t put a camera

that wasn’t that was the thing that is the best thing as an athlete when you can hear you can hear the speaker talking about everyone else and you realize that hey they haven’t realized where you are and you you’re just like in a side lane like slowly creeping along creeping along

sneaking up fast people and you can hear them like it’s like a nice little report like oh lane five is here and you’re like you’re lucky you wanted to like I’m ahead of lane five Lane four is here I’m ahead of lane four and then you get close and close to the finish

and you can still hear them oh lane five the five reps left you like well I’ve got two reps left you’ve got the finish line they’re like oh Shuronke is finished I love when that happens cause it’s difficult for I mean at least in the past

they tended to favor American athletes in the broadcast I know what it’s like in the past but okay but like they have to decide what’s the what’s the drama here that we’re gonna play on you know they have to decide first and the camera guy needs to know where to stand and where to point simply so they have to decide upon a certain script you know and when somebody ruins it

like Kristin Holte did constantly they have to they have to like adapt and there’s always such it cause we’re always sitting in the couch screaming just like show us Emma you know what Emma used to do really good show us her

they never do but when she wins out of out of the blue then we’ll always get that told you yeah yeah yeah they did with the live stream this year where they look like they had like a view of the whole field and another camera that was focused on particular yeah they’re learning

if they could do that for every event I so I think they’re gonna do even better this year I think yeah pretty good at showing what’s up yeah yeah so guys how does this you know being together being like superstars of the of the sport you are you a true elite

how does I mean how does it work you know living together you know having the same goals same discipline same same same everything I mean how do you guys make a relationship work because there are things you need to do to make a relationship work right so how does that look

it doesn’t work now now we’ve now gone to across the games together break it up after this I mean take your shutter what did you say Marcus do you take care of the shadow what do you do to like you know because it’s all so you know great

great great even that out like it’s not it’s not easy it is very difficult but I think throughout the years we just that we’ve been working out like strategies that works for us and we’ve been like finding a way to really communicate and like

be extremely like honest about everything that’s going on and how we feel depending on how the other person like reacts or acts and yeah it’s working well and it’s it’s definitely like a double double sided roller coaster because you have your own roller coaster in life

and then you have your partners as well because you spend 24 7 with each other and you play many different like roles for each other I mean the athlete life I’ve seen it pretty close since my wife was an elite athlete and it’s hard it’s really hard could always sort of balance that out

coming in with some normal life stuff I was at work and this happened you know what I mean I could sort of balance it out you must be in such a bubble right yeah it’s just this because you have to rest in between and then gym again and like doesn’t it obviously it works

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but to me it would be like I could get a little tedious doesn’t it you’re just you’re just powering through it yeah we’re trying to be yes you say now that you got one like we’re trying to be good at like doing other stuff with each other too it’s like like small little stuff that we appreciate like good food yeah that’s probably a big thing

it’s I think it’s I think that we both find this much easier and we but we regularly meant to talk about this as well about how what we do is made so much easier by the the fact that the other person is doing the same thing to the same extent as well hmm I think that to try and maintain this level of discipline and consistency and routine and habits formed all everything formed all around training

I think it would be much harder if you had to if you had someone that was not doing this either not doing Crossfit and not competitive athlete or not the capacity to this degree because you would have to we would have to make so many more compromises you know now it’s like or the other one has to has to give up so many things for it to work because it’s like with you two guys

it’s not a question like are we going to the party on Friday you know we’re gonna train it’s not even a thing you know but for others it’s just like I’m going alone on this party again like at least whatever you’re doing you’re doing it together yeah exactly

like it’s not if if a situation it’s very rare that if one if we make a decision if one person it’s not really like one person makes decision because you have make the decisions like together because it’s essentially what is good for one person

is usually also good for the other person like it’s very if we need to get up at this time because we need to get the session done then the other person also needs to get up without time to get the session done like if it’s if all of those things work well together because it’s essentially like you are taking care of yourself and each other

by taking care of yourself so the only and then you’ve also got the added benefit of like if things go or when things go wrong like when someone’s having a shit time or training isn’t going well injury illness or something like that like the other person can a that has the best understanding that anyone could possibly have

because they’re right there with you doing it every day and b they can like pull a bit more of the load because they understand like what the situation is that you’re going through so I think it works much better than if it was the alternative and you had one person chasing one dream and the other person’s kind of along for the ride or making compromises

interesting yeah it’s gotta be beneficial it’s my like my initial take was it it’s gotta help that you’re doing it together so yeah I think you don’t have a relationship at all or I think it’s a no I mean I either don’t have a relationship or you have like a fan that’s like supporting you all the way

that’s had no ambitions you know supportive you know or this I think it’s like yeah it’s hard if you’re like both have you know one has big ambitions and someone has big really big ambitions elsewhere that’s going to building a big social sphere or something like that

it’s going to be a really difficult so difficult in terms of like when how do you say like whenever Emma has Emma has a good day doesn’t mean I have a good day and just because I have a good day doesn’t mean Emma has a good day how does your shit day affect the other ones good day because you don’t want it to pull them down

but you also don’t want to be having a shit day and then go watch someone smash a session when Emma if in like in the winter when it’s really really cold weather and the cold air affects Emma’s asthma and for that period of time she has to be very careful like how intense conditioning that she does

that it’s not nice for Emma to then watch me do like heavy breathing conditioning workouts knowing that she wants to do that just the same way as like the other way around like when I’ve been injured for periods of time like I don’t want to go in the gym watch Emma smashing sessions but at the same time I want to see Emma smashing sessions

because then she’s gonna do well when it comes to competition she’s getting better so you also like it’s a little bit difficult like that as well because if you were an individual you would only have like your negatives of attached to training to consider but you also have to consider like the direct impact you have on your partner

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your training partner like coach athlete which is that all the roles that we play for each other it’s a lot like a team yeah basically we joke that it is like it is it when we compete it’s’ a team sport because that we’re always competing individually but like one person goes and does the event and then the other

they come back and they tell the other one how the event went things to think about things to watch out for advice and then the other one goes and does the event you basically that switching around back and forth so you do get a little it feels like it’s a tremendous strength yeah yeah definitely yeah

interesting I think I think as well because we met each other before either of us like really made it or was that good enough to be close to a full time athlete or a full time athlete so everything with that like we built everything from the ground together basically so how long is it now how long have you been together three years no five years

it’s always three years Marcus five I only count the years that one of us qualified for the games right right right this has no impact on your relationship whatsoever yeah now what was it 2000 and 2018 yeah well you said you were gonna come and visit me and then never left

yeah usually how it goes that’s cute yeah but guys how does we’ve gone way over time here yeah we are just finishing up yeah what’s up next right so how we like your what are you doing today and what are you gonna do in the weeks leading up to the games and then we’re gonna finish off with that

what we doing today Emma we’re going to the cinema wow reading yourselves yeah we had a little fika this morning nice little Swedish breakfast and then well we’ve got some food prep to do now for the weeks coming and then we’re gonna go watch spider oh yeah man new Spider Man film and then and then probably come back and chill out ready for the

for the start of the build tomorrow this first day of games training interesting awesome yeah we sure gonna watch you of course obviously and we’re gonna be on site in Madison as well yes yes yeah yeah it should also be mentioned very quickly that the although we had the support and help of our coach Philip it was absolutely brilliant you guys were also there all weekend

you were taking photos you’re in the warm up area chatting with us and it was it was very nice it was very nice to feel like it definitely felt like there was a relentless family there and it was also appreciated how you used your own competition experience to decide when was appropriate to approach us and chat and when we were best left to like

to do our own thing and it’s just like another added nice supportive experience to the competition so thank you for that thanks guys happy to help yeah alright guys thank you so much for the chat and we’ll see you in the upcoming weeks for sure yeah all right