Part 8: The Chipper - Men’s 09 Games

damn really really sux seein opt and thiel get injured!

Amazing! Loved the ending!

Ya ending was awesome. I don't see how someone could watch these and not want to crossfit. Such an inspirational piece of work.

Well done Sevan on the coverage, great job.

When you coming to Australia? ;)

Hey-

I'm proud to be a part of this. We're in the business of making heros.

'What would Mikko do in a spot like this?' ;-)

Good luck in your training,

-K

It's been awesome watching these videos. So is there footage of the women? I remember seeing a bunch of discussion over on "Beauty in Strength" of the male-centric viewpoint that pervades society at large and perhaps CF.com. If only the men's events were put out that would add fodder to that argument.

Hi Darren,

Australia is definitely a place I want to come visit, and maybe stay a long time!

Thank you for the kind words.

Dave Castro and the Glassman's get huge credit for giving me the resources, support and opportunity to produce this project.

The athletes not only put out huge performances, but they also are cooperative for the cameras! I love them!

It is a perfect storm!

cheers m8

8:50 Theil hurts his himself on the muscle-up, ouch...major bummer.

Well mate,
You get my vote to come out and cover the NSW & ACT sectional, and the Australian Regional.

See ya soon!

i think chuck carswell was competing in the "Who Can Call Back the Most Reps Competition". Did u see him actually put his hand under hackenbrooks chest on the burpees? how many KB swings did he call back on kalipa in the triplett. it was even more obvious at the games. he discounted feet to bar for blair M. what a joke! he should never judge again! it was like was mad cause he didnt qualify and he was taking it out on everyone he judged.

Ben Green how did you do at the qualifiers?

I can't speak on behalf of any other athletes but I thought Chuck was a great judge. He was fair, held me to the highest standard and also was a great motivator helping me struggle through that last wod. He took reps away from me on the squat cleans, box jumps, thrusters, and dumbell push presses. Every rep he took away was the correct call in my mind. After watching some of them on video I agree even more. I really don't understand the criticism of the judges, I didn't hear one athlete complain on camera or behind the scenes. Thought they did a great job. Thanks Chuck! As for the KB swing reps with both Kalipa and Mikko, they were not getting the KB straight up and down overhead. That was the standard. I prefer doing KB swings to about eye level, but in the comp I did them how I was told. Criticize the standard, not the judge.

I agree with Tommy even though he spelled my name wrong (its all good bro). Chuck was a fair judge. The truth is, I didn't get those reps directly overhead, it was much more challenging than I thought it would be. Overall, Chuck was a great motivator, but more importantly a fair judge.

I don't post very often so for those of you who competed in the Games, awesome work everyone! It's inspiring to watch these videos.

Amazing. I can't wait to see the women's videos!!!

I asked Mikko several times about the strict judging by Chuck, and every time, Mikko said, not only was Chuck fair but consistent. I personally admired Chuck's passion and focus.

man, after watching them all i have just gotten a new role model Mikko Salo that guy is a beast. And at 175 he was able to outperform stronger and faster crossfitters he is the perfect mixture. Cant wait until the nexr games

honestly, during the chipper mikko didn't look like he did 7 workouts prior to it. he seemed ... appropriately challenged. everyone else looked like they were suffering major trauma.

mikko "this is hard(grin)!"
everyone else "i want to friggin die!"

Ab so lute ly awesome.

Great work Sevan, you captured the challenges and triumphs of the athletes exceptionally well. The last video is my favorite.

To the athletes, you guys really are heroes - everyone who was at the games, let alone competed in 8 wods, is deserving of massive respect.

Cam

Crossfit Zone
Victoria BC

Holy crap, is all i gotta say... so thankful for these videos, they are like gasoline for the "motivational-fire" :) am looking forward to see the womens competition..
respect to mikko and to KHALIPA, wow what a come-back.. and Tommy Hackenbruck, second place is so easy to forget, awesome work man..
well i'm off to get my ass kicket by Diane..

Conny Laxell
Stockholm, Sweden

Mikko Salo, you inspire me and every other people here in Finland training CrossFit. Best regards from all of us @ CrossFit Helsinki!

- Olli

yeah, i guess youre right. he was fair, i just dont think that everyone was as strict as he was so it was frustrating as a spectator to see the big difference in the judging. great responses and attitudes from the athletes. role models as usual. i liked when thiel was like, "tell me whats wrong!" cool.

geoff aucion, i dont know who you are and you dont know who i am, so keep those kinds of comments to yourself. as a contracted athlete i was unable to compete at our qualifier due to a schedule conflict.

I don't want this to be over. I can't wait till next year!

Thanks a lot for a Great Games coverage! What an inspiration for a Crossfit community!

a note about judging: Chuck was awesome! I was a volunteer and in one event another judge was tearing us a new a-hole for some minor crap and Chuck stepped in and straightened him out. I felt he was the best at being fair and level headed, which in my opinion is a major issue in CF because other people are so high strung they made it unpleasant for athletes and volunteers to even be around. Hats off to Chuck, you made that event much better for being there!

I had the privilege of unfettered access throughout the Games. Inside the ropes, outside the ropes, med tent, media--I was everywhere. I was literally feet from individual athletes and their judges. It is simply astonishing, an enormously wonderful achievement, the consistent and uniformly accurate and fair judging that I witnessed. On the rare occasions when an athlete questioned a "call" the judge involved impassively explained, then encouraged the competitor to push on. Really, really impressive work in a very high visibility, high stress environment. The judges did not get their proper due, but to a man or woman they would certainly disagree with me, that they were due nothing, that they were only there to do their best and let the athletes shine.

I did speak with a couple of the judges I hadn't yet met. Took the opportunity to tell them how well they were doing. I've not yet met Chuck Carswell; my fault entirely. I'm looking forward to shaking his hand, hand of a gentleman.

--bingo

Awesome video, best one yet. All of the athletes worked really hard, I hated to see Thiel hurt like that he kept trying as well, same with OPT that was heartbreaking. Also I have to say I was very impressed with Michael Fitzgerald, he may not be the biggest guy but he handled the thrusters and cleans very well, I hope to one day compete at the overall level these competitors can compete at.

Excellent video's and unbelievable performances......am I the only one who noticed Miko didn't take his shirt off once? Maybe he was afraid the Robotics would show...that man is a Machine!!!

Chuck is the standard!

This footage of the men's comp is truly epic. There were so many inspiring, moving moments. Thank you for capturing them. Really looking forward to the rest of the videos.

Ben Green I knew all I needed to know about you when you started whining about a great contributor to the CrossFit community. You can't come on a public forum and talk crap about someone and not expect to get your wrist slapped. You'll need to develop a thicker skin if you still feel the need to trash the judges in an event you weren't involved in.

I will speak on behalf of Chuck and say that when I met him and talked to him about training and our past sports history he is nothing but professional and a great guy.

He holds all athletes to the same standards, he is strict but fair. The reps he didn't count were fair. I'd rather have a judge like him who ensures proper form than a judge that allows a minor flaw in form to go uncontested.

I saw other judges on the videos allow things to go through that Chuck didn't. I don't blame Chuck one bit for holding the athletes to those standards. This isn't a weekend warrior event, its the best CrossFitters in one location battling it out to see who wins, strictness in judging is imperative.

Absolutely awesome work by all the competitors. Great judging, too! Can't wait to be there this coming year.

Did anyone else notice that the name of James Fitzgerald was on Michael (written) at the 12:48 minute time & 13:52??

Awesome coverage! Both heats were incredible to watch, especially the battle with Michael Fitzgerald in the first heat. Great job all around, and I can't wait to watch the Women's competition!

(And since I know you're reading this Tommy Hackenbruck, it was cool to spot you for a couple seconds during the American Ninja Warrior challenge. Too bad you missed out by a single spot!)

Regardless of Chuck's individual judging ability (which seems to be quite good, I'll take athletes like Khalipa and Hack at their word), there seems to be two issues with judging at the games and other competitive Crossfit events; consistency between judges and the difference between a judge and a motivator/coach.
As far as consistency is concerned, my sympathy lies entirely with the judges, the very constantly varied nature of Crossfit makes it impossible for one standard to remain unchanged, a kettlebell swing is to eye level one day and overhead the next, even the position of an overhead kettlebell swing is debatable. In addition, because Crossfit as a sport is so new, there are no rule books, there is no official judging organization in charge of standardizing the way movements are judged, there aren't even any kind of "official" judges. With so little time to practice judging, it's no wonder there is some discrepancy between judges, again, totally not their fault. As far as getting the best judges is concerned, maybe there should be a sign up to practice judging at certs similar to how one can sign up as a test subject at level 2 certs. Another idea, possibly to be in conjunction would be selecting the best judges from sectionals to go onto regionals and the best at regionals receive an invite to judge at the games.
Secondly, the other major area of concern to me is the level of involvement of judges as coaches or motivators. Some athletes may really enjoy having their judge spur them on, cue them on good form, etc. while some may not. If the athlete likes it or not, there is going to be a difference in the quality of coaching or motivation from judge to judge which could give an unfair advantage to one athlete over another. A really good coach could significantly improve the performance of one competitor while an inexperienced and overzealous one could hurt the performance of another athlete. This is not fair and much too hard to ever standardize and I think it would probably be in the best interest of competition for judges to take a more neutral approach.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to all the judges, volunteers, athletes and coordinators who make the games possible. No of this would be possible without your incredible efforts. I am not trying to hurl stones here, just to help make something I love even better in the future.

That just blew me away. Mikko is a machine. He looked tired after the events but not like the other competitors. He tore it up, and was unbelivable. It is always interesting to me how differnt body types can perform differnt movements and events. You wouldn't think that Michael Fitzgearld would be able to pound through those thrusters and overhead db presses like he did. Sure the larger competitors truck through them a little faster but I was really suprized that he was able to hold his own. After watching that video I have more respect for my Canadian Crossfit heros, James, Michael, and DJ. Tremendous performances guys.

You beat me too it Richard haha. I was thinking about a t-shirt; "Mikko Salo- I compete with my clothes on" or somthing funnier than that but making the same point.

The games videos so far are inspirational and the athletes are firebreathers, for sure! The women competed that weekend too, right (said with light-hearted sarcasm)? I mean, there were women there and I saw them running so I would assume that the women's videos are going to be posted rather soon! Right (again with the sarcasm)? :) I would be so disappointed if they weren't. Every Games Athlete deserves to be celebrated, male and female! I can't wait to watch them.

The way Jason Khalipa battled back from the first run really blew me away. Mikko too, he made it look easy.

Excellent videos. Although in some of them, I wish we had a better idea of who was in what place as they were going.

Hi Stephanie,

Here is a cut and paste from the first four sentences of the 2009 CrossFit Games posting

"The Complete 2009 CrossFit Games coverage is here! The first eight parts are the men’s competition. The next three parts are the Affiliate Cup. Then come the eight parts of the women’s competition. "

I guess they are saving the best for last (said with no sarcasm)

I hope this helps.

cheers
sevan