Road to the Games 21.02: SAM COURNOYER & ANGELO DICICCO

i want to step on that podium it's my time i mean i've been working hard for so long now and physically i can't i don't have any hope i want to go to the crossfit games yep i want to go this year and i want to go for the next several years so i don't want this year to be if i can make it this year i don't want to be one and done i want to go this year and i want to be a breakthrough here you know i want to go this year and i want to keep going in life the path to success very seldom travels in a straight line in sport this truth is magnified through the stories of athletes and their pursuits of glory and never has it been more true in the sport of fitness than in the 2021 season the competition rebound here following covet introduced a new format that featured a mixture of in-person and online events as qualification paths to the crossfit games athletes were forced once again to adapt and overcome passwords the divergent paths of mayhem athletes angelo dico and sam cornier highlighted perfectly the emotionally charged sometimes confusing and often chaotic road to qualification that all athletes faced the chico and cornier now share the common bond of the mayhem athlete family but their personal histories and athletic backgrounds differ as greatly as their paths to the games a cook-filled tennessee native himself the chico was an early understudy of throning at the original crossfit mayhem a competitive advantage he was able to leverage into two teenage championships and a reign of dominance at the crossfit games teenage competition [Music] but dichico's plans to pivot teenage dominance to the open division were shattered by a back injury that destroyed more than just his season in his mind his crossfit career was done i obviously loved crossfit and i loved competing in it and i lost that fire somewhere in there with the pain and just you know training wasn't fun you know you have to enjoy the training because if you only are doing it for competing it's not enough you have to enjoy the process and i wasn't enjoying the process because it sucked i mean it hurt it wasn't fun so it ruined the competitive aspect for me it didn't ruin crossfit for me you know i still enjoyed it but it ruined the competitive aspect and that's a lot of the reason why i want to step away you know i didn't think it was going to get better i didn't think it was going to stop hurting so i was like i'm just not going to compete anymore and just kind of do across for the way it's meant to be done his path turned away from pursuits of personal glory and towards a life of public service training was no longer a sport but rather a tool to help him help others i started my career as a firefighter two years ago last week i love the interaction i get to have the community i love feeling like i'm helping i love being a part you know seeing people on their worst days and being able to make it a little better and uh it happens it doesn't happen all the time but you know there are those certain calls where you're there and you're like okay i made a difference for sure today and uh it feels pretty good former hockey player sam cornier grew up a world away from cookville in quebec canada armed now with a new focus on mindset and in an effort to increase his level of performance sam has made cookville his temporary home the results in competition have spoken for themselves and sam believes the benefits of training at mayhem go far beyond the obvious my son's weird but i learned more with rich outside of the gym than in the gym i mean at some point we do we do work out i i don't get me wrong i mean i learned a lot from him in training for sure because i'm training with him like every day but i learned a lot about how to compete how to be a better athlete per person outside of the gym with him and being with his family despite two appearances at the crossfit games highlighted by his 10th place finish in 2020 cornier has until now remained the other guy in canada he intends to earn his place at the table this year i respect a lot for kowski and vilner they did super great in that sport and they're still super nice and people and great athlete but it's my time to shine right now i mean it's my time i mean and i think i deserve it i work hard every day like everybody else just like i said i need to prove it i need maybe that one workout of the games who people's gonna be oh my god who's that kid who's who's coming from sam's eyes are now set on the podium at the crossfit games but before he can enjoy glory in madison he would have to take on the atlas games what would you say your goal as a speaker um i want to win yeah even even if it's not important i mean the real goal is just to qualify for the games and i mean the big deal is madison at the end of july but i want to win just to prove to myself that i can do it i mean it's my time now three weeks earlier in knoxville dichico began his quest for a game's birth in person at the mid-atlantic crossfit championship yeah android chico multi-year teenage champion at the crossfit games actually one of the first rich throning understudies stepped away from competition due to a back issue a degenerative back issue that he has since corrected and kind of got back on the path to be able to train again and i'm excited to see him take the floor i got to see it him come out of retirement 2019 for one event at brazil and now i think this is his first full announcement if i'm actually back and gonna compete good forth in my heat and beat all of everyone from heat one so if all the chips fall into place i'll be in the final heat tomorrow that'd be sweet yeah that would be cool no no i did not think i was gonna qualify for the crossfire games out of semifinals it wasn't even in the realm of possibilities for me until probably day two but going into it it was just a way for me to get out there and show myself i can hang with these guys i just want to hang you know i'm looking for maybe top half would be awesome [Music] i'm not happy it just they depends i thought would be better than that on this one it's fine i don't think it's a bad score it just i never fall like that from the bar and just born before i don't know what happened [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] like in the future i'm still having a hole when it's quoting a lot of reps same thing as yesterday same thing everything with aerobic stuff like running roaring biking i'm way better but when it's fast squatting like that just i'm i'm still i still have a hole yeah i mean it's not a huge one but yeah i think it gets tighter but i was like in front of him and he and he's like hey i'm coming bro i'm coming you better go faster because i'm coming and we finished with like what four reps different so he was way fashioned me on the squad so it's just telling me that we fix part of the problem but when it's fast quality i still have i still have a problem just like the last set of trolls yesterday angelo de chico right now 13th place overall with 120 total points and angela chico two-time teenage champion you know really trying to find his way back to competition after taking a few years off he's also a firefighter he's had a tremendous competition so far [Music] [Applause] [Music] angelo de chico across the finish line and sets that mark to beat 24.50 unofficially how are you doing after two days we're just tired right now i don't know if we saw her per say my legs a little bit but better than i expected let's go tomorrow i see where we'll place them in try to hold that and better i'm doing what i want to do this is incredible it feels awesome you know because you kind of lose i didn't lose the feeling but i knew what it felt like to win an event and to do that again is probably the best feeling i mean it's the best feeling in the sport for sure is when you win an event and the crowd erupts and you're looking around your friends are up there and they're screaming for you that's i mean that was the main similarity and that's what makes you want to go back [Applause] [Music] i mean yes and no like there's some guy in the field who are really strong and they're really good i'm just i'm a strong guy but it's more like a barbell cycling at the defense under the seating workout so i'm excited to see how many i can get at 245 i would like to hit something like between i don't know 13 15 reps up to 45. if i hit that goal for me it's gonna be pretty good i know there's gonna be some guy in the field gonna hit like maybe 16 17 even like 2018 but we'll see yeah [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 19 reps oh yeah how was it i was hoping for like 13 to 15. pretty happy with that i don't think i can do more than that i mean i missed the last pretty great be great oh yeah right 20 minutes [Music] [Applause] [Music] i don't want to win i just want to finish top 10. now i'm going to be over 20. how do you know that my scores suck okay yeah that's what i'm thinking about that's fascinating imaginary guys 13 30 13 40 13 55 14 12 14 tara got 14 43 ish i got 15 54 5 hey no i'm no no but at a certain point i'm a little bald golf ball and tiger world was just there and you hit me so far i'm far away that's where i'm seeing you that's it there's nothing else i can't do anything about it that's it the only thing i know is i'm not doing it all today no way i'm not a athlete by no means but you could have went to in that last round huh you could have went to in that last round because you was not doing that well i know and you came back and you manned up and you went through the whole thing unbroken so look on the positive side you could have quit but you didn't i know i thought you was going to fall apart honestly in the last round but you didn't and to me that's the most impressive thing that's good thanks brandon so let's come back out you know use that use the momentum you had in the last round you're going to do fine you're fit you know nobody has i mean i've watched rich frog even finished last crossfit games and come back and win them like it's just the way it is you're not going to destroy every workout you're not the finished human being alive you're one of them you know oh my god you can't be the fittest at everything you got to be about at something everywhere i don't want to be waiting i just don't want to suck i wouldn't be fine i just don't want to have a hole it wouldn't be fun if you didn't have a hole [Music] now angelo de chico is in seventh he's actually tied with mark hutchinson in points as well so he's only 26 points back of zach watts and one event is all it takes look at the inception last night angelo got his best finish ever third place 92 points he picked up 79 points on zak watts so all it takes is one strong performance you can flip your spots on the leaderboard [Music] took a bite out of his lead for sure a good one he needs to be exact by two no so the chance that even if you can all get top five so that's this last chance yeah i don't know i i i don't know if i want to compete again until i don't know if i want to compete again that soon i want to take some time off i didn't think that i would be that guy right on the bubble of going to the games and not making it you cannot buy that experience you can't buy it anywhere you can't recreate it you i have that experience and now i know what it feels like and to say it sucks isn't you know isn't enough it sucks like even though i didn't have any expectations once you get there and you cross the finish line you kind of know uh where the points are at it starts to settle in you're like man i uh i almost did it and now it's uh that for me not having it like i said it's just gonna build a fire more it builds a fire like crazy knowing i was that close knowing i can't be that close if i do the right things i put in the hard work i know that i can be one of those front runners and i believe it so i just have to do it now we did even number five this morning and after the workout we saw on the so we saw on the game side that the rule of the answer was i have to put my palm my phone palms over the line both of the hands and normally combination is just you just have to touch so honestly it's my fault i didn't really look at it so for the whole workout what i did i was instant walking putting one hand with the line and the other end was i was just touching the floor i wasn't putting my full hands so and so after that we started deal was like oh my god that is no good i mean if we follow the rules that there is no that is no good and personally i mean i never had like a video with huge penalty and anything and i don't like it when people cheat so i was like all right i have no choice i have to do the workout i was kind of pissed for sure so 45 minutes after the workout even this morning i went to griddle didn't go as planning because i was kind of still tired of the workout but that was part of the game because i have to really work out so finished griddle take a shake went to barn right after at 1 15. no warm up set up the floor with everyone put a roller put the chalk and put my grips and let's go we started workout no warm-up didn't work out and make my time [Applause] [Music] [Music] i'm done no more online things i'm done i want to go on the floor it's done i'm tired of that now i've never been to one to play a safe i might play a little dirty someday [Applause] i had questions about going on broken thrust like come on i must snatch i think 155 and i don't think i can do that today i was like 15. or maybe 60 like i was young it was at the old gym so that's the oldest 16. i mean i did a 315 overhead squat when i was [Music] 17. i've done it for three since then but i've never done any heavier what was the three injured pr three 20. and your pr before that was what 305 and that was when i looked at it yesterday i was 16 i was 16. that was so sad i talk a lot i talk more than you do no [Music] and you're trying to figure it out yeah i said to scott i go i i like i have so many thoughts that i need to start my own podcast and says i have that it's been called i have stuff to say and i want you to listen to it because i said i'll just i'll just sit in my room and this stuff is just going and turning i'm like someone's got to hear this someone would like this there's someone who thinks this too [Music] have you been like training hard again started on that friday after so monday tuesday wednesday off thursday active recovery friday on when we talked to you at mac you said if you didn't make it you weren't going to do the last chance why did you change your mind uh i don't know i really don't know like i don't want to quit i guess yeah that'd be the only reason i was also adamant about not even ever competing as an individual again that was stupid i'm just nervous i was just really nervous yeah so i'd rather be nervous than having you know then not do it i guess the nervous is good i think i wanted my season to be over and be happy with where i was but uh once i gave it a few hours honestly is all it took is like if you give up now you're just it's just quitting you know you don't know if i did exactly if i wouldn't know i would never know if i could have made it and if i don't try i just i'll be afraid of the unknown and that's kind of what i was afraid of not going not competing this season is if i didn't compete this season i'll never know you know i would never know when i'm 30 or 40 i won't know so same thing going into the last chance qualifier if i didn't do it i just would never know and that would eat at me i think [Music] how have you been in cookville uh six weeks no what made you decide to come down here all summer this year i wanted to make sure my game spread was going well and since uh canada was still in like lockdown and everything and so i decided to move here the whole summer to fully prep myself for the games is that hard like maybe your family for that long yeah yeah for sure it's really i mean it wasn't a hard choice i mean that's my career so like it was kind of easy choice for me but yeah for sure it's hard to lift them the whole summer and i miss them yeah i mean it's part of the deal and she supported me a lot and i'm really grateful for her in my life for that and she understands why i'm doing it and she knows that it's really important for me also so yeah no it's it's hard it's not being with them but i mean it's just two months it can be worse yeah but no i miss them so yeah i've been here for six seven weeks now and i'm gonna be here for until the games it's art it's hard yeah oh yeah i don't know it's not a sacrifice because this is what i need to do that it came up with mindset i thought it was a sacrifice but at some point i mean if i count all all the things that i don't i'm not doing my life there's a lot of sacrifice but at some point it's a choice that i made so we it's kind of sacrifice but for me it's a choice and she understands my choice so it's not it's not any more sacrifice it's a it's a life it's a lifestyle it's a way of lifestyle it's a hard one for sure like ski and simple shops dubs for me just for me because i mean it's key i'm good at it 200 dub owners no 150 so would be six hundred dollars yeah yeah you don't have to but just for me you don't have to just for me you gotta take like at the same time 150 and 30 kilos year you're trying to do a lot of dubs right now yeah you know why yeah yeah oh yeah we're trying to fix that it's i don't know when it's like working out with 50 to 100 revs every set like if you time wrap with 100 reps 100 under like quick 50 50. i'm good at it it's no big deal but when it's high volume like more than 100 i don't know why it's hard for me so i'm trying to get better at [Music] a those bit better so we we find that when i'm jumping my rope my left foot is behind my right one so we're trying to i'm trying to keep my feet closer because every time i trip i hit my left one my left foot so i'm trying to focus on this one for now try to put my feet together and the workout inside to find those is like i feel better like i firm i was feeling more comfortable when i was doing it in the workout for the semi-finals i was just so exhausted that's why my double leg was so hard and since we since i tried to fix my feet it's going much better it's not perfect it's not going to be i mean it's been two weeks but i'm sure like short term long like short term goal i can make it like a straight at night if we look my semi-finals work on four i lost the workout because of my dollar kings and my muscle up was fine my lunch was pretty easy just because of my dubs so i want to make sure i know i'm not going to be the best but i want to i don't want to lose too much point because of my 1200 games if you work out like triple three what happened at the games i want to make sure like if i hit 300 dogs i can make it kind of fast but i've been working with jim and so many mindsets to be i mean for me personally to be a better accommodator when you need to fix everything outside of computing because to compete it's a hazy part i mean at the three two one go we're all here all the guy all the girl we're the field we all work hard in gym we all do the same things every day i believe there's no there's nothing special about anybody the only thing you can change between the first the guy's gonna finish first or second or third it's in the mind so that's why i put a lot of work on it this year no i didn't even i was even into the open no i wasn't i wasn't gonna do the open until rich asked me sounded as an alternate i'm like i don't wanna be a slouch so i decided i'd go well you know if they need me i don't want to just be you know terrible so like i'll train a little bit and then everything just like kept going good what was the last year you competed like really really went for it 2017 2018 i was going to i got injured right after the open during and after the open and dropped out and then so 2017 when i when i competed as a team was my last year attempting i completely lost the desire to train i didn't want to hurt anymore like i was tired of hurting and workouts and then i'm right back into it so i feel like the controversy is not true around that that if like you do come out i think you can go right back into it if you want to because i'm definitely way fitter than i've ever been but way yeah so jake and i talked about there possibly being damn diane in the last chance so we're kind of playing around with that did a lot of handstand walking this morning so we're not going to muscle up or we're not going to do handstand push-ups so we're going to do muscle ups just like a variation of it hit some 315 deads high temps yeah rich was the lighting bolt that kind of relit the fire but uh the fuel was honestly the results is that i came back and i did have this what i call lingering fitness and strength that i was it was still there it was it was in me somewhere the competitive aspect was there too every time i could do good at a competition it wasn't necessarily i needed to do good but it would make me you know it would show me what i'm doing is working you know like i said doing crossfit an hour a day can hang on to that fitness and even make you better and then adding in just a little bit extra volume and stuff that i needed whether it's physical therapy work you know staying healthy once i was healthy and i was having fun with training again it's almost like adding a log to the fires you're not adding sticks anymore you're adding logs to the fire and you're like okay i'm doing this right you know add another log and that fire's building and roaring and then by the time the season progressed you know the fire just kept building and building and it's like okay this fire's not going out let's keep let's keep rolling with it i wanted you so bad and that lasted i was like i'll do six and four i got the five and okay okay look at the six i thought i wasn't bad seven was like i caught it weird i ripped my thumb on the seventh rep and so it felt weird when i came down i saw what is like whatever and i was so tired i just wanted to go unbroken and not take that long like i knew i needed to chalk in between the two movements i go if i can try to take less than 20 seconds there and hop up i'll be happy and i was kind of right on where i thought i could be i'm glad i did that wasn't broken i knew the deadlines were a strength for me and then i could just hang on to it [Music] i want to really address like the way in which you can create some additional gears and part of the problem with wrecking is is that you can't create an addition here by having a longer stride and more power output because it's more of a shuffle so than how we're going to create speed and that is through stride frequency the number of steps you take per minute you guys ready warm up beautiful that's pretty weird that's fun my rug game yeah it's better than before but no let's be honest i mean i think my running game is i mean it's on point when now my run is fast i've never been that much fit with my running before so if you running workout is gonna happen in the games i'm gonna be confident because i i work a lot on it but my rock games i mean it's better but it's not the best yeah i mean i'm the 210 pound guy so when you put me 60 pound on my back i have to run at 270 pounds for sure i'm not going to be the fastest guy on field but my goal is just to make sure that i'm not finishing last last like in 2019 if i can manage to finish like between 15 and 20 for me it's gonna be a win and i'm not gonna lose too much points [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] 400 meters faster all right so just keep pushing until that across the line and then nice and easy so that means settle your form okay you should have no anxiety right that mental distress that emotional bit let that go away if you get stomach ache and that kind of thing slow down let it go away and then bring that feeling back with 100 okay here we go [Music] better far to be perfect but way better than before way better honestly i think one or one or two year again like keeping the hard work like that in the running and maybe the one or two year can surprise a lot of people in a running workout my legs hey start come on baby come on how does it feel compared to where you were last year in stage one oh so different i mean i don't think i'm way faster than before but i can't hold on for faster pace for a longer time even though fatigue and that was my goal so thanks to chris what i'm interested in was your ability to bring it home this was not a rough workout the ruck was only to create like fatigue stamina and the question is can you sprint with a lot of leg fatigue yeah right your finishing kick and what we found out is you should be right you can and you should be confident that when it comes down to it and you have 90 seconds to go yeah you can win yeah that's what we were trying to prove like you know you are way better than you were last year oh yeah yeah right you should be a threat so no matter side by side yeah you own [Music] them [Music] i wanted to row 1600 plus for the 42 i ended up rowing 1700 plus i wanted to roam 1700 plus for the 30 and did that and then just anything i had left in the tank for the uh 18 and i was like 1850 cows an hour so right on and a little over and end up i must have cycled the dumbbell faster than i wanted to so we're gonna start the weekend for you yeah yeah yeah start off on a high note do better than i thought i could [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good more than i wanted to hit i knew i would probably hit more than i wanted to so that's good natural i'm just naturally good at it i think i got longer levers so it's i wouldn't say i'm naturally great at it i'm actually good at it you know it's just i have a stronger pull than my squad or press so how have you executed like with your game plan after the first two events however through the competition better than i thought it could cool so no complaints hard feeling about the leaderboard uh some ridiculous times like crazy good uh not ups not upset i'm very happy with my effort so that's all i really care about i know that i pushed as hard as i could for both of those and i plan on doing that for these two as well [Music] i wish i was faster but i can't change that it was 100 for sure [Music] [Music] if i can do the right things continue to do it the way that i've been doing it i know that i can i know that i can be in a better position next year and i know i can you know i can i know i can go to the games i know that i've proven to myself that i can hang i think it's helped it's helped kind of you know continue to light that fire [Music] 2019 uh my first year the games was a cut so i didn't have this chance to show everybody what i was able to i was cut after four workouts last year i did super well at the stage one but finishing ten online competition i think for some people it doesn't prove who you really are for me this year's i've been i set myself a big goal and there's a part of me that it's just i want to put out my goal this year to podium in the games but more of that and just to prove that to everybody that i deserve my place at the games i deserve to be there i'm one of the best in the world and i i just want to be there i want to step on that podium oh jump at that podium it's it's my time i mean i've been working hard for so long now and i honestly my physically i can't there's no i don't have any hole i'm fit right now i've never been that fit before i feel so great and i think i deserve it now after that it's me to do the job at medicine [Music] [Music] so

Channel: CrossFit Mayhem

Views: 74,018

Rating: 4.9322033 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: 9pepNixrxO8

Length: 39min 1sec (2341 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021