2/22/12

Get Some Fucking Perspective

Annoyed. And it starts here...


That's Noah. He's one of the coaches from District CrossFit, formerly of Potomac CrossFit. I've met Noah, he's a nice guy and a legit athlete/CrossFitter. He did a workout, jumped really high, and then whoever recorded it, uploaded it to youtube and labeled it a "world record." No big deal. So it goes. Normally, I avoid youtube comments like I avoid donating to charity, but I couldn't avoid this:


Those comments are courtesy of Ryan Moody, the self-proclaimed World Record holder for jumping on top of boxes. Or something. Basically, Ryan contacted Guiness, sent them video of his jumps, they looked into it, and he got a new world record. It was new because... ya know, no one had ever tried it before.

Look, if this guy wants to achieve a world record and go through the process of training, filming, contacting the Guiness Book of World Records, etc, then fine. That's his right. More power to him, since that all seems like a real pain in the ass. My problem with the entire endeavor is taking to youtube like an 8-year-old with a skinned knee.

"NO! That's not the world record. I have the world record!!" Dude, you're arguing over a record that NO ONE BUT YOU is trying to obtain. This isn't like the 100m dash or the fastest marathon or the long jump or whatever. This kid went to Guiness himself to be put into the record books. Meanwhile, you have this:

Steve Langton, USA bobsledder

An Olympic bobsledder hit a 62" box jump with no running start, no fan fare, no comments about him being the best box jumper, no stupid fucking celebration afterwards, and he wore a shirt the whole time. You know why? Because a max effort box jump like this is a parlor trick for him. You do it for fun just to see what you can do. You know what Langton does with the rest of his time? He devotes his life to an actual sport with real accomplishments!

This is classic CrossFit-moving-the-goalposts shit. This kid will never be an Olympian, realized he'll never win the CrossFit Games, so instead of just accepting that he'll never achieve true greatness, he decides to pursue a new world record... of jumping on stuff. Should he be proud of his jumping ability? Absolutely -- I'm assuming he's worked real hard to achieve it and that's commendable. But should he be scouring youtube trying to refute all claims of "world record" box jumps? I mean, yeah, he can, I guess... if he's a fucking loser.

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