Open 20.1 Workout, Athlete Reactions, KT Trombetta’s Ban

Dave Castro is notorious every year for posting hints about CrossFit Open workouts. Over the past few weeks, he’s been recapping his favorite workouts from past years, but maybe you can make some sense of the clue he posted yesterday. 

The picture? Well, it’s donkeys by a steel bar fence. And yes, we’re going to dedicate almost the entire podcast to it today. Donkey analysis.

Reading through the comments, especially from professional athletes, the general connection people are making is donkey to burro, burro to burpees, and that the bars in the background have some significance.

The first major athlete comment was from Kristi Eramo. Her guess was deadlift and burpee pull-ups. The genius of this guess is that both of them are pulling movements: something donkeys do well.

Jacob Heppner was next, with: 

“Telling you….it’s a “repeat” of 7:00 of burpees, but since donkeys have been known to have great verticals it’s burpee bar jump overs”

Meredith Root says, “That one pony is taking a pee. So obvi double unders and heavy squat cleans.”

But the comment taking the cake right now is from none other than 2019 phenom Chandler Smith. Smith writes:

“So the picture above has two donkeys. Donkey in Spanish? Burro. Easy to take the first half of that and guess burpees. The conspicuous absence of boxes next to the donkeys and their presence in an open area with a fence ostensibly composed of bars tells me they will be bar facing. But what about the “ro”? Everyone knows that ro is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet and from this we can clearly expect to go 17 minutes! Add this to the bar theme and I believe we’ll see chest to bar. Two donkeys equals a couplet. 17 min of bar facing burpees and chest to bar. Too easy.”

While Chandler Smith may be one of the funniest athletes out there, he won’t sound very funny to me after I do 17 minutes of burpees and chest-to-bar pull-ups. My guess? Castro did post earlier this week that he thought 12.1’s seven minutes of burpees was, “one of the nastiest Open tests ever.” It was sandwiched between posts also alluding to thrusters. Yes. A mother f___king piece of s__t thruster burpee workout.

Either way, I’m sorry I made a joke about doing burpees on the podcast last week.

Okay. You take your stab at it. You have something around 30 hours to solve the puzzle. I’ve put a link to Castro’s Instagram post in my show notes at WODDITY.com. 

Katie Trombetta took to Instagram yesterday to announce she’d been notified by CrossFit that she failed a CrossFit Games drug test. She has chosen to announce this prior to the organization’s formal press release about the test, but notes she is receiving a four year ban. Trombetta tested positive for metabolites of GW1516 and Ostarine. She has chosen to continue competing in Olympic weightlifting, but does not believe she will return to CrossFit after her ban.

Trombetta placed 44th at the CrossFit Games in August. This is the first drug test announced from the 2019 Games, so it is possible more athletes will be announced at a later date.

If you’re looking to get into the CrossFit affiliate business, CrossFit Frederick is for sale in Frederick, Maryland. If you live in the area or know someone who lives in the area and would like to explore the world of gym ownership, you can reach out to them. I’ve included a link to their Facebook post in my show notes.

And that’s it for news about CrossFit on Wednesday, October 9th. Thanks for listening. Be sure to rate, review, and subscribe. It’s the best way to give back to the show, because it helps more people find us. I’m Ben Garves. 

By Ben Garves

Ben Garves is a digital product expert, author, entertainer, and activist. His portfolio of thought leadership in digital marketing and web experiences has included major clients like Microsoft, Google, Twitter, eBay, and Facebook. He’s also a freelance health and fitness journalist with over 400 stories written since 2018, a podcaster with 200 episodes to his name, and runs a YouTube channel with over 100 fitness and activism-oriented videos and live streams. Ben has founded the Fitness is for Everyone™ initiative to raise awareness about social injustice in both racial inequality and socioeconomic disparity in access to quality fitness and nutrition options around the globe.