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

Dave Castro's latest CrossFit Open 20.1 hint makes us think we know what the workout is. So does Jacob Heppner, Kristi Eramo, and Chandler Smith...

Wednesday, October 9th, 2019

Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.

My name is Ben Garves and today is Wednesday, the 9th of October, 2019.

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.