Third place on the first event. Ninth on the second event. First on the third event. And then 35th on the final event of the 2010 South Central Regional Qualifier. At age 32, it is noteworthy that Paul is listed as 5'11 and 242 pounds. Everyone looked on as he quickly battled through the beginning of the second day's final event: 10 muscle ups, 15 handstand pushups, 20-155 lb squat cleans, and then a 600 meter off-road hill run. At this point, Paul was a shoe-in for the podium. His performance in the third workout left people wondering if they could just bypass the Los Angeles competition and crown Paul the 2010 CrossFit Games champion.
There was one "small" problem for Paul, he wasn't small. The width of his torso and the fact that CrossFit is still tailored to the slight of build begot a certain outcome. The comments on the 2010 Games Site would suggest so, at least. The requirement to maintain a 30" handstand pushup width certainly affected the outcome of the qualifier. There is no doubt about it. There was a clear correlation between the size of the individual and their placement in that final workout. Smith, for instance, looked like he was doing close-grip handstand pushups. A movement that is quite a bit more difficult, especially for an athlete of his size. The arguments that unfolded on the Games Site discussed this disparity. "Steve" wrote,
The first WOD was capped and clearly does not allow the athlete to show off their full potential. Even if ONE athlete can overhead squat more than 225/135 then he/she deserves to show their talent off like the athletes in the last WOD who were able to smash the required time.
Adam, dont you think if someone on the first WOD can overhead squat more than 225/135 he/she can widen the gap on the point system? No one on the podium (for men) could overhead squat 225 (just a stat this wouldn't matter if the last WOD was capped also by the way) ...If someone lifts an exceptional amount of pounds over their competitor should they not receive more points?
Fair point. Had Paul Smith been allowed to go well beyond the 225 lb. snatch/OHS limit, he could hav
.jpg)
e done to the first workout what Vic Zachary and Deric Maruquin did to the last. This is only important because CrossFit's "standard scoring system" utilizes a standard deviation function to bolster the exceptional finishers and degrade the sub-average ones based upon the average performance of each event. Every second counted but in a very complex way. The method is exciting for competition. For instance, Deric Maruquin shot up the leader board after his outlying score. Duly, because of this outlying score, Paul Smith's 35th place was worth much less. Deric Maruquin finished the final event with a score of 2.4; Smith's performance notched him a -.58 point penalty due to his sub-average performance. Paul's sub-average final performance resulted in a score that was greatly influenced by Maruquin's other-worldly performance.The question that CrossFit, Inc. will have to pose for the future is this: what if Paul Smith's final snatch weight was 300 lbs., potentially notching his own outlier of a performance. How would that have affected Vic Zachary, Deric Maruquin, Chase Ingraham, and Breck Berry's scores in the first event? Neither of these athletes notched 225 lbs. for a final snatch weight. Also of note: with the exception of Ingraham, neither of these athletes stood over 5'8" or weighed over 175 lbs.
Paul Smith's performance was a spectacle. It wasn't just his build that excited the crowds. It was his ability to stay with the smaller athletes and, three out of four times, beat most of them. In the end, Paul was the quintessential sportsman. Not only was he an amazing athlete, he was graceful after the disappointment of finishing in 6th place, two spots away from qualification.
The 2010 CrossFit Games will be a big draw in an even bigger venue. It is no longer held in an "underground" location, with droves of CrossFit.com fans, volunteers, and judges excited to watch former high school and college-level athletes. The sport is beginning to grow beyond that. At the Home Depot Center, spectators will come out of the proverbial woodwork. Some of them will be conventional, high level athletes that may be interested in segueing into this breed of competition. CrossFitter's like Paul Smith are capable of competing against CrossFit's smaller, metcon-focused, prototype of athlete. He proved that with his 6th place finish at the South Central Regional Qualifier. After training with the CrossFit methodology for only a year and a half, at this stage, his 6th place performance was more than remarkable. It was a testament to his sheer athleticism. Every year, CrossFit's athletes will be bigger, stronger, and faster.
In the end, this is less about the last event and more about the first. Keep the 30 inch distance on handstand pushups? Sure. But only if the bigger athletes are allowed to snatch 133% more than the rest of the field. A lot of comments have suggested that changes like this would have leveled the playing field.
The rules will have to change to keep up with the sport's growth (in both: numbers and potential athlete size). After watching Paul's effortless performance, it is easy to see that the game has already begun to change. Until it does, continue to look out for the athletes like Zachary, Berry, Ingraham, and Maruquin. Ask Paul Smith, the hearts of these four top-athletes were some of the biggest out there.
Check out the April 22, 2010 video "Kong" (Here) on SICFIT and on the May 16, 2010 CrossFit.com post (Here)
Web Smith | SICFIT.com
Blog: CrossFit Chronicles: The Smith Family
First, Paul "Kong" Smith is an absolutely amazing athlete. His performance at the regionals was and is incredible. His attitude even further puts him in that place amongst our finest athletes. In no way am I taking away from what Paul has and will continue to accomplish, however, I would like to offer another point of view.
When we sign up for a competition, you sign up for a certain set of contraints to be judged by, period. Saying, "what if there had been more bars in the snatch/ohs wod 1" is no different than saying "what if the squat cleans in wod 4 had been heavier" or "what if the row had been longer/shorter in wod 3"...what if? Any one of these changes to the constraints of the competition would have allowed certain athletes to further separate themselves from the pack while exploiting the weaknesses of others. Paul not being able to reach failure on wod 1 is no different than another athlete not really being able to hit their wheelhouse on that final run in wod 4 to reel in other competitors that would have slowed down at 800m or a mile instead of the 600m "limit" placed on that run.
We can talk "what if" all day. But it applies to more than just the constraints placed on one athlete in one wod. Certain changes to any and every wod would have changed the outcome of the event and that is undeniable.
Thanks for reading. And huge congrats to ALL of the competitors at regionals!