Jelle Hoste Questions Dave Castro About Size Advantages During the CrossFit Games, Rookie of the Year Selections, and More

As Dave Castro’s athlete interviews roll on, more and more athletes (at this point, almost all of them) have been given around 10 to 15 minutes to chat with CrossFit’s General Manager of Sport and head programmer for the Individual division. 

At the end of each interview, Castro also allows some time for the athletes to ask him some questions.

• Listening to the interviews, we’ve learned some details about the athletes’ backgrounds, how they began CrossFit, where they train, and how they feel about the upcoming competition. 

We’ve also heard Castro’s perspective on programming, some of his favorite benchmarks, and anecdotes from his time spent creating and building the sport over the years. (It’s worth noting that he’s asked more than a dozen athletes about their “Cindy” PRs.) 

In Castro’s interview with Jelle Hoste, the two men discussed Hoste’s previous career (IT consultant) and sporting background (Judo) and spent about eight minutes discussing Hoste’s questions. 

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Hoste began by asking whether Castro considers the advantages and disadvantages of different body types, specifically height, when programming certain movements and workouts for the CrossFit Games. 

• “If you program for the Games, […] when you have certain twists or standards to movements, do you factor in the impact it has on certain athletes?” Hoste asked.

He goes on to give the example of doing a burpee to a target, and how different the movement would be between a taller athlete like himself and a shorter one like Colten Mertens. 

• “It’s something we take into consideration,” Castro replies. “A majority of the time, though, it all kind of washes out.”

Castro explains that while tall athletes may have an advantage on certain moves (like Chad 1000x, for example), they’re at a disadvantage in others. This is also the case for the shorter athletes. 

• He went on to explain that even with the burpee to a target, while the target may be tougher to reach for an athlete like Mertens, his burpee cycle speed is much quicker, so it would potentially even out. 

Hoste then asked Castro about the selection of the 2023 Rookie of the Year. 

• Remind me: At the 2023 CrossFit Games, Hoste took home an event win, five top-10 finishes, and a 10th place overall. The award was given to fellow rookie Olivia Kerstetter, who, while also winning an event, only finished with four top-10 finishes and 14th place overall. 

Dave replied that he was not part of the team that made the selection and acknowledged that it was a controversial choice. He then apologized that the choice didn’t work in Hoste’s favor. 

• “Well, at least I know it wasn’t you,” Hoste told Castro with a laugh.

Finally, Hoste asked why the athletes were prompted to fill out their quad sizes on a Google form given to them by the CrossFit Games team. He was wondering if it had something to do with equipment for an event. 

Castro seemed confused and thought it could have to do with some kind of data collection or study, but he wasn’t sure. 

Was that the truth? Or perhaps it was a patented “Dave Castro deflection.” 

• In an odd coincidence, we just recently published an article comparing Games athletes’ quad sizes, so if Castro needs our help, we have some numbers to share. 

Featured image: Ava Kitzi