I thought a lot about how to start this interview, in the end the only thing that was rumbling in my head was: the voice.
The voice of a speaker who has worked in several competitions. Voice that shouted, cried, smiled and "sweated" together with CrossFitters from all over Italy. Voice of a humble, nice person who has many projects, and that he has already carried out many others.
That's right! Bold projects like bringing Rich Froning from America to Italy, to compete with us, mere mortals.
It is precisely for this reason that we at CrossMAG we were able to have an exclusive interview with Francesco Giardina, the voice of WW4mori, proponent of the idea of bringing an athlete of international caliber to Sardinian territory for a unique event in our country.
Hi Francesco! What a pleasure to haverti here with us. For those who don't know you: tell us about yourself and your background in the CrossFit® world.
Hi guys, thank you very much for this opportunity! So, I'm Francesco Giardina, I have been 26 for twenty years, I am of Sicilian origins, but I have lived in Rome for over 20 years. My passion for this sport was born around 2016, a little by chance, thanks to friends who practiced it.
I immediately liked his methodology and sense of belonging… so love started, let's say. Today I train in Rome, at CrossFit® Aroma (box where the workshop with Rich Froning was held!).
What do I do? Basically I'm an action sports speaker, or as I like to say: "alternative sports". Not only CrossFit® in short, but also OCR, Spartan, Viking, obstacle races… and much more.
You then became the voice of many national and international competitions. How was the process?
I did many races in Rome, where I was mainly involved in the speaker / entertainment part of the event.
My first big game was the first edition of the Roma Throwdown in 2017. From there I raised the bar a bit to face slightly more important competitions.
In fact, at such a juncture I met Max Petrucci [organizer of WW4 died] and in 2018 I presented the very first edition of ww4mori, which at the time was still a race only for the Sardinian territory.
That's where we wanted to get… Can you tell us why you decided to expand this competition, also inviting athletes of international caliber? And Why only teams?
So, after this 2018 edition I thought we should have made it bigger, raise the level. The only way was, in fact, to call some international athlete.
We came across the fateful question “but how do we get in touch with them? We don't have the knowledge "...
Luckily I had some contacts in America and among them was a friend of mine who deals with NFL sponsorship, who had the contact of Rory Mckernan (RF agent / marketing manager).
He turned it to me saying it wouldn't be easy, but I tried anyway. I called Rory, we heard through messages and after months of organizing we were finally able to get a yes from them.
But guys, it was long eh! It was about 8 months of negotiation! Do you think that the signatures arrived in February 2022 ...
You asked me why to have a race for teams only: according to coach Petrucci and the other organizers the team race was very spectacular, even more so having the Mayhem team on the floor, we couldn't do otherwise!
We imagine it was a feat. Have you thought about calling other names on the international scene as well?
Yes Yes sure! We had contacted Tia Clair Toomey, Katrin Davidsdottir and also Fraser (who was still competing at the time).
But once we were done with Rich Froning and the Mayhem team, we didn't move forward with any other negotiations.
We also knew that Gui Malheiros, Haley Adams and others had signed up… How come they didn't come?
It's true! Unfortunately, Malheiros was unable to participate because he got injured during the Games and preferred not to come, as he will then compete at Rogue at the end of October.
Adams the same thing, these things happen ...
But in the end we had the pleasure of receiving all the Invictus Team and the guys from the Mamma Mia team… not bad, isn't it ?!
Obviously! Then we come to the mythical day: how was it to see them arrive? How did you feel?
Oh well, the emotion was incredible because for me Froning is a myth.
My first contact with them was at the airport, I went to pick them up in Fiumicino. I had Rich 20m from me, but he was walking into the bathroom.
The funny thing is that I had to go too, but I said to myself “no, I can't know him in the bathroom, come on” and so I avoided.
We then met outside, we introduced ourselves and I just asked him those two usual questions. They were really very tired after 25 hours of travel.
I took them to the hotel and then in the evening we had dinner together. It was also nice to see all the behind the scenes of the life of the athletes that we usually see on TV!
How did they find themselves here in Italy?
They were thrilled! For some it was really their first time in Italy so they wanted to see everything and taste our typical dishes. Make sure they only ate pasta and pizza for 15 days!
I practically became a foodblogger all the time: I explained what this was, what that was, what was best for them ... Think that Paige Power was also celiac, so we practically prepared the same things for her, but all gluten-free!
The guys were really incredible, I've never seen them go wrong: no wine, fizzy drinks, no sugars, or sweets in general.
Can you also tell us how was the stage in Rome? We saw evenings in the Trattoria with a lot of typical dinner and Italian songs!
Beautiful. In Rome we had a lot of fun: we went around as tourists, I took them to see the main attractions, we trained in the garage and then there was the Hilary's birthday [Rich Froning's wife].
Rich thought about making this surprise and I arranged everything. Throughout the day no one wished her well, he didn't give her the gift and Hilary thought she had forgotten. She was really sad, poor.
Instead then in the evening we took her to the classic Roman trattoria, where we all sang together and gave her the gift: a lion-shaped latch [NB: she is an interior architect, so she has an unbridled passion for doors , especially in the Italian style].
She was really happy, a very successful surprise.
Even if, in my opinion, the key figure of this journey was Facundo. He is truly a spectacular person, nice, fluent in 5 languages, he is a lover of Italian music, food and culture.
Among other things, it is thanks to him and Hilary that it was possible to bring Rich to Italy.
Let's talk about the workshop, how was this experience?
It was truly fantastic. Rich and Facundo were very present and attentive to all the participants. We did 4 WODs together where he went there to correct posture and give advice.
Very nice on a human level too, you could ask him anything and he was super helpful. Then do you want to have the opportunity to train together with the King?
Everyone was happy and excited for this unique event!
All very nice in short! So basically what was the experience at WW4 mori like? Will there be a next edition?
What I bring home to this race is that very often, your legend your champion is much closer to you than you might think!
In my opinion the WW4 mori was a good race, well organized, but obviously with some points still to improve.
Perhaps there was some flaw due to inexperience, but these are things that will be fine-tuned for the next edition.
The athletes had fun, at no time did they complain so I think we did a good job.
For the future, we definitely consider calling some more international athletes, we just have to understand what we will be able to do in terms of budget.
The guys [team Mayhem] were all happy and told us they would like to come back, who knows!
In this month of October, we will have meetings and if so, the date will be released at the end of the year. Obviously I would like to raise the bar even more, who knows maybe make the ww4 die a Sanctional qualifying race for the Games.
Wonderful! We really hope this project goes through! Just to close, tell us what are your future projects?
My project for this 2022/2023 is to bring CrossFit® Mainstream. We have been working on it for a year already and I can't tell you much now, but you will soon know more.
Basically, I would like to bring the CrossFit® methodology to those who still don't know us and make it clear that this sport is not just muscles, but that it is suitable for everyone.
Curiosities that we discovered with the interview with Francesco Giardina
- Rich Froning doesn't like taking long trips, especially for children, so he doesn't get far from home, that's why bringing him here was a more unique than rare event.
- Froning is very religious, truly believer and always signs Gal 6.14, a bible verse that reads:
"As for me, however, there may be no other boast than in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified for me, as I for the world. "
We tried to understand the reason for this custom and in an old interview we came across these words:
“When I started reading the Bible seriously in 2011, competition had become my world and I found my value in success. That year I came across Galatians 6:14. The verse struck me so much that I tattooed it on my side. Since then, I have inserted “Galatians 6:14 ″ every time I sign an autograph. This always reminds me that it is not a question of who I am, but of who I am in Jesus; it's not about what I do, but what he did for me ”.
- Rich Froning will return to compete in 2023 for the Games.
A special thanks goes to Francesco Giardina for having dedicated this exclusive interview to us by telling the background of the WW4 mori.
If you want to follow him you can find him on IG with in profile @francescogiardinaquello