Broomfield firefighter tests his mettle on “The Titan Games”
Uncertainty rules Matt Chan’s days, so preparation is key.
As a firefighter for the North Metro Rescue Fire District, which covers Broomfield and Northglenn, the 42-yearold has seen a drastic reduction in 911 calls for medical problems in the coronavirus age.
“Now we get more real, acute-emergency calls,” he said. “We still go into houses for fires, but as frontline workers, our daily contamination precautions and full PPE for paramedics are a step further than most people go.”
Challenging situations tend to stimulate Chan, a former IT professional who got into firefighting after volunteering for Grand County in the early 2000s (while he was also working in tech for the city of
Winter Park).
He has worked for North Metro since 2007, and along the way he’s competed in grueling physical challenges such as the cycling monolith known as the Leadville 100 MTB (in 2019), the Crossfit regional competition (2015), and the Crossfit Games (in 2012, when he came in second place).
Along with his workout regimen — he co-created a Crossfit-rooted program called Trainftw that in turn trains other athletes — he felt well-prepared for “The Titan Games,” the NBC physical-competition series hosted by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson that premiered last year.
Four Coloradans competed in the first season in 2019, and Chan will represent the state in the two-hour premiere of the second season at 8 p.m. on Monday, May 25, on Kusa-channel 9.
“I applied after seeing the final episode of Season 1 and thought to myself, ‘I’m going to submit my video and keep my fingers crossed,’ ” said the Chicago native, who played water polo at Western Illinois University. “I didn’t hear from them for at least six months and then was invited to come out to make sure I had the physical abilities to perform.”
After his athletic audition, Chan was placed on the alternate list for the show, but producers still invited him to attend a month-long recording in Atlanta in February. That was a tough decision, since it meant taking off a chunk of time from work to essentially watch the show from the sidelines. But he decided to do it anyway.
“Unluckily for him and lucky for me, a guy tore his bicep before it actually started, and I was already committed to going,” he said. “It just shows that if you commit to something, you usually get the opportunity you’re looking for.”
“The Titan Games” adds a twist to athletic-competition shows like “American Ninja Warrior” (another series dominated by Coloradans) with its imposing, mega-celebrity host and a conceit that brings professional athletes into the fold. For the three regional brackets (west, central and east), host Johnson chooses two Titans, male and female, to represent each region. Those Titans must then be defeated by the competitor.
The goal is to make it to — and stay atop — Mount Olympus, an ultimate obstacle “that tests strength, speed, stamina and heart,” according to producers. To get there, two contenders (male and female) battle in a best-of-three competition on various obstacles before facing their Titan.
That’s a particularly intimidating proposition when those Titans include two-time Olympic gold medal-winner (and current undisputed boxing world champion) Claressa Shields; NFL veteran and 10-time ProBowler Joe Thomas; Super Bowl champ Victor Cruz; Olympic gold-medal snowboarder Hannah Teter; professional stuntwoman (and “American Ninja Warrior” favorite) Jessie Graff; and five-time UFC champ Tyron Woodley.
he arrived on set, everything was bigger than he expected, from host Johnson (“He’s a humongous individual with a humongous personality, and very pleasant”) to the obstacles (“grander and heavier than anything I’ve done before”).
Having spent most of his life exploring the limits of physical endurance, Chan returned to Colorado with a new appreciation for the mental aspects of competition.
“I came out with an understanding of how a positive mindset really can set you apart from your competitors in work or life or sports or whatever,” he said.
“The competitors (at ‘The Titan Games’) who doubted themselves were quickly eliminated. But people who really believed they could do what they could do, who knew what they were capable of affecting, got to progress through the competition.”
Chan has come through tougher situations in the past, having survived a bike accident on July 4, 2014, that required him to get airlifted from Nederland to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood.
“My wife and I were just doing a quick bike ride in the West Magnolia trails,” he said. “I fell and caught the end of my handlebars inside my leg, and it acwhen tually crushed and severed the right branch of my femoral artery.”
He bled internally and blood flow was blocked in his swollen leg for nearly an hour, which increased his chances of needing an amputation. But after three emergency fasciotomies (a limb-saving procedure) and rehab, he was not only able to walk again but also compete at the same level as before a year later.
“It definitely gave me an appreciation for how fragile the human body and life really is,” he said.
Chan is prevented, by threat of a lawsuit, from revealing how far he made it on the 13-episode season of the new “Titan Games,” which rewards the winner with a $100,000 cash prize. But he had a blast doing it.
“The thing that ‘The Titan Games’ and the Crossfit Games share is the unpredictable nature of what you’re training for,” Chan said. “That definitely gave me confidence going into it, because I’ve competed in six Crossfit games. Just like firefighting, you have to be prepared for anything.”