Inspired by the community, the owners of CrossFit Unidos hope to grow CrossFit in Latin America.
With only eight affiliates currently, Pablo “Batuque” Iribarren predicts Argentina will soon be the country with the most affiliates in Latin America.
Batuque, 25, his girlfriend, Romina “Nega” Ibarra, 25, and his brother Martin “Mula” Iribarren, 28, became the proud owners of one affiliate in August. CrossFit Unidos was named to honor their journey (Unidos means United).
The charismatic couple is well known in the Latin American CrossFit community. Before CrossFit, they were both involved in Capoeira (Brazilian martial arts). It was back then when they met Siri Terbalaca, one of the partners at CrossFit Tuluka. Soon after, they began training with his guidance and incorporating functional training to their Capoeira regimen.
Mula remained more concentrated in MMA and eventually fought professionally. Meanwhile, Batuque and Nega heard there were Level 1 Seminars taking place in Chile and Brazil in January and February 2011, and set out to attend. After they returned they chose to take a different path.
They became coaches at CrossFit Tuluka and started training for their first CrossFit competition — the 2011 Latin America Regional in Panama. Nega finished in second place, and Batuque in fifth at the Regional.
“When we arrived [to Panama] we could not believe how big the community already was,” Bataque says. “People from every country in Latin America, getting to know each other and enjoying every moment with a hug. It was one of our best moments, especially when coupled with our placings.”
Both Batuque and Nega knew their future had to include traveling to several countries within the Latin America Region and getting to know as many boxes as possible. They booked a trip to Colombia for the Gymnastics and Olympic Lifting Seminar in February, where they visited 10 affiliates. Then Ecuador, where they visited eight affiliates.
The plan to open CrossFit Unidos became concrete after the Colombia and Ecuador trips. “We grew up with the mentality of never abandoning your dreams, never put your arms down, fight for what you want, learn and enjoy every moment of life,” Batuque says.
Batuque’s father, Martin, and grandfather, Ricardo, quickly acknowledged this was all part of the bigger plan and soon became collaborators. As soon as the venue was located, the Iribarren brothers and Nega began renovations in April 2012 on CrossFit Unidos, interrupted only by both of them competing in the Latin America Regional.
After only 20 days in business, the box already had 101 clients. “What an Argentinean grabs a hold of, he makes massive,” Batuque says. “The youth is every day more involved. They see it as fun and challenging. We get many groups of friends, of which several come from rugby leagues.”
Batuque says it was relationship with his father that inspired the name of the affiliate.
“Why Unidos for a name for your box? I get asked that a lot,” Batuque says. “When we sat down to think of the name, we had millions in mind, but then we started to look at what we all had in common, what did we want to show, what we had lived in the past months, how we got along as a couple, as father and son and what was our philosophy in terms of CrossFit was. My relationship with my father is beautiful-- we think and do many things together. With my brother, I am inseparable and together we have shared millions of things. And with my girlfriend Nega, our love has united us and allowed us to live and share so many things together ... we just felt we were all together, connected, united.”
The Iribarren brothers and Nega have set out to make sure every member of their new affiliate community gets a chance to experience the same feeling, which unexpectedly flooded them when they stumbled upon CrossFit. They want to make sure all their members experience the true reality of CrossFit, the whole picture — Unidos as a family.
