Our Ambassadors

Meet Patrick Claffey, our dynamic addition to the Coaches Congress ambassador team! Patrick came on board helping our London team in early 2024.

Patrick’s journey began in the fitness industry at a young age, and his commitment to fostering growth extends to owning and managing gyms in Manchester, UK.

Patrick has a passion for CrossFit, learning and helping people and businesses develop. See you at the congress!

Originally from the USA, Valerie has been living in the Tri-Border area where Germany meets the Netherlands and Belgium since 2013. She is passionate about connecting the worldwide CrossFit community together, starting in her own area. As the Military Affiliate Manager for CrossFit GK in Germany, she loves introducing CrossFit to members from 17 different nationalities. She also coaches at three local CrossFit affiliates in the Netherlands (CrossFit the Forge, CrossFit Zitterd, and CrossFit Heerlen), where she enjoys developing both members and coaches.

Coaches Congress embodies on a global scale what Valerie has been developing in her local community. Bringing affiliate owners and coaches together to improve the services we offer and the message we bring to the world is only possible if we have sustainable business practices. While we are all at different points in that journey, we can help each other along the way. That’s why Coaches Congress is such an amazing opportunity!

I bought my gym Wicklow Strength and Fitness in 2020, having been a coach there since 2014.

Following our relaunch, my team and I have become regular attendees to the Coaches Congress events in recent years. I attribute a lot of our recent growth to the Congress as it allowed my team to learn from the best minds in the whole fitness community. We have met people from all over the globe who we now get to call friends.

I believe the reason my team has gelled so well with the Coaches Congress team is that they have similar values toward their customers. We aim to “do it with a smile” while providing the best possible solutions to our clients and making sure they have fun along the way. That’s the way attendees will feel leaving the CC events each year. They get THE BEST service and have a lot of fun along the way.

I’m excited to work with the Coaches Congress team as I want more gym owners and coaches to benefit the way my team and I have. It will be my honour to help you along the way!

I’ve owned BoxLife in Roskilde for 6 years, and I’ve been doing CrossFit for 12 years. I’ve taken the long journey from ‘I have no idea what I’m doing’ to ‘okay… I think it got this!’ I hope to meet a lot of great people, that I can share my mistakes with, and learn more from!

I’m a CC-ambassador because I love to help elevate the CrossFit professionals in Scandinavia. By supporting great events like Coaches Congress, a fantastic gathering of knowledge and skills, and even better, like minded people. Together, we can build epic stuff!

If you are a Danish gym owner or coach – or aspiring to be – I’d be honoured to help you. Please reach out, as I’d love to share my experience from Coaches Congress. Let’s gather a lot of Danes and meet up!

Originally from Canada, I’ve been living in Germany since 2005. I discovered CrossFit Passau in 2019 and quickly realised that running a Box and helping others lead a more fit and active lifestyle is my calling. When the opportunity arose to get involved on the business side, it just made sense.

At the box, I coach CrossFit, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Nutrition; Outside of the box, I am a Project Management Trainer and Coach.

Therefore, I jumped at the opportunity to work together with Coaches Congress, as it’s the perfect marriage of my passion with my professional expertise. I am always grateful for the insights and practical experience that are shared by professionals in the speeches, as well as the sharing of ideas and tips between other coaches and business owners. Each visit to Coaches Congress has helped my team and I improve our processes, better serve our members and make running a CrossFit Box that much more enjoyable.

I’m really excited about working with Coaches Congress. Why? Easy- I want to do my part to help more gyms be successful, as a successful gym can help more people lead an active, healthy lifestyle. The more people that lead an active, healthy lifestyle, the more we’ll see a reduction in disease and health issues around the world.

I am a former lobbyist & communication specialist. I’m HAWO’s co-founder, a coaching business where we empower individuals to get fitter, stronger, and happier while having fun, and building meaningful connections along the way.

Owner of CrossFit Verftet in Haugesund, Norway.

Fun facts:

• Enjoys everything that is competitive
• Reads minimum 6 hours every week
• Likes to understand things. The more nerdy it gets the more interesting!

I said yes to being an ambassador for Coaches Congress, as I wanted to be a part of a great team that inspires the people (gym owners/ coaches) who make a massive positive impact on their client’s health everyday in their gyms. 

I want to help increase attendance to Coaches Congress in order to keep gym/ box owners motivated to do the hard, but honest work, on one of the most vexing problems we face today – public health.

I am a former combat athlete, turned easy-going family man. I run two CrossFit gyms in Lappeenranta, Finland. CrossFit Lappeenranta is ~13 years old and CrossFit Lappeenranta Varikko is in its 10th year. I am also the “president” of Finland’s longest running functional fitness competition – Karjalan Kovin.

I started as a box owner because of my love for training and coaching. It grew and I realized that being an owner is more than just coaching. If I wanted to keep going I needed to learn more about business, leadership, marketing and entrepreneurship.

I spent a lot of time reading books/ blogs, listening to podcasts, etc. Lots of information to choose from, some good and some bad!

What I love about Coaches Congress is that they do the heavy lifting to find speakers with the best information, working practices, and years of experience at failing and succeeding in gym business.

I’m the happy owner of Mars CrossFit in Belgium, CF Level 3 coach, and passionate about sharing my knowledge to people around me and need my help in their everyday life.

Coming from a martial arts background, my core values are Modesty – Ambition – Resilience – Strength, MARS. In my everyday life, I’m excited to work with professional athletes to everyday folks who are striving to become better people in their life.

Becoming a CC ambassador is a natural thing to me – it means that I can help more people grow businesses that help the world becoming a better place. Taking part in this year’s edition was eye-opening. From the atmosphere of the event, to the value of the different speakers in the line-up, everything at CC is done perfectly so that proactive business owners can just thrive with new practices coming back to their gyms.

You want to grow ? It’s the place to be.