CrossFit: Iceland’s Snorri Baron on helping athletes like Sara Sigmundsdottir – ‘I have always been fascinated by talent’
- The 45-year-old Icelandic native, who is covered in tattoos and power lifts, has cemented himself as one of the sport’s mainstays
- Baron got his start in advertising before the 2008 economic downturn ravaged Iceland and he was forced to pivot in his career
When Snorri Baron left rehab treatment for drug and alcohol abuse in Iceland in 1995 as a 20-year-old, he found himself working within the country’s fishing industry, but it was far from glamorous.
“It was long hours handling fish, cutting open fish, and ripping everything out,” said the 45-year-old who is now 26 years sober. “It’s pretty much the most disgusting job I have ever worked.”
Baron came to a realisation: he did not want to gut fish for the rest of his life. So he applied for a government funded social programme in Reykjavik, Iceland, a youth magazine that would be distributed around the country to coffee shops and stores, free of charge. The street magazine took off and soon it was a viable company, bringing in revenue through advertising dollars. A light bulb went off in Baron’s head.
“I ventured into advertising out of this publication,” he said. “Advertisers with the magazine wanted the same look and feel for their ads, that roughness, that urban look.”
Soon Baron was running his own advertising agency, with as many as 40 staff members at one point, serving as creative director. Things were going great, business was booming, and then the world around him literally fell apart.