Hyrox
| Sport | Hyrox |
|---|---|
| Founded | November 2017 |
| First season | 2019 |
| Owner | Upsolut Sports |
| Director | Mintra Tilly |
| Most recent champions |
(2023–2024) |
| Most titles |
|
| Qualification | Hyrox Pro Event time, Hyrox Major, Hyrox Elite 15 |
| Sponsors | Puma (2019–current) Red Bull (2020–current) Amazfit (2024-current) Centr (2023–current) |
| Official website | hyrox.com |
Hyrox (stylized as HYROX) is an indoor fitness competition that combines 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of running and 8 functional workout stations, alternating between running and functional exercises.[1][2] It bills itself as "The World Series of Fitness Racing" and "A Sport for Everybody".[1][3]
A Hyrox competition is made up of a 1-kilometre (0.62 mi) run followed by a functional exercise station that is repeated eight times for the eight different workout stations. The events are standardized across all locations, allowing athletes to compare results globally.[4][5]
Hyrox was launched by Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste.[4][5] The first Hyrox event was held in Hamburg, Germany in April 2018.[5]
History
[edit | edit source]Hyrox was founded by Olympic field hockey champion Moritz Fürste and Christian Toetzke,[6] and first introduced in Hamburg, Germany in 2017. With the idea to develop a program that would stimulate gym goers and avid Strava users, Furste and Toetzke designed a race of "eight 1km runs with a workout station in between each 1km – in no particular order."[6] It would also motivate gym users to move past losing weight and checking their body status.[6]
The first Hyrox event had 650 participants.[7] According to Fürste, the original brief was "to create an event that is a €200,000 (about $214,000) production that looks like a €2,000,000 ($2,144,000) production".[8] The name "Hyrox" is a portmanteau of "hybrid" and "rockstar."[9]
The competition has since expanded worldwide, with 24,000 people taking part in Hyrox events in London alone in 2023.[10][7] In total, 65 races were held around the world in 2023, with 175,000 competitors taking part.[11]
Hyrox affiliates
[edit | edit source]A network of Hyrox-affiliated gyms has been established,[12] and gyms pay a yearly affiliation fee to become a Hyrox affiliate.[13] There are three tiers of affiliation: Hyrox Performance Centers, Hyrox Training Clubs, and Hyrox Performance Academy.[14] Hyrox365 is responsible for the training and education side of Hyrox.[15] The number of Hyrox-affiliated gyms grew rapidly,[16] and reached 5,000 by the end of 2024.[14]
Sponsorship and prize money
[edit | edit source]
By season 3 of Hyrox (2020–2021) it had attracted investments from Infront Sports & Media Group and sponsorships with global brands, Red Bull and Puma.[17] Prize money for the elite event has grown year on year. Other major events have received prize payouts in addition to the World Championships. For the 2023–2024 Hyrox World Championship, the total prize purse was $150,000 split between the male and female elite fields, with the winner receiving $25,000.[18][19]
In 2024, Hyrox announced a relay event with representatives from 20 different countries as captains, with the freedom to pick their teams from any athlete of that country. At the World Championships in Nice, France, the relay will take place as the final event with the winning team taking home $20,000 in prize money ($5,000 per athlete).[citation needed]
Format
[edit | edit source]Hyrox combines running with functional exercise stations, where participants run 1 km (0.62 mi), followed by one functional exercise station, repeated eight times. Each race is hosted indoors in exhibition halls or convention centers.[1] Occasional events have been hosted outdoors, including Miami in 2023.[citation needed]
This race format remains consistent across the globe, enabling global leaderboards and a cumulative World Championships at the end of each race season.[1][20] At the event's functional exercise stations, participants are required to complete the following:[1]
- 1 kilometer of running into 1 kilometer of SkiErg
- 1 kilometer of running into 50 meters of sled push[21]
- 1 kilometer of running into 50 meters of sled pull
- 1 kilometer of running into 80 meters of burpee broad jump
- 1 kilometer of running into 1 kilometer of rowing
- 1 kilometer of running into 200 meters of kettlebell farmer carry
- 1 kilometer of running into 100 meters of sandbag walking lunge
- 1 kilometer of running into 100 wall balls
All participants complete the running and stations. Station weights and repetitions can differ based on the division.[1]
Hyrox workouts
[edit | edit source]Athletes preparing for Hyrox competitions usually train either at home or in CrossFit or functional fitness gyms that provide access to specialized equipment such as SkiErgs, RowErgs, Kettlebells, Sandbags, sleds, wall balls, and dumbbells. These pieces of equipment help simulate the strength, endurance, and conditioning challenges athletes face during the actual Hyrox race. Since the event combines functional movements with endurance running, training sessions often blend high-intensity cardio with strength-based exercises to build total-body performance.
A typical Hyrox-style workout begins with what’s known as a "buy-in" exercise — a foundational movement or endurance component that sets the tone for the rest of the session. This is followed by three to four additional exercises, performed in multiple rounds to build stamina and test recovery under fatigue. The goal is to maintain consistent effort while managing heart rate and proper form throughout the workout.
Examples of Hyrox-style workouts include:
- Buy-in: 1000-meter row Then: 3 rounds of 10 wall balls, 10 kettlebell swings, and 20-meter sled pushes.
- Buy-in: 800-meter run Then: 4 rounds of 10 sandbag lunges, 10 burpee broad jumps, and 15-calorie SkiErg.
- Buy-in: 500-meter SkiErg Then: 3 rounds of 20 air squats, 10 push-ups, and a 100-meter farmer’s carry.
These workouts not only mirror the physical demands of Hyrox but also help athletes develop mental toughness, pacing awareness, and efficient transitions between movements—key elements for achieving faster race times and stronger overall performance.
Hyrox competitions
[edit | edit source]Many Hyrox competitions are held around the world every year, and no qualification is required for athletes to join these competitions.[22] Competitors may compete as a single, or in doubles as a two-person team, or in a team relay. There are four divisions: women, women pro, men, and men pro. For doubles, there are doubles women, doubles men and doubles mixed.[23]
Some of the larger weekend events are extended to two- or three-day affairs. The largest single day event took place in Birmingham, UK, with 5,032 total finishers. The only event with more participants was the two-day event in London in 2022 that had 6,270 participants.[24]
A number of important championships are held every year, including the European Championships and the North America Championships, but the most important one is the Hyrox World Championships.[25]
World Championships
[edit | edit source]Elite qualification system
[edit | edit source]
Competitors can qualify for the World Championships by becoming one of the Elite 15 in Individual Pro races. Those with the best time in the Pro division in a global leaderboard receive an invitation to the Elite race series such as the European Championships and the North America Championships. The podium finishers in these competitions qualify for the elite races in the World Championship.[25]
The first Hyrox World Championships was held in Oberhausen, Germany, in 2019, with over 600 participants.[26] For season 1 in 2019, the World Championships Elite race was determined solely by the fastest times of the season up to that point.
The season 2 races in 2020 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The official World Championships for that season had a condensed field that included the top 5 times of each gender plus one wild card invite of each gender. The wild card invites were from sport adjacent athletes and included Samantha Briggs (2013 CrossFit Games Champion) and Adam Klink (first male to squat 500-lbs and run a sub-5 minute mile in the same day).
For seasons 3, 4, and 5 (2021–2023), athletes qualified by placing top 3 at either the U.S. Championships or the European Championships. The remaining slots were filled in by the top times of the season.
In season 6 (2023–2024), in order to qualify for the World Championships, athletes needed to place top 3 in one of four "Major Championships" where roll down slots would happen for athletes who already qualified but never passed 5th place. All remaining spots are filled in by two "Last Chance Qualifier" events, where the first one chronologically will have less available spots than the later one. Qualification for the four major events is based on automatic qualifiers from previous seasons (U.S. Champion, European Champion, Top 3 at World Championships) and the remaining spots are filled in based on time from Pro Division events.[27][28]
Average finishing times for the elite women's field range from 58 minutes to 65 minutes, while the elite men's field times range from 53 minutes to 59 minutes. The general populace finish the race in the Pro division between 60 minutes to 120 minutes.[citation needed]
In the 2024–2025 season, Hyrox introduced Elite 15 divisions for Men's and Women's Pro Doubles for the first time. Similar to the individual Elite 15 format, the top-performing doubles teams from the Pro division leaderboard, along with qualifiers from major championship events, were invited to compete in a final championship heat at the World Championships. Mixed Doubles did not feature an Elite 15 division in this season; champions were determined by overall fastest time.[29]
Champions by year
[edit | edit source]The World Champions of each season are listed here:[30][31]
Pro/Elite Men & Women
[edit | edit source]| Season | Year | Location | Female Champion | Female Winning Time (h:mm:ss) | Male Champion | Male Winning time (h:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2018–2019 | Oberhausen, Germany |  Imke Salander
|
1:08:08 (WR) | Lukas Storath
|
0:59:07 |
| 2 | 2019–2020* | Hamburg, Germany | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:09:47 | United States Hunter McIntyre | 1:00:04 |
| 3 | 2021 | Leipzig, Germany | United States Lauren Weeks (x2) | 1:03:43 (WR) | Tobias Lautwein
|
1:00:00 |
| 4 | 2021–2022 | Las Vegas, U.S. | United States Kris Rugloski | 1:07:21 | United States Hunter McIntyre (x2) | 0:58:05 |
| 5 | 2022–2023 | Manchester, UK | United States Lauren Weeks (x3) | 0:59:51 | United States Hunter McIntyre (x3) | 0:56:40 |
| 6 | 2023–2024 | Nice, France | United States Megan Jacoby | 0:59:59 |  Alexander Roncevic
|
0:56:21 |
| 7 | 2024–2025 | Chicago, USA | Linda Meier
|
0:58:56 | Tim Wenisch
|
0:53:53 |
• 2020 was run on Assault Fitness AirRunners due to COVID-19 restrictions
Pro/Elite Doubles (Men's, Women's & Mixed)
[edit | edit source]| Season | Year | Location | Womens Doubles Champions | Womens Doubles Winning Time (h:mm:ss) | Mens Doubles Champions | Mens Doubles Winning time (h:mm:ss) | Mixed Doubles Champions | Mixed Doubles Winning Time (h:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2018–2019 | Oberhausen, Germany | Manuela Staelberg
|
1:04:07 | Johannes Neusser
|
0:56:15 | Julien Hagel
|
0:56:56 |
| 2 | 2019–2020* | No Doubles Race was held due to COVID-19 Restrictions | ||||||
| 3 | 2021 | Leipzig, Germany | Bente Pries
|
1:04:19 | Christoph Uhl
|
0:51:03 | Julien Hagel (x2)
|
0:57:46 |
| 4 | 2021–2022 | Las Vegas, U.S. |  Aileen McCann
|
1:01:25 | Clemens Scherbel
|
0:51:26 | United StatesLauren Rantala
United StatesMarc Howe |
0:57:13 |
| 5 | 2022–2023 | Manchester, UK | Rebecca Naether
|
1:00:36 | United States Taylor Haney
United States Colin Stiefer |
0:54:29 | Jacqueline Lippenmeyer
|
0:55:51 |
| 6 | 2023–2024 | Nice, France |  Kate Davey
|
0:57:59 | Jake Dearden
|
0:52:34 | Fabien Eisenlauer
|
0:53:08 |
| 7 | 2024–2025** | Chicago, USA | United States Lauren Griffith
United States Lauren Weeks |
0:54:58 | Tim Wenisch
|
0:50:24 |  Mévéna Pingliez
|
0:54:06 |
*2020 was canceled for doubles due to COVID-19 Restrictions
**The 2024–2025 season was the first to feature Elite 15 Men's and Women's Doubles races at the World Championships. Mixed Doubles did not feature an Elite 15 race; champions listed are the overall fastest team from the Age Group races.
| Season | Year | Location | Female Champion | Female Winning Time (h:mm:ss) | Male Champion | Male Winning Time (h:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2021 | Chicago, U.S. | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:05:18 (WR) | United States Hunter McIntyre | 1:01:01 |
| 4 | 2022 | Chicago, U.S. | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:07:03 | United States Ryan Kent | 0:57:45 |
| 5 | 2023 | Chicago, U.S. |  Mikaela Norman
|
1:02:04 | United States David Magida | 0:59:11 |
| 6 | 2024 | Washington, D.C., U.S. | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:01:20 | United States Dylan Scott | 0:56:37 |
| 7* | 2025 | Washington, D.C., U.S. | United States Lauren Weeks | 0:55:38* | United States Dylan Scott | 0:53:42* |
*The North American Championships in 2025 was an Open division race and not Pro/Elite division like previous years.
The U.S. and North American Championships did not officially start until season 3. The male winner of the U.S./North American Championships has never gone on to win the World Championships title in the same year.
| Season | Year | Location | Female Champion | Female Winning Time (h:mm:ss) | Male Champion | Male Winning Time (h:mm:ss) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 2021 | Madrid, Spain | Viola Oberlander
|
1:04:56 | Alexander Roncevic
|
0:58:50 |
| 4 | 2022 | Maastricht, Netherlands |  Mirjam Von Rohr
|
1:04:20 | Tobias Lautwein
|
0:56:52 |
| 5 | 2023 | Maastricht, Netherlands | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:01:12 | Alexander Roncevic
|
0:57:26 |
| 6 | 2024 | Vienna, Austria | United States Lauren Weeks | 0:58:03 (WR) | Alexander Roncevic
|
0:54:28 |
| 7* | 2025 | Vienna, Austria | Sophia Parvizi Wayne
|
57:36* | Alexander Roncevic
|
0:53:28* |
*The European Championships in 2025 was an Open division race and not Pro/Elite division like previous years.
The European Championships did not officially start until season 3.
World records
[edit | edit source]Prior to the start of the 2022–2023 season, the sled weights were adjusted to include the weight of the sled in an attempt to more readily standardize the courses throughout the world. This change effectively reduced the men's and women's push and pull sleds by about 10 kg each, which is reflected in the slew of record breaking times during that season.
Pro category world record progression
[edit | edit source]Female
[edit | edit source]| Season[32] | Year | Female WR holder | WR time | Event Location | Date | Days Record Stood (Total for athlete) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2019 | Imke Salander
|
1:08:08 | Oberhausen, Germany | May 2019 | 200 days (200 days) |
| 2 | 2019 | Elisabeth Sarah Kholti
|
1:05:33 | Essen, Germany | November 16, 2019 | 587 days (587 days) |
| 3 | 2021 | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:05:18 | Chicago, U.S. | June 26, 2021 | 76 days (76 days) |
| 3 | 2021 | United States Lauren Weeks | 1:03:43 | Leipzig, Germany | September 10, 2021 | 365 days (443 days) |
| 5 | 2022 | Linda Meier
|
1:03:29 | Basel, Switzerland | September 11, 2022 | 41 days (41 days) |
| 5 | 2022 | Linda Meier
|
1:02:23 | Amsterdam, Netherlands | October 22, 2022 | 14 days (54 days) |
| 5 | 2022 | United States Megan Jacoby | 1:01:56 | Chicago, U.S. | November 5, 2022 | 21 days (21 days) |
| 5 | 2022 | Mikaela Norman
|
1:00:45 | Hamburg, Germany | November 26, 2022 | 147 days (147 days) |
| 5 | 2023 | United States Megan Jacoby | 0:58:58 | Anaheim, U.S. | April 22, 2023 | 229 days (250 days) |
| 6 | 2023 | United States Megan Jacoby | 0:58:52 | Stockholm, Sweden | December 7, 2023 | 64 days (314 days) |
| 6 | 2024 | United States Lauren Weeks | 0:58:03 | Vienna, Austria | February 9, 2024 | 397 days (840 days) |
| 7 | 2025 | United States Lauren Weeks | 0:56:23 | Glasgow, Scotland | March 12, 2025 | Current WR |
Male
[edit | edit source]| Season[33] | Year | Male WR holder | WR time | Event Location | Date | Days Record Stood (Total for athlete) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2018 | Lukas Storath
|
59:07 | Stuttgart, Germany | November 2018 | 451 days (451 days) |
| 2 | 2020 | United States Hunter McIntyre | 57:34 | Chicago, U.S. | January 25, 2020 | 816 days (816 days) |
| 4 | 2022 | Tobias Lautwein
|
56:52 | Maastricht, Netherlands | March 26, 2022 | 14 days (14 days) |
| 4 | 2022 | United States Hunter McIntyre | 55:09 | Dallas, U.S. | April 9, 2022 | 343 days (1,159 days) |
| 5 | 2023 | United States Hunter McIntyre | 54:07 | Barcelona, Spain | March 18, 2023 | 264 days (1,423 days) |
| 6 | 2023 | United States Hunter McIntyre | 53:22 | Stockholm, Sweden | December 7, 2023 | 666 days (666 days) |
| 8 | 2025 | Alexander Roncevic
|
53:15 | Hamburg, Germany | October 3, 2025 | Current WR |
Current open category world records
[edit | edit source]Female
[edit | edit source]| Year | Holder | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | United States Lauren Weeks | 00:55:38 | Washington D.C, USA [34] |
Male
[edit | edit source]| Year | Holder | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Alexander Roncevic
|
00:50:38 | Cologne, Germany[35] |
References
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