- Source: Hyrox
HYROX is a fitness competition that combines 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) of running and eight functional workout stations. It is an indoor hybrid fitness racing event that alternates running with functional exercises. It bills itself as "The World Series of Fitness Racing" and "A sport for Everybody".
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.
HYROX was launched by Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste. The first HYROX event was held in Hamburg, Germany in April 2018.
History
HYROX was founded by Olympic hockey champion Moritz Fürste and Christian Toetzke, and first introduced in Hamburg, Germany in 2017. The first HYROX event had 650 participants. According to Fürste, the original brief was "to create an event that is a 200,000-euro (about $214,000) production that looks like a 2,000,000-euro ($2,144,000) production".
The competition has since expanded worldwide, with 24,000 people taking part in HYROX events in London alone in 2023. In total, 65 races were held around the world in 2023, with 175,000 competitors taking part.
= HYROX affiliates
=A network of Hyrox-affiliated gyms has been established, and gyms pay a yearly affiliation fee to become a "HYROX training center". There are around 2,500 HYROX-affiliated gyms in 2024.
= Sponsorship and prize money
=By season 3 of HYROX (2020–2021) it had already attracted investments from Infront Sports & Media Group and sponsorships with global brands, Red Bull and Puma. 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,
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).
Format
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. Occasional events have been hosted outdoors, including Miami in 2023.
This race format remains consistent across the globe, enabling global leaderboards and a cumulative World Championships at the end of each race season.
The functional exercise stations are consistent at every event where participants will complete the following:
1 kilometer of running into 1 kilometer of SkiErg
1 kilometer of running into 50 meters of sled push
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 or 75 reps of wall ball
All participants complete the running and stations. Station weights and repetitions can differ based on the division.
HYROX competitions
Many HYROX competitions are held around the world every year, and no qualification is required for athletes to join these competitions. Competitors may compete as a single, or in doubles as a two-person team, or in team relay. There are four divisions: women, women pro, men, and men pro. For doubles, there are doubles women, doubles men and doubles mixed.
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.
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.
= World Championships
=Elite qualification system
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.
The first HYROX World Championships was held in Oberhausen, Germany, in 2019, with over 600 participants. 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 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.
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.
Champions by year
The World Champions of each season are listed here:
2020 was run on Assault Fitness AirRunners due to COVID-19 restrictions
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.
The European Championships did not officially start until season 3.
World records
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 10kg each, which is reflected in the slew of record breaking times during that season.
Female world records (Pro/Elite division)
Male world records (Pro/Elite division)
