Hyrox

Originally called Curox, Hyrox was founded by Olympic field hockey champion Moritz Fürste and Christian Toetzke, and first introduced in Hamburg, Germany in 2017. With the idea of developing a program that would appeal to gym-goers and avid Strava users, Fürste and Toetzke designed a race of "eight 1km runs with a workout station in between each 1km, in no particular order." It would also motivate gym users to move past losing weight and checking their body status.

The first Hyrox event had 650 participants. According to Fürste, the original brief was "to create an event that is a €200,000 production that looks like a €2,000,000 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 affiliate. There are three tiers of affiliation: Hyrox Performance Centers, Hyrox Training Clubs, and Hyrox Performance Academy. Hyrox365 is responsible for the training and education side of Hyrox. The number of Hyrox-affiliated gyms grew rapidly, and reached 5,000 by the end of 2024.

Sponsorship and prize money

By season 3 of Hyrox (2020-2021) it had attracted investments from Infront Sports & Media Group and sponsorships by 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).

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. The world's first fully equipped outdoor HYROX Gym was built at Club La Santa in Lanzarote, Spain, in May 2024

This race format remains consistent across the globe, enabling global leaderboards and a cumulative World Championships at the end of each race season. At the event's functional exercise stations, participants are required to 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 wall balls

All participants complete the running and stations. Station weights and repetitions can differ based on the division.

Athletes preparing for Hyrox competitions usually train either at home, in Hyrox-affiliated gyms or other functional fitness gyms such as CrossFit boxes 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 or 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.

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 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.

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 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.

The average finishing time for the men in the Pro division was 1 hour and 22 minutes in 2025.

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.

The World Champions of each season are listed here:

Pro/Elite men and women

• 2020 was run on Assault Fitness AirRunners due to COVID-19 restrictions

Pro/Elite doubles (men's, women's and mixed)

*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.

*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.

*The European Championships in 2025 was an Open division race and not Pro/Elite division like other years.

The European Championships did not officially start until season 3.

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

Female

Male

Current open category world records

Female

Male

Controversy arose following an incident during the 2026 Hyrox Beijing race involving Women's World Record holder Joanna Wietrzyk, who defecated on herself during the event. Wietrzyk had supposedly experienced food poisoning shortly before the race which caused her to have bowel incontinence. With her legs and arms visibly covered in diarrhea, she continued competing in the event without intervention from officials, which raised concerns about exposure to biohazards due to her excrement finding itself onto the track and contaminating shared equipment. Competitors were disrupted by the incident, reportedly slipping in Wietrzyk's fecal matter. Wietrzyk eventually won the race.

Hyrox initially issued a statement acknowledging the issue and stated they were looking to improving safety in upcoming events while at the same time warned anyone engaging in threats of violence towards the athlete will be permanently banned from all future events. After the incident went viral on social media, Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste later apologised for Hyrox not reacting immediately during the race and that new rules and procedures were implemented to prevent similar situations in the future. Wietrzyk continued to draw criticism for not issuing an apology, instead issuing a now-deleted Instagram post stating "Go hard or go home ... a win is a win.". Wietrzyk finally offered an apology five days after the incident on her Instagram page, following news of having her sponsorship line being dropped by PUMA.