Draft:HYROX

HYROX is a competitive, indoor hybrid fitness racing event combining running with functional exercise stations. It bills itself as "The World Series of Fitness Racing" and "A sport for Everybody".

A HYROX competition is made up of a one kilometer run followed by a functional exercise station that is repeated eight times for the eight different workout stations. The HYROX event requires strength, speed, power, and endurance to complete. 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 58 minutes. The general populace finish the race in the Pro division between 65 minutes to 120 minutes.

HYROX was launched by Hamburg based entrepreneur Christian Toetzke (CEO of Upsolut Sports GmbH) and two-time Olympic gold medal field hockey player, Moritz Furste. The first HYROX event was held in Hamburg, Germany in April 2018. The word "HYROX" does not officially stand for anything, but is a portmanteau of the words "Hybrid" and "Rockstar". The meaning of which was meant to stand for Hybrid Fitness and celebrating the athletes that finish as "rockstars". By all reported accounts the founding team created the word on a drunken night together!

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, Redbull and Puma. Prize money for the elite event has grown year over year. Other Major events have received prize payouts in addition to the World Championships. The following table shows the total prize purse and prize per position for both the Male and female elite fields in the World Championships year over year:

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).

The Event
HYROX combines running with functional exercise stations, where participants run 1 kilometer, followed by 1 functional exercise station, repeated eight times. Each race is hosted indoors in expansive exhibition halls or convention centers, creating an immersive and electrifying race, where your spectators can support you from the very beginning to the very end. Occasional events have been hosted outdoors, including Miami 2023.

This race format remains consistent across the globe, enabling global leaderboards & a cumulative World Championships at the end of each race season. HYROX claims to accommodate both "professional athletes, and everyday fitness enthusiasts looking to take their training to the next level, HYROX is the sport for everybody."

The functional exercise stations are consistent at every event where participants will complete the following:

1 kilometer of running into 1 kilometer of Ski Erg on a Concept 2 machine.

1 kilometer of running into 50 meters of sled push, using Centr brand equipment.

1 kilometer of running into 50 meters of sled pull, using Centr brand equipment.

1 kilometer of running into 80 meters of burpee broad jump.

1 kilometer of running into 1 kilometer of rowing on a Concept 2 rowing erg machine.

1 kilometer of running into 200 meters of kettlebell farmer carry, using Centr brand equipment.

1 kilometer of running into 100 meters of sandbag walking lunge, using Centr brand equipment.

1 kilometer of running into 100 or 75 reps of wall ball, using Centr brand equipment.

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

Elite Qualification System
For the 2019, season 1, the World Championships Elite race was determined solely by the fastest times of the season up to that point.

Season 2 had races 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).

Seasons 3, 4, and 5 (2021–2023) qualified athletes by placing top 3 at either the US Championships or the European Championships. The remaining slots were filled in by the top times of the season.

Season 6 (2023–2024) experienced a change toward requiring athletes to race their way into the World Championships. To qualify for the world championships, athletes would need to place top 3 in one of four "Major Championships" where roll down slots would happen for athletes already qualified but never past 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 (US Champion, European Champion, Top 3 at World Championships) and the remaining spots are filled in based on time from Pro Division events.

Pro Division/Elite 15
The Pro Division is an individual race where one athlete completes the race solo at the highest weight and repetitions level of the event.

Open Division
The Open Division is an individual race where one athlete completes the race solo at a lighter and less repetitions (for the female wall balls). This division is additionally broken down into age groups in 5 year increments. Competing in the Open division can qualify you for the Age Group World Championships where you compete with the Professional level weights.

Doubles
The Doubles Division consists of two athletes completing the runs together and splitting up the station work, either in female/female, male/male, or coed pairs. This division is additionally broken down into Pro and Open weights/repetitions.

Relay
The Relay Division consists of four athletes either female/female/female/female, male/male/male/male, or female/female/male/male. Each athlete only completes two stations and the run preceding that station. Athletes can chose who completes each station and there is no requirement to do them successive or with a break. The relay division uses the Open weights/repetitions.

Broadcasting and media
There are several news and media outlets that cover HYROX races, including several that have sprouted organically specifically for HYROX itself, including RoxLyfe, Hybrid Fitness Media, Fitness Racing Podcast (UKHXR), and The Rox Zone.

HYROX was broadcast by ESPN on August 1, 2022 for the World Championships of Fitness in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA).

The Home Series and Virtual Championships of Fitness
During the Pandemic year of 2020, HYROX released two at home workout series that allowed participants to submit virtual scores from workouts that were verified and earned them points to a finals showdown.

The first series was called the Home Series and offered the male and female winners a Concept 2 Ski Erg (~$900 value) as a reward.

The second series was called the Virtual Championships of Fitness (VCF) and including prize money and qualification for the 2020 pandemic World Championships, named the Elite 12.

An additional Virtual Championships of Fitness (VCF2) took place in early 2021 and would earn the winners an invite to the 2021 Dallas Invitational that kicked off the 2021 season.

Events and Gyms
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.

HYROX also has a gym affiliate program, where gyms can pay a yearly fee to become a "HYROX training center".

In February 2024, HYROX announced expansion in the Canadian market.

HYROX has aims to host 170 events per year in 2027 and to have over 1 million participants.

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 US and North American Championships did not officially start until Season 3. The Male winner of the US/North American Championships has never went on to win the World Championships title in the same year. The European Championships did not officially start until Season 3.

World Records
The World Records for the Elite Professional race from the end of the first season and each subsequent breaking of the world record is listed below: Female World Records. It should be noted that 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 women's push and pull sleds by about 10kg each, which is reflected in the slew of record breaking times during that season.

Longest consecutively held record streaks:


 * 1) Elisabeth Sarah Kholti - 587 days
 * 2) Lauren Weeks - 443 days
 * 3) Megan Jacoby - 293 days
 * 4) Imke Salander - 200 days
 * 5) Mikaela Norman - 147 days
 * 6) Linda Meier - 54 days

Male World Records. It should be noted that 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 push and pull sleds by about 10kg each, which is reflected in the record breaking times during that season.

Longest consecutively held record streaks:


 * 1) Hunter McIntyre - 816 days
 * 2) Lukas Storath - 451 days
 * 3) Tobias Lautwein - 14 days

Controversies
The 2021 season brought to light a disparity between the sleds in the USA versus Spain versus United Kingdom versus Europe. The Sleds were noticeably faster in new venues and on European/Spanish courses than they were in the UK and the UK seemed to be faster than courses in the USA. The differences came to a head in the 2022 World Championships, that took place in the USA and several of the European athletes complained the sleds were significantly more difficult. In a quick decision, HYROX decided to remove a 25kg plate from the sled push immediately prior to the event. This change ended up sticking around for the following 2022/2023 season.

Beginning with the Ft. Lauderdale event in in March 2024 in the USA and the Cologne event in April 2024 in Europe, HYROX switched over to it's new equipment Sponsor, Centr. It is unclear if this change will result in quicker or slower times. Currently, Centr equipment is not part of events in the Middle East.