Hyrox invited all men and women who qualified for the Elite 15 in Manchester to an informal meeting last Thursday. The purpose was to go over some proposed changes for the 23/24 season and allow for some feedback. The majority of the 30 athletes invited were able to show up. Members of the Hyrox team in attendance included Head of Sport, Mintra Tilly and co-founders Christian Toetzke and Mo Fürste.

The Meeting

We spoke to several athletes in attendance who informed us of these proposed changes.

1. There will be 4 regional races (2 in Europe, 1 in the USA, and 1 in Hong Kong) All athletes from all regions are welcome at any regional event. 

2. To qualify for the regional races, you must have a Top 15 Qualifying Time at any non-regional race.

3. Each regional race will have an auto-qualifier for the top 3 to The Elite 15 World Championship. 

4. If one or more athletes make the top 3 at more than one regional event, that spot is now open to the field. For example Athletes A, B, and C all podium at the 4 regional races. There will now be 12 open spots from non-regional races. Those spots will be given out based on an athlete’s “Best 2 qualifying times”. So one can only qualify by running at least two races.

5. A last-chance qualifier will be announced 4-6 weeks out of next year’s World Champs. (The city and venue are unknown at this time).

From the athletes we spoke to, the Hyrox team was not as open to feedback as they had hoped. We were told that the Hyrox team was also unwilling to concede that sled times across venues were different or caused a major difference in finish times.

We reached out to Hyrox for a response on what we heard from athletes in attendance, but have not been given an on-the-record response as of press time.

In a previous interview with Mintra, she stated that Hyrox is open to constructive criticism and that they would consider a system that is “more reasonable” in the future. 

There are a number of confounding factors that should be addressed in the qualification process that these proposed changes do not adequately account for. 

Let’s address those factors first and then outline a proposed system that could satisfy HYROX and ensure that the best athletes are given a chance to showcase their abilities. 

Standardization of Courses

The currently proposed system seems to be largely dependent on courses throughout the world being standardized and truly representative of a person’s ability. However, this is something that HYROX has been unable to do. As a simple example, we can look at the 2023 North America Championships men’s race. In this race, there were 11 men who came to the race from Europe. At their qualifying races (which all occurred in Europe)  they had an average Sled Push time of 2:32. Yet at the North American Championships their average sled push time was 3:17. A fair qualifying system must have a way to address this. The currently proposed system does not. 

Size of Field

One of the highlights of this year’s World Championships race was James Kelly coming in as a late replacement and taking 8th place. Joffrey Voisin gained his spot with a time that was 1:50 faster than James’ best time coming into the race. Yet, James was able to beat Voisin in head-to-head competition by nearly a minute. This clearly shows that there are athletes outside of the “Elite 15” ranking that can compete and beat others when given the opportunity. While the caliber of athletes at the top level of the sport rapidly increases, HYROX should also expand the qualifying field.

Limited Opportunities within Regions

In the 22/23 HYROX Season, there was a total of 11 qualifying events in Europe prior to the cut-off date for regional championships. In America, there were only four events. Of course, travel within Europe is much easier and quicker than it would be for an athlete to travel across America for a HYROX competition. A fair system must take into account this reality. This will prove even more important as HYROX expands into new markets like Australia.

With all of these factors taken into consideration, here is a proposal for a qualifying system for HYROX that can satisfy all parties:

Qualification for Regional Events

HYROX can maintain its goal of having four elite races but the fields for each and the qualification system will be slightly altered. To qualify for a regional event there will be two tiers of athletes:

• Tier One: Athletes who have a Top 15 time worldwide by a set cut-off date
• Tier Two: Any athletes who raced within that region and had a top 15 time out of all the regional events

Athletes within Tier One would receive travel supported by HYROX. Athletes who qualify in Tier Two would pay their way. But, as it is within their region it would be less of a burden. Under this system, there would be no roll-downs. This would likely yield a field of 20-25 athletes due to the following:

• Some athletes would be in both Tier One and Tier Two
• Although they would have the opportunity to attend all four of the elite races, it is likely that many of the Tier One qualifiers would not do every elite race
• There would likely be a few Tier Two athletes that are unable to attend

With no roll-downs, HYROX would be able to more quickly know who is attending the event. This would allow them to plan for a slightly larger elite heat or to plan for two elite heats. 

Qualification for World Championships

HYROX can maintain the same qualification system as proposed with the top 3 at each regional elite event receiving an automatic bid for World Championships and the remainder of the field being filled out via time qualifiers (average of two fastest races). The only change we would like to see here is a larger elite field at the World Championships of anywhere from 20-30 athletes. 

Overall, our system would ensure that the top athletes are given an opportunity to qualify for championship races while taking into account issues with course standardization and differing levels of opportunity to race. 

Whatever Hyrox ultimately decides, they need to finalize these plans quickly. The 2023/2024 Season kick’s off with the first event of the season in Italy this weekend, followed by a 2-day event in New York on June 9 and 10.