Pre-HYROX
The concept originated with Christian Toetzke, who had spent the previous 20 years successfully launching mass outdoor participation events in Europe. He began collaborating with his friend Mintra Tilly, a renowned trainer of elite athletes and military personnel. According to a 2022 interview with The Fitness Racing Podcast, Mintra mentioned that discussions between the two went back as far as 2012, laying the groundwork for what would become a new category of mass-participation events now known as “Hybrid Fitness” or “Fitness Racing.”
In an interview with RoxZone, Christian shared that the event was originally called “KuRox,” a name inspired by the Latin word “Kurare,” meaning running, combined with “Rox” for a modern, edgy feel. However, a legal dispute over trademark infringement led to a court judgment requiring a name change. The rebranding resulted in the much stronger and now globally recognized name, HYROX.
While local CrossFit competitions and one-off events had existed, HYROX introduced a structured and scalable approach, transforming the landscape of competitive fitness and making it accessible to the masses in an entirely new way. A key aspect of the race’s development was ensuring accessibility by removing barriers to entry such as complex movements or extremely heavy weights, while still maintaining a high level of physical challenge.
By 2016, the concept began gaining real momentum, and the race started to take shape. According to Mintra, they conducted “lots of tests with our families and friends” during this period to work out the kinks and create a polished, well-rounded product. An official pilot event took place in November of 2017. (Super HYROX history buffs can have a look here for more about CuRox).
Open For Business
HYROX officially launched its first event on October 20, 2018, in Hall 5 of the Leipzig Trade Fair in Germany. Later in 2018, HYROX held four additional events—three in Germany and one in Austria. These five events attracted a total of 2,711 finishers, averaging 542 participants per event. The largest event of the year was in Hamburg, drawing an impressive 942 finishers.
2019
In 2019, HYROX expanded to 12 events, including its first event outside of Europe, held in Miami, Florida, in the United States. The year marked significant milestones for the brand, beginning in April with the first HYROX World Championship in Oberhausen, Germany, near the Dutch border, where champions Imke Salander and Lukas Storath were crowned.
HYROX also partnered with Hunter McIntyre, a well-known obstacle racing champion with a larger-than-life personality. Hunter participated in the inaugural U.S. event in Miami, helping to promote the brand and attract attention from both the obstacle racing and CrossFit communities. His “love him or hate him” demeanor, combined with his appearances on several TV shows and a wildcard invite to the CrossFit Games earlier that year, made him a natural choice for drawing new fans to the sport.
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At the end of the year, Christian and Mintra appeared on the Obstacle Racing Media podcast to discuss the launch of 20 planned cities HYROX in the USA for 2020. They expressed optimism about the expansion and the brand’s future.
Around the same time, Infront made a strategic investment in HYROX, providing additional resources to support the planned growth. With this backing and the expansion into new markets, HYROX appeared well-positioned heading into 2020.
2019 saw a total of 9,306 finishers, averaging 776 participants per event. The largest event of the year remained in Hamburg, with 1,889 finishers.
2020
After hosting 4 events in the first two months of 2020, HYROX was forced to significantly scale back its planned 2020 and 2021 schedule due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. American events in New Orleans, Cleveland, Boston, and Long Beach were abandoned. The second HYROX World Championship, originally planned with athletes from around the world competing, was replaced by an invite-only championship in Hamburg, Germany featuring just 12 athletes in a controlled environment.
Later in the year, HYROX also launched a Virtual Championships of Fitness. This online competition included a qualifying leaderboard and a Zoom-style final, a format that had become common during the pandemic.
HYROX managed to host 4 events outside of these championships in 2 countries: Germany and the USA. These events brought in 3,793 participants, averaging 948 finishers per event. The largest event of 2020 was in Karlsruhe, with 1,358 finishers.
2021
HYROX expanded to 16 events across 4 countries: Germany, USA, UK, and The Netherlands.
The interest in the United Kingdom events was and still is larger than anywhere else in the world. We reached out to Ian K from UKHXR for some insights as to why. He told us the following:
The first HYROX event in London, held in September 2021, has evolved significantly by 2024, but even at the outset, it stood out in terms of its organization and presentation. Early supporters, such as Emma Waring, who was involved with HYROX UK from the beginning, had set high expectations, and the event lived up to them. The atmosphere, event setup, and the role of Gus the MC contributed to a professional and impactful experience.
This early success generated strong interest, with many participants eager to return for future events. As a result, HYROX attendance grew rapidly, exceeding expectations. In fact, the London event saw a nearly 3000% increase in participants over just three years.
HYROX also introduced the relay (4 person) format in November. The total number of finishers was 8,343 (average 521 per event). The largest event took place in Hamburg, drawing 1,309 participants.
Take a look back at the HYROX Elite Invitational in Dallas in 2021, a time when fitness racing was still in its early stages. At that point, there weren’t many athletes dedicated solely to HYROX. To fill the roster, HYROX invited OCR athletes, CrossFit competitors, and fitness influencers to take part in the event.
Stay tuned for Part 2, releasing early next week.
Notes:
HYROX as a sport has evolved into a seasonal format, with each season starting in the summer or fall and concluding the following spring. However, for the purpose of this report—and future end-of-year reports—we will organize and present the information based on calendar years.
In our research, we use the terms “participant” and “finisher” interchangeably. Our data is derived from HYROX’s publicly available finish times for competing athletes. However, we cannot verify the total number of tickets sold to athletes or spectators, which is the metric typically published by HYROX. These figures, often echoed in the press, are considered by HFM to be slightly inflated.
Additionally, we do not differentiate individuals who compete in multiple events during a single weekend. For instance, if an athlete races in both singles and doubles at the same venue, each performance is counted as a separate finish. While this method is not without limitations, it provides a consistent way to compare data across events, and across event companies.
We also want to acknowledge the website HYRESULT as an invaluable resource. For HFM, it serves as the go-to platform for accessing dates, locations, and times of past events, unlike the HYROX website, which often refreshes pages with new information instead of retaining the older data.