a global fitness sensation made in Germany

There is probably no other sport in the world that has experienced a boom like Hyrox in recent years. What started as an idea in 2017 has, within just a few years, evolved into one of the fastest-growing fitness movements in the world.

The format was developed by event organizer Christian Toetzke, communications expert Michael Trautmann, and Moritz Fürste, a former member of the German national field hockey team that won gold at the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics.

Their basic idea was very simple: to create a competition that combines the atmosphere of a running event with the intensity of functional strength training that many people know from time in the gym. Hyrox consists of eight functional stations interspersed by eight one-kilometer runs.

“People love to either challenge themselves or compete against others, take part in a contest and battle their own inner demons,” Fürste told DW.

People were already doing this. Hyrox simply standardizes it as a competition format.

Hyrox gives people a new purpose

To develop their concept, the founders analyzed the global sports landscape and found that there was a gap in the market of established sports.

“Most sports — such as tennis, football or ball sports in general — are very clearly defined,” explained Fürste. 

“They’ve all been around for hundreds of years, but the one area of the sports world that was never really defined was the world of the gym. We wanted to give these people a goal to train for, aside from being healthy or looking good in the mirror.”

Hyrox is not the only attempt at creating competition around gym work. CrossFit is perhaps its most famous rival. It started back in 2007, changes daily and features Olympic weightlifting and gymnastics. Hyrox is the same each time, offering more functional fitness development. The closest in style to Hyrox is DEKA Fit, although the latter’s global reach is affected by its focus on local US affiliate gyms.

For Fürste, the definition of success is what happens at the end of races.

“No one finishes a race with any energy left; everyone is completely exhausted. But everyone thinks about being faster next time,” Fürste said.

Clearly, Hyrox isn’t the only way to train, but Fürste believes it is a good way to train for competition.

The standardized format means that events are comparable worldwide, regardless of whether you compete in Hamburg, London, New York, or Sydney. As a result, there has been a surge in interest in recent years.

Hyrox growing 100% in all markets

In a 2025 interview with “Sports Illustrated,” Fürste spoke of two pivotal moments for Hyrox; first, when 650 participants turned out for their first ever event and second, when they sold out an event in London in 2022, after the pandemic. It was clear then that they were on to something.

In the 2022–23 season, around 90,000 athletes took part in Hyrox competitions. By 2025, that number had already risen to more than 650,000.

“No matter where we’ve gone so far, we’ve seen tremendous growth in the first two to three years,” Fürste said.

“There wasn’t a single market that didn’t grow by 100% from one event to the next. This shows that the product works. It’s a great experience for those who take part.”

Next stop: the 2032 Olympic Games

With more than a million athletes set to compete in Hyrox events worldwide this season, it looks like there’s no sign of the boom ending anytime soon.

“This shows that we’re neither a trend nor a niche,” Fürste said. “It shows that we’ve made our mark in the sports world.”

Hyrox is now present in more than 85 cities in around 30 countries across the world. Studies confirm the series’ extraordinary growth, with more than 278,000 finishers recorded by the end of the 2023-24 season alone.

“I invested a lot and met with people who have been working in the industry for years,” said Fürste, who believes Hyrox is like the modern sports version of a music festival.

“I had to risk everything to get where I am now and to be part of this team.”

While he never doubted Hyrox’s success, he also never imagined it would become so big. And now the next goal looms on the horizon. Fürste told “Sports Illustrated” that he aims to make Hyrox part of the Olympic program in Brisbane in 2032, taking the popular fitness event to the world’s biggest sporting stage.

This article was originally published in German.