World Triathlon and HYROX team up to build Hybrid Racing into an official sport

World Triathlon and HYROX, the global fitness racing circuit, have signed a framework agreement sealing a strategic partnership. Hybrid Racing becomes a recognized discipline within the World Triathlon family, and HYROX takes charge of the official world, continental and national championships for elite athletes. The end goal: Olympic and Paralympic recognition.

HYROX is riding a wave. Launched in 2017, the sport has seen its events multiply around the world, packing thousands of competitors into huge exhibition halls and sports arenas. Mixing running with fitness stations, it has become a hit with triathletes, both pros and age groupers. Plenty of them have found a second career in it, like former pros Joe Skipper and Sebastian Kienle, to name just two.

Official championships and a possible Olympic future

The bridge between the two sports just got a lot easier to see. HYROX has partnered with World Triathlon, the international federation, so it can now stage official world and national championships and, down the line, bid for a place in the Olympic and Paralympic programme. Without delegated authority from an international federation, a sport simply cannot organize championships of this kind officially.

Three official formats, not all fully defined

Hybrid Racing, the name HYROX takes in its federation form, will be contested in three formats:

Ultimate, which keeps the current HYROX format: 8 km of running (8 x 1 km) and 8 fitness stations (SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges, wall balls)
Fast, a shorter, more intense version
Ultra, a longer, endurance-focused format whose exact distances have not been announced yet.

All three formats will be sanctioned and governed by World Triathlon, and developed jointly with HYROX.

Under the agreement, HYROX becomes the exclusive organizer of the official world, continental and national championships for elite athletes in the Ultimate format. These events will be folded into the current structure of its elite races.

World Triathlon's member federations will also play a central role in this new ecosystem. They will be able to organize Hybrid Racing events in all three formats, as well as national championships for age group athletes.

Drawing in athletes and reaching new audiences

The partnership is meant to benefit the whole World Triathlon movement. It gives national federations, spread across more than 177 member countries and territories, a clearly defined route into a sport that is booming worldwide. It also opens new ways to attract athletes and reach new audiences, while strengthening the resources available to develop triathlon and multisport at every level, from grassroots to elite racing.

World Triathlon and HYROX will work together to bring Hybrid Racing into the Multisport Games (which showcase triathlon's non-Olympic disciplines such as duathlon, cross triathlon and long distance triathlon), with the ultimate ambition of getting the discipline onto the Olympic and Paralympic programme.

This agreement is the result of a full year of work and commitment between World Triathlon and HYROX. It's hugely satisfying to see this project move from negotiation to reality. Hybrid Racing is a natural evolution for our movement. This partnership will not only speed up World Triathlon's growth on the international stage, it will also give each of our national federations real opportunities to grow participation, reach new audiences and strengthen our sport at every level. This is exactly the kind of forward-looking collaboration our members have a right to expect.
Antonio F. ArimanyPresident of World Triathlon