The 2022 HYROX World Champions are Hunter McIntyre and Kris Rugloski (both of the United States), who both won their title at the HYROX World Championship in Las Vegas (at the Las Vegas Convention Centre) on 14th May 2022.
The event, held at the Last Vegas Convention Centre, was the conclusion to the 21/22 HYROX season, and saw over 1200 athletes competing. Of those, the 15 fastest qualifying individual Pro men and women qualified for the “Elite 15” race.
Men
In the men’s Elite race, it was a dominant performance from Hunter McIntyre, who previously held the title in 2020 but was beaten in last years competition by Tobias Lautewein (who was unfortunately unable to compete this year due to Covid). McIntyre looked strong from the start, led for most of the race and was fastest in 5 of the 8 functional stations. He beat out Ryan Kent (who had beaten McIntyre at the HYROX North American Championships a few months previously) by over 2 minutes by the end of the race. Third place went to Alexander Roncevic, from Austria, who had finished 2nd in 2021.
The full leaderboard looked like this:
- Hunter McIntyre— 58:05
- Ryan Kent— 1:00:26
- Alexander Roncevic— 1:00:38
- Tim Wenisch — 1:01:35
- Dylan Scott — 1:02:10
- Michael Sandbach — 1:03:17
- Richard Ryan — 1:04:38
- Jeffrey Voisin — 1:05:04
- Tom Hogan — 1:05:09
- Martin Michelius — 1:06:15
- Cole Schwartz — 1:07:09
- Holger Korner — 1:07:56
- Tomas Tvrdik — 1:09:05
Women
On the women’s side, Kris Rugloski beat out Linda Meier (2nd) and Mirjam Von Rohr (3rd). Rugloski hadn’t been heavily fancied for the win prior to the race, having just the 12th fastest qualifying time of the elite 15 racers, over 5 mins slower than the fastest time of the year. But she pulled it together on the day and crossed the line 36 seconds ahead of Meier.
All the athletes put in incredible performances, but special mention should go to world record holder Lauren Weeks who finished in 9th place despite being 8 months pregnant!
The final leaderboard looked like this:
- Kris Rugloski— 1:07:21
- Linda Meier— 1:07:57
- Mirjam Von Rohr— 1:08:23
- Alandra Greenlee — 1:08:38
- Alyssa Hawley — 1:09:53
- Terra Jackson — 1:10:15
- Viola Oberlander — 1:10:20
- Elisabeth Kholti — 1:10:20
- Lauren Weeks — 1:13:02
- Camilla Massa — 1:13:18
- Rebecca Naether — 1:15:37
- Sabrina Rothig — 1:16:37
- Beatrice Aldeit — 1:16:47
- Dena Hogan — 1:18:25
Doubles
The Men’s Doubles was won by Clemens Scherbel and Christopher von Stelzer (51:26), the Women’s Doubles by Aileen McCann and Tahlia Britton (1:01:25) and Mixed Doubles by Lauren Rantala and Marc Howe (57:13).
Commenting on the event, Mo Fürste, co-founder of HYROX said “I can compare the race today to some of the most iconic athletic performances ever, my time competing at the Olympics and World Championships gave me a real affinity to our elite athletes. I really believe that every athlete in the Elite 15 is worth of huge admiration for their prowess, to win this competition requires 100% dedication in your preparation plus the ability to execute under the most intense of pressures. Both Hunter McIntyre and Kris Rugloski are consummate professionals, I am already looking forward to seeing them defend their titles next year when the competition will only get tougher”
Christian Toetzke, founder of HYROX added “I am delighted to crown our incredible World Champions today. I must say the quality of competition over the day has been outstanding and we see the calibre of the racers just continue to grow. It was so gratifying to see our international community of HYROXERS from 22 countries display their fitness. We really believe that we are championing the healthiest sport in the world, and I think that is evident in the standard of the 1,200 athletes we had here today.”
Medals Table
The below shows the unofficial (i.e. created by us!) medals table for the event, with America taking the win based on total gold medals achieved…
Below is an alternative table, based on a points system (3 points for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze). In this case, Europe take the win…
One great thing to see from these tables is 14 countries being representated on the podiums (I believe there were 22 countries represented in total at the event).
Footage
The Elite races can be viewed in the below video (which is, unfortunately, not the greatest quality)…
Documentary
A documentary about HYROX, focused on the 2022 World Championship event, has also been released. Produced by Viscompark media, and originally aired on ESPN2, it is the first professionally produced documentary from the team at HYROX. It provides the mass public with an introduction to the sport, and some of its main athletes, and feels like another exciting move for the sport that will only help to further raise its profile.
You can view it in the video below…
Those featured in the documentary include the co-creators of HYROX – Christian Totezke and Mo Fuerste – plus some of the elite athletes. In particular we see interviews with the World Champions Hunter McIntyre and Kris Rugloski, as well North American champion Ryan Kent, European champion Mirjam Von Rohr, Tom and Dena Hogan, Linda Meier and Viola Oberlander.
Christian Toetzke, when speaking about the documentary, said “Our sport is accelerating rapidly in all areas but it’s the elite level where things are moving at a really crazy pace. Our ambitions for the pro side of the sport have only grown following what happened in Las Vegas and we thought it was right to tell that story in a format which would match the quality of the sport on display.”
Mo Fuerste, Three-Time Olympian and Co-Founder of HYROX says, “We are so excited to release the first of what we hope to be many in-depth features like this on our sport. We are still so young, yet we have already developed an amazing group of athletes. Qualifying for the World Championships this year meant you really had to be operating at the elite level.”
The documentary does a good job of building hype around the sport and should help to attract even more competitors. I felt it conveyed well just how challenging an event it is and whilst it was primarily focused on the Elite races at the World Championships, they are sure to point out that it is a sport that anyone can do. It is a great introduction for a lay person. For those people already aware of what HYROX is, and who have competed in an event, you’re not going to learn anything new here, but it does have some good footage of the world championship event and helps to better introduce you to some of the elites in the sport. There is some coverage – but not a huge amount – of the non-elite races at the event, and some short interviews with the non-elite athletes.
One thing I really liked was the great footage of the opening ceremony from the day before the event. It gave me goosebumps just watching and I wasn’t even there – I’m sure for those who were it’ll be a nice reminder of what I suspect was a very special occasion.
This is much more a documentary than being detailed race coverage. For example, youre not getting too much of a detailed breakdown of the World Championship race, how it unfolded, who was leading at what point, how quickly each person did the runs, sleds etc. That’s not a criticism, I should say, just an observation.
The whole documentary is designed – I presume – to attract further interest to help the sport grow even faster – and I think it will do that. As an Englishman it certainly felt like it was shot and narrated for an American audience which is no surprise given that it was initially to be aired on ESPN. I also suspect it’s because North America is the market that HYROX are looking to truly crack next. Mo Fuerste touches on this towards the end: “Our major task right now is to tell the HYROX story” he says “we want to make this a successful sport all over the world. The United States are next. We want to really get the tipping point there and make the Americans love HYROX and compete at HYROX and from there on the entire planet is left.” Also briefly mentioned are their aspirations to potentially one day become an event that is featured in the Olympics. I’ve now heard this a few times from the powers that be in HYROX (including in my interview with Mo Fuerste) – exciting times if and when it happens!
As someone who wasn’t at the Las Vegas event, but who has spoken to many who were, I’ve only heard good things about it. Watching this documentary has made me pumped to be at future world championship events. Christian Totezke mentions that “the plan is to always make the next event even better”. He says that Las Vegas has set the standard, and they want to continually top that. If they manage to do that, I’m hyped to see what they can do and fully intend to be part of it. After watching this, I suspect I will be far from the only one!
The 2023 HYROX World Championships took place in Manchester, UK on 26th and 27th May 2023.
For some really interesting analysis on where the elite races at the World Championships were won, check out this article.
Photo credit: Erik Wittkopf
