Red Bull has launched ‘Beyond The Rox’, a brand new 5-part docuseries available on Red Bull TV, that takes viewers inside the world of HYROX, following the journeys of those at the pinnacle of the fastest growing sport in the world globally.
With over 550,000 competitors this season and more than 80 global events, HYROX is now the largest mass-participation fitness race in the world. At the top of this sits the Elite 15 – the fittest athletes in the sport.
About Beyond The Rox
Beyond The Rox gives fans an all-access pass to these athletes’ lives on and off the race floor, following the emotional highs and lows that come with competing at the pinnacle of sport.
Each episode captures the drama, the sacrifices and the determined ambition of the athletes, including reigning champions, rising stars and rookie newcomers as they chase down qualification to the HYROX World Championships in Chicago.
The release of this documentary series marks a major cultural moment for the sport. Red Bull’s involvement not only reflects the explosive growth of HYROX, but also captures the untold journeys of a new generation of athletes pushing the limits of human performance, validating a new frontier in competitive fitness.
How To Watch:
All episodes will be available to watch from Thursday 17th April on Red Bull TV (https://www.redbull.com/int-en/shows/beyond-the-rox)
Episode Guide
THE MARATHON MAN
AMSTERDAM, OCTOBER 2024
The Elite 15 season kicks off in Amsterdam — the first Major, the first statement. It’s where athletes show who’s been grinding in the off-season and who’s ready to shake up the rankings. With three World Championship spots up for grabs, the qualifiers walk away with more than just bragging rights — they gain control of their season.
On the men’s side, defending Elite 15 World Champion 34-year-old Alexander Roncevic took the win, kicking off his ambitious goal for the 2024 /2025 season to win all majors and the World Championship in a single season, while three-time Elite 15 World Champion Lauren Weeks stamped her authority and led from start to finish.
Plenty of eyes were on Elite 15 rookie and Red Bull athlete Jake Dearden, a world champion and world record holder in the doubles division in 2024 who qualified to the Elite 15 for the first time with a PB time of 56:53 in HYROX Cape Town.
“To be among the Elite 15 in HYROX takes a lot of discipline and consistency. Quality over quantity in everything that you do. It’s years and years of practice to get to the top level.”
With a focus on building his running base, the Red Bull athlete clocked a head turning 2hr28mi at the Berlin marathon less than two weeks before the Amsterdam race.
“It was a gamble,” he said. “But I think it’s going to help with my HYROX. 12 days after this I’ve got my first Elite 15 Major. I’m a bit nervous. Obviously I’m not going to be in tip-top condition.”
Dearden’s gamble didn’t quite pay-off. He finished 11th but took some valuable insight from his first top-flight race. More than that, his competitors were put on notice.
“If he can put it all together, maybe we’ll see him at Worlds,” said the man to beat, Alex Roncevic eyeing another challenger in the already competitive field.
In the female race the stark differences between athletes were apparent, with a 3 way battle between Lauren Weeks, a HYROX veteran balancing being an athlete and a mother; Megan Jacoby getting to grips with a new full time professional occupation in HYROX; and Joanna Wietrzyk a brand new 22 year old professional making waves in the sport after only 3 months.
MAKING THE SWITCH
HONG KONG, NOVEMBER 2024
The first-ever HYROX Asian Championships marked a new milestone: five continents on the 2024–25 race schedule. Behind the scenes, the operations team deployed 76 tonnes of equipment in record time — just 18 hours — to stage the event in downtown Hong Kong.
Talking of PBs, perennial podium-threat Australian James Kelly, proved he could be at his best when it counts, finding a way through the tumult of an Elite 15 contest to claim his first victory and upset Alexander Roncevic’s lofty dreams of a Majors clean sweep.
“If I could win any major, it would definitely have been tonight. Call me biased, but us Aussies are just getting started.”
He was spot on. In the women’s race, fellow Australian Joanna Wietrzyk, aged just 22 and with only a few months of HYROX under her belt, had already qualified. The former professional tennis player ran away from the field and took the win in just her second race, securing an historic Australian double win.
Athletes making the switch from professional sport is becoming increasingly commonplace in the HYROX world, Sadiq El Fitouri, the one-time Manchester United footballer made the move to HYROX to rediscover his passion for competition.
“The transition wasn’t difficult,” said El Fitouri’. “I’m used to having a strict routine with my training, my diet and my routine.”
Hong Kong was a key moment for another athlete coming from a unique athletic background and shining on the biggest stage, Ida Mathlide Steensgaard. 33-years-old from Denmark, the Red Bull Athlete is a multiple world champion in OCR and the star of the World’s Toughest Playground project. Her transition to HYROX was turning heads.
Meanwhile Steensgaard’s head was on the race. Among the leaders from the start, she weathered the ups and downs of the workouts, showing the mental grit developed during ten years at the top of OCR.
Steensgaard proved she could, finishing fourth and securing qualification to the World championships on the first attempt. “I’m really proud to be able to pull it off. There is much more to come from me and now I can just train for Chicago.”
THE YOUNG CONTENDER
LAS VEGAS, FEBRUARY 205
The first major of 2025 saw the US athletes in full flow and the return of Hunter McIntyre, the US native who won the 2022 World Championships here in a dominant display. But fellow American Dylan Scott in 2025 would put in a fierce performance to edge McIntyre at the wall balls, Scott a HYROX veteran had some choice words for his critics at the finish line.
Las Vegas also saw the return of Jake Dearden. “Amsterdam was humbling,” he said. “I was proud of finishing 11th, considering where my fitness was. But I picked up a back injury, so missed Hong Kong.”
Instead, Dearden went to the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Salzburg for biomechanical analysis and strength testing to pinpoint the cause of the problem.
“We identified the issue, made a rehab plan and I’m feeling fitter than ever.” With his running already elite level, the workouts had become his real focus in his quest to qualify. He came through strongly in the second half of the race but ended up finishing fourth, notching a PB, but agonisingly just one spot out from a World Championship ticket.
In the women’s race, attention was on another youngster and Red Bull athlete, London-based Lucy Procter. At only 21 years of age, she found HYROX after someone in her running club said she should have a go.
“I had no idea what it was. I did my first race in 2023,” she said. “I thought I’m going to do this. I’m going to move away from running. It was a big risk, but I knew this was it. It took off and the last two years have been a rollercoaster.”
Her coach is current world champion, Megan Jacoby.“As someone who became a professional late, it’s exciting for me to guide someone younger,” said Jacoby.
HYROX-specific coaches have become increasingly vital to athletes maximising their potential as the sporting standards rapidly increase, Anthony Perissini of The Hybrid Engine coaches a total of nine of the Elite 15, including 2024-25 race winners Lauren Weeks and James Kelly.
“Our philosophy is general fitness,” said Peressini. “You need to be fit in multiple aspects outside of just the movements presented in a singular race.”
Back on the race floor, Procter knew it was going to be a fast start and the ski-erg was her weakest station as a shorter athlete. In fact, she came off that first workout almost dead-last. But by the second workout, the sled push, Lucy had vaulted from 14th to 4th.
THE MOON SHOT
GLASGOW, MARCH 2025
In the fourth and final major of the season, with 9 qualification slots already allocated and the last 3 direct qualification slots available, tension was mounting.
Lauren Weeks traveled in the day before the event to beat her own world record and James Kelly ran like the wind, crossing the line just a second shy of McIntyre’s record time to secure his second win of the season.
Fierce rivals Kelly, McIntyre and popular Glaswegian athlete Graham Halliday went hard from the start in front of a raucous crowd. With 85,000 people competing in the UK’s seven HYROX events this season, few other countries have taken to the sport quite so fervently.
For UK-based Jake Dearden, this was home turf — and his last shot at qualification.
“Everyone kept telling me I’d qualify, so I just thought I best start acting like it. You have to believe you can do it.”
That belief powered him though his now trademark faster second half of the race, reaching the wall balls with a spot at qualification within his grasp. Having keyed in on this last station since just missing out in Las Vegas, a stronger finish on the wall balls was pivotal in finally snagging the qualification that had evaded him all season.
“I’m over the moon, I took it easy the first half because I knew I was going to struggle. But then I managed to bring it back and I’m going to Chicago. It means this can continue!”
With the World Championships held in mid-June in Chicago, the qualified Elite 15 athletes are now training to be at their absolute fittest for the biggest race of the season.
For those on the outside looking in, the Last Chance Qualifier in Barcelona provides a final opportunity to make it. For the UK’s Zara Piergianni, who missed out by one place earlier in the season, HYROX has become a family affair, with both her husband and father in full and very vocal support as she yet again finished just outside qualification.
That the athletes, coaches, family and spectators now pour so much of themselves into training and racing around the rest of their lives is testament to how fast HYROX has accelerated as a professional sport. The brakes cannot be put on now.
