How to Qualify for the HYROX World Championships

At the end of each season, HYROX hold their own World Championships. This sees the best of the best, in each division from around the world, go up against each other.

At each HYROX event, there are a number of qualifying spaces up for grabs for the best performers in each division and age group. The number of spaces available is largely dependent upon the number of participants at the event.

After each HYROX event, qualifying participants will be sent an email offering them the opportunity to claim their place. Each qualifier needs to make his/her decision within 48 hours of receiving the invitational email. If qualifiers dont accept their places, the spot rolls down and is offered to the next fastest athlete. This means it’s possible to qualify outside of the automatic qualifying spots.

2024/25 Age Group Qualifying

As some background, the sport debuted in Germany in 2017, with the first race hosting 700 athletes. This grew steadily to approximately 175,000 athletes in the 2023/24 season. The 2024/25 will see continued rapid growth, with circa 500,000 athletes expected to compete, across 85 events, during the season. Events are now being held all over the world with with new races this season taking place in Canada, Cape Town and Brisbane to name just a few.

Despite the growth of the sport, there will still be circa. 5,000 places available at the 2025 World Championship. With approximately 550,000 athletes competing during the season, this means that 1% of competitors will qualify for the World Championships. However, there will be limits by location; just because one event is twice as large as another, that does not mean there will be double the number of qualifying spots. Therefore, larger events may see less than 1% of athletes qualifying.

Pro Division Prioritised

At the World Championships, all age groups under the age of 60 will use the Pro weights. Therefore prioritisation is being given to Pro Division athletes in qualifying races, and will always have the same number of qualifying spots, or one more, than the open division (in the same age group/division). That said, athletes may still be able to qualify through the Open Divisions. If, for example, a Division / Age Group has 2 spots available in total, then 1 would go to the Pro Division and 1 to the Open Division. But if there is only 1 spot available then it would go to the Pro Division.

As many athletes purchased their tickets before becoming aware of this new system, it is believed that HYROX will allow athletes to switch division, from Open to Pro, if they wish.

Qualifying Allocation

Ultimately there are a certain number of spots which HYROX are aiming to fill by age group / division at the World Championships (based on typical participation levels).

However the actual number of qualifying spaces in each Age Group / Division for a specific event cannot typically be known with absolute certainty until the week of the event, once the organisers are aware of the total number of athletes signed up to the race.

Rolldowns

If an athlete is offered a place at the World Championships, but does not accept that place within the allocated time limit, it will be offered to the next placed person in the relevant Age Group / Division. If that person also does not accept, the place will roll down one more time only. Therefore there are only 2 rounds of rolldowns for each Age Group / Division.

In instances where there are only 2 athletes in an Age Group / Pro Division at an event, it is possible that the space would roll down to an athlete in the Open Division.

If you are fast enough to be part of the few who qualify, be sure to read our 8 tips for World Championship Athletes here.

We spoke to HYROX Co-Founder Mo Fuerste on the Rox Lyfe podcast to discuss the changes for the 2024/25 season, which you can view below:

Elite 15 Races

There is a separate category at the World Championships for “Elite” competitors. The 15 places in this category are by invitation only and are awarded as follows:

Auto Qualification via 23/24 Season Elite 15 results – All 2023/24 Major winners from Chicago, Stockholm, Vienna, Washington DC have automatically qualified.

1st, 2nd, 3rd from the World Championships also auto-qualify. This rolls down to 5th if a Major winner from 2023/24 is included in the top 3.

Time Qualification – The remaining slots shall be awarded to individuals based on the average of their two best individual Pro times of the past 365 days, until 15 participants have been obtained.

There are more details on the Elite 15 series in this article.

The 2024/25 season also sees the debut of the Elite 15 Doubles World Championships. More details can be found here.

The list of qualifiers to the Major races can be found here, which also gives an idea of the average times required to qualify.

Mo Fuerste spoke to the Rox Lyfe podcast about the Elite-15 qualifying changes for 2024/25: