Kyle Schoonbee is a South African Olympic rower who is now pursuing a different ambition: becoming HYROX world champion. With a 56:10 Men’s Pro performance at Cape Town in August 2026, he has already shown that his sporting background can translate into competitive HYROX racing.
But the transition has involved more than bringing a big engine and strong legs to a new sport. He has had to rethink his pacing, rebuild his training consistency and learn from an Olympic experience that fell painfully short of his expectations.
In our conversation on the Rox Lyfe podcast, Kyle explained how those experiences shape his approach to HYROX, from the numbers he watches in training to the temptation to race too often.
The Olympic Experience Behind His HYROX Ambitions
Kyle’s rowing potential became clear early. Aged 14 and weighing under 70kg, he recalls completing a 2,000m rowing-machine test in 6:52. His coach recognised the opportunity and helped him work towards increasingly competitive levels of the sport.
Eventually, Kyle represented South Africa in the men’s four at the Tokyo Olympics. The crew had won silver at World Rowing Cup II earlier in 2021, giving them reason to believe an Olympic medal was possible.
The Games proved very different. Kyle describes a build-up in which the crew pushed too hard, leaving them exhausted before racing began. They finished tenth.
Looking back, he believes the desire to find the final bit of performance cost them the chance to show what they could already do. That experience still influences how he thinks about training, competition and when to stop pushing.
Why Being an Olympic Rower Didn’t Make HYROX Easy
After Tokyo, Kyle stepped away from rowing and spent around ten months focusing on powerlifting. HYROX then appealed as a chance to compete again, combining his endurance background with his strength.
Initially, one station caught his attention:
“I’m just going to be way better than everyone at the row, and I’ll be good to go.”
He soon discovered the problem with that assumption. By the time he reached the row in his first race, he was already struggling. He remembers rowing at around 2:10 per 500m, a very different experience from the standalone rowing tests he knew.
His sled pull also exposed the gap between strength and effective race execution. He felt too tense through his shoulders and found the station far more costly than expected.
Those experiences forced him to learn the demands of the whole event. Even with a reported 2,000m rowing best of 5:55, he needed to develop the pacing and technique that would let him use his strengths throughout a HYROX race.
The Pacing Habit He Had to Unlearn
One of Kyle’s biggest adjustments involved the finish.
In rowing, he explains, his crew would aim to empty themselves before the line, using the boat’s remaining momentum while doing whatever they could to maintain its speed.
He initially brought a similar approach into HYROX, arriving at the final station with very little left. Wall balls quickly exposed the problem:
“There’s nothing passive about making that ball go up and down.”
Being close to the finish offered little comfort when he still needed to complete the repetitions. Kyle says this mistake caught him out repeatedly before he adapted.
For your own racing, his experience raises a useful question: does your pacing leave you able to perform the final station? A fast opening matters less if you reach the wall balls unable to keep working. Our HYROX rowing guide explores the same whole-race approach to the row itself.
Using Training Numbers Without Chasing Them
Kyle’s Olympic experience also changed his relationship with training data.
He describes how the rowing squad used a weekly 6,000m session at a capped stroke rate to monitor progress. It offered useful information when athletes respected the intended effort. Once they started competing with the person alongside them, a faster result became harder to interpret.
Had their fitness improved, or had they simply worked harder?
He sees a similar temptation when athletes chase a faster easy-running pace. If you push harder to produce the number you want, you change the session you were supposed to complete.
“We change something and then we let the metric happen.”
Kyle’s approach is to understand the purpose of the session, execute it and then assess the result. He tracks measures such as resting heart rate, but also considers how he feels and what the longer-term trends suggest.
His point is practical: a better-looking training result needs context before you treat it as evidence of progress.
A Training Week Built Around Repetition
At the time of our conversation, Kyle was training around 24 to 26 hours a week alongside a full-time software development job.
The surprising part was how little the structure changed. He said his threshold and easy-work prescriptions had remained largely the same for twelve weeks, including a recurring session of three 15-minute tempo intervals.
That repetition helps him understand what is changing. With fewer moving parts, he finds it easier to recognise progress, stagnation or a step backwards.
His strength training had reduced to two full-body sessions a week. With his powerlifting background, his priority was maintaining the strength he already had while developing his running.
This is Kyle’s training in the context of his experience and goals. The useful takeaway for your own plan is the reasoning: identify what needs to improve, then give yourself enough consistency to assess whether your approach is working.
Chasing a World Title With a Different Perspective
Kyle remains clear about wanting to become world champion. However, he describes a different relationship with that ambition from the one he had during his Olympic career.
Back then, the outcome had become central to his identity. Now, family, work and the example he sets for his daughter are part of what makes competing worthwhile.
Living in South Africa also makes international racing a significant commitment. He believes that constraint encourages patience, giving him more reason to plan his races and protect time for training.
He still wants to find out how good he can become. This time, he is approaching that question with a broader view of what the journey should give him.
The full conversation also covers his sled-pull approach, the mindset he uses during difficult race moments and what an all-out rowing test really feels like.
To check out the full interview, watch below or listen on the Rox Lyfe podcast.
