In previous HYROX seasons, we’ve taken a look at some of the most memorable moments that have occurred in the sport. You can see those articles here and here. At the time of writing (in December 2023) we have just reached the short, mid-season break, in the 23/24 season, so it felt like as good a time as any to look back at some of the best moments, in no particular order, so far from the 23/24 HYROX season…
Stockholm Elites
I think we have to start with the Elite races in Stockholm on 2nd December and, in particular, the performances of Megan Jacoby and Hunter McIntyre, who both broke their own world records on the day. Pretty much all the Elite athletes who competed in Stockholm can be proud of how they performed, but Megan started the record breaking early in the day, when she ran 58:52m to beat her own record by 6 seconds. Having already qualified for the elite races at the 2024 world championships, she was able to take some risks and went out fast from the start, and led throughout the race in a dominant performance. Shortly after, Hunter McIntyre, in his first individual race of the season, also went out fast, also lead from the start, and also smashed his already incredible impressive world record, finishing in 53:22m. With the World Championships in June 2024, and these performances relatively early in the season in December, it will be very interesting to see what these two incredible athletes can do in the second half of the 23/24 season.
Elite Aged 50
Also in the Elite races in Stockholm was Amy Bevilacqua, a 50 year mum of 5 children. This makes her, by some distance, the oldest ever Elite athlete in HYROX. With how much the sport has grown, and an estimated 175,000 athletes competing in the coming year, it is an astonishing achievement to be one of the best of the best in the sport at aged 50. And she finished the race in Stockholm in a very impressive time of 01:06:41 ! You can listen to my chat with Amy on the Rox Lyfe podcast here.
Mikaela’s Return
It was great to see Mikaela Norman (ex Womens Pro World Record holder, and current record holder in the Women’s doubles) return to racing after serious illness when she competed in Dubai in August. Mikaela unfortunately missed out on competing at the 2023 World Championships after suffering with Myocarditis. Her return in Dubai was very impressive, all things considered, and she finished in second place (behind world champion Lauren Weeks) in a time of 60:35m (a time that only Megan Jacoby and Lauren weeks have ever beaten).
You can listen to my interview with Mikaela on the Rox Lyfe podcast here (or wherever you get your podcasts).
Singapore Impresses
There’s been a few memorable venues to host a HYROX in recent times (Manchester and London Olympia are two that spring to mind for me) but the Singapore event (on 7th October 2023), held in the national stadium, might just trump them all. Could this be a future venue for a HYROX World Championship? There were certainly many people afterwards suggesting it would be a great choice for such an occasion!
Dallas Record Breakers
On 18th November 2023, HYROX went to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas and a host of very impressive athletes teamed up to smash some world records…
First up was Pelayo Menendez Fernandez and Rich Ryan, partnering in the Mens Doubles, just one week after both impressing in the Elite race in Chicago. They had serious competition on the day (from the team of David Magida and Dylan Scott) but came out on top and broke a long standing World Record in the process, finishing in an incredible time of 48:36. Hunter McIntyre has tried twice to claim the Mens Doubles record this season (teaming up with Jon Wynn in Birmingham, and Anass Zouhry in LA) but so far not been able to beat that time. Will we see more attempts during the remainder of the season?!
Next was the dream partnership of Megan Jacoby and Ryan Kent. They set an incredible time of 51:16 in the mixed doubles, smashing the previous best time in that division by over 3 minutes. It’s a time that won’t be easily beaten!
Finally, at the end of the day, Pelayo and Rich, hot off their Mens Doubles record, teamed up with David Magida and Dylan Scott, in the Mens Relay, to claim the third world record of the day, finishing in a brilliant 47:42 (over 2 minutes quicker than the previous best in the relay).
What a day! Spare a thought too for Tim Wenisch who previously had been the holder of all 3 records (mixed doubles, mens doubles, mens relay), only to see them all taken from him in one day!
Chicago Major
The first HYROX “Major” of the season took place at Navy Pier in Chicago in November and didn’t disappoint. The biggest HYROX America event to date saw the first Elite races of 23/24, with Ryan Kent, Rylan Schadegg and Alexander Roncevic claiming their spots at the 2024 HYROX World Championships on the Men’s Side, and Megan Jacoby, Lauren Weeks and Linda Meier on the Women’s. Those athletes set some of the fastest times ever in the sport with some brilliant performances. Particularly memorable was the battle at the wall balls between Linda Meier and Vivian Tafuto who arrived at the final station together, and battled it out, giving everything they had in a race for third spot and a place at the World Championships in Nice in June (with Linda ultimately just coming out on top). Read up more on the event, along with footage from the racing, in this article.
Marriage Proposal in Rimini
The 23/24 season started just days after the 2023 World Championships in Manchester, with the first ever Italian event, in Rimini. And quite aptly, in a country so associated with romance, there was a marriage proposal, with Javier De Cepeda Hernández proposing to his partner as he stood on the podium after his race. She said yes! You can watch it in the post below…
Applause in Rimini
That wasn’t the only lovely moment from Rimini though, with this competitor, the last of the day, being given a huge round of applause from all those around as he crossed the finishing line, showing just what a supportive encouraging community HYROX is…
“Where’s CrossFit?”
With Aussie athletes such as Jon Wynn, James Kelly and Chris Wooley having already made a mark in HYROX, despite an event never having been held in the country, there was a lot of excitement prior to the sport opening up in Australia at the start of the season. To add to this excitement, CrossFitters Ricky Garard and James Newbury (who I interviewed – you can listen here) had announced they would be racing in Sydney. In the end, the Australian events in both Sydney and Melbourne were a huge success, and Ricky and James both performed very well. One of the more memorable moments came when James Kelly and Chris Wooley were both on the row machines, leading the race, and James Kelly asked, for all the livestream to hear “Where’s CrossFit?”. James shared his comments on the incident with us after the race…
The Biggest Yet
HYROX London took place on 25 and 26th of November 2023 at the London Excel, and it was the biggest HYROX event to date, with 20,000 people (12,000 of which were athletes) and 32 hours of racing.
But not only was it huge, there seems to be pretty universal agreement from those who were there that this was one of the best run HYROX events yet. The course was very intelligently laid out (stations in numerical order), nice wide running lanes helping to limit too much congestion, a well-organised track crossing for the hundreds of spectators, well positioned barriers in the course to help prevent collisions, a fantastic “Thunderdome” around the wall ball area and much more. It was a truly great event, and has set the bar for future HYROX races.
It wasn’t only the set up and organisation though. Just a small sample of people competing on the day included, Olympic great Eve Muirhead racing in the Women’s Open (check out our recent podcast with her here), Men’s World Champion and World Record holder Hunter McIntyre teamed up with George Heaton (listen to my interview with Hunter here), and Jake Dearden competed in an unbelievable 11 HYROX races across the 2 days (8 on the Saturday, starting with a 56 Mins Men’s Doubles!) – all in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
A great event – well done to all involved!
Phew – all of this and we’re only halfway through the season! I’m sure there’s lots I’ve missed too. Looking forward to seeing what the rest of the season brings!
