Four days at Beijing Railway Station and seven years at HYROX: After achieving 2000x growth, trust couldn't keep up.

The emerging sport HYROX has become popular this year, and a recent event has brought it into the mainstream.

(HYROX is an indoor comprehensive physical fitness competition in which athletes must complete 8 consecutive cycles. Each cycle begins with a 1-kilometer run, followed by a strength training exercise—sled push-pull, rowing machine, burpee jump, weighted lunge, and wall ball.)

On the afternoon of September 12th, during the women's elite group competition at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Australian skater Joanna Wietrzyk suffered from gastrointestinal incontinence during the race. Her excrement contaminated the burpee mat, rowing machine, and other equipment. Despite the contamination not being cleaned up, she finished the race, winning with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute, and 23 seconds. Because the equipment was reused among skaters and multiple groups were competing consecutively that day, the referees only reported the abnormality and reminded subsequent skaters to detour; the race was not stopped or penalized.

The controversy stems not only from health and safety issues, but also from inconsistencies in the rules.

The competition's code of conduct explicitly penalizes spitting and blowing one's nose on the ground with a 2-minute penalty; previously, a Chinese athlete was also penalized for splashing water on their face. However, according to participants, the handbook lacks provisions for unintentional sudden physical abnormalities, and the referee does not have the authority to forcibly stop the competition. The same code of conduct, two different scenarios, completely different outcomes.

HYROX's response took five days: on the evening of the 12th, they only talked about disinfection and disposal, without responding to whether the disposal was appropriate; in the early morning of the 14th, their global account responded with "unpredictable and ambiguous rules," and declared that they would permanently ban cyberbullies, which was criticized as avoiding the conclusion; on the evening of the 14th, the Chinese team admitted for the first time that the rules were blank and promised to submit a rule optimization proposal; it was not until the 16th that they fully refunded the registration fees to some affected players - "How will this be accounted for?" Only then did they get an answer.

This is not the first time it has faced public criticism this year. On August 1st in Chengdu, during the official live broadcast, commentators made fun of contestant Zhang Jike, prompting HYROX China to apologize the following day and terminate the cooperation with the two commentators.

Putting the controversy aside, HYROX’s popularity is real, but what’s more worthy of questioning than the controversy is: why did it become so popular?

When HYROX was founded in 2017 and held its first event in Hamburg in April 2018, it had only 650 participants. By the 2025/2026 season, it had held more than 100 events in more than 30 countries around the world, with 1.4 million participants, a growth of more than 2,000 times in seven years.

The Chinese market is growing even faster. In November 2024, the first stop in Beijing had fewer than 1,700 participants, but this time, the four-day stop in Beijing attracted a total of 11,800 participants. In less than two years, the number of participants in a single stop has increased nearly sevenfold.

The competition format itself is not complicated: 8 cycles, each consisting of a 1-kilometer run and a strength exercise—sled push-pull, rowing machine, burpee jump, weighted lunge, and wall ball, all familiar gym exercises, none of them are new.

It fills a long-standing gap: gyms don't lack training, they lack results—after six months of training, progress exists only in one's own perception; there are no competitors, no timers, and no race to prove that the training wasn't in vain. The barrier to entry for a marathon is there, and many people exclude themselves before they even start training; HYROX is just right in the middle, offering the opportunity to complete it after a few months of serious training, while being difficult enough that finishing it is worth mentioning.

This point is emphasized even more in the realm of interpersonal relationships.

Globally standardized rules, equipment, and distances mean that the results of a competition can be compared across cities and countries, and age groups and global rankings provide a reference.

Nearly 70% of the participants were first-timers. The setup of pairs and four-person relays made it much easier to agree to "sign up with a friend" than "go alone"—social interaction begins from the moment of registration.

Currently, HYROX-related topics on Xiaohongshu have garnered over 600 million views, and on Douyin, they have nearly 2 billion plays.

For most participants, "I'm preparing for HYROX" and "I'm working out" convey different messages: the former comes with a goal, a timeline, and a result that can be shown to others.

True commercial value is realized over a longer period.

Currently, over 5,000 authorized gyms worldwide handle HYROX's promotion, training, and community operations, each paying a $1,500 licensing fee annually. Participants train at the gyms, register on the platform, share on social media, and then bring in the next group of people.

According to industry estimates, its EBITDA is approximately 30 million euros, with a profit margin of about 20%, and its revenue is expected to exceed 200 million euros in 2026. In terms of revenue structure, registration fees account for 55% to 65%, merchandise sales are approximately 40 million to 50 million US dollars, and sponsorships account for about 15%.

Since its inception, it has only raised about 15 million euros in total funding—it has almost grown on its own cash flow.

The capital chain recently underwent a handover.

Wanda's Infront Sports & Media announced the sale of its majority stake in HYROX to a consortium led by consumer investment firm L Catterton, including founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste, and venture capital fund WndrCo. The transaction values HYROX at approximately €600 million, equivalent to about RMB 4.7 billion, corresponding to a price-to-sales ratio of approximately 4.5 and an EBITDA of approximately 20.

Following the transaction, the two founders' shareholding increased from 40% to 51%, regaining control. Wanda Group, which holds a 68.2% stake in Infront, invested in HYROX in 2019 and increased its stake to a controlling stake in 2022, reaping a return of several dozen times over seven years—a rare high-return exit for Wanda's sports investments in recent years.

Currently, HYROX's operating entity in mainland China is Hi-Refine Sports Culture (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., which is wholly owned by HYROX. At the event execution level, it has a long-term partnership with Infront Sports & Media China. Whether this partnership will continue after Infront's withdrawal is currently unknown. HYROX China responded to the media that decisions regarding equity transactions are led by the German headquarters, and the Chinese team is not involved.

According to HYROX's plan, the 2027 World Championships will be held in Asia for the first time, in Hong Kong, China. The World Triathlon Federation has approved the inclusion of its competition format under the name "Hyathlon," and its inclusion in the Olympics is set for the next ten years.

But for an event company aiming for the Olympics, the first question to answer isn't about what will happen ten years from now, but rather: when an athlete loses control on the track, who stops the race, by which rule, and how are those affected accounted for? This time, the answer came five days late, and only through refunds.

Ultimately, the business of sports events is about selling trust, and the speed at which trust is built can never keep up with the growth rate of the number of participants.

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