9 trucks create a "military training ground" in two days, and young people in Beijing and Shanghai are scrambling for 600-yuan tickets.
When Zhao Fang first entered the HYROX arena, she thought she had gone through the wrong door.
She was originally dragged here by her friend, thinking "just take a look". As soon as she entered the venue, a huge wave of sound from the speakers hit her directly - the DJ booth was right next to the track, and the subwoofers made the ground tremble. Thousands of people were crowded in a large indoor stadium, and the air was mixed with the smell of rubber mats and sweat. Some people were shouting in the warm - up area, some were patting each other on the shoulders with their teammates, and some were squatting in the corner tying their shoelaces, muttering to themselves.
"I thought to myself at that time, is this really not some EDM festival? Did I go to the wrong place?" Zhao Fang told "China Entrepreneur".
Through the introduction, she quickly understood the rules. HYROX, an abbreviation for Hybrid Fitness Race, is translated into Chinese as the Mixed Fitness Race - run 1 kilometer, then do a functional training project, then run another 1 kilometer, and do another project. Repeat this cycle 8 times. Ski machine, sled push, sled pull, burpee long - jump, rowing machine, farmer's walk, weighted sandbag lunge, medicine ball throw - after 8 projects, it's equivalent to running 8 kilometers and doing a whole set of strength training. Some netizens gave it a nickname: a race that uses running as a comma.
Zhao Fang participated in a four - person relay race. When pushing the sled, her arms were so sore that they were shaking. A girl next to her shouted at her: Don't stop, there are still 30 seconds left. She didn't know how she got through those 30 seconds, but at the moment of finishing the race, the four of them hugged each other and screamed. She said she felt like she was back in the school sports meet.
Currently, a group of people similar to her are flocking to this sport at an amazing speed.
On Xiaohongshu, the view count of the HYROX topic has exceeded 130 million, and on Douyin, the play count of related topics is close to 500 million. Open social media, and there are many photos taken by fitness enthusiasts in front of the red background wall - muscle lines, sweat, smiles, and a huge finisher's medal. Yuan Fang, the general manager of HYROX in China, said: "It is gradually breaking through the circle."
But not everyone is convinced.
The entertainment star Jiang Sida posted a paragraph on Xiaohongshu, saying that this sport gave him the feeling of "a sober coolie": "Sports have changed my reward mechanism. In front of the competition, I saw what kind of person I am." Some people in the comment section joked that "the difference between this and moving bricks at a construction site is that one has to pay and the other can earn money", and some people directly defined it as "contemporary farm work" and "a new form of hard labor for the middle class".
It's hard to clearly define what HYROX is in one sentence. For participants, it is a proof of self - discipline, a social currency, and a unique emotional value. For onlookers, it's just a group of people paying more than 600 yuan in entry fees to "suffer".
But it has really become popular. In November 2024, the first HYROX event in the Chinese mainland was held in Beijing, with less than 1,700 participants. By the Shanghai event in May 2026, this number exceeded 10,000 for the first time.
In the eyes of many industry insiders, this seemingly "self - abusing" sport hides many internet - celebrity genes, and its potential has not even fully exploded.
Upturn
In 2017, Moritz Furste, a former German Olympic hockey champion, joined hands with several partners to conduct an experiment. They wanted to create a "standardized" competitive stage for the global fitness community - not just for professional athletes, but for anyone who seriously works out to sign up, finish the race, and get a result. Moritz himself is a heavy user of the gym. He knows exactly what those people who spend a lot of time in the gym want: an achievement that they can post on their social media and share with others.
In 2018, the first HYROX event was held "quietly" in Hamburg, Germany - 650 people participated, there was no live - broadcast, no big - name sponsors, and the air - conditioning in the venue was not even turned on enough.
But this model was spotted by a company. In 2019, Infront Sports made a strategic investment in HYROX. Infront is an established player in the global sports marketing field, with a large number of event resources and distribution networks. This investment helped HYROX step out of the "corner".
In 2021, the HYROX event in London was restarted, with 600 people signing up. Four years later, at the end of 2025 in the London event, the number of participants soared to 34,000. In the first event in Hong Kong in 2022, only 700 people participated. By 2026, more than 19,000 people flocked to the three - day event, a 27 - fold increase in 4 years.
Yuan Fang was caught up in this wave.
"In October 2023, I went to the Singapore event for the first time, and there were already four or five thousand people. I posted a few notes on Xiaohongshu saying that this event was really popular, but I only got five likes." Yuan Fang recalled. At the end of the year, he officially took over the work of HYROX in China. At that time, when flipping through dozens of pages on Xiaohongshu, he could only find five or six posts. He also went to the gym to ask the coaches and trainees, "About 8 out of 10 had never heard of it."
In early 2024, HYROX started to promote itself in the Chinese market. The first year was extremely difficult. The team went to the gyms to discuss cooperation, authorization, and opening courses, and often found that only two people came to a class. Yuan Fang said: "Generally, a gym group class needs at least four people to start. Only two people? You can't even earn back the electricity bill."
However, the upsurge of this sport globally also led to a turning point in the Chinese market soon. In 2024, HYROX jointly launched the first event in the Chinese mainland with a gym in Beijing, and more than 1,600 people participated. "The starting point is already higher than that in Hong Kong, China and London." Yuan Fang said. After that event, he felt that "everything was completely different".
Xia Yu remembers every detail of that Beijing event. He was a track and field athlete before and later transformed into an official HYROX coach. He is also one of the first practitioners to participate in Chinese events.
"As soon as I entered the venue, I was stunned." Xia Yu said, "Do you know the feeling of an indoor concert? The lights, the sound, the DJ, and the whole place was full of people. But this is not a concert, it's a sports event. There is no distance at all between the athletes and the audience. When the athletes run by, you can smell the sweat on them and hear their heavy breathing."
This kind of immersive experience is hard to achieve in traditional sports events - in a marathon, it's outdoors, and the audience can't even see the athletes' faces clearly; the CrossFit venue events are too small - scale, and the atmosphere is not up to par; for traditional sports like football and basketball, the stadium experience hasn't changed for a long time... HYROX occupies a unique position: it's big enough to fill an exhibition hall; and it's close enough that the athletes and the audience are breathing under the same roof.
Once you get addicted to this kind of experience, it's hard to quit.
Within less than 10 minutes after the registration for the Beijing event was opened, the "early bird" spots were snapped up. The original price of the spectator tickets for the Shanghai event was 60 yuan, but scalpers resold them for 400 to 500 yuan. Official data shows that the completion rate of HYROX is close to 98% - which means that almost all the people who buy tickets can ring the finishing gong. The more than 600 yuan you pay for the entry fee won't be wasted at all.
Business Strategy
How does HYROX make money? Actually, if you break this question down, the answer is not complicated.
According to Forbes, Moritz estimates that HYROX's global revenue last year was about 130 million US dollars, and it is expected to exceed 220 million US dollars in 2026.
The most direct and largest source of income is, of course, the entry fees, that is, the tickets. For the Shanghai event, the entry fee for the single - person group is 638 to 699 yuan, 1199 to 1309 yuan for the two - person group, 1488 to 1649 yuan for the four - person relay, and 50 to 60 yuan for the spectator tickets. Based on the number of participants exceeding 10,000, the ticket revenue for a single event is at least 6 million yuan.
Sponsors are another big source of income. Puma has been a global partner of HYROX since 2018. In addition, there are sports nutrition brand Myprotein, smart wearable brand Amazfit, etc. After entering the Chinese market, the brand matrix has expanded rapidly - ZhongAn Insurance, Beats, Hyatt Hotels, Red Bull, Didi, with a total of about 20 brands distributed at different sponsor levels. At the event site, the athletes are covered with brand logos. In their words, "these fit bodies are like walking billboards".
The gym authorization is a more "hidden" source of income for HYROX. Partner gyms need to pay an annual authorization fee of 1500 US dollars, and HYROX provides standardized training courses and official certification. In Australia, more than 1400 gyms have joined this program. As of April 2026, the number in the domestic market has also exceeded 400. Yuan Fang believes that the proportion of this business will be higher and higher in the future.
There are also retail merchandise, including finisher's T - shirts, sports bags, hats, accessories, and a unique source of income - official photographer photos, 120 yuan per photo and 214 yuan for the whole set. The post - event retouched photos will be sent to the athletes' email, which can be directly used to post on social media.
But this is far from all of HYROX's business design.
"9 trucks, 36 to 48 hours, and you can set up an event for thousands of people in any city." This is the data that Moritz repeatedly emphasizes to the outside world. Asset - light, replicable, and global - the same track, the same equipment, and the same rules. Moving from Shanghai to Berlin only requires a different group of people. Some industry insiders estimate that with 1500 participants, a single event can be profitable.
The Chinese market has also attracted the attention of capital institutions. According to public information, Boyu Capital has completed the first - round strategic investment in HYROX in China, with an investment amount in the tens of millions of yuan, mainly used for the construction of the venue franchise system and the local operation team.
However, some industry insiders hold a reserved attitude.
Mike has been in the Shanghai fitness industry for 8 years. He has worked in gym operations and is now the founder of a fitness content platform. He put forward the theory of "social currency exchange rate".
"Every kind of social currency has an exchange rate." Mike said, "When frisbee was just popular, if you posted a frisbee photo on your social media, you could get the most attention and likes because it was scarce. The same goes for camping. But when everyone is posting frisbee and camping photos, this 'currency' will experience inflation, and the exchange rate will drop. And HYROX is currently at the stage with the highest exchange rate."
However, in his opinion, the inflation rate of frisbee was too fast because there were almost no thresholds and no preparation period. "As more people follow the trend, the popularity will decline quickly. HYROX at least has a threshold for race preparation. Not everyone can or is willing to spend three months preparing for a race."
Yuan Fang obviously has also thought about this problem. He mentioned the concept of "ecosystem": "If HYROX disappears one day, it will be a loss for everyone. So we need to build this IP together."
Sense of Purpose
"CrossFit is a closed - book exam. You don't know what will be on the test tomorrow. HYROX is an open - book exam. You know every question." Yuan Fang summarized the reason for HYROX's popularity in this way.
Another coach, Zhao Yuhao, put it more directly: "In bodybuilding, beauty pageants and other competitions, there are subjective evaluations, and the judges' aesthetics will affect the results. But HYROX is on the opposite side of this uncertainty - the projects are fixed, and the finishing time is the basis. Everything is based on athletic ability."
Yu Xiaoxiao, Zhao Fang's teammate, made a joke when she first signed up: She thought that she only needed to run 1 kilometer in HYROX. Only after signing up did she know that it was just one cycle, and she had to run a total of 8 kilometers.
"I was scared off at that time and kept worrying about whether to withdraw from the race." She still went in the end. In the first month of training, it took her 5 minutes and 20 seconds to finish 1000 meters on the ski machine. After finishing, her heart rate soared, and she panted on the spot for 3 minutes to recover. After half a month of training, this time was reduced to 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
"I had cramps for 7 kilometers out of the 8 - kilometer race." This is how Wu Hu described his first participation. He has always had the habit of working out and thought this race "wasn't difficult and just wanted to give it a try". But when he got on the track, he realized that the continuous output during the race was completely different from the usual strength training. But he gritted his teeth and finished the race. He started systematic preparation for the race in November 2025, training 10 to 15 hours a week. So far, he has participated in 6 races at 3 events.
Several interviewees mentioned the importance of the "sense of purpose" to the reporter, which is exactly the core part of fitness. In traditional gyms, goals need to be customized, and there is no unified standard. But HYROX has created such a standard.
Xia Yu has a deep understanding of this. "People in high - pressure occupations need sports to release stress, especially 'abusive' sports." He said, "You are scolded by your boss, chased by your clients, and pressured by your KPIs during the day, and you hold a lot of anger. In the evening, you go to the gym and push a sled heavier than yourself. That sense of release is really addictive."
Zhao Fang's teammates are three friends who usually work out together. The night before the race, the four of them were so nervous that they