Sled pushes, burpee broad jumps and a whole lot of heavy breathing took over the Salt Palace Convention Center this weekend as roughly 16,000 competitors descended on downtown Salt Lake City for HYROX's first-ever event in Utah. The indoor fitness race, which pairs eight 1-kilometer runs with eight grueling functional stations, ran from Friday through Sunday, testing everyone from first-timers to elite racers on the same course.
According to KSL, the roughly 16,000 competitors gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center for a race format built to blur the line between weekend warriors and professional athletes. The event, staged at 90 South West Temple, marked HYROX's debut in the state, according to hyrox.com, which describes the Salt Lake City race as its first-ever event in Utah.
What Racing HYROX Actually Looks Like
The format itself is deceptively simple on paper: eight one-kilometer runs, each followed by a functional fitness station, according to the race's own event page. Movements woven between the runs include lunges, burpees, sled pushes and sled pulls, per the same source, while the sport's international governing body notes the full workout roster also spans ski-machine efforts, rowing, kettlebell carries and medicine-ball throws, as detailed by the BBC.
At the Salt Lake City race, elite athletes, everyday competitors and first-timers all took on that same course, per hyrox.com's event listing, with categories built for different ability levels, doubles pairings, relay teams and even a Youngstars division for racers ages 8 to 15. In HYROX's doubles format, both athletes must complete the required 8-kilometer run but can split the workout stations however they choose, according to Cigna Global.
Local Racers on the Course
The event's energy was unmatched, competitor Brooke Knudson said, according to the same KSL report. Kynzie Atkinson, who planned to compete in the women's doubles pro category, said she and her friend intended to complete the full runs together while splitting the functional fitness stations between them.
Barry Beveridge and Alyssa Beveridge said they were introduced to HYROX through social media, the same report notes, a detail that tracks with how the sport has spread nationally. Alyssa Beveridge said HYROX is intended for anyone to try, while a racer identified as Muscat said the movements involve little technique, making the sport more accessible to a broader range of people. The competition still demands endurance and pacing as well as strength, per the report.
From Hamburg Warehouse to Global Fitness Craze
HYROX began in Hamburg, Germany, in 2017 and has since experienced rapid growth, especially in the United States. That trajectory shows up in the numbers: the race grew from an initial field of 650 participants in Hamburg to more than 40 global events in 2023 alone, drawing over 90,000 athletes and 50,000 spectators, according to the BBC. The sport's popularity is largely credited to its accessibility and its visibility on social media, the outlet reports.
The number of HYROX-affiliated gyms jumped to 5,000 worldwide in 2024, a 260 percent year-over-year increase, per USA Today. HYROX itself says it plans to hold more than 100 global events in 2026, according to its own site. Even CrossFit, often seen as a rival in the functional-fitness space, has acknowledged the trend, noting that its affiliates have increasingly signed athletes up for HYROX races as a community activity, per CrossFit.
How HYROX Differs From CrossFit
HYROX is different from CrossFit, and the distinction is more than branding. The BBC describes HYROX as closely related to CrossFit but built around simpler exercises that prioritize endurance over raw strength. CrossFit frames the difference similarly, noting that its own programming emphasizes constant variation while HYROX races stick to a standardized format that repeats worldwide, per the organization's site.
That consistency has turned HYROX into a magnet for crowds elsewhere too. Events in London, New York and Amsterdam regularly sell out within hours, with demand outpacing available race slots, according to Infront. In Scotland, an economist told the BBC that a recent HYROX event in Glasgow drew roughly 40,000 people who otherwise would not have visited the city, underscoring the kind of pull the race can exert on host communities.
Whether Salt Lake City sees a similar ripple effect from its own debut remains to be seen, but for now, the Salt Palace Convention Center has its answer on what a first-time HYROX weekend looks like: eight runs, eight stations, and thousands of competitors chasing the clock through Sunday.
