Hyrox’s founder says the races have categories so normal people don’t compete with those who look like ‘Greek statues’

• Hyrox has categories for a reason, its cofounder and CEO, Christian Toetzke, said.
• Toetzke said the competition was designed to separate the “Greek statues” from “normal people.”
• There were over 80 runs of Hyrox in 2025, with more than 550,000 participants, per its website.

Hyrox was designed to keep those with god-tier fitness competing in different categories, and not alongside regular people, its cofounder said.

In an episode of the “Opening Bid” podcast released on Wednesday, Hyrox’s CEO, Christian Toetzke, spoke on why people of vastly different fitness levels could compete in the competition.

He said the viral fitness competition has two categories: the open and the pro. Those competing in the pro category use heavier weights and require a higher level of fitness, and the two groups are kept separate.

“That was on purpose,” Toetzke told host Brian Sozzi. “So the guys that look like Greek statues — or the girls — they sign up for the pro division, which is much harder because you have to move much heavier weights around.”

“So you feel more between normal people when you sign up for the open category,” he added. Men and women also compete separately, he said.

Hyrox, which started in 2017 in Germany, requires participants to complete eight different functional workout stations, running a kilometer between each. The stations include workouts like sled pushes, burpee broad jumps, wall balls, and sandbag lunges.

The competition has risen in popularity since its inception. Hyrox’s website said that there were more than 80 competitions planned globally in 2025, with more than 550,000 participants joining.

Tickets for the competition are in high demand, with some fans describing the effort to secure them as comparable to securing tickets for Glastonbury or Taylor Swift’s concerts. Toetzke said in the podcast that the tickets are priced around $110.

He told Sozzi that he wants to make Hyrox an Olympic sport by the 2032 Games in Brisbane, Australia. He said Hyrox would soon present a proposal to the International Olympic Committee on the merits of adding the sport to the games.

“Gym fitness has to be represented at the Olympic Games,” he said.

Representatives for Hyrox did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.