HYROX Is on the Rise: Get to Know 2024 World Champions Megan Jacoby and Alexander Roncevic
Megan Jacoby and Alexander Roncevic took second place in their respective divisions at the 2023 HYROX World Championship. This year, they returned to stand on top of the podium at the sport’s pinnacle event.
HYROX originated in Germany in 2017 and has quickly grown into one of the most popular fitness sports globally, recently expanding to major cities across the United States.
The 2024 HYROX World Championship was held on June 7 in Nice, France, and featured a $150,000 prize pool.
Remind me: The first-ever HYROX race in 2017 had 650 participants.
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In the 2024/2025 season, HYROX expects to host 425,000 athletes across five continents. This number represents a potential 100 percent participant growth year-over-year.
- There have been 45 races this season, and 85 are planned for the 2024/2025 season, 11 of which will be in North America.
Jacoby, a mother and former NCAA Division I runner, took a big leap in 2023 to be a full-time HYROX athlete.
She first heard of the sport a few years earlier and fell in love with the format, which includes mostly running with cross-training-style stations in between.
- “I had no sponsors lined up when I left my company. But when you take that first step, that leap, then things kind of just start working out and doors just started opening. Thank God,” Jacoby told Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
Based in upstate New York, Jacoby’s background as a collegiate runner set her up well for HYROX.
- “You line up in a race, and it’s the same distance, and you’re just trying to squeeze out a little bit here or there,” Jacoby said. “This is very normal for me, and I’m very used to training for one event repeatedly.”
Exponential Growth
HYROX’s immense growth is not only visible through its participation but also through its partnerships.
The latest is its collaboration with fitness and wellness company Centr. HYROX and Centr recently launched new competition equipment for their races, making the race even more unified around the globe.
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- In addition, HYROX has also partnered with PUMA as the official apparel and footwear brand.
There were 30,000 participants in the United States for the 2023/2024 season. That number is expected to grow to 55,000 in 2024/2025.
Austrian athlete Alexander Roncevic was a swimmer for 15 years. It was always his goal to become a professional athlete, but he wasn’t quite able to do it with swimming.
He came across HYROX in its early days back in 2017 and competed in his first race in 2018.
- “[HYROX] became my new sport and gave me a second sports career after swimming,” Roncevic told Morning Chalk Up in an interview.
Roncevic’s background in swimming and running gave him a solid baseline for the HYROX competition. Before HYROX, he said he’d never done sled push or pulls before or used the Ski Erg or thrown wall balls.
- “I’m about five years into the sport right now but I keep getting better and better,” Roncevic, who is an elementary school teacher in Vienna, Austria, said.
Longevity Is Key
Both Jacoby and Roncevic say they hope to have long careers in HYROX and credit their longevity to endurance sports, such as running and swimming.
Roncevic adds that he isn’t quite at his peak yet and believes there are aspects to his running technique that can improve his overall endurance.
His advice to new HYROX athletes is to continue doing races.
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- “I tell everybody, I think you need to experience the sport and then you can start thinking about ‘how can I improve my training to get better at running, at the stations, etc.,’” he said.
The sport is still quite young and athletes are still figuring out their rhythm, he adds.
For Jacoby, she’s continually inspired by seeing women well into their 50s and 60s competing in HYROX.
- “It gives me hope that I could maybe have a really long career in this, whereas maybe in other things, I wouldn’t feel like my body could hold up for that long. I mean, I still don’t know if it will, but here’s hoping,” she said.
Jacoby does periodization training, which means she divides her training into specific phases, such as a strength cycle or station-specific cycle.
Want to Give HYROX a Try?
Both Jacoby and Roncevic advised HYROX newcomers to just start with running. Aim to run at least five miles at a time and work your way up from there.
- “I think even with the strength pieces in the event, the endurance piece is the biggest because you’re running more than half of the race and then a lot of the stations are very cardiovascular in and of themselves, so having that big cardio base, I think is a great place for people to start,” Jacoby said.
Roncevic plans to stay in the sport for the next couple of years and hopefully maintain his position on top of the podium.
- As HYROX continues to grow and more athletes compete, “I’m going to need to stick with it and stay on the train,” he adds.
Credit: Sportograf / HYROX