The 2025 HYROX World Championships wrapped up a massive weekend of racing, with big PRs, unforgettable finishes, and, unfortunately, some unhappy racers who dealt with sled and turf issues that marred an otherwise successful event.
- Remind me: HYROX World Championships finished in Chicago, IL, for the 2024/25 season. The race saw 4,500 athletes compete over four days. The HYROX race has taken over North America recently, and it seems the intrigue will continue to grow.
HYROX HQ partnered with select brands to produce uniform equipment for their races, ensuring consistency across events. They recently invested in a new surface solution for the turf station, where athletes perform sled pushes and pulls. The goal was to find a material that created better consistency across the station.
- “To be very clear: it worked. From a surface perspective, we reached that goal of more consistency,” Moritz Fürste, co-founder of HYROX, wrote in an official statement.
But some racers found the new turf/sled combination to be inconsistent. They were vocal about the discrepancy.
- A video of one racer, Maxime Krantz, complaining to fans about the turf has circulated on social media.
- He can be seen trying to push one team’s sled across the turf, but can barely make it move. He pushed a different sled on a different part of the turf and it easily slid.
“My race today was ruined as the sled wouldn’t move, I got through it but at a huge cost to energy,” another racer, Ray Shah, wrote on Instagram.
- Ironically, a few days before the race, Shah tested the new turf surface and wrote on Instagram: “I didn’t find it easier than we are used to now but it definitely moved more smoothly […] The actual race is going to be the real test after it has been used more with added sweat/moisture mixed in 😅and when it’s worn down a bit.”
HYROX Makes a Statement
Following the public disapproval from the racers, HYROX HQ put out a statement detailing the turf and sled issue, citing the sleds as the actual problem.
- “The second variable in this are the sleds. Depending on their usage, they can be moved better or worse, but with the turf, we can control the range of resistance much better,” Fürste wrote.
- Certain sleds that fall below an acceptable range are swapped out before each race, but in Fürste’s statement, he says, “[We] realized way too late that some sleds had fallen below that acceptable range.”
In his statement, Fürste took full responsibility for the sleds and apologized to all racers who were affected. He called the situation an “unacceptable circumstance” and said immediate action to replace certain sleds throughout the races was taken.
- “The integrity of the sport and the sanctity of the race environment remains our highest value,” Fürste said.
In addition to taking responsibility, the HYROX team said it will look to mitigate any further issues and work to get better in all aspects of the sport.
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Featured Image: HYROX
