World Triathlon signs HYROX up as the organiser of its new hybrid racing championships
A term sheet signed in October makes hybrid racing a World Triathlon discipline in three formats, with HYROX running the elite championships. Both sides say the aim is the Olympic Games, which would still need the IOC’s approval.
World Triathlon and HYROX have signed a term sheet that makes hybrid racing an official discipline of the triathlon federation and hands HYROX the elite world, continental and national championships, the two organisations announced on 28 October.
Hybrid racing combines running with functional fitness exercises. HYROX says its races, which began in a German exhibition hall, now fill arenas on six continents. Under the agreement it will be raced in three formats, all sanctioned and governed by World Triathlon and developed jointly with HYROX.
The deal is not yet complete in every detail. World Triathlon said a “Long Form Agreement” would follow, setting out “the full operational, governance and commercial framework of the partnership”.
Three formats, one operator
The first format, called Ultimate, mirrors the existing HYROX race. The second, Fast, is described as a shorter and more intense version. The third, Ultra, is a longer, endurance-based format. Neither Fast nor Ultra has published distances or a list of workout stations yet.
HYROX will be the exclusive operator of the official world, continental and national championships for elite athletes in the Ultimate format, folding them into its existing elite competition structure. World Triathlon’s national federations, of which it says it has more than 177, will be able to organise hybrid racing events in all three formats, including national championships for age-group athletes.
The two organisations said they would work towards getting hybrid racing into multi-sport games, “with the ultimate ambition to gain inclusion into the Olympic and Paralympic Games”. Being part of a federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee is a first step, but the IOC decides which sports appear on a Games programme.
A year in the making
The agreement follows a vote at the World Triathlon Congress in Wollongong, Australia, on 18 October 2025, when an “overwhelming majority” of member federations approved two new disciplines. One was fitness racing, which World Triathlon described at the time as the format “developed and pioneered by international fitness brand HYROX”. The other was swimrun.
World Triathlon’s president, Antonio Arimany, said the partnership was “the result of a full year of dedicated work” between the two organisations.
“Hybrid Racing is a natural evolution for our movement, and this partnership will not only accelerate the growth of World Triathlon on the global stage, it will open genuine new opportunities for every one of our National Federations to grow participation, engage new audiences, and strengthen our sport at every level,” he said in the announcement.
Moritz Fürste, a HYROX co-founder and former Olympic athlete, said: “Having lived the Olympic dream twice as an athlete, I know firsthand what it means to step onto that stage.”
What is still unclear
The name has shifted along the way. The Congress approved “fitness racing”, and the announcement uses “hybrid racing” throughout. The5krunner, a technology and endurance sport site, reported that World Triathlon had renamed the discipline “Hyathlon” in February 2026 to separate it from the HYROX brand, and said the long-form agreement would have to settle which name survives.
Practical details for the new formats are also pending. Slowtwitch spoke to Fabio Cabrera, a long-time race director of Ironman Lanzarote who worked with HYROX at its Spanish events in 2026. He said organisers so far had rulebooks only for the Ultimate format and were waiting on HYROX for details of the other two.
Cabrera welcomed the deal. “I think it’s awesome. This gives the sport another route into the Olympics,” he told Slowtwitch. “So I think it’s a win-win for both, and for sport in general.”
For triathlon, the deal is another sign of a federation trying to become, in its own words from 2025, “a more commercially driven organisation”. It already has a 12-year strategic partnership with the Professional Triathletes Organisation, and the two launch a joint Triathlon World Tour in 2027.
