This discussion features Moritz Fürste, a double Olympic gold medalist in field hockey and co-founder of HYROX, which has transformed fitness racing since its 2017 launch. He shares insights about balancing post-athlete life with entrepreneurship. Moritz highlights the unique challenges of building a global fitness community and the importance of using innovative marketing to engage participants. With millions now competing, he discusses strategies for the brand's future growth and the dream of fitness racing gaining Olympic recognition.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Sports Life
Moritz Fürste played tennis with Misha Zverev until his mom made him choose between tennis and field hockey.
He wasn't initially driven by Olympic aspirations, but by being with friends.
insights INSIGHT
Opportunistic Approach
Moritz Fürste describes himself as opportunistic, not visionary.
He seizes opportunities he feels are within reach, rather than meticulously planning far ahead.
insights INSIGHT
Hyrox Origin
Hyrox arose from the realization that while many gym-goers call fitness their sport, there wasn't a sport for functional fitness.
This insight came after seeing a presentation at FIBO, a fitness convention, stating 52% of gym-goers considered fitness their sport.
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Today, we bring you the man who founded the global phenomenon HYROX. Mo is a double Olympic Gold Medallist in hockey, having won with Germany in Beijing and London. Described to me by someone who knows far more about the sport as ‘The Cristiano Ronaldo’ of field hockey, we were pretty excited to get both a sporting icon and high flying entrepreneur in the studio; always what we strive for on the Business of Sport!
Since it was founded in 2017, HYROX has become a major player in sporting participation. Consisting of both running and 8 separate ‘fitness’ activities to form a unique race format, millions of people have participated in their events around the world. The success has been so impressive that they have now had to implement a ballot in some cities (including London where they had over 70,000 applications) to manage demand.
But this isn’t just a series of fitness events; this is a sport, the driving values of which lie in community and engagement. I can’t deny, when we got into it, the business was pretty insane too. This has been the most requested show over the last 3 months. It was a lot of fun entering a completely new area for the show. This is one incredible sports asset that is only going to get bigger.
We’re delighted to welcome Mo to the Business of Sport.
What is HYROX?:
“52% of people call fitness their sport, but what is the sport”? What was the opportunity moment that led to Mo and Christian embarking on their HYROX journey?
A breakdown of what an event actually consists of; from running to sled pushes to rowing.
How they have taken HYROX from a 650 person event in Hamburg in 2017 to 650,000 signed up global participants this year across 85 events.
Can anyone participate in HYROX? Who is the target audience?
How did Mo’s experience as an athlete prepare him for life as an entrepreneur?
Creating Community:
“You cannot reduce this down to the business model”: how Moritz created one of the most engaged fitness communities in the world.
Why does he think this has resonated with so many people and what do they attribute the success of HYROX to so far?
What does it mean to build community? Lots of people talk about it but very few are able to achieve and then maintain it.
Why is it so important to build out both the professional end and the mass participation front?
The Business of HYROX:
From a near $100m in sign-ups this year to selling media packages to the majority of participants, how do you build on the HYROX hype without exploiting the loyalty of the people who helped build it?
The importance of relationships with global brands like PUMA and Red Bull; the commercial model that powers the brands.
How an affiliate model with gyms will power the development of the sport and allow people to train specifically for events.
Which events have HYROX licensed and which ones do they keep in-house; the logistics of operating a global series.
Business of Sport 