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  • 💰 HYROX Is Now Worth Nearly $700 Million; Its Founders Are Back In Control

💰 HYROX Is Now Worth Nearly $700 Million; Its Founders Are Back In Control

September 10th, 2026

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Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.

In today’s edition:

  • 💸 HYROX is reportedly worth nearly $700 million; now co-founders Toetzke and Fürste are part of the group taking back majority ownership.

  • 🍳 The Fittest Man on Earth, James Sprague, went from tracking every bite as a teenager to fueling almost entirely by feel.

  • 🚶 A new study suggests the biggest cardiovascular benefits may come from exercising far more than the standard 150 minutes per week.

QUOTE OF THE DAY
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HYROX has built the largest mass participation fitness event series globally…our priorities [now] will focus on our Olympic aspirations, [and] continuing to welcome millions of people to the HYROX starting line...”

Christian Toetske, HYROX co-founder, on the brand’s future.
INDUSTRY

HYROX Co-Founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste Take Back Majority Stake in Recent Sale

Credit: Shutterstock

On Tuesday, HYROX co-founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste announced that they had regained ownership of the brand. 

  • Founded in 2017 by the pair, the fitness event has boomed in recent years, expanding into new countries and hosting 1.3 million participants across 140 events in the past 12 months alone.

Since its inception, HYROX has built a competitive community around training and HYROX-specific equipment, apparel, and footwear. Today, the brand has 13,000 affiliated HYROX gyms worldwide and partnerships with PUMA, Centr, and Red Bull.

Infront Sports and Media invested in the brand in 2017 and has held a majority stake since 2022, helping the sport expand. But over the past few months, rumors have been swirling about the brand's sale, valuation, and future. 

Over the summer, private equity firm L. Catterton (whose portfolio includes EGYM, Solidcore, Peloton, Tonal, and Equinox) said it was seeking to acquire Infront’s stake and invest. 

Known as “the largest global consumer-focused investment firm,” L. Catterton, along with WndrCo, Toetske, and Fürste, has bought back the majority stake as of Tuesday.  

  • “Over the past seven years, HYROX developed into a highly successful and fast-growing global business, delivering strong returns for Infront. Following a thorough strategic review, we have decided to divest our stake, as we believe this transaction represents the right next step as HYROX enters its next phase of development,” said Philippe Blatter, Infront President & CEO.

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SPEED READS

👵 💪 Strong for Life: CrossFit Palo Alto’s Legends 65+ class — where many athletes are actually in their 80s — shows “degree, not kind” in action, scaling the same functional movements elite athletes use to help older adults maintain strength and independence. For these athletes, the PR is carrying their own luggage, getting out of a chair, and continuing to live life on their terms.

📅🔥 The Countdown Is On: CrossFit has announced the dates for the 2027 Open, giving athletes their target as the road to next season gets underway.

💍📈 Oura is Heading to Wall Street: The smart ring maker has filed for a U.S. IPO after generating $1.21 billion in revenue over nine months and selling more than 3.6 million rings in the past year. The listing could raise up to $3 billion and value the wearable giant at more than $16 billion.

ICYMI: Love HYROX, Hate Running? Meet the Hybrid Games.

INDUSTRY

James Sprague Doesn’t Track Macros – Here’s How the Two-Time Fittest Man on Earth Fuels

Courtesy of Justin Romaire

James Sprague was never much of an athlete as a kid. 

He loved sports, but he said he had “a crummy relationship with food,” and at age 12, the now two-time CrossFit Games champion and reigning Fittest Man on Earth was overweight. 

  • “I was in the sixth grade, and I weighed 185 pounds at five-foot-two,” Sprague told The Morning Chalk Up. “Food was an escape, and I wanted nothing to do with making healthy choices.”

But then, when he was only a pre-teen, Sprague walked into a CrossFit gym. Around the same time, he had a growth spurt.

  • “I went from being short and really chubby to tall and really thin,” he said. 

By the time Sprague competed at his first CrossFit Games as a teenager in 2017, he was 6 feet tall but only 150 pounds. 

  • “I probably underate at the time,” said Sprague, who spent two years as a teenager tracking “every piece of food,” as he thought it was “the only way” when it came to fueling for performance. 

In 2019, when Sprague was still a teenager, he met Justin Romaire, owner of Consistency Breeds Growth (CBG) and a nutrition coach.

MEMBER EXCLUSIVE

You Might Need More Exercise Than You Think, Says New British Study

Credit: @welcome_to_the_mill / Instagram

The World Health Organization’s long-standing gold-standard guideline recommends that adults aim for 150 minutes of exercise per week. If you achieve this, you should see a substantial reduction in your risk of a stroke or heart attack, which is the general promise. 

But now, a 2026 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine says something different: The average adult should aim for a whopping nine to 10 hours of exercise per week. 

Even for a fit CrossFit enthusiast who does four to five WODs a week, that sounds like a lot.

The details: The study included 17,088 individuals — 56 percent of whom were female — in the U.K. Biobank between 2013 and 2015. The average participant age was 57.

  • Participants wore a wrist device for a week to record exercise levels, and they also underwent a VO2 max test on a bike. Researchers also accounted for factors such as smoking, the use of alcohol, diet, body composition, heart rate, blood pressure, and self-rated health.

During the 7.8-year average follow-up period, researchers identified 1,233 cardiovascular events among participants. Of these, 874 involved atrial fibrillation, while 156 were myocardial infarctions, 111 were cases of heart failure, and 92 were strokes.

The result: Those who met the WHO’s 150 minutes of exercise a week were found to have an eight- to nine-percent lower cardiovascular risk. However, those who logged 560 to 610 minutes—nine to 10 hours — of moderate to vigorous activity a week saw their risk of cardiovascular problems drop by a much larger 30 percent.

HIGHLIGHTS

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