- Morning Chalk Up
- Posts
- 🤝 What Matters More Than Medals for HYROX Star, Alexander Roncevic?
🤝 What Matters More Than Medals for HYROX Star, Alexander Roncevic?
POWERED BY
Good morning and welcome to the Morning Chalk Up.
In today’s edition:
🏃♂️Stockholm marked the final championship race for one of HYROX's most dominant doubles teams.
🚀 The inaugural XENOM event proved a mass-participation CrossFit competition can be polished, professional, and a whole lot of fun.
🌍 Europe's largest inclusive CrossFit competition returns this fall bigger than ever.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
It was a perfect season…we're the European champions. It was a really perfect story and the perfect way to finish this.”
HYROX
Alexander Roncevic Caps a Historic Season with Elite Doubles Gold in Stockholm
Credit: Scott Freymond
World Champion, current World Record Holder, winner of multiple HYROX Majors, and a spot on the Red Bull athlete roster – Alexander Roncevic’s accolades are more impressive and abundant than those of almost anyone competing in the sport of hybrid fitness.
At the 2026 HYROX World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, Roncevic competed over three nights. Although it was in a different division than the one he won last year, the Austrian walked away a winner again, this time in Elite Doubles alongside partner Tim Wenish, the 2025 Elite 15 Men’s Champion.
The details: Having won two Majors earlier this season (Hamburg and Warsaw), set two World Records, and become the first athlete ever to finish a race under 52 minutes, he was the favorite to win the Elite 15 Men’s Division. Although he led from the start, he ultimately slipped to sixth place, with his Doubles partner Wenisch taking third.
Your training is dialed in. Is your recovery?
You track your PRs, your macros, your sleep score, but gut health, immunity, and micronutrients quietly determine whether all that hard work actually sticks.
Swolverine's Wellness Stack lets you build a custom foundation from Greens+Reds, Multivitamin, Probiotics, Omega-3s, Magnesium, and more, so you can fill the gaps your diet and training create.
Mix and match what you need, save up to 30% when you bundle 3+, and stack an extra 15% off with a subscription. Built for athletes who treat recovery like part of the program, not an afterthought.
*This newsletter relies on our sponsors. Please consider supporting them.
SPEED READS
🎟️🔥 Games Tickets Are Live: The 2026 CrossFit Games tickets are now available to the public — with the action heading to San Jose in just a few weeks!
🏋️♂️🎓 Virtuosity Is Earned, Not Given: CrossFit's latest Essentials article takes readers inside the Level 1 Seminar, emphasizing that excellence comes from mastering the fundamentals, not chasing flashy movements. The focus is on performing common movements uncommonly well.
🚀🏟️ XENOM Passed Its First Big Test: Athletech News reports that the inaugural Dallas event generated genuine optimism for the future of competitive fitness, with athletes praising its professionalism, production quality, and unique format.
🤝🏋️ Why Come Back? On the latest The CrossFit Show, Chris Cooper explains why he chose to reaffiliate his gym with CrossFit, saying the methodology itself, not the brand alone, continues to deliver unmatched results for everyday people.
ICYMI: Alex Gazan Heads to San Jose With New Perspective. (Rx article)
MEMBER EXCLUSIVE
3 Key Takeaways From the Inaugural XENOM Competition
Credit: XENOM
I first heard about XENOM while in Las Vegas, competing in my first HYROX last February.
My editor called to say he had just gotten off the phone with Keith Barlow about a new mass-participation fitness event Keith was about to launch.
“It sounds like it’s basically a two-day CrossFit competition with 10 events, but run like a HYROX race,” was how he first described it to me when he assigned me to write about it.
I furrowed my brows because I couldn’t wrap my head around how you could have hundreds, or even thousands, of people at a CrossFit event like the HYROX I was currently racing in.
Needless to say, I was skeptical. I was skeptical about the logistics of running a 10-workout, two-day, mass-participation CrossFit event, the price point, and the demand for this type of event.
But as the details began to roll out — and after speaking with Barlow shortly after XENOM was announced — I started to understand the concept a little better and, ultimately, the potential.
Well, over the weekend, I had the chance to be on site for the first XENOM at The Star in Frisco, TX, and thought I’d share three of the big takeaways I witnessed.
COMPETITIONS
Fitness, Community, and Inclusion: WODCELONA Readies for Its Fifth Annual Competition
Credit: WODCELONA
The largest inclusive CrossFit competition in Europe is set to take place in Barcelona, Spain, this fall for its fifth iteration. From September 11-13, athletes with and without disabilities will come together to compete and celebrate fitness on the same stage.
Marc Gil, the 2017 Wodapalooza champion and founder of the nonprofit Limited Edition Athletes, launched the fitness festival in 2022 to bring a fully inclusive competition to Barcelona. The inaugural WODCELONA in 2022 hosted 800 athletes across more than 16 categories. In 2024, the event hosted 1,400 athletes, and this year Gil expects 2,300.
Held in partnership with Nike, Ecolab, and Fitness Park, among many other brand partners, WODCELONA is growing rapidly and seems to be doing everything right.
“Part of that growth comes from the natural consolidation of the event, but this year we have also decided to open our doors to another rapidly growing fitness community: hybrid racing. Through the launch of WODCELONA HYBRID, we expect to welcome hundreds of new athletes and spectators who share the same values of effort, resilience, and community,” Gil told the Morning Chalk Up.
HIGHLIGHTS
Celebrating a PR, hosting a fundraiser, this, that, or otherwise? Send us a tip.
👟 Daniel Nides just completed a “power ultra,” reaching an 1185-pound powerlifting total before finishing a 50K.
Watch this impressive snatch progression (80 kilos/176 pounds - 110 kilos/242 pounds) from 18-year-old Dom. Amazing!!
🚴 Check out Jeff Adler’s Games prep — we’re getting down to crunch time!
ICYMI, here’s the Rogue Air Rhino in action at the inaugural XENOM competition in Frisco, Texas last weekend.
🦏 And here’s Xenom Dallas winner Abbie Domit talking about her first time at it.