We launched RoxOpt 1 year ago today!

To mark the milestone, we’re introducing The Extra Lap, a weekly mix of HYROX data insights, product updates, community highlights, behind-the-scenes stories from our journey, and more.

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Stat of the Week

Two weeks ago, every male broke 58 minutes at the Hamburg Elite 15 Major. Just two years ago at the very first Elite 15 major in Chicago, only 4 of 15 broke 58 min and 7 didn’t even break 60 min.

Of the women, 11 broke 63 min in Hamburg. Two years ago in Chicago? Only 2.

One can only imagine what 2027 will look like…

RoxOpt Bounty Competition

A few weeks ago we launched the RoxOpt Bounty competition. For selected HYROX races this season, we’ll offer $100 USD cash prizes to RoxOpt customers who beat their next race predicted peak potential.

To be eligible, you must purchase a race report for your most recent race before the eligible race to get the most up-to-date prediction based on your full history. Everything is tracked automatically.

We’ve already had some athletes collect! (predicted peak in parenthesis)

• Cole Learn | HYROX Boston | Men’s Pro - 0:55:30 (0:55:45)
• Stefan Bate | HYROX Boston | Men’s Open - 1:15:05 (1:20:54)
• Dimitri Audibert | HYROX Toronto | Men’s Pro - 1:04:23 (1:04:35)

Our next bounty competition is set for HYROX Paris and HYROX Birmingham October 22-26 2025.

As an added bounty bonus, if you beat your expected time, you’ll earn 1 free month in the RMR Training App, courtesy of RoxOpt partners Rich Ryan and Ryan Kent.

Quantifying Course Speed

For years, there has been much subjective discussion about whether a course was fast, slow, or normal. We took a stab at adding some data to the discussion.

We settled on a method to identify outlier courses by measuring where an abnormally high share of athletes either outperformed or underperformed their personal bests, compared against a normal range of expected course-to-course variability.

To do this, we calculated the median % change vs pre-race personal best for every HYROX race in the past 365 days (men’s and women’s pro only). This established a normal range using the median of all races and the addition and subtraction of 1 standard deviation in both directions.

Any race outside of this range, we’d consider unusually fast or slow.

Here are where last weekend’s HYROX races landed. We’ll continue to share these analyses each week.

Shoutout to Race Brain‘s Jack Bauer who has also done a lot of great analysis on this topic as well.

Rich Ryan Shows Out

RoxOpt partner Rich Ryan delivered an incredible showing at the HYROX Elite 15 Major in Hamburg, finishing 6th with a blazing 55:01. Just 48 hours later, he teamed up with Dylan Scott to post the second-fastest Pro Doubles time ever with a 48:53, nearly matching the world record (48:31) he set last season in Miami with Pelayo Menendez Fernandez.  

By the way, if you’d like Rich to take a deep dive into your RoxOpt Report and provide his insights and recommendations for training, race strategy, etc, you can purchase a personalized video here and also submit specific questions for him.

This service has been a hit. Here’s what one customer said:
”What really blew me away was how he spotted a major weakness I hadn’t even realized. His training suggestions were clear, specific to me, and super encouraging. I've already watched the video like five times - and I'm using it to reshape how I train moving forward.” - Jennifer Thompson (1:04:43 Women’s Pro PB)

RoxOpt Origin Story - Entry #1

Back in 2022, I signed up for my first HYROX in Los Angeles. I had no idea what I was doing and limped to the finish line after a 6 min calf cramp at wall balls. The race was a disaster but I was hooked… and when I saw all of the split data, the data scientist in me was HYPED.

I had always dreamed of a sports analytics career but by 2022, the field was already so advanced. Moneyball had been changing baseball for two decades. The NBA had been optimized for three-pointers and free throws. But here was a brand new sport with so many unknowns. Oh the wheels were turning!

It wouldn’t be for another year before I even met someone who had heard of HYROX (shoutout to the random person in the Columbus airport security line).

However, what struck me at my first HYROX in December 2022 was the energy in that convention center (and also the free post-race deep tissue massage in the recovery area… yes, that was a thing!).

Outside, no one knew what it was but inside it felt like one of the most popular sports around. The experience and production felt special. I really thought this had some serious growth potential in a few years.

I always had an entrepreneurial itch but never really found the right problem to solve. Yet, once I saw all of that split data — struggling to make sense of it but hungry to get better myself — I finally had my problem to solve.

As my wife and I left the venue, I remember seeing Rich Ryan and Ryan Kent battling it out on the sled push. I didn’t know them personally yet or really much beyond what the results of a “what is hyrox” Google search could offer.

I told my wife, “That’s the YouTube guy I follow! And that’s that guy who beat that Hunter person I think.” Pretty funny to look back on. I had no idea that moment would later come full circle.

Jon Holman, RoxOpt Founder