Beijing’s Ice Ribbon was built for speed skating.
This week, the action moves off the ice.
From September 10–13, the National Speed Skating Oval will fill with runners, sled pushes, rowing machines, and wall balls as HYROX Beijing takes over the venue for four days.
This is the first four-day HYROX event in the region, an expansion organizers say was driven by demand.
For anyone who has managed to avoid HYROX so far, the format is remarkably easy to understand and considerably harder to finish: eight 1-kilometer runs, each followed by a functional workout station.
Image via Weibo@HYROX健身跑
Competitors can race solo, in doubles, or as part of a relay.
That standardized format is a big part of its appeal.
The workout stays broadly the same from city to city, giving people a specific target to train for and a finishing time to chase the next time around.
READ MORE: HYROX Hong Kong Registration Is Now Open
The timing of the Beijing race also comes with another sign of how quickly HYROX has grown.
Image via Infront Sports & Media website
This week, Infront Sports & Media completed the sale of its majority stake in HYROX to a consortium led by consumer-focused investment firm L Catterton, alongside founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste.
Investment firm WndrCo is also participating.
Financial terms were not disclosed, though Reuters and the Financial Times report a valuation of around €600 million.
HYROX began in Hamburg in 2017.
By the 2025/26 season, it had expanded to more than 100 events, attracting around 1.4 million participants and 1.5 million spectators, according to Infront.
China is becoming an increasingly visible part of that calendar.
Image via Weibo@HYROX健身跑
After Beijing, Shanghai follows from October 31 to November 1, while Guangzhou gets its own race weekend on November 21–22. Hong Kong returns from January 7–10, before hosting the 2027 HYROX World Championships from June 10–13; the first time the championships will be held in Asia-Pacific.
For HYROX, the new investors arrive just as the bigger challenge shifts from getting people interested to finding enough room for everyone who wants to race.
[Cover image via Weibo@HYROX健身跑]
