HYROX World Championships | Breakthrough performers Tim Wenisch and Linda Meier overcome the odds to win the Elite 15 race
The seventh HYROX World Championship kicked off in style on Thursday, June 12th at Navy Pier, Chicago, USA, as the planet’s best hybrid fitness athletes went head-to-head in the Elite 15 race.
Tim Wenisch (Germany) and Linda Meier (Germany) were crowned the 2025 Elite 15 HYROX World Champions on Thursday, June 12, overcoming star-packed fields crammed with pre-race favourites and their own injury and illness-plagued pasts at Chicago’s Navy Pier to take their first titles by five and 19 seconds respectively. 27-year old Wenisch clocked a winning 53:53 and 34-year old Meier stormed to the title in 58:56.
Their surprise wins marked the end of a captivating HYROX Elite 15 2024/25 season that has seen the sport’s legacy athletes, Lauren Weeks, Hunter McIntyre, and last year’s world champion, Alexander Roncevic, challenged at every race by a younger, more competitive field that’s packed with full-time athletes. Joanna Wietrzyk’s bettering of Weeks at the HYROX Hong Kong Major in November signalled the shifting tide, but the breakout Australian star isn’t alone, the likes of 22-year-old Lucy Procter breaking into the Elite 15 and placing 5th at her first World Championships.
Meier makes it count
The first race of the evening saw a blistering contest in the women’s Elite 15, Linda Meier overcoming pre-race favourite and three-time World Champion Lauren Weeks (USA) and up-and-coming star Joanna Wietrzyk (Australia) to clinch her first title.
Initially, Weeks and Wietrzyk had resumed a battle that had raged all season, the pair having shared the podium at all four Majors this year, but the rising star appeared to have the better of the master, building a 10-second advantage by the end of the Sled Push.
One station later, though, the Burpee Broad Jump, the race had been turned on its head, Meier catching and then overtaking Wietrzyk. It would prove to be the winning move, and the German never really looked in trouble, powering her way to the biggest victory of her career. Despite her best efforts, Wietrzyk would have to settle for second, with Weeks in third.
Linda Meier, 2025 HYROX Women’s Elite 15 World Champion, said:
“It feels so unreal. I’m so overwhelmed. It shows that it takes time. Today was my day. I wasn’t ill for the last three to four months, so that’s a win. For me, a big win would have been top five, that was my big goal today. I hoped that it’d be enough for a podium but I have never been dreaming of being a world champion. After the burpees, I thought I could win. The burpees are my weakest station, and normally, I lose a lot of time there, and today I felt strong.” Despite her world-class performance, Meier isn’t a full-time athlete; she juggles her HYROX training with a demanding career in IT. That makes her world title all the more impressive. Her biggest supporter is probably her 61-year-old mother, who competes in HYROX herself and has become a familiar face at events.
Wenisch gets the better of HYROX master McIntyre
While the women’s Elite 15 race was ultimately decided at the midway point, the men’s Elite 15 race that followed went to the wire with Tim Wenisch edging three-time World Champion Hunter McIntyre (USA) at the very last.
After an explosive start from one of the big performers of this season, two-time Major winner James Kelly (Australia), it was McIntyre who exited the first station in the lead, the legendary American looking back to his best after a difficult season where new HYROX athletes have come to the fore. After the Sled Push, he appeared on course for a record fourth world title, but Wenisch had other ideas. The German, who had missed the last two world championships through injury, led the charge, chipping away at a 20-second deficit to catch McIntyre by station five, the 1000m Row. He exploded into life, finding eight seconds on the American before building a comfortable lead of his own. Entering the Wall Balls, he had a 40-second advantage, a buffer that turned out to be just enough as he narrowly held out to take his first title by five seconds. Scott Daniels (USA) would complete the podium, with Kelly in fourth and last year’s world champion, Alexander Roncevic (Austria), eighth.
Tim Wenisch and Hunter McIntyre compete in Mens Elite 15 at the Hyrox World Championship in Chicago USATim Wenisch, 2025 HYROX Men’s Elite 15 World Champion, said:
“It’s amazing. I’ve worked for this for two years. On days like today, I get rewarded for all the hard work. I knew when I was 10 Wall Balls in front, I could do short breaks to make sure I’d hit the target, it was really tactical because it’s enough to be in front by five seconds. Hunter is one of the leaders in HYROX. Tiny Tim is the World Champion, and Hunter is second. It’s unbelievable.” It was a moment heavy with irony, as McIntyre had once used the nickname ”tiny Tim” to downplay Wenisch. Now, the tables had turned in the most decisive way possible.
Next season is set to be even less predictable
Although the 2025 HYROX World Championships marks the end of the sport’s seventh season, the 2025/26 contest kicks off again in just two weeks in Singapore at the AIA HYROX Open Asian Championships.
The Elite 15 is shaping up to be the most competitive yet, with a clear rivalry brewing between Wenisch and McIntyre, rising stars like Lucy Procter pushing toward the podium, and Jake Dearden symbolizing just how far grit and dedication can take an athlete. This season marked Dearden’s first-ever qualification into the Elite 15 field and his debut at a HYROX World Championship final, proof that anyone willing to invest the work can rise through the ranks.
Although his night in Chicago ended in heartbreak, forced to withdraw mid-race due to lingering nerve issues from a recent injury, his mindset reflects the resilience of a new generation of athletes. “Unfortunately, tonight wasn’t my night,” he said. “My left leg didn’t feel like mine. No power, no connection, just numbness. I was limping round the track… I’m so gutted, but I’ll learn more from this race than any race that has gone well.”
Stories like Dearden’s, alongside Meier’s breakout win and the surging youth field, underscore the core of HYROX’s unpredictability: on any given day, anyone can make a name for themselves.
HYROX co-founder Moritz Fürste said:
We are growing so fast. There are so many more participants this year compared to last year and we expect the same for next season. We want to get better every day. We’re working very hard to make this sport the best platform in the world of fitness, but also in the world of sport. [The World Championship] is the biggest show, the biggest platform in our sport, and I’m here to enjoy it, but at the end it’s all about the athletes. It’s their show, we want them to shine and we’re working very hard to make that happen.