I hold my hand up: two weeks ago I referenced the Hyrox founder’s ambition for his hybrid training venture to become part of the Olympics. Ended my sentence with a dot dot dot. Might as well have rolled my eyes. 

Within days, however, World Triathlon had announced that it was admitting Hyrox into its federation, and hence into the wider Olympic family, if not (at this stage) into the Olympics itself.

Details are sketchy for now. What’s in it for World Triathlon? Has money changed hands, or will it, in either direction? Has World Triathlon committed to lobby for Hyrox events to be part of Brisbane 2032 or a subsequent Games? 

If so, would WT be prepared for any of its existing Olympic disciplines to make way, or does it believe it could persuade the IOC to oust events from another sport with lesser appeal to younger generations?

Some elite triathletes have voiced concerns. Not every Hyrox adherent is overjoyed either – is courting the sporting establishment on brand?

“For us this is terrible… We’re still in for LA but who knows after that? It’s definitely concerning for the future of our sport and for the younger generations coming up,” triathlete Max Stapley told The Telegraph.

“We are paving the way for an entire generation of hybrid racers to chase their own Olympic dream,” says Moritz Furste, Hyrox co-founder.

Triathlon participation numbers around the world are well below their peaks. The sport – once a young challenger itself, only entering the Olympics at Sydney 2000 – caters increasingly to an older demographic.

While smaller in athlete numbers, Hyrox continues to grow apace with around 1.5m participants in the past year. It will need to demonstrate durable growth if it is to convince the International Olympic Committee of its merits. Only time will tell whether hitching its power sled to World Triathlon is the optimal way to do that given the obvious inter-discipline conflicts that will doubtless fester.

The IOC will decide on the Brisbane 2032 sport programme in April next year. A tight timeline for the newly married couple to work to.

Seems there’s no simple noun for a Hyrox athlete equivalent to triathlete. A void that needs filling, surely? Hyroxian, hyroxlete, hylete, hyroxter, hoxster, hyrocker?

Every day is a school day. Mine on Monday was in the House of Lords where we launched a report on the social impact of wheelchair rugby and I learned about additionality. 

Primarily an economic term, in sporting studies it can refer to net social effects and is especially relevant to a sport such as ours which caters to individuals with often severe impairments and who might not otherwise be able to take part in any fitness activity at all.

The comparison we were asked to make by the report’s author was between his own sporting choices – if he wasn’t playing tennis he might well be on a golf course or a bike or out running – and those available to wheelchair users. 

Tennis could disappear and the net effect on the nation’s health, after a period of adjustment, might be slim. Remove wheelchair rugby and hundreds of players might fail to find an alternative physical and social outlet.

Parking for now my oft-mentioned scepticism about attributing hard financial value to society’s wellbeing, I am very pleased to relay that the analysis we commissioned shows an annual social value of £1,500 per GB Wheelchair Rugby member. And this is before what is earned as the positive “ripple effect” on players’ friends and families.

I mention all this because, like many disability sports, there is so much more we could do to grow the game and have this impact if we had more commercial partners alongside the excellent corporate supporters we have today. Please get in touch if you would like to learn more.

In the meantime, you can read our social impact report here.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

I ran around Battersea Park just after dawn yesterday morning and now know what it must be like to be a tailrunner. 

I was passed by scores of runners in both directions, most under half my age I guess, the males among them – who were firmly in the gender minority – trailing the odour of the previous evening’s Lynx in their wake.

Evidence of the continued Gen Z running boom, or instead were these healthy specimens all getting in their pre-work Hyrox training? The park’s 400m track appeared very busy, in spite of the early hour, as I peered through its chainlink surround. 8am reps? Probably confirms my hybrid suspicion.

Strangers on a train

Overheard on the train en route to Selhurst on Sunday.

Stranger #1: “I need to get out at the next stop. Where are you going?”

Stranger #2: “Going up to Twickenham. Just got a call to say my friend had a spare ticket for the rugby.”

Stranger #1: “That’s nice. I’ve never been. Is it league or union?”

Stranger #2: (Thinks for a long while) “Union, I guess.”

Hope #2 enjoyed the match. A man from Mars would surely be just as baffled at the existence of two rugby codes.

Glad all over (still)

Bottom of the league but you wouldn’t know it from the mood on my return journey from Selhurst. We Crystal Palace fans have often been here before. 

At the time of writing, manager Pierre Sage, much liked in the stands, is still in his job. My hope is that the club winning its first meaningful trophies in the past two seasons hasn’t hexed our recovery prospects. 

Never dull, always fun, wouldn’t have it any other way. Can they say that in the Stretford End?

Ed Warner is chair of Sussex Cricket and GB Wheelchair Rugby and writes his sport column at sportinc.substack.com