The 2026 HYROX North American Regional Championship is this weekend in Washington, DC. Women start at 7:30pm EST on Saturday, March 7, while the men’s race begins at 9:00pm EST. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to see how previous HYROX US/North American Regional. Championship races went down.
2021
Only 8 women and 9 men finished at the inaugural 2021 “HYROX US Championship of Fitness” in Chicago. Look at how different the sport was only a few years ago. Several of the top names are still around 5 years later, but they’re now running times that seemed impossible at the time.
Lauren Weeks took home the win (and $5,000) in a time of 65:18. Her winning time doesn’t even rank in the top-500 fastest women’s solo times anymore. Rachel Vonderach made the podium with a time of 72:19, a time that has already been surpassed by over 1,000 women during this current season as of February 2026.
Hunter McIntyre won by nearly 4 minutes in 61:01, yet his time would be nearly 3 minutes outside the qualification threshold for the Elite 15 at this year’s North American Regional Championship.
Dylan Scott and Rich Ryan have improved their PRs by 11:29 and 15:00 vs. their times from Chicago,respectively. Those aren’t typos.
2022
Most of the top-10 finishers recently switched from OCR and solely focused on hybrid racing training. Men’s times were noticeably faster across the board, while the top women’s times mostly got slower compared to the previous year.
Ryan Kent shocked the world and handed Hunter McIntyre his first ever defeat on US soil. Rich Ryan landed on a significant podium for the first time in his HYROX career, while Dylan Scott dropped from 2nd the previous year to 4th in 2022.
Lauren Weeks took home the win for the second straight year, while Rachel Vonderach improved her previous year’s result by 1 place to finish runner-up. Eventual world champion, Kris Rugloski, finished in 4th.
2023
It probably sounds strange to new HYROX fans, but Majors still didn’t exist yet during the 2022/2023 season. Instead, the 3 big races were the North American Championship (Chicago), European Championship (Maastricht), and World Championship (Manchester). Some of the best athletes from 10 countries headed to Chicago to crown the North American Regional champion.
A European athlete won the North American Regional Championship but didn’t win the European Regional Championship. Swedish athlete Mikaela Norman fell hard to the ground less than a minute into the race, but she regained her composure and eventually won in a commanding 62:04. Meg Jacoby crossed the finish line 39 seconds later, while Lauren Weeks was unable to make it 3 straight wins with a 3rd-place finish.
David Magida and Dylan Scott methodically moved their way up the pack during the first half of the race before breaking away from Michael Sandbach during farmer’s carry. Wall balls were the deciding station for the podium, as David was 1 of only 3 athletes to finish wall balls in under 4 minutes. This marked the second time in 3 years that Dylan Scott finished runner-up at the North American Regional Championship. European athletes claimed 11 of the 15 spots on the men’s side, which was controversial at the time.
2024
The 2024 HYROX North American Regional Championship was the first time this race was held outside Chicago. This time, athletes headed to the nation’s capital to crown a champion.
Dylan Scott finally claimed the North American Regional champion title he had been searching for the previous 3 years. His winning time of 56:37 was 8:19 faster than his 2nd-place finish in 2021. Graham Halliday’s 3:25 split on wall balls allowed him to pass Rich Ryan for 2nd while Rich finished on the podium for the 2nd time in 3 years at this championship.
Lauren Weeks took home her 3rd North American Regional Championship title (and $6,000) with a convincing win in Washington, DC. Just like in the men’s division, a European athlete (Linda Meier) finished in 2nd place under 10 seconds ahead of 3rd place. Eventual world champion, Meg Jacoby, rounded out the podium in 3rd.
2025
Last year’s North American Regional Championship was an open-entry event without any qualifying times required. It was the only race on US soil that allowed athletes to qualify for HYROX World Championship using Open weights rather than Pro weights. No prize money was offered, but plenty of top athletes still showed up.
For the second straight year, Lauren Weeks and Dylan Scott stood atop the podium in Washington, DC. Lauren obliterated the women’s Open world record, taking nearly 2 minutes off the old mark with a ridiculous 55:38 finishing time. Dylan Scott would actually run 13 seconds faster with Pro weights a couple months later in New York, but he did enough in Washington, DC to beat Charlie Botterill by 37 seconds.
2026
Only athletes with a passport for a North American country are permitted to race at the HYROX North American Regional Championship this year. Let’s take a look at how this Saturday’s Elite 15 athletes have performed at US/North American Regional Championships in the past.
Only 6 of the 15 men have previously raced Elite 15 in a Major before, so there are a lot of new faces excited to make the most of this opportunity. Besides Hunter McIntyre, virtually ever high-level male athlete from North America will be on the start line this weekend.
Nearly two-thirds of the women’s field has previously competed in the Elite 15 in either the solo and/or doubles division. Meg Jacoby is out with an injury, so the win will likely come down to 4-time champion, Lauren Weeks, or Vivian Tafuto.
Prize Money
HYROX’s growth has attracted several big-name sponsors, and with that has come a major increase in prize money. First place at this year’s North American Regional Championship will take home more prize money than all places combined in 2021, 2022, and 2023. All athletes who qualified for Elite 15 in Washington, DC will receive at least $900, with the top-10 finishers all receiving at least $2,100.
Before the Race
- Check out Race Brain and the HYROX Rundown for lots of post-race analysis and discussions
- Sign up for the Race Brain Drop, our weekly newsletter to keep you up-to-date with all things HYROX
- Listen to/watch the most recent podcast episode to learn more about the Elite 15 athletes racing this weekend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9Wwp0BJTE0
And if you want more race insights, predictions, and post-race analysis, make sure to follow Race Brain on our social channels so you never miss an update.
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