Something interesting happened in the 2000s. A guy looked at fitness and decided it could be a sport. And yes, before you come for me, I know ‘fitness’ has been a sport forever. The Russians have been slinging kettlebells for centuries. But they were not getting Instagram clout, were they?

Love it or hate it (and there is a middling chance you hate it, you have to give Greg Glassman and CrossFit their dues. His early insight, “men will die for points,” hit on something we have always known. In the early years of this millenium, when Western fitness culture was dominated by bodybuilding splits, machine weights and questionable cardio classes, that unique insight was the spark for modern competitive fitness as we now know it.

WHERE ARE WE NOW?

We are hot. Like, really hot. It’s practically impossible to ignore competitive fitness in some form or another. Your Instagram feed is definitely full and you 100% know a HYROX officianado in the office.

But what does the landscape look like now, and what’s driving it? CrossFit still positions itself as the purest form of competition. It is built on a defined formula for fitness: broad work capacity across time and modal domains, expressed as foot-pounds per minute. It has spent two decades inspiring extreme reactions, both positive and negative.

But the industry has moved on. In a post-pandemic world, after months of isolation and a collective brush with mortality, health, longevity and connection became more front of mind than ever. The competition space exploded along with a broader boom in wellness.

The global wellness economy is projected to hit $7 trillion by 2025 according to the Global Wellness Institute, driven by consumers investing more in holistic health, fitness and wellbeing.

THE GAME IS ON

HYROX has taken functional training, mixed it with traditional endurance and standardised it. In a remarkably short amount of time, it has found itself in Olympic conversations. Participants have grown from around 80,000 in 2022–23 to more than 1.2 million expected in 2025, with events now in 85 cities across 30 countries. The demand for tickets has become comparable to major concert tours, with lotteries, multiple-device strategies and sell-outs the norm.

Moritz Furste, HYROX Co- Founder says:

“Ultimately when you think about who we are competing against, we aren't fighting with your local gym or even your local 5K race. We are fighting now against Broadway and the cinema. We are convincing someone to spend quite a lot of money and to spend their weekend somewhere like New York or Sydney or Shanghai running our race. We are in the entertainment game when it comes to attention whilst still running an aspirational Tier 1 sport.”

Triathlon innovation is also growing fast. The new T100 Triathlon World Tour, designed with a Formula 1-esque structure and equal prize money for men and women, is causing a stir. Ironman projects 223,000 participants this year, with a 39 percent increase in under-30 entrants since 2019. Marathons such as the London Marathon and New York City Marathon have reported application increases of over 20 percent in the last two years.

The pattern is clear. Younger adults are less interested in nights out and more interested in fitness-first socialising. As one industry figure put it, “17 to 24 year olds are not going out, drinking and partying as much anymore. They are meeting up and doing fitness events.”

Brands have been quick to recognise the opportunity. Nike Run Club, Adidas Runners, On Running’s Cyclon Community and Tracksmith’s Twilight 5000 series are creating structured run experiences that blend brand storytelling with community culture.

The Tech-Driven Wellness Shift

Technology is powering this change. 57% of consumers in major markets now use health tracking apps or wearables, with uptake as high as 79% among 18 to 24 year olds and 78% among those aged 25 to 34. Devices from WHOOP, Garmin, Apple Watch, AmazFit and Oura Ring have become a default part of the training kit, tracking recovery, heart rate variability and sleep data. Platforms such as Strava have turned training into a social feed, where workouts are shared, compared and commented on like any other form of content. This constant feedback loop makes fitness a measurable lifestyle rather than a casual activity, now further boosted by their recent acquisition of training app Runna.

Drinking Culture and Gen Z’s Surprising Turn

Alongside the rise in competitive fitness is a significant drop in alcohol consumption, particularly among younger people. In the UK, almost half of adults aged 18 to 34 now abstain from alcohol completely, and one in five members of Gen Z are fully teetotal. Only 1 percent of that generation report drinking daily, compared with far higher levels in older age groups.

Dry January participation has jumped from 4,000 in 2013 to nearly nine million in 2023. In 2025, 29 percent of UK adults, or about 15.5 million people, planned to go alcohol-free for the month. At the same time, alcohol sales volumes in the UK have fallen nearly 10 percent since 2019, while no- and low-alcohol beverage sales continue to rise sharply.

BUT - Gen Z are bucking the trend, after a wild swing to the wellness world recent reports have shown that Gen Z are returning to drinking in droves pursuing intentional use, social lubrication and celebration. New players like Roley’s are leaning into this space with a functional beverage play, keeping the alcohol but dropping the carbs and sugar whilst targeting the health and wellness consumer with their recent HYROX sponsorship.

Stewart Roley, Roley’s Founder, comments:

“Competitive fitness is just such a strong place right now, we think the consumers in this space are high commitment and high intent personality types, the sort of people who go all in on whatever they do - it’s a perfect pitch for a product like ours which lets people celebrate their achievements whilst doing everything we can do optimise recovery and minimise the impact of those celebrations. Ultimately when people come over the finish line of whatever they are doing they want to connect with their loved ones, celebrate what they’ve just done and start thinking about the next one”

Closing the Loop: Fitness, Culture and Health

Competitive fitness is no longer just about testing capacity. It is about the vibe, the culture and the story you tell after the race. Fitness events are replacing nights out for a growing section of the population. Alcohol consumption is evolving, health is on the rise, and participation in structured competitions is becoming a core way people choose to spend their time and build their communities. 

If you’re not on the start line, you’re getting left behind.