Adidas-backed Athx Games Expands Across Us

The functional fitness competition is bringing events to New York, Chicago and four other cities in 2027, joining a growing field of brands looking to capitalize on the Hyrox boom

ATHX Games is making a major push into the U.S., announcing plans to bring its functional fitness competition to six American cities in 2027 as the competitive fitness market continues to grow.

Backed by Adidas, ATHX will stage events in San Diego, Las Vegas, Denver, Nashville, New York and Chicago next year, marking its first major expansion into the U.S. market.

The announcement comes ahead of ATHX’s inaugural World Finals, scheduled for Nov. 27-29 in Lisbon, Portugal.

Founded in the U.K., ATHX offers a 2.5-hour fitness competition combining strength, endurance and metabolic conditioning, or MetCon. Participants can compete individually or in pairs across three divisions — Lite, ATHX and Pro — with different weights and movement standards designed to accommodate varying fitness levels.

Unlike Hyrox’s standardized format of eight 1-kilometer runs interspersed with eight workout stations, ATHX features dedicated strength, endurance and MetCon zones, with built-in rest and recovery periods.

“Bringing ATHX Games to the US in 2027 is a massive milestone for us, and doing it with Adidas allows us to deliver an unparalleled event experience,” said ATHX co-founder and CEO Mark Hartnett-Morgan.

The company expects to attract approximately 80,000 athletes across 45 events worldwide in 2027, with competitions spanning more than 18 countries.

ATHX’s U.S. expansion comes as Hyrox’s meteoric rise has helped turn competitive fitness into a booming global category, attracting athletes, sponsors and investors.

That success has also created opportunities for emerging competitors looking to carve out their own positions in the market.

Among them is Xenom, a new competitive fitness concept backed by Hyrox co-founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste, who recently invested in the company and formed a strategic partnership covering marketing, events and education.

Xenom, which bills itself as the “decathlon of fitness,” is developing a competition format designed to test athletes across multiple fitness disciplines, offering a different approach to Hyrox’s endurance-heavy racing model.

ATHX, meanwhile, has been building its presence through events and partnerships, including its involvement in the Strong New York fitness festival earlier this month, where it brought its competition format to New York City.

The brand’s partnership with Adidas also gives it the backing of one of the world’s largest sportswear companies as it seeks to establish itself in the increasingly crowded fitness racing market.

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