Inside the race for India’s premium endurance market
Hyrox and Ironman have shown that Indians will pay for premium endurance events. The race now is to expand before competitors arrive.
Mumbai summers can be unforgiving, which made the scene inside a Goregaon convention centre unusual. Three thousand five hundred people had paid to run, push sleds, row, do burpees, and throw wall balls.
This event sold out within days. Another 4,000 arrived to watch. Women made up nearly a third of the competitors, a ratio rare at most traditional endurance events.
Hyrox had arrived in India.
By September, Hyrox was back in Mumbai for a second event. Over 3,350 people registered, including Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath, with his wife, and several other high-profile athletes. The repeat turnout suggested that May had not been a one-off.
Deepak Raj watched his first event after spending a decade making the same case. Raj believed that Indians would train and pay top dollar if they knew what they were working towards. Hyrox gave them a target.
India’s fitness economy has been expanding faster than previously assumed. The commercial fitness market, according to a recent Deloitte India report, is worth more than Rs 16,200 crore and is growing nearly 15% a year, with projections that it will double by 2030. Yet gym penetration stands at 0.8%. For years, the industry assumed that India lacked the willingness to pay.
Hyrox’s debut, following Ironman's growth, suggests the opposite.
Over 1,300 people finished Ironman Goa (70.3) last Sunday. Participants came from over 200 towns. Athletes in cities such as Vadodara and Indore are asking for events of their own. The numbers point to demand for premium events well beyond India’s largest cities.
The demand was there. What it lacked was an event worth training for.
