HYROX WORLDS LIVE PANEL: Hunter McIntyre Reveals What A Real Champion Looks Like

0:00Firstly, can we just put our hands together for all the athletes up here?

0:06Hunter, I want to start with you. You said in your post, be fearless, accept the consequences, live beyond their interpretation of your artistry. What did you mean when you wrote that? In reality, I think a lot of people look at us and we look at ourselves as these people that are trying to accomplish this major task. But if you really get so wrapped up in the idea of becoming a world championship champion, sometimes you lose the process of the experience. You don't realize that you're an artist, that we're all building something that's unique to us, our storyline, the potential of becoming a world champion.

0:42To allow that to be given to the rest of the world for them to hold and for them to judge is the wrong way to perceive yourself and to pursue these kind of acts as an athlete. Now, I don't know if anybody here in the crowd wants to become a world champion, but sometimes you can lose yourself in the process of chasing this. And you have to remember why you got started and what would have inspired you to become that person. And if you can live there and don't get lost in the void of anxiety, that's where the real beauty lies of becoming an athlete. I didn't win this weekend. I don't think anybody on the podium was on top of the podium this weekend, but I'm hoping that the athletes that are sitting up here can recognize the accomplishment and the gratitude that comes with this really rare experience.

1:24And I have to always remind myself that because we're always posting and flexing and showing how fast we were and we're all trying to show off and maybe scare off other people. But in reality, we're scared ourselves. And if you can find the beauty in that and find the artistry in it, that's where you get to have a real career. Okay, so if you didn't write that, you definitely wrote what followed. You said, this fire-breathing dragon is only getting bigger and better from here. It's true. I am a fucking monster. Let me tell you that. I can be poetic, but I will beat your ass if you get in my way.

2:01And you have to remind yourself of that too. You can't just go into these things hoping that things will work out. You have to remind yourself that these people alongside of me are trying just as hard as I am, if not harder. And sometimes you have to slap yourself in the face and say, wake up, this is no longer a workout. This is a world championship. Yeah. And a lot of the things you're saying sounds like it's coming from past experience. There's a couple of other younger athletes here that are booming. Joanna, Charlie, you guys are climbing up the ranks. Is there any advice from you being in the sport a lot longer that you can give to these guys and a lot of other people listening that might be wanting to be in the position that you're in?

2:36Eventually the buzz is going to wear off and you're going to then have to look at yourself and realize what makes you stay. And that's where the real athletic career starts. I think like, you know, a bunch of athletes can make it to the NFL, but then can you be somebody who's a real career athlete, somebody who lasts? Like you have been here for a couple years and it's going to get really hard where you've missed the top of the podium twice now. You're going to have to wake up in the morning tomorrow and be like, do I have the courage to start again? And that's where the real courage starts. It doesn't start getting to the finish start line as somebody who's undefeated this season starts when you recognize that you did not accomplish your goals and now you have to redefine yourself again and that's really what makes an athlete because losses are lessons I've had many um it is very scary being a young person going up against grandiose champions and you just have to be courageous um people eventually look up to you and you have to be brave enough to say that you went through that period when they ask for your advice you have to be the person that's gone through it and also can give some advice back yeah so developing an intimate relationship to the journey and the process is what's ringing home on on that note rich you've just become a father a couple months ago yep first time father and you know you would think throwing that into the mix was going to add some complexities with your training but you said just before this recording that it actually made you level up in your training can you share and touch on that yeah when i found out i was going to be a father this season i kind of put all of my chips in like the first race because it was before my daughter had arrived and i thought everything was going to change for me as an athlete for the worse and since my daughter's been born i've just been able to perform at a much higher level the priority that i'm able to put on training is in the clarity that i have there it's just it's so much more clear so when i'm training i need to be giving everything that i have because then when I'm home, I need to give everything I have to being a father.

4:41That's been like the most important part. And it's actually really helped me achieve a lot more as an athlete. When you say it's being a bit more clear, what do you specifically mean by that? You're saying like the priorities is more clear. The distractions that can come up outside of life that I've found, like whether it's business opportunities or sponsorship things and or whether it's like trying to show up how I want to socially all those things kind of fell away and things that I wanted to put priority on were being a father and being an athlete so then when I had the time to be an athlete had to make it count yeah I guess you know it was speaking about just prioritizing your time And knowing that when you're away from them, there's this like itch inside of you to go, okay, I need to make sure that like I'm making the most of this because I've left them back at home.

5:38It was a lot for this weekend. Like I'm away from them for a long time. Six months old. My wife has like taken the brunt of that. Like it's hard to justify. So when I'm here and the race might not be going the way that I want to go, or if I'm feeling like these doubts about like the regular race nerves, all that has to calm down because I'm here there's other things that I could be doing so when I'm here like I got to put everything I have into it yeah and I think what what comes to my mind straight away is the dedication and the commitment to the process itself even though you've got the family it's not a matter of stopping it's just like we're going to make this work and I feel like you know dedication is probably an interesting thing I'd actually be fascinated to ask you Joanna how would you define being dedicated to something like you've committed yourself to this process and you've climbed the ranks.

6:27Like when you think about dedication, what does that look like for you? I think for me personally, it's just putting my whole hearted effort and attention to something. So really just like what you said, like prioritizing the things that I want. So really focusing all my efforts, all my abilities, making things possible, adapting where I can to make things happen and yeah just putting all my passion into that whatever it is if it's Hyrox if it's training if it's outside life if it's my family so yeah. What do you think Hyrox has done for you and a dedication to a higher level sport what do you think it's done for you outside of the sport have you developed anything from it that you've noticed?

7:14Yeah well I mean I'm still very new to the sport as well I'm not even two years in so I'm learning as I go and I'm still so young. So with all the experiences that have come with Hirox and training and racing, competing all over the world has definitely developed me into a better human. And I've gotten so much life experience over the last two years, whether that is just traveling to a foreign country by myself and having to work it out or, you know, being deep in a race and having to adapt because it's not going my way. So I think, yeah, Hirox as a sport and the journey that I am on has developed me so much individually as well as an athlete.

7:55Very cool. It's very cool. Just quickly, show of hands, who in the room competed this weekend? Wow. Most people. Cool. So I think what's going to be interesting here, I want to open it up to all the athletes here to have an open discussion between each other. I've found that there's a lot of different approaches with all of the athletes and we're all doing different things. And one thing that I've found that's been interesting, which I'd love to see what all of you guys have to say about it, is where you put your focus, whether it's running, whether it's strength. And Hunter specifically, I'm close with him, so I know what his priorities are a lot of the time.

8:30And one of the things that he's a big believer in is lifting heavy. Do you guys all agree with that? Or do you have a different focus when it comes to your training inside the gym? I think it's a case of like Hunter said earlier, you're painting a picture through your athletic career and there's going to be certain points where you need to focus on certain things and that creates you as an athlete and when you get to the end of your career you've created the perfect picture. So for me at the moment it's a case of getting stronger but we've all had phases of maybe focusing on the running or focusing on the strength and it's kind of intertwining all of them throughout your career and then creating the perfect athlete by the end.

9:15See, you said to me just before, you said, I don't think they're focusing on lifting heavy enough. They pick up small things. Tiny little baby toys that they call weights. They pick up the pink kettlebells. So do you think they just need to have a beer and lift heavier? That's how I got started. My dad brought me into the garage at the age of three. I think it's no, my dad didn't lift weights at all. He was a pansy. I love that part of the training I don't really like running that much I only do it just because I have to 100 pound sandbag You remember seeing that thing Dude, four sled legs unbroken What you guys going to do about that?

10:04I'll run you the fuck over Can I just ask how many times you dropped the war ball though? A ton I sold my soul I sold my soul pipe it but maybe if the ref did his job then there we go i just think that listen that's where i wanted to make my bet and i did it was fucking sweet and a point like the strength is what's going to separate us like lifting heavy is what makes this sport different right it's not just an endurance event to come out and be like the runners are going to win you have to be strong so yeah you have to lift heavy i think there's also a very big topic at the moment that a lot of runners are coming into the sport.

10:44And like you saw the other day, Alyssa won being a marathon runner and there's a lot of marathon runners coming into the sport. So it's a very interesting topic to see, you know, one of the best of the sport to be so strength focused, whereas all these runners are coming in, pulling great times, but like Luke Greer as well in the men's field. So it's very, very interesting because it is such a balance of both parties, but yeah, it's very big topic at the moment but if all things are if all things are equal right like marathon times are the same like the strength is what's going to be the thing that separates yeah that's cool and and i guess the thing that i'd love to ask you here is you've been a coach and an athlete so you're coaching elite 15 in emily and then you're also being the athlete yourself how have you found managing the two because obviously there's so much dedication that goes into both of them has that been an interesting journey have you navigated that well coaching emily for sure has been an interesting journey for the people who know her she can be very impulsive but she's also very enthusiastic so getting her to work is never really a problem but especially making sure she gets enough rest is sometimes a challenge but it's also we often train together and I think that's also something I really enjoy doing with her and it's also puts things into perspective from my I learned from her she hopefully learned something from me um and also just thinking about her schedule also makes me think about my own schedule so I actually really enjoy coaching other people just also because it's yeah keeps me sharp myself so when you were leading up to the world record which you got in London was there a certain thing that you focused on uh was there a and knowing that you were going to go out there and perform at those numbers?

12:36Or how did you feel leading up to that race and getting that world record? Yeah, for me, a lot changed after the major in Hamburg because that's where I grabbed my first podium spot in an elite race and I also grabbed my qualifying spot. So then I knew that I was already qualified and that London was like a big bonus. So I just wanted to go out and try something new and really go for the win where before I would just go at my own pace and try to set the best performance for myself. But now I really wanted to race. And yeah, I picked a few stations where I really wanted to make a move. And at that time, it really worked out.

13:17So that was a great experience. And after that, I tried to do more for the race over here. And now I bumped into some problems. So I'm already considering what did I do wrong? what did I do right and how am I going to improve in the future? There was a lot of controversy around the London track. There was a lot of records being broken. There was a lot of PBs and times. How does that sit with you, you know, holding the record? Do you feel like it was fair game out there? How do you feel when it comes to that race and the controversy that came around, the times that were performed on that track?

13:58yeah i think i already even before the race in london of course hyrox always says that the sport is standardized and i really believe that they put a lot in effort in measuring the distances right but one thing that's very hard to control is the environment and the hall in london the corners were really nice and there was a nice nice flow in the running but especially the temperature in the hall was really nice it was really cold and i think actually that makes a very big difference I think the temperature in the hall is a factor that people don't really realize how much of an impact that can make on your race.

14:34And we also saw that in Warshaw. And I think we also maybe need to accept that that's a factor that's never going to be standardized. And also in other sports where you have, like, for instance, marathon running, yeah, the distance is always the same. But even there, you have fast courses and slow courses. But even winning a major in a slow time is still a very good achievement. And I think we also should accept at High Rocks that a record is really cool and it's really nice to on the day, on the perfect course at a really fast time, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're the best athlete at the moment or the fastest.

15:12It just means that you are able to perform in the right circumstances. But in the end, for me, the world championships is the most important race. Yeah. And it's awesome, right? And I feel like people can get so quick to judging. Oh, the course is small. the sleds x y and z but the reality is it's we've still got to commend people that are doing really really good things and so congratulate you for that i want to go back to you hunter on something i've been blessed to have a bit of an inside scope into hunter over at this last training camp and he spoke about it publicly on other interviews leading up to the race that he hired a coach now i would go to hunter's house every other day and probably nine times out of ten he was squeezing juices in a juice maker and eating pistachios.

15:58And every time I - Not a bad gig. Not a bad gig. He would be making juice every single day. It was probably not every day. But one of the things you just randomly said, I need to eat more potassium. I need more potassium. What was going on and why was there such a big pivot in your nutrition? I think I just hit this invisible ceiling. I couldn't figure out why my performances with all of the like we're all wearing these fancy watches and we're trying to study ourselves constantly and you're wearing heart rate monitors and you're going to get your vo2 max score tested and i was like why why do i keep on hitting this like invisible ceiling i put in more hours i lift more weights and then i went and i found this specialist and i hope you guys will all find some kind of specialist guru this guy was like yoda weird looking guy.

16:47Interesting guy. Cal, I love you. Don't take that the wrong way. I just found him and he just kind of unraveled something that had been missing in my life for a really long time. He changed it. He started putting pool strips in my mouth. I don't know if you guys, you put a strip into a pool and you see how acidic it is. He was doing all these crazy things. I was like, this guy's weird. What other things did he do? Where did he touch you on the doll? No, no, no, no. There was just there were so many levels of depth that this guy had brought to it that I had never seen before. And I'm one of these kind of people that if I make a pact, I go all in.

17:25So I gave this guy a massive amount of money and I said, fuck it, let's go. And it did not fully pay off, but in my mind, I was the fittest I ever was. I raced as hard as I could to win the world title. I fumbled, you know, in the final yards of the game, which I love. It's whatever. That's the game. But I think being willing to be able to look at yourself in the mirror every single year and say, there is something wrong rather than just like put it, covering it with another expensive t-shirt. You have to be willing to look into yourself and expose yourself fully if you want to get better. And I was willing to admit, even with all the studying and research and certifications and coaches and knowledge that I already have, I was willing to look for more and it paid off.

18:16What are your thoughts on athletes that drink or taste their own pee to, uh, to, I was willing to go to that length. All right, whatever. You guys want to hear the story? I was doing research and I was just like back in the day doctors, so they could find out what was going wrong with people is they'd have them pee inside of a jar and they'd taste it. And based off of different kinds of flavors and the pee, they could find out what was going on inside the body because they didn't really have all the tools that we have now. I didn't have any tools on me at the time. So I was like, I'm gonna try this pee trick.

18:51And, uh, you know, I tasted it. It was very sweet. I was like, I'm pre-diabetic, I'm assuming. So I'm for me, listen, I'm willing to go to that length, I will drink my pee to beat you. And nine times out of 10, I will beat your ass. So it's better to start drinking your pee. And I'm fascinated to know in terms of like the dedication to the sport, because, you know, for me coming from Australia, and I think people all around the world be listening to this right now, every time I got around you Hunter, my mind got blown away by the level of dedication towards it. And to the point where I would never come over to your house at night and you wouldn't have some sort of oxygen mask on your mouth.

19:37We'd have a ribeye steak and he would cut a piece off of it because he was weighing and it was too much. The level of dedication was through the roof. Talk to me about what you feel like it takes to be a champion and to be a winner. There's a million ways to skin this cat. I mean, you think about somebody like Mike Tyson who just screams and that's his version of lighting things up. And then there's people that are probably more scientific like him. I feel like this guy's a nerd. Just looks like it. Um, you know, you have to be willing to take yourself to these degrees. There are little percentages that are holding all of us back.

20:12And I'm always just that person who's willing to get one of those percentages off. And I used to sleep in altitude tents, sweat through the night. I was at one point training so hard. I was training for CrossFit, didn't know what I was doing. We used to freeze protein jugs with water in them and then take a cold shower, wrap the towel, a wet towel around the cold jug. And I'd hug it because my body temperature was so hot because I was so overtrained. But it was, um, it was my ghetto rig at the time and I loved it. But you know, it was just, it's sacrifice. And it's, that's the kind of thing that I think you can look back on when things get really, really hard.

20:46You're like, man, I used to sleep holding a protein jug. I better finish these wall balls fast. And those moments will make you stronger if you want to kind of do it, if you get what I'm trying to say. I'm fascinated to know about you, Charlie, you're a young guy, 24, and you're climbing up the ranks. And, you know, a lot of the athletes that are your age, they need a few more years on their belt to get to the level that you're at. What do you think has been the thing that's been able to allow you to elevate and grow in this sport so quickly? I've been doing IROX now for nearly five years. So I first started when I went to university, and it's only really been in the past 12, 14 months where I've actually started to get things right, spent a lot of time getting things wrong.

21:34And even now, I've had the most up and down season. See, I qualified in Melbourne, came third on my debut, and then literally a month later was on my own at the back in Phoenix, two minutes behind the next best person. So I think you've always got to be willing to learn and learn from your own results, but then be more willing to learn from everyone else. Like I've taken so much information from all these guys over the years and you might not agree with what some people say and you might not really think that they have useful stuff to say, but you can always learn something from someone. And I think Pyrox is getting to the level now where you need that information from other people.

22:19You need to kind of brainstorm things and you need to pick other people's brains and work out what they do that you can put towards you. essentially. So what are the things that you do to review in your work to make sure you improve? You mentioned obviously in Phoenix, you're way behind and not where you wanted to be, but then in Melbourne, you podiumed. What are you doing to review your work to make it go better and improve? Well, I'm pretty shit at burpees and warbles if I'm honest. So I've done a lot of them over the past two months but um yeah just kind of work out where everyone else is beating you and not necessarily trying to get to their level but like we only have a finite amount of resource like you can't do 100 % of this 100 % of that and 100 % of this because you just burn out so it's working out whether or not I need to chase that like I'm probably never going to be as strong as Hunter.

23:20Have you seen how short my legs are? Stumpy little thighs. They beat you on Thursday. Harshwords. Harshwords. Keep going. What else? What else about this guy? What else can you say? Yeah, he's got, he might have like three more world titles than me, but anyway. Humble. Yeah, it's like understanding that you might not get to the same level that someone else is and that's okay but just do what you can to get as close as possible to them and then beat them elsewhere like there's certain people like i'm probably never going to run as quick as luke greer maybe one day if my legs get longer um but like just understanding that you don't need to get to the same level as everyone else in every aspect you just need to get within reach of them to be in contention to beat them i think when i first younger and like starting this out i wanted to get as good as like the best people in each individual thing and you're never going to improve anything if you just try and cover the whole board so yeah focus on things but not like don't try and be the best in the world i think that's great And, you know, there's a lot of similarities with your UK culture and then my Australian one.

24:41It is a little bit different, I've noticed, than the American where, like, even I remember when I first met Hunter in Australia, he picked on other people doing the broad jumps, which is funny because it seems to be yours, always get called up. But I remember he was picking on the broad jumps. I remember I asked him, I was like, why do you not step up and you jump up? He's like, whatever's the quickest, I'm just going to do it. and and I think the the interesting mindset which is quite it shuts down a lot of our culture is the fact that we don't feel like we can ever say oh I can be as strong as him I can be as quick as him but there is something freeing and being able to have the goals that are so big I just when I look at my life I look at the the nature where it all changes is when I have this dedication to like what can I achieve like what is so great and you know not be I mean Hunter do you reckon he can get as strong as you are now never but especially after those cruel words that you just threw my way piece of crap uh no of course i mean dude it's whatever you dedicate yourself towards it's just you know there's only so much time in a day and i think in a sport like this you could you could run you could bike you could do this if you sat in a room and just only ate you know lasagna and pumped iron he'd probably get pretty strong and i think what's great about everyone in the room as well and all of us here is we all love High Rocks, but we also have this amazing life outside of High Rocks as well, right?

26:02It's this beautiful sport that has this great camaraderie. We can all push and strive towards hitting goals and be competitive on game day, but friendly and joking around on the other days, which is also really great. I think what I want to ask you, Rich, just because it's front of mind being I've recently become a father, has anything shifted in just your world view, your life outlook? Has anything changed since becoming a father? Something I've had to work on for a long time as an athlete is separating myself as a person from my athletic performance. And for a long time, that's like really good fuel to be like, I need to win to feel like a winner, to feel like I have value.

26:42And it took a long time to pull that apart. And then it was just accelerated with the birth of my daughter. It's like, okay, Like my value is not the athlete that I, that I am. Right. It's just a piece of that. So that was like something that is really helpful in terms of just being able to perform and not putting that pressure on myself to just, to be an athlete. And it just all kind of works together. Yeah. That's cool. I want to open up just all the athletes to speak freely and whatever you guys feel called to. I want to open up with a broad question of what do you think is changing in the sport and how do you think the athletes need to adapt their strategies if any given the change in the sport if there is any change in the sport.

27:28I think how Charlie was saying, everyone's going to get very good at every station. There's not going to be room for error. So you have to be pretty precise across the board and then being able to put out as much work as possible. So the skill on each station, I think, is just going to increase as we continue to move on. And I think to maybe add to that, if you look at the men's race, there was actually a point where Dylan was lost. so I think a lot of the men should also reconsider their pacing strategy I think that's also really interesting because a few years ago when somebody was like one minute and ten seconds behind after the sled push I think there was like no chance he will win and he did so I think that's a very interesting part to reconsider the pacing strategy in the race actually Bog Pony?

28:21He's like bring the sport back to the old days you guys are making us race too much i used to have a pretty fun life outside of high rocks now i have to do is high rocks sucks what about what about the comrade comradeship hunter big part about your prep is your main camps and having the having the boys making the noise uh how important do you feel like it is having people beside you training at least for me i think it's incredible to have uh like a pack and it would have been very complicated to make it as far as I have without having people show up and constantly keep that intensity high. Because, you know, 15, as I said, eventually that buzz is going to go away and you're going to have to keep on finding ways to redefine yourself and create reasons to keep on pushing back and go deep back into that well.

29:13And doing it by yourself is especially hard. Doing it with other people that are motivated, make the laughs come up, push the intensity and things like that. I think that makes a really big difference. And I hope the future of this sport kind of becomes more like the Tour de France where there's like team teams and you get the opportunity where athletes are traveling around the world. Sponsors kind of get behind putting together these super teams because obviously if you look at something like cross country, someone's going to cross the finish line first, but then all of a sudden you take the aggregate of all the people in the team.

29:46So you have the best results. It'd be pretty impressive to watch that happen and I think that's where the future is going to go of the sport and it's going to help push the intensity and performance at an even higher level but you know I live in Malibu that guy's Colorado UK somewhere Australia you know something like Belgium I think I know it's Amsterdam I'm Dutch but maybe to add to that what's actually interesting about this is that in the Netherlands in belgium we have a group of high level athletes and in the last year we had five weekends where we trained together so we booked a hotel and just all the belgium and the dutch guys and girls came together and you already before that weekend are excited about training together so yeah you have already a week before and every training session you're excited to train because you know this weekend we are all gonna yeah go all out together and during those training sessions especially with double sessions you are sprinting as hard as you possibly can and so much harder than you would do by yourself so i fully agree that training with team within a team can definitely be a big part of the future of this sport but but at the same time you are very analytical as we've spoken about you love your data when it comes to training you know do you find that is it harder to maintain all of your data and everything when you're doing it with others or do you feel like because for me when i speak with people that are very focused on their heart rates like well there's no speaking like we need to make sure that we're being super dialed and making it less of a social thing do you find that the training with others is easier to stick to all the targets and everything that you're doing or uh or being alone no it's uh actually harder to maybe stick to your targets because when somebody is pulling uh 122 on the row or next to you and you are like yeah but i'm on the 130 and this is the pace we agreed on yet and suddenly you're also going to start pulling 122 so uh but i think you keep that already a little bit into account before you enter the weekend like okay this is going to be a hard weekend we're probably going to train harder than we're supposed to but and if you would train the whole year together then you would really need to figure out how to plan that but if it's only a couple of weekends a year i think it's actually good to know that you maybe go a little bit deeper because that's the whole point of the weekend and then if you have done stuff that you didn't expect before then the days after you will maybe shift your plans a little bit and make sure that you get your recovery in order and then you just pick it up from there but as yeah you have in that case i think you have moments of doubts and moments of action and moments of doubts is where you have the data and you look at the data and you try to make a plan but sometimes you should also just go with the flow and that's also what the whole team is about to just bring the energy up and make sure that everybody is going all out.

32:42Do you think it adds a bit of pressure to each other when you have everyone there because everyone else rises when you've got those people around you? Yeah for sure so yeah everybody is running a few seconds harder than they normally would everybody is when you're doing a wall ball set nobody is going to wants to be the first one to quit so the whole session yeah the level rises and people just go deeper than they will do by themselves. Yeah, I think that's a great thing that I see with high achieving athletes, like all of you guys here and a lot of you guys in the room. There's this competitive nature that's so fun to be around.

33:18I don't think I've ever done something with Hunter where if he didn't win, he doesn't keep going until he wins. There's always something in it where it's like win, win, win and this dedication to winning. But then also I think what was cool there is the pressure of having everyone else around you makes you rise. On the note of pressure, Joanna, you have the current world record for the women in the sport. Is there a level of pressure that you feel by having that or do you not think about that very much? To be honest, I actually don't really think about it that much. I know that there is a lot of talk and there is a lot of pressure and obviously coming into this weekend, there was a lot of pressure on my back.