'we were very successful,
even holding a world record'
Florian Gast, PUMA HYROX athlete, shares his HYROX journey
September 20, 2024Florian Gast, PUMA HYROX athlete, shares his HYROX journey
September 20, 2024PUMA’s global partnership with HYROX continues to showcase the sport’s immense popularity, with over 175,000 participants competing in more than 65 races during the 2023/24 season. This dynamic collaboration has led to the creation of the first-ever PUMA X HYROX collection. To mark this achievement, we had the opportunity to interview PUMA HYROX athlete, Florian Gast, about his experiences with HYROX, his most memorable moments, and his goals for the future.
Florian, how did you get started with HYROX Sport?
Florian: I attended a HYROX event for the first time in 2019. I didn’t know much about it back then, and everything was much smaller. It was in Nuremberg, relatively close to Munich, and I was really excited. It felt like I had found a sport that suited me. I come from a cross-country skiing background and was involved in the running scene in Munich, but I was never a very light runner. I always enjoyed going to the gym and lifting weights, so I was never the perfect runner.
When I discovered HYROX, it felt like the right mix for me. I was relatively good from the start—not at the top, but still quite good. I realized I enjoyed it and wanted to continue. I ended up competing with Viola for several years, and we were very successful, even holding a world record in the mixed category for a long time. Viola was always in the Elite, ranking in the top 15 worldwide. I was fast enough to compete with her, and two years ago, I decided I wanted to try to get into the Elite myself.
Do you have a favourite section?
Florian: The sled pull is a weakness for me, and while I work on my weaknesses, it’s often a mental challenge as well. I had to stop once in a previous HYROX event due to lower back problems, and it’s difficult to overcome that. I always say that once you’ve done the first half, you’ve actually done two-thirds of it. For me, if you have completed the first four exercises, including the Burpees, the second part is much easier.
Once the sleds and Burpees are done, there are easier exercises like the Farmer’s Carry, which I consider almost gifted because your heart rate doesn’t go up noticeably. The exercise itself is much shorter than the others. Wall Balls are the last exercise, and I think to myself, “Nothing can go wrong now, just get through it.” It’s actually a favorite exercise for me now.
Halfway through, I switch gears and go full throttle again. I tend to be faster than average in the second half and a bit too slow in the first.
When you think back to your career or your time in HYROX, what stands out in particular? What was your best moment?
Florian: At some point, I wanted to win the event in Munich. I wasn’t even in the Elite qualification system at the time; it wasn’t for me at all. But I thought to myself, if I could win in my hometown, that would be amazing. And then I did it once, and it was just great. In purely sporting terms, one or two Elite races have probably been greater achievements. For example, I think I was fifth in Maastricht. But winning in Munich was my goal, and I always said I wanted to achieve it.
PUMA has now brought out special HYROX products. Have you had a chance to test any of the products, and what do you think of them?
Florian: We all already have them. For example, my favourite piece is a HYROX tank top, and you can tell that PUMA and HYROX actually work together. We notice this especially with the shoes. There are other brands, for example, that build a shoe one year that’s great for HYROX, then the next year there’s a successor, and it doesn’t fit HYROX at all. With PUMA, we’ve seen a lot of impressive things today. You can see that there’s a shoe line that works especially for HYROX, and the feedback from athletes is incorporated into it. That’s why I’m pretty sure that in the coming season, the PUMA shoe for HYROX will actually be the best shoe for the sport and will stay there in the long run. I don’t know of any other brand that is so clearly focused on HYROX, even the brands that have a HYROX partnership. All in all, I think the products are great, and I’m excited to see how they will develop in the future because it’s such a new sport. Soccer has been developed for decades, and HYROX hasn’t been around for long, so it’s cool that requirements are incorporated into product development.
What are the special requirements for a shoe like this?
Florian: Grip. It has to be a very good running shoe, and yet it has to have grip, and it has to be stable so that you can still do the functional exercises.
Noted! We’re already at the last question. What does the future in HYROX hold for you? What are your goals?
Florian: I want to do HYROX regularly, and I can see that I’ve gotten faster. Sometimes I stagnate for a while, but then you somehow find ways to get faster again, and I’ve made steps like that repeatedly. Now I’m already at a relatively good personal time, and I just want to push it again. It’s very, very hard work. It’s getting more and more difficult to get faster, and I’m not looking at the next few months; I’m looking at the next two or three years. Last season, the injury hurt physically, but now it’s still affecting me because of the qualifying system. I’m missing a bit of fast time again for the new season. But now I see it as a longer game and just want to see what I can do and simply push.
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