Rachel Legacy competed in the HYROX World Championships in Nice, France, on June 8, 2024. Submitted photo

In less than a year, Rachel Legacy found herself on an international stage.

The Butler Township resident competed on June 8 in the HYROX World Championships in Nice, France, as a member of Team USA. She had taken up the sport in September.

“I was just so grateful to be there,” she said. “I am humbled to be blessed with the God-given gifts and talents to compete at such a level. I felt honored to compete next to so many strong, capable women, and even more so to represent my country, the United States of America.”

Legacy finished in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 29 seconds to come in 88th out of 679 women in the Pro Women’s division and sixth in her age group (30-34 years old). She was ninth overall for the U.S.

HYROX is a relatively new competition, started in Germany in 2017 by Christian Toetzke and three-time Olympic field hockey medalist Moritz Furste.

Similar to CrossFit, HYROX combines cardio with “functional workout stations,” forcing competitors to alternate eight times between running 1 kilometer and completing one of eight different stations. Stations include a sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry and sandbag lunges. The first station is SkiErg, which is similar to a rowing machine but simulates a skiing motion, and the last is wall ball, which requires competitors to toss a weighted ball at a target above their head 75-100 times.

Legacy competed in her first HYROX event in November, she said, just 10 weeks after she started training, and qualified for the world championships. She said she was encouraged to try the sport by her husband, Nick, and several friends, and trained with Lauren Weeks and Anthony Peressini, owners of The Hybrid Engine.

“I competed as an individual just to see, just to see how I would do,” said Legacy, who along with her husband travels the country as a physical therapist. “I certainly did not expect to qualify for Worlds, but I did. By God’s grace, I qualified and was able to travel to Nice to compete.”

Legacy plans to continue competing in HYROX events; she’s signed up for HYROX Dallas in November but may do another race before that. She hopes to eventually compete in the Elite division against the top athletes in the sport.