Xenom: Hyrox and CrossFit mash-up backed by tech moguls set for London bow
Fresh from providing the backdrop to elite padel’s London debut, Kensington Olympia is playing host this weekend to another sport with a rising participation base: Xenom.
Xenom has been dubbed “Hyrox for CrossFitters” – like Hyrox, it has a set format designed to test many of the attributes honed in CrossFit and other functional fitness pursuits.
Its creators also call it the “decathlon of fitness” owing to its 10 events, which include weightlifting, and gymnastic and endurance challenges.
The London event, taking place over Saturday and Sunday, attracted more than 2,000 early registrations of interest, and is only the second ever competition, after Dallas in June.
It is open to people of all levels but some of England’s most accomplished CrossFit athletes, including Sam Briggs and Kelly Friel, are set compete at Xenom’s London date.
It is the brainchild of Keith Barlow, an avid functional fitness enthusiast who has helped Hyrox grow 1.6m participants globally through his work in PR.
Barlow launched Xenom earlier this year with $15m (£11m) in funding from WNDR, a private equity firm established by the co-founder of Dreamworks, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Sujit Jaswa, former chief financial officer of Dropbox.
“The functional fitness community in the UK and specifically London has exploded over the past decade, but there’s been no consistent way to benchmark progress or compare performance across different competitions,” said Barlow.
“We’re providing that standard – a repeatable test that athletes can use to track improvement season after season.”
Xenom enters £6.5bn functional fitness industry
He believes there is “a really compelling case for investors looking at this space”, citing parallels not only with indoor functional fitness race Hyrox but also Ironman triathlon.
Barlow added: “When you look at the value placed on successful IP-led events business, you can see that a long-term vision and the ability to deploy capital smartly and tap into consumers who are deeply passionate about their sport are highly valued across the market. We represent that same opportunity in our space.”
London is firmly established as one of the world’s top locations for popular sports and minority ones alike. As well as padel, the capital has this year staged the first event of the Pro Climbing League and last year hosted the world’s biggest Hyrox event at the ExCel.
The functional fitness industry has grown rapidly in recent years and was valued at £6.5bn in 2025. After London, Xenom has another competition scheduled for December in Miami. Next year it hopes to stage 8-10 events, beginning with Malaga and Paris.
“We see an incredible opportunity to build a global competition which reenergises and meets the huge unmet demand from people training in boxes, garages, and gyms around the world,” Barlow said.
“We will allow our competitors to compete on the world’s biggest stages and demonstrate the incredible physical capacity they have built in the gyms for their friends, family and peers to see.
“Xenom will be the defining cultural platform for high performance and the pursuit of elite fitness.”