Hyrox CEO on big sale, Olympic efforts, and the diarrhea incident captivating social media

It has been a busy two weeks for the team at surging fitness racing brand Hyrox.

Hyrox was recently acquired by an investor group led by LVMH-backed private equity firm L Catterton. The transaction values the rapidly growing fitness racing brand at roughly $700 million.

Co-founders Christian Toetzke and Moritz Fürste — who established the sport in 2017 — will remain heavily involved to steer future global expansion. In a LinkedIn post, Toetzke said the founders have bought back their "baby."

The huge valuation reflects mass-market enthusiasm, as Hyrox projects it will attract over 2 million participating athletes in its races this year.

"We wanted to stay in the business," Toetzke said on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid (video above). "The goal was not to maximize the purchase price or the valuation of the company. We wanted to find a fair value for our former shareholder. That was, they were selling their share for a fair price. And of course, we wanted to find a good solution here that we have also potential, of course, to continue to grow the company and the valuation."

Toetzke doubled down on his efforts to make Hyrox an Olympic event, teasing that there could be news on this front next week. He declined to elaborate further.

"What I can say is we need a relationship with the Olympic Federation because that's the foundation or that's a basis to be able to apply for maybe to get accepted or get integrated into the big games," Toetzke said. "And we are announcing that next week. And then there's a process in place where we will apply for either the Brisbane 2032 games or maybe 2036 after. So it can be a longer process or it can go quicker. We will see."

With that rapid growth comes unforeseen challenges.

Case in point, Australian Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk issued a public statement this week after she soiled herself during a Hyrox event in Beijing.

Despite visibly defecating on herself, she pushed through the race and crossed the finish line first. Competitors and social media onlookers expressed outrage that the race wasn't stopped or that Wietrzyk wasn't pulled immediately to prevent others from getting defecation on themselves from the stations the athlete touched.

Wietrzyk acknowledged that she made the wrong call by not stepping off the track and took full responsibility for the disruption. To make amends, she announced that she is retroactively withdrawing from the Beijing race and forfeiting all earned points.

Hyrox acknowledged after a delay that it failed to meet the moment on safety.