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Why Ida Mathilde Steensgaard still has unfinished business in HYROX
Arriving in HYROX as an underdog was a welcome reset for Ida Mathilde Steensgaard - but after narrowly missing out on the Elite 15 Singles, her motivation has never been greater than it is right now.
Danish athlete Ida Mathilde Steensgaard is used to being in a state of flux. For over a decade, she's been a household name on the obstacle course racing (OCR) circuit, claiming podiums across the world - and earning plenty of silverware along the way - with two OCR World Championships and three European medals now under her belt.
In OCR, a racing format where routes, distances and obstacles change for every single race and calendar year, and when two events are never entirely identical, Steensgaard has had to fight tooth-and-nail to earn a name for herself on the circuit, where she’s now lauded not only for her technical proficiency on multi-modal courses, but for her adaptability too. Arguably, this was best witnessed in the World’s Toughest Playground project: an extreme, custom-built OCR challenge designed by Steensgaard herself.
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Finding motivation as the underdog in HYROX
Ida Mathilde Steensgaard had to take stock after Helsinki
© Alex Grymanis/Red Bull Content Pool
Having summited the mountain of OCR, it was 2022 when Steensgaard decided to start transitioning from the ever-changing world of OCR into the high-octane sport of HYROX. “I was mentally drained, because I was always the one people wanted to beat,” Steensgard reflects on her departure from OCR, only days ahead of the 2026 HYROX World Championships. “When you win your first world championship, it's euphoric; when you win your second, it's a relief; but I don't know what the third would have given me.”
What would follow was a string of seasons competing at the sharp end of HYROX - and staying there. Having made her Elite 15 Major debut in 2023 and, more recently, finishing 12th at the 2025 HYROX World Championships in Chicago with a blistering time of 1h 03m 58s, it’s clear the decision to switch to HYROX was of sound logic. “It was so nice to feel like I was arriving as the underdog in a sport,” she continues. “It was such a relief - new people, new communities… I just fell in love with it - fast.” This year, we’ll see Steensgaard once again making her mark on the sport, by competing in the Elite 15 Doubles with team-mate Elli Stenfors.
I was mentally drained, because I was always the one people wanted to beat
The decision to switch to HYROX’s Elite 15 Doubles division came after an agonising - but no less impressive - result in Helsinki in May 2026, a race which saw Steensgaard cross the line with a red-hot time of 1h 00m 51s. Though the result was an all-time record for a Danish athlete competing in HYROX, it wasn’t enough for Steensgaard to punch her ticket to the Elite 15 Singles - but it only fuelled her further.
Coming back from a range of injuries and personal stresses at the end of 2025 saw Steensgaard eventually overcome “the hardest time I’ve had in my whole life,” she says. “Coming from such a dark place, the gratefulness you get for actually even being able to compete this year is just almost like a win in itself.” The eventual next step, then, was the Doubles category - and, with it, new challenges, new opportunities and another chance for the Dane to make her mark on the sport.
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Why HYROX Doubles suits her strengths
Ida Mathilde Steensgaard has the right skillset to shine in Doubles
© Brian Ching See Wing/Red Bull Content Pool
“I’ve always loved competing in Singles, but because of my background in OCR, I was really good at the three-kilometre distance, which is 15- to 20‑minute efforts,” she describes. “I actually found out that my shape and the kind of athlete I am almost translates better into doing Doubles.” For those competing in HYROX Doubles, the race is similar to Singles races, but each station can be split between the two team-mates. “It’s much more explosive and you try to hold a much higher pace than you would do in an individual race,” she describes. “You’re working at like an extremely high rate, so it’s more high intensity and more all‑out power.”
Ahead of Stockholm 2026, Steensgaard’s partnership with Stenfors was a calculated decision, with the pairing having clicked immediately; each athlete compensates for the other's (relative and admittedly few) weaknesses. Steensgaard, she explains, brings the running; while Stenfors brings the station strength. On paper, it’s a perfect split, but the tactical thinking goes a touch deeper.
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Racing under pressure: instinct, recovery, and control
Ida Mathilde Steensgaard "brings the running"
© Brian Ching See Wing/Red Bull Content Pool
Years of OCR have given Steensgaard something that doesn't show up in a training log: the ability to push herself to the absolute limit in a short burst, recover almost instantly and go again. “I know I can put myself all the way to the max, because I know if I get just ten or 15 seconds, my body can recover - and I can be straight out there again,” she says. It's a skill honed over a decade of OCR, where a five-second hang or a wall climb could serve as a micro-recovery between sprint efforts. That instinct translates almost one-to-one into the Doubles format.
There's a mental dimension to it, too. Steensgaard describes a kind of clarity under pressure that sets her apart - an ability to zoom out mid-race, take stock of the field and direct her partner with calm precision, even while her body is working flat out. “I can somehow put myself into a little overview and identify when we need to push,” she says. It's the same composure that once made her the standout performer in a mixed-team final at the Dubai Games, the only woman in the field, directing a group of male athletes through a high-pressure finish.
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The rise of the HYROX Doubles division
Ida Mathilde Steensgaard was an OCR legend
© Jesper Gronnemark/Red Bull Content Pool
As for the Doubles field itself, things have shifted dramatically in recent months. What once felt like a secondary category has matured into one of the most competitive formats in the sport, drawing athletes who could arguably compete in the Elite 15 individual setting, but have found themselves restrategising according the new qualification system.
“The competitive level within just the last six months has really gone up,” Steensgaard confirms. The chaos of the Doubles grid - pairs stacked on top of each other at the burpee station, positions swinging wildly through the lunges and elbows flaring out during each of the eight runs - makes it a different kind of spectacle to the individual race, and Steensgaard thinks it might actually be more entertaining to watch. “You never feel alone in the Doubles race,” she says. “In Singles, you can end up somewhere in the pack running a lot by yourself, where here you're constantly around other people.”
“I think I’ll never truly let competing individually go,” says Steensgard, who will compete not only in Doubles in Stockholm, but also in the Team Relay division. This year, she says, “the team relay and the Doubles are my focus, because it’s a different mental pressure.”
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The long-term goal: a return to Elite 15
Ida Mathilde Steensgaard wants to return to Singles in the longer term
© Christian Pondella/Red Bull Content Pool
Whether or not these events will deliver the result Steensgaard is hunting, her ambitions in the individual category are very much alive. “There definitely is a dream of getting back into the Elite 15 again,” she confirms.
“Getting back in will require a huge effort and much more out of me than before.” Where world records are being made only to then be broken, the pressure ahead of Steensgaard is palpable, and in a sport famous for things changing minute-by-minute (and season-by-season), lesser athletes would crumble under the pressure - but Steensgaard, it’s clear, thrives amidst instability. “It’s unfinished business,” she finishes. “I feel like I belong there.”
