Huge Hurdle

After a lost year, obstacle course racing is picking itself back up.

- JORDAN RANE

OBSTACLE COURSE racing was the endurance-sports juggernaut of last decade. That came to a bruising halt with COVID-19.

“Last year could not have been any worse for us,” says Joe De Sena, CEO and founder of Spartan, the largest OCR company in an industry of weekend-warrior brands like Tough Mudder, Rugged Maniac, Savage Race, Bonefrog Challenge and Conquer the Gauntlet. “We bring people together—in 45 countries now. In 2020, we suddenly weren’t allowed to do that. We were totally shut down.”

By last June, De Sena was forced to cancel Spartan’s remaining events and furlough three-quarters of his staff of 500. Smaller companies were in even tougher shape.

“COVID-19 is crushing the industry,” Tough Mudder CEO Kyle McLaughlin stated last summer in a press release from the Endurance Sports Coalition, which warned that without further support from Congress, more than 80 percent of an industry that accounts for 50,000 running, triathlon, cycling, and obstacle course events in the United States each year would cease to exist.