EE504: Sean Noble, Hyrox Elite 15: The Pain, Science and Obsession Behind the Rise

I'll start this with the, kinda the obvious question. What do you do, Sean?

Eh, yeah, I don't know what I do now at this stage. [laughs] I'm, uh, I'm actually a qualified solicitor, only recently, but I gave up the job and I've gone full time, uh, as an athlete. So, um, I'm lucky enough, I'm kinda... I'm ranked fourth in the world in HYROX at the moment. So, um, I compete in what's called the Elite 15. Um, and I signed with Myprotein and Puma, uh, so that's given me the opportunity to go full time. So I'm a full-time HYROX athlete at the moment.

Living the dream.

Living the dream, yeah. [laughs]

Living every-

Yeah, yeah

... young person's dream-

Yeah

... becoming a full-time athlete. What's been your role? I, like, just, you kinda threw it in there, fourth in the world at HYROX. That is a phenomenal rank-

Yeah

... for an Irishman, for anyone, from any country, but from an Irishman who's, you're, you know, you've transitioned into it relatively recently. This isn't a sport that's been around for 20, 30 years.

Yeah.

So how did you even start on this athlete journey? Was HYROX your first sport to try?

No. So I played, um, like, League of Ireland football. I played, um, up the north, and basically what happened was I ruptured my ACL, LCL, the, the usual I coulda made it but my knee injury kinda thing, you know? But, uh, I ruptured that and then, uh, I actually joined the local boxing gym and I was boxing just to lose weight because I ballooned up in weight. I went out drinking, I went on the piss for about a year. Um, I got very kinda depressed because I was just out drinking all the time.

What age were you when that happened?

Uh, I was 20... I think I was 22 when that happened. Um, and like, e- it's every young man's dream to be a footballer and, you know what I mean, when that's taken away. And like, the surgeon, when it happened, he basically said, "You are better off getting hit by a truck." There was that much damage done to my knee, you know? And he was like, "You'll never play sports or do anything at a high level ever again. You'd be lucky just to play, like, five-a-side or..." You know what I mean? So that was kinda mentally, like, when you, when you tell a young man at 22 years of age, and sport was my life, that you're not gonna be able to run properly or you're not gonna be able to do sports, I just went out on the piss, you know? Uh, and then I, I got up to about 105 kilos and I decided, "Here, listen, this has to stop."

What's your normal walking around weight? When you say 105-

So-

... what would you normally be walking around at?

I'm 82 kilos now.

Right, okay.

So I walk around around 82, 83. Uh, currently in a cut, so excuse me if I come across as a bit angry. [laughs] I'm, uh, I'm cutting calories 'cause I'm competing in a couple of weeks, the biggest competition of the year. Get, probably get to that, but, uh, yeah, I, I walk around about 80- 82, 83.

Talk to me about the mental side of that. When, as a young athlete, what happens? Is there a support structure around you? What hap- ha- what happens when you just, you suddenly, day to day, you're training, you're training, you're training, you're gone. You're out of the action.

Yeah.

You're getting,