8x8 Podcast

Liam McCroary is a former professional footballer who now works full time as a prison officer and competes among the Elite 15 in HYROX.

In this episode, Liam shares his journey from professional football into HYROX while balancing a demanding career in the prison service.

We talk about confidence, growth, and learning to perform at a high level while competing alongside some of the best athletes in the sport.

This is a positive conversation about belief, progress, and enjoying the challenge one race at a time.

Josh van Zeeland joins the 8x8 Podcast to talk about what happens when you suddenly find yourself racing at the front of HYROX.
We get into the pressure of the Elite field, blocking out outside noise, mental battles at the top, and the moment you stop chasing and start believing you belong. We also talk future race times, the idea of a perfect HYROX relay, and what this sport could look like in the next few years.
Straight talk. No fluff.

This week’s episode breaks the usual format, no structure, no script, just a real conversation with Luke Greer, the newcomer who’s already rewritten what’s possible in the UK HYROX scene.

Luke has only been in the sport for a year and somehow he already holds the UK record. He walks into the studio looking like the most normal, down-to-earth guy… and then you remember he’s running times that don’t make sense for someone this early in their career.

We ask him the question that everyone else has been whispering: “How does it feel to have the community calling you the future of HYROX?” And for the first time, he talks honestly about what that label does to him: the pressure, the excitement, and the expectations he’s still learning to carry.

We go deeper into the three-year break he took from sport, the moment he quit his job after Chicago to go all-in, the speed he had long before HYROX, and what last week’s race in London meant to him on a personal level. It’s raw, funny, and real, exactly why he’s our first guest in the new “Rising Star” series.

In this episode, we sit down with Ida Mathilde Steensgaard, the athlete, yes, but more importantly, the person behind for a very real conversation about pressure, expectations, and the strange way imposter syndrome can creep in, even when you’re performing at a high level.

We also get into the deeper question of why some people chase bigger and bigger goals. Is it because we genuinely love the challenge… or because it helps us avoid the tougher parts of life? Is it passion? Is it pain? Is it escape?

Ida shares her experience qualifying for the World Championships, getting lost in a training bubble, and using that focus as a way to escape everything else happening around her. 

She also opens up about the contrast between her corporate career and her life as a multisport athlete — and how she tries to keep both worlds balanced.

A very honest look into ambition, pressure, and the mindset behind high performance: the happy and positive minded Ida Mathilde Steensgaard.

Tomas Tvrdik doesn’t exactly live life in the slow lane. 
His friends call him T1000. He’s a husband, a dad, a soldier, and a guy who loves anything with an engine, but he’s also someone who decided that “average” wasn’t an option.
He talks about what it’s like to live at a constant high heart rate, both in HYROX and in life. He went from 109 kilos to one of the athletes in the Elite 15, while juggling family life and joining the military at 37. 
We hear why he chases adrenaline, how hard it is to shave off fractions of a second at this level, and what it felt like during the qualification race with Sean. We also touch on his podcast, his personality, and yes… his secret dance move. 
It’s the story of someone who really meant it when he said “f*ck average”: a man who lives loud, trains hard, and refuses to let age or expectations set his limits.