Community-Built, Globally Broadcast: Inside the 2025 XTERRA North American Championship’

It started back in 2006. What began as a regional race through the Alabama woods grew into one of XTERRA’s most iconic stops, and this past weekend, the community that has shaped it over nearly two decades reunited as Oak Mountain hosted the 2025 XTERRA North American Championship.

Josiah Middaugh (USA) helped define the sport here. It was time for his son, Sullivan to headline some of the world’s best on the same trails as he defended his continental title and captured the Short Track race win livestreamed in front of a global audience. Lesley Paterson (GBR) won four times on this terrain. Suzie Snyder (USA) returned with years of memories and took home the Elite women’s North American Championship. And for Brittany Schroeder, like so many others, finding their way to XTERRA on this very course encapsulates how communities grow out of local soil.

But this event was also shaped by people like Kendall Williams of Shelby County, Alabama, who saw it as “a celebration of endurance, nature, and the spirit of adventure.” By Anna Jones and the staff at Oak Mountain who brought the venue to life. By Steve Andrus and the XTERRA Americas team who kept the energy fueled and the fun flowing.

And by the Birmingham Urban Mountain Pedalers (BUMP), whose decades of digging and riding turned these woods into one of the best off-road triathlon courses in the world.

This year, we added another chapter with the debut of the XTERRA North American Youth Championship welcoming champions like Dahlia Fillion (CAN) and Lucas Wright (USA) into the community. Performances by Homewood Middle School students, education from Alabama Wildlife Center, post-race celebrations with Good People Brewing Company and Taco Mac Restaurant Group helped build a weekend that went far beyond competition.

The 2025 XTERRA North American Championship at Oak Mountain showed what’s possible when world-class athletes meet a world-class community.

READ: The Weekend in Review: https://www.xterraplanet.com/race-reports/2025-xterra-north-american-championship-delivers-across-all-divisions