An Australian athlete who lost control of her bowels during a Hyrox competition in Beijing last week apologized and forfeited her victory on Sept. 17.
Joanna Wietrzyk, 24, was about halfway through the competition when she soiled herself. Viral videos and photos circulated internationally this week, showing the athlete continuing through the course with her legs covered in biological waste.
“I want to offer my sincere apology to the people of China, my fellow competitors, the spectators and the HYROX organizers for what happened during the race in Beijing,” Wietrzyk wrote on social media. “I felt completely fit and healthy at the start of the race, with no reason to expect any illness.”
Wietrzyk said she regretted her decision not to step off the track after she experienced incontinence while doing burpees.
“I take responsibility for my decision to continue and am deeply sorry for the discomfort and disruption it caused,” she wrote.
Wietrzyk said she was learning from the experience and remembering that there was “more to life than racing and knowing when it is right to step away.”
“On reflection, I have decided to retroactively withdraw from the race and forfeit the points I earned,” she said.
She also thanked those who were standing by her and said she was taking time to recover, reflect, and look after herself and her family.
The competition, like all Hyrox races, included a 1-kilometer run followed by a workout station. The workout includes a ski aerobic machine, a sled push and sled pull, burpee broad jumps, a rowing machine, a farmer’s carry of weighted sandbags, and squats and throws with medicine balls. The sequence was repeated eight times.
Competitors behind Wietrzyk have since spoken out about having to compete on machines in unsanitary conditions. Participants in the race who started before a certain time were offered a refund of their entry costs by the organization.
The athlete’s Puma sponsorship appeared to be affected by the event, however attempts to confirm this were unsuccessful.
Puma, Wietrzyk’s sponsor, removed the athlete’s collection from the company’s online store, redirecting traffic to a generic Hyrox fitness and training page.
Puma did not return a request for comments by publication time.
Wietrzyk, a professional athlete and fitness coach, is the current women’s solo professional and a world record holder in the sport. She was the first Australian woman to qualify for Hyrox’s elite tier.
Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürst posted a statement on Instagram on Sept. 12 announcing the company had made changes to the event to prevent similar situations from happening.
“Hyrox made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race,” Fürst wrote. “In the end it is may job to foresee these potential incidents—and I did not.”
Event processes were improved, and immediate rulebook changes were made to prevent similar situations from happening, according to Fürst.
A new section of the singles rulebook now says, “If a racer’s blood, vomit, urine, or feces poses a welfare or contamination risk to the racer or to other racers, a Race Director may withdraw the racer from the race on medical grounds.”
The incident has sparked debate among many in the sport and in the fitness industry about when to quit.
Chance Bex, an athlete from Nevada, said in a comment in the Hyrox official community on social media that the event has damaged the reputation of the sport.
“Whether you want to admit it or not, HYROX is forever tainted and has lost all its ‘kinda cool’ factor due to one single instance,” Bex wrote. “I will no longer explain what HYROX is to the people I know in my other competitive ventures like cycling, running, and tennis.”
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