Australian Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk has apologised for continuing to compete after soiling herself during an indoor fitness race in Beijing, and has withdrawn from the event retrospectively, forfeiting the points she earned.
Footage from the September 12 race showed Wietrzyk using communal equipment, including sandbags and kettlebells, while excrement was visible on her legs and arms. The videos circulated widely after the event, prompting Hyrox to update its rules.
Wietrzyk initially wrote “a win is a win” in an Instagram post that has since been deleted. In a later statement, she apologised to fellow competitors, spectators and organisers for what happened during the race.
“I felt completely fit and healthy at the start of the race, with no reason to expect any illness. Looking back, I regret the decision to not have stepped off the track,” she said.
“I recognise that I should have made a different choice. I take responsibility for my decision to continue and am deeply sorry for the discomfort and disruption it caused.”
Wietrzyk said she understood that her actions had affected people beyond herself and that she was learning from the experience, including the importance of knowing when to stop competing.
“On reflection, I have decided to retroactively withdraw from the race and forfeit the points I earned,” she said, adding that she would take time to “recover, reflect and look after myself and my family”.
Her apology followed one from Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste, who said the company had made a mistake by allowing her to continue in the competition.
“In the end, it is my job to foresee these potential incidents – and I did not,” he said.
Hyrox said it had “clear biocontaminant and medical procedures in place”, but acknowledged that an unforeseen situation had exposed uncertainty over how those protocols should be applied in elite competition and mass participation events.
The organisation has since updated its rules “to prevent situations like this from happening again”. Hyrox races feature eight one-kilometre indoor running laps, each followed by a functional exercise including burpees, rowing, sled pushing or wall balls.
