Organizers for the global fitness competition Hyrox issued an apology Monday after allowing the winner of a Beijing, China competition to finish the race after she lost control of her bowels — running on the carpeted, indoor course and using shared fitness equipment
while feces covered her legs and arms.
Australian Joanna Wietrzyk, 22, is a world record holder for Hyrox and one of the fitness competition’s elite athletes. At a Sept. 12 match in Beijing, Wietrzyk suffered from fecal incontinence during the race. Photos from the event show Wietrzytk pushing a workout sled, doing burpees, rowing, and running through stations while covered in fecal matter. She finished with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute, and 23 seconds, according to The Athletic, winning the race. “Go hard or go home … a win is a win,” Weitrzyk wrote in a now-deleted instagram post celebrating her win. In the accompanying photo, she posed from a hospital bed. “In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I’ll be back soon x.”
While Wietrzyk positioned the incident as an act of professional endurance, the story caught fire online over the weekend, with Hyrox athletes and competitors who attended the Beijing event criticizing organizers for allowing Weitrzyk to continue.
Hyrox, which started in 2017, has quickly grown from a consumer athletic competition into a global fitness phenomenon. The event combines eight runs — each one kilometer — with multiple fitness stations, including the SkiErg, sled push and pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, wall balls, sandbag lunges, and farmers carry. Wietryzk was competing in the professional division. There are over 100 Hyrox competitions every year across the globe, all held in indoor facilities on carpeted tracks. But much of the controversy has stemmed from Hyrox’s well-established reputation for being notoriously strict about messes that could affect the carpet or competition space. Its rulebook penalizes competitors who spit, spill water, litter or create “slip hazards” at any stations.
According to The Guardian, Hyrox China and Hyrox World confirmed that the lanes Wietryzk ran on were deep cleaned, carpet was replaced, and equipment was removed before the next day’s competition. Initial statements from Hyrox blamed “blurring” and “confusion” about bio-hazard protocols for the pro Hyrox athletes over the amateurs who participate. “We ask our athletes to push themselves to the highest levels. At times, they will go beyond what even we thought was possible,” an earlier statement read. “That courage, resilience and refusal to give in are precisely what makes elite athletes so extraordinary. Our role is to give them the right framework and the right boundaries within which they can compete, perform and express themselves at their very best.”
Now, Hyrox is saying the incident will inspire rule changes in the competition. “I apologise to all that were directly or indirectly affected, as well as to everyone who felt like we did not handle the situation like we should have. Hyrox made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race. In the end it is my job to foresee these potential incidents — and I did not,” Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste said in a statement shared on Instagram. “As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again. We learn and try to get better everyday.”
Under the new rules, race directors can pull an athlete from the course if blood, vomit, urine, or feces becomes a contamination issue. Representatives for Hyrox did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment on the incident and whether they are considering stripping Wietrzyk of her win. But Hyrox has said that abuse or harassment aimed toward Wietrzyk will not be tolerated — and could result in competitors being banned from future events.
“Frustration should never be directed towards the athletes themselves. They are the people who put themselves on the line, compete at the highest level and make competition what it is,” organizers said in a statement. “There is no place in our community for threats of violence or encouragement to harm an athlete.”
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