Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk apologizes for competing after soiling herself, forfeits her victory
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- Australian Hyrox star Joanna Wietrzyk has retroactively forfeited a Beijing race win after competing while visibly soiled.
- In an Instagram statement, the 24-year-old Melbourne athlete apologized to fellow competitors, spectators and organizers, saying she should have stepped off the course.
- Hyrox’s co-founder has admitted officials “made a mistake” by not intervening mid-race and says new rules and procedures aim to prevent similar contamination incidents at future events.
An Australian indoor fitness athlete apologized Thursday for continuing to participate in a recent competition after apparently soiling herself.
Joanna Wietrzyk, a 24-year-old Melbourne resident, could be seen with what appears to be fecal matter on parts of her body as she competed in a Hyrox event Saturday in Beijing. Despite that, she was permitted to stay in the race — even though the running-workout event involves the shared use of equipment by multiple competitors — and eventually was declared the winner with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute and 23 seconds.
Wietrzyk has decided to “retroactively withdraw from the race and forfeit the points I earned,” she indicated in a Sept. 18 statement posted on Instagram.
L.A.-based analysts say the 2028 Olympics will supercharge revenue, jobs and taxes. Projections for the Paris Olympics didn’t pan out.
“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.
“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. I recognize 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.
“I know my actions had an impact beyond myself, and I am genuinely sorry to everyone who was affected. I am learning from this experience and will carry those lessons with me, including remembering that there is more to life than racing and knowing when it is right to step away.”
A plan to block off freeway and street lanes for exclusive use by athletes, staff and others is in the works for the 2028 Olympics.
The message contrasted from that of a post Wietrzyk made earlier in the week that, according to the Athletic, also included a selfie of the athlete apparently in a hospital bed.
“Go hard or go home … a win is a win,” the since-deleted post reportedly said. “In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I’ll be back soon.”
First introduced in 2017, Hyrox indoor fitness competitions are made up of eight 1-kilometer (.62-mile) runs that are separated by intense exercises at eight different workout stations (ski ergometer, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jump, rowing, farmer’s carry, sandbag lunges and medicine ball squat/throw). Wietrzyk holds the world record in the women’s event with a time of 54:26 set earlier this year.
L.A. Olympic organizers have sold more than 6 million tickets, locking in a significant piece of funding for what they promise will be a privately funded Games.
Hyrox co-founder Moritz Furste posted a statement Sunday on Instagram apologizing for “the recent events in China” and indicating that the competition has taken unspecified steps to prevent another such occurrence.
“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,” Furste wrote. “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.
“Of course, we started improving event processes, plus making rulebook changes immediately. As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again.”
