Australian HYROX athlete Joanna Wietrzyk apologized again for continuing to compete after soiling herself during a race in Beijing, saying she has spent weeks reflecting on the incident as she prepares to return to competition.
Wietrzyk posted a video on Instagram on Wednesday, October 28, announcing that she would compete in the Elite 15 race in Hamburg, Germany, on Friday, October 30. It will be her first race since the September 12 incident, which drew criticism of both her decision to continue and officials’ failure to stop her.
“So, I’ve just had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks of everything that happened in Beijing. And firstly, I just want to say that I’m truly, truly so sorry to everyone that I affected, whether they were spectators or participants out on that race floor for my decision to choose to continue to race,” she said in the video.
Wietrzyk also thanked people who had contacted her or her team with messages of support. She said dealing with the fallout had been difficult, and the encouragement helped her through it.
“And having that time to reflect, I’ve really learnt a lot from the situation. And yeah, I am very, very sorry for it all. But I also want to say thank you to each and every person that reached out for support and have given me this overwhelming amount of support over the past couple weeks,” Wietrzyk continued.
She ended the video by confirming she was in Hamburg and looking forward to competing again.
“I’m here in Hamburg now, so I’m racing in a couple days’ time in the Elite 15. So I’m back out there on the race floor, and I’m super excited to go back doing what I love, and hopefully see you all out there,” she concluded.
The controversy began when Wietrzyk suffered bowel incontinence during the Beijing competition but continued through the course and finished first. Footage showing feces running down her legs spread online, raising questions about sanitation at an event where athletes use the same track and exercise equipment.
The apology drew mockery and criticism on X, with one user calling for her to be banned from future competitions and another questioning whether she showed remorse.
As Breitbart News reported, Chinese event officials said workers blocked off affected areas and replaced equipment during the competition. Carpeting and other affected materials were replaced afterward.
An initial social media post from Wietrzyk celebrating the result added to the criticism.
“Go hard or go home they say… A win is a win,” she wrote at the time.
Her latest video follows an earlier apology on September 17, when she announced she would withdraw her result and forfeit the ranking points she earned in Beijing.
In that statement, Wietrzyk said she had felt healthy before the competition and hadn’t expected to get ill. She acknowledged that continuing had affected others and that she should have stopped, ABC News reported.
HYROX also faced questions about why officials allowed her to finish.
The organization initially said its procedures for handling contamination and medical incidents had not been applied clearly in a situation involving both elite athletes and the wider field of participants. It acknowledged the concerns raised by its community and promised to review how it handled the event.
Co-founder Moritz Fürste subsequently accepted responsibility for the failure to intervene.
“HYROX made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race,” he said in a statement.
The organization changed its rules after the incident. Race directors can now remove an athlete on medical grounds if blood, vomit, urine or feces creates a contamination or welfare risk for that competitor or others.
HYROX combines eight one-kilometer runs with eight exercise stations. Competitors complete tasks including sled pushes and pulls, rowing, weighted carries, sandbag lunges and wall balls, moving between the running course and shared workout areas throughout the event.