Winning Hyrox Athlete Who Pooped Her Pants Offers Sincere Apology And Goes One Step Further

Hyrox was the talk of the endurance sports world over the weekend after the woman who won the women’s professional division at Hyrox Beijing, Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk, pooped her pants en route to a winning time of 1:01.23 which beat American athlete Alyssa McElheny by 45 seconds. The entire competition was impacted with biological waste contaminating the course and ruining the race for many competitors.

In the aftermath, Hyrox co-founder Mo Fuerste issued an apology on behalf of the company. It did not sit right with Hyrox athletes around the world as Joanna Wietrzyk was still awarded the win and not disqualified while other athletes have been DQ’d for infractions such as spitting or snot rockets. Many felt that since she was in the Women’s Pro Division, Hyrox was not enforcing its own rules.

Today, Joanna Wietrzyk broke her silence after pooping her pants at Hyrox Beijing. She offered up a sincere apology and then went one step further as show of good will.

Hyrox Athlete Joanna Wietrzyk Who Pooped Her Pants In Beijing Offers Apology, DQ’s Herself

As a professional athlete the prize money from Hyrox Beijing and the points accrued from winning were obviously necessary and crucial to the success of her career and maintaining pro status with Hyrox. So this apology and subsequent decision to forfeit the points must have been a difficult one for Joanna Wietrzyk and she deserves respect from the Hybrid Sports world for her decision.

In the apology, Joanna Wietrzyk wrote “Personal statement: 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.”

“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. On reflection, I have decided to retroactively withdraw from the race and forfeit the points I earned.”

“Thank you to those standing by me, both as an athlete and as a person, during this time, and to everyone who has reached out with kindness and support. It means more to me than I can properly express right now. I will be taking some time to recover, reflect and look after myself and my family away from the noise.”

“Love Jo x”

Joanna shared her apology on Instagram here, you can see a copy of the text below:

Respect to her for following through on what should have been done. Hyrox’s Race Direction should have pulled her off the course in that moment and I feel like the onus was on the Race Director and not her.

Initially, Joanna’s reaction was “a win is a win” in a message she posted on Instagram. Obviously, there has been a change of heart in the past several days now that she has been given time to reflect on just how disruptive the incident was to every single person competing at Hyrox Beijing. Everyone is entitled to change their minds on issues and her decision here shows growth.

As a competitor, you never want to quit. Everything she knows as an athlete was telling her to push through to the end and that’s what she did, winning the Hyrox Beijing Women’s Pro division. But the Race Director should never have allowed that to happen nor should they have allowed the course to be caked in feces that had to be cleaned up by employees, not to mention all of the other athletes that were forced to come in contact with the fecal matter all over the course.

Mind you, this is what the Hyrox rules state about this exact scenario:

Hyrox’s own rules stipulate that the decision was on the Race Director. They had the choice to remove her once she had pooped her pants and they instead allowed her to finish and it left a giant stain on the entire competition.

Joanna’s decision to retroactively withdraw and forfeit her points was the right one. Respect to her for stepping up here.