{"id":899524,"date":"2026-09-17T19:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/899524\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T19:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T19:22:18","slug":"australian-athlete-apologizes-for-racing-with-diarrhea-forfeits-the-beijing-competition-she-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/899524\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian athlete apologizes for racing with diarrhea, forfeits the Beijing competition she won"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Hyrox athlete who started a global uproar after soiling herself and leaking feces<\/a> at the popular indoor fitness competition has apologized for continuing to race, and forfeited her win.<\/p>\n

“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,” Australian Joanna Wietrzyk wrote in a statement posted to Instagram<\/a> Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

“Looking back, I regret the decision to not have stepped off the track. I recognize that I should have made a different choice.”<\/p>\n

Wietrzyk explained she felt “completely fit and healthy at the start of the race, with no reason to expect any illness.” She added that, “on reflection,” she decided to retroactively forfeit her win and the points she earned.<\/p>\n

“I know my actions had an impact beyond myself, and I am genuinely sorry to everyone who was affected.”<\/p>\n

The graphic images of world record holder Wietrzyk competing with feces running down her legs at\u00a0Saturday’s Hyrox in Beijing<\/a>\u00a0have sparked debate about the health and safety of competitors versus the mentality that a win is a win,\u00a0no matter the cost<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Footage showed Wietrzyk continue to push through her events using communal equipment such as ropes, sandbags, rowing machines and medicine balls, and doing burpees and lunges on a shared indoor track. She was the pro women’s champion with a time of 1:01:23, beating the U.S.’s Alyssa McElheny by about 45 seconds. <\/p>\n

“Go hard or go home \u2026 a win is a win,”\u00a0Wietrzyk posted \u2014 then later deleted \u2014 on Instagram after the event along with a selfie in what appeared to be a hospital bed, according to\u00a0multiple news outlets.<\/a><\/p>\n

McElheny has not yet made a public comment about the competition. CBC News has reached out to her press team.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, multiple media<\/a> outlets report that Wietrzyk’s major sponsor, Puma, is distancing itself from the athlete by quietly removing “Joanna Wietrzyk x PUMA”\u00a0clothing items from its website.<\/p>\n

But a spokesperson for Puma says there’s “no change” to their partnership with Wietrzyk, telling CBC News in a statement Thursday that some landing pages were “unintentionally taken offline.”<\/p>\n

On social media<\/a>, people have flooded the brand’s comments with plays on “Puma,” such as “Pooma,” “Poopma” and “Poo Ma Pants.”<\/p>\n

Hyrox refunding affected participants<\/p>\n

As the incident went viral, online commenters were quick to point out the\u00a0health risks<\/a>\u00a0for other competitors, with many people saying\u00a0Wietrzyk should have quit<\/a>\u00a0or Hyrox should have disqualified her. Others are calling on Hyrox to refund the other competitors or offer them compensation. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Hyrox China announced it was refunding the entry costs to more than 1,000 participants affected by the incident, according to the South China Morning Post<\/a>. A spectator at the event\u00a0told the outlet <\/a>that feces was visible on the track about 30 minutes after Wietrzyk started her race, causing several runners to slip. <\/p>\n

Other athletes who competed in the same race<\/a> described having to use equipment smeared with feces.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Hyrox co-founder Moritz F\u00fcrste\u00a0wrote in an Instagram statement that the organization has since changed its rules to prevent similar situations from happening again. <\/p>\n

Its official rulebook<\/a>\u00a0already lists penalties for other bodily fluids, noting that spitting or clearing of nostrils onto the floor is strictly prohibited. Until this week, there was no mention of penalties for feces contaminating the race course. <\/p>\n

“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,” Wietrzyk wrote in her apology.<\/p>\n

She added that she will be taking some time to “recover, reflect and look after myself and my family away from the noise.”<\/p>\n

WATCH | Canadian teacher places 2nd at Hyrox world competition in Stockholm:\"\"<\/p>\n

60-year-old teacher places 2nd at Hyrox world championship<\/p>\n

By day, Annette Barry is a St. Thomas, Ont., high school teacher. In her spare time, she does Hyrox \u2014 a growing sport that combines running and functional exercise. Barry placed second in her age category at the Hyrox World Championships in Stockholm.