After becoming unwell during the fitness race, in which competitors alternate running with functional exercises such as rowing, sled pushes and burpees, 24-year-old Wietrzyk, who hails from Melbourne, Australia, ended up soiling herself<\/a> \u2013 but pushed through regardless. Footage and pictures from the event appeared to show her using communal equipment and mats with faeces running down her legs. <\/p>\n It is, of course, not unheard of for athletes to have an accident during a sporting event. Paula Radcliffe memorably had to relieve herself<\/a> by the side of the road during the 2005 London Marathon<\/a>, and Gary Lineker<\/a> still managed to ascend to national treasure status despite soiling himself during an Italia 1990 World Cup match. But those incidents didn\u2019t take place in a confined indoor space, with other competitors then apparently having to use the same equipment afterwards. <\/p>\n Quite frankly, it has created a bit of a s***storm for the wildly popular competition, whose name is an intriguing portmanteau of \u201chybrid\u201d (reflecting the different disciplines that participants need to master) and \u201crockstar\u201d. <\/p>\n Wietrzyk deleted her Instagram post, and the event\u2019s co-founder Moritz Furste apologised for allowing the race to continue <\/a>after the incident. \u201cHyrox made a mistake by not immediately reacting during the race,\u201d he wrote in a social media statement. \u201cIn the end it is my job to foresee these potential incidents \u2013 and I did not.\u201d <\/p>\n Furste, a former field hockey Olympic champion, added that the company had made \u201crulebook changes immediately\u201d,<\/a> with \u201cnew rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again\u201d. The competition previously penalised behaviour such as spitting, littering and nostril clearing, but apparently had no official procedure around bodily fluids and faeces. <\/p>\n The reaction to this incident seems to have fallen into two camps. There are those who are outraged by the seeming disregard for the health of Wietrzyk\u2019s fellow competitors, who had to deal with some truly grim race conditions so that the champion could secure her win. And then there are those who have hailed her as heroic for securing a victory despite clearly being unwell. <\/p>\n Indeed, in another statement shared by Hyrox, the brand noted that they \u201cask our athletes to push themselves to the highest levels<\/a>\u201d, and that \u201cat times, they will go beyond what even we thought was possible\u201d; the same post praised participants\u2019 \u201ccourage, resilience and refusal to give in\u201d. <\/p>\n It all begs the question: are Hyrox, and the countless other high-intensity fitness challenges populating our social media feeds, fostering a philosophy of exercise where more is more, where pushing yourself to the absolute extreme<\/a> is normalised? And is this really healthy? <\/p>\n It\u2019s not the only time that the event has generated viral notoriety \u2013 last year, footage from a race in Australia showed a man apparently leaving his partner to be tended to by medics after she had passed out, while he carried on running. Again, it sparked a debate about whether such a blinkered dedication to getting a personal best was something to be lauded, or a cause for concern. <\/p>\n South African fitness coach Leroy Saunders died after collapsing and losing consciousness<\/a> while competing at the Hyrox<\/a> Bangkok<\/a> 2026 event. Saunders, 41, was competing at the event at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre in Bangkok on 13 August when he collapsed.<\/p>\n Event staff and medical personnel administered CPR and emergency resuscitation before he was taken to hospital, where he later died, according to The Nation.<\/p>\n Hyrox was launched in Hamburg, Germany, in 2018, the brainchild of Furste and Christian Toetzke, who wanted to come up with a concept that could hook gym-goers and runners alike. Just a few hundred people took part in the first event, but its popularity has since snowballed. <\/p>\n There are competitions in over 85 cities and 30 countries, and the sport is on track to reach 1.5 million participants this year. The co-founders expect it to generate<\/a> $270m (\u00a3200m) this year; earlier this month, a consortium led by the private equity firm L Catterton, which is backed by the luxury conglomerate LVMH, bought a controlling stake in the company<\/a>. <\/p>\n Part of the reason for its popularity is its simplicity. \u201cEvery race follows the same structure, so participants know exactly what they are preparing for and can easily compare their results over time or compare performances with other competitors,\u201d explains Joshua Davidson, lecturer in clinical exercise science at the University of Derby<\/a>. <\/p>\n The inclusion of doubles and relay categories, he adds, means that training can be a sociable experience \u2013 but most importantly, Hyrox has \u201csuccessfully leveraged the immense power of social media to drive engagement\u201d, connecting with an audience \u201cfor whom fitness is not simply exercise, but part of their lifestyle and identity\u201d. In our digital-focused world, \u201cthe ability to document and share an achievement adds another layer of motivation and status\u201d, Davidson adds. <\/p>\n And so events like Hyrox become not only physical tests, but social signals. Sporting achievements act as badges of discipline and resilience, and membership of a community is associated with having those qualities. <\/p>\n We\u2019re currently in an era in which many of us live very sedentary lifestyles; in 2024, one study found that around three-quarters of Brits are not hitting the NHS guidelines of 150 minutes of exercise per week<\/a>. Hybrid fitness is certainly \u201cencouraging lots of people to get active and to get active in different ways\u201d, says fitness expert and StrongLikeMum<\/a> founder Shakira Akabusi, thanks to its focus on different disciplines.<\/p>\n Something that has motivated \u201cmany people to train with greater purpose and consistency\u201d, as Tom Williams, head of performance and strength and conditioning coach at Pure Sports Medicine<\/a>, puts it, is certainly not to be sniffed at. Hyrox also gives participants \u201ca meaningful target that keeps them engaged\u201d, he notes, so that they won\u2019t just view exercise \u201cas something they \u2018should\u2019 do\u201d. <\/p>\n The danger is that some individuals begin to see warning signs such as excessive fatigue, illness, injury or poor recovery as obstacles to ignore<\/p>\n Tom Williams, head of performance, Pure Sports Medicine<\/p>\n Although Hyrox is a fairly new phenomenon, intense fitness challenges aren\u2019t. Marathons, triathlons and endurance cycling events have always been very popular, says Dr Hugh Coyne, a private GP and co-founder of Coyne Medical<\/a>. But what has changed significantly, he notes, is \u201cthat people\u2019s performance expectations have increased. When I was growing up, just completing a marathon seemed extraordinary. In my early career as a doctor, doing a four-hour marathon seemed extraordinary. Now people are frequently targeting three-hour marathons.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"\u2018A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Hyrox-athlete-Joanna-Wietrzyk.jpeg\")
\u2018A win is a win\u2019: Wietrzyk\u2019s behaviour has divided the fitness community (Instagram)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2267247815-f84268c6.jpeg\")
The activity has grown in popularity since it was created in 2018 (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n
![\"Some](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GettyImages-2282893739-3e473077.jpeg\")
Some aspects of modern fitness encourage contestants to push themselves to their absolute limits (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n