Sports14 September, 20262 min read
Joanna Wietrzyk Wins HYROX Beijing After Severe Bowel Incontinence, HYROX Changes Protocols
Wietrzyk suffered mid-race fecal incontinence yet finished and won HYROX Beijing. HYROX announced protocol changes worldwide following the Beijing incident.
Beijing race, winner covered
Joanna Wietrzyk, the women’s HYROX world record holder from Australia, suffered severe bowel incontinence mid-race at HYROX Beijing on Sept. 12, yet finished first after continuing through all eight circuits.
CBC reported that HYROX said it “has changed its protocols” after allowing Wietrzyk to keep competing despite what appeared to be diarrhea, and it described her pro women’s champion time as 1:01:23.
An observer quoted by CBC called the situation “a biohazard, how they let the competition go on is beyond me,” while the South China Morning Post participant said footage showed Wietrzyk continuing to use communal equipment such as ropes, sandbags, rowing machines and medicine balls.
In the same incident, Wietrzyk posted “Go hard or go home … a win is a win” on Instagram after the event and then deleted it, as CBC said multiple news outlets reported.
Apologies, rule changes, backlash
HYROX co-founder Moritz Fürste apologized after the Beijing incident, writing, “HYROX made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race,” and said, “As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again.” NBC News said Fürste issued the apology “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,” and it reported that Wietrzyk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Diario del Triatlón said HYROX’s modified regulations would prohibit access to people who have engaged in problematic behavior and quoted the organization’s intent to “keep prioritizing the well-being and dignity of athletes in everything that follows.” The controversy also included debate over HYROX’s existing penalties, with the CBC account noting that the rulebook already had penalties for spitting or clearing nostrils onto the floor but “until this week, there was no mention of penalties for feces contaminating the race course.”
Health risks and what’s next
The incident raised health and safety questions because competitors share equipment and spaces, and eltrecetv said a witness complained that “The cleanup wasn’t performed at that moment, but at the end of the day, and there were people who got dirty and even slipped on the feces.” In response to the uproar, Mi Diario reported that HYROX said it would remove a competitor when blood, vomit, urine, or feces pose a contamination risk or threaten the wellbeing of other people.
24horas.cl, speaking through doctor and family medicine specialist Elisabeth Crespo of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, said intense exercise can trigger an “emergency mode” that increases heart rate, adrenaline, and stress hormones and temporarily decreases blood flow to the digestive system. Crespo added that “Cramps, sudden urges to go to the bathroom, an urgent need to defecate, or even diarrhea can appear,” and she said the episode “does not necessarily mean the athlete has an intestinal disease,” while also advising that not ingesting food or fluids before extreme physical training can help avoid such situations.