Overview
- During the HYROX Women’s Pro event in Beijing on Sept. 12, Australian Joanna Wietrzyk suffered sudden faecal incontinence, continued the course and finished first.
- Organisers closed affected lanes, removed contaminated equipment, conducted deep cleaning, and said they would replace venue flooring before racing resumed the next day.
- Co-founder Moritz Fürste apologised for not intervening and said HYROX had begun changing event processes after acknowledging the response was a mistake.
- HYROX updated its rulebook to allow a Race Director to withdraw a racer on medical grounds if blood, vomit, urine, or feces pose a welfare or contamination risk and to record any withdrawal as a DNF.
- The incident went viral on Chinese and global social media, prompting debate about indoor shared-equipment hygiene, calls for refunds or disqualification, and a HYROX pledge to permanently ban anyone who issues threats against the athlete.