An Australian athlete has admitted putting others at risk by continuing to compete after suffering an episode of fecal incontinence during an endurance sports event known as Hyrox.
At Hyrox, participants alternate between running a mile and doing physical exercises, including pushing a sled, burpee jumps, indoor rowing and squats carrying a sandbag.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC ahead of her return to the sport, Joanna Wietrzyk suggested that her determination to win the Hyrox race in Beijing in September had impaired her judgement: "It was my decision to continue competing, so I take full responsibility for that."
Asked why she continued, she said: "I didn't really think about the people around me... the decision I made, looking back, was the wrong decision and I sincerely apologize to everyone who was affected by it."
The 24-year-old athlete said the experience and subsequent negative reaction were "traumatic." She also said that she considered abandoning the sport, in which she holds a world record.
The Hyrox competition has exploded in popularity since it was founded in 2017 in Hamburg, northern Germany, and is now held all over the world.
Credit, Getty Images
Halfway through last month's event, Wietrzyk suffered a bout of diarrhea. Images of feces on parts of his body were widely shared online.
Asked whether organizers should have stopped her from continuing, she said no one encouraged her to stop at that point.
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Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste apologized, saying it was a mistake not to react immediately during the race.
New rules have been introduced giving race directors the power to remove athletes if vomit, urine or feces pose a risk of contamination or threaten the well-being of themselves or others in a race held primarily indoors with shared equipment.
Although he initially struck a defiant tone in an Instagram post that was later deleted, Wietrzyk apologized the week after the Beijing event and said he would give up his victory and retroactively withdraw from the race.
With a competition scheduled for Friday in Hamburg, she said she was "nervous" about her return and hoped the high-profile incident would not mark her trajectory.
“I don’t want this to become my identity,” she said.
In her first interview since the Beijing event, Wietrzyk said she had suffered a bacterial infection due to food poisoning, but that she entered the race "feeling refreshed, feeling really, really good."
"It was a very sudden experience," she told the BBC.
"It was only about halfway through the race that everything happened... At that moment, right there, as a very competitive person... and as an elite athlete that I am, my only focus is the race."
"Obviously, I put other people at risk," she admitted.
According to reports, Hyrox China has already refunded the registration fees of some competitors.
Wietrzyk also said he regretted an initial social media post he made after the race, which included the phrases "Go hard or go home" and "a win is a win." She stated she was in "fight or flight mode."
"I didn't really take into consideration how the public would have interpreted that situation."
Asked whether her apology could be seen as an attempt to minimize the damage or whether it was too late, she said she did not expect so much backlash over the incident.
"I needed these days to reflect and process all of this."
When talking about the mindset of elite athletes, she said: "They are extremely focused on winning and doing their best, putting their training into practice and showing their fitness to the world."
After reflecting on the past few weeks, she said, "There's more to life... than just racing and winning."
After Wietrzyk's identity was revealed online, Hyrox said anyone sending abusive messages or threats to the athlete would be banned from future events.
Speaking about the comments and photo sharing online, Joanna Wietrzyk said she received support to make sure she was okay, but it also showed that social media can be a very "toxic" place.
Wietrzyk told the BBC that this has been a "mentally and emotionally draining time" and that he did not expect the global attention, adding that his family had also received threats.
“It was an eye-opening experience for me to see the effect of social media today, especially for someone who is 24 years old and out there competing.”
"Yes, I made the wrong decision, but I don't think I should have received so much backlash and so much negative attention online... At the end of the day, I'm only human."
Wietrzyk said he was trying to stay offline and sought to "isolate himself from the world" for a while: "I can't do this forever."
"I still have so much more to achieve in this sport, so I think for me, my mental resilience is the key to inspiring others through my experience."
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