3 min readUpdated: Oct 30, 2026 01:25 PM ISTJoanna Wietrzyk at the Beijing Hyrox championship (Insta@joannawietrzyk).Australian Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk admitted that her actions at the Hyrox race in Beijing in September had put others at risk, but also spoke about how the backlash from social media was “traumatic”. Wietrzyk had gone viral last month after continuing to compete despite soiling herself mid-race. She is now preparing for a comeback to the sport.In an interview with BCC, Wietrzyk said her judgement had been clouded by her determination to soldier on in the race and win it. Wietrzyk had actually gone on to win the race in a time of 1 hour, 1 minute, 23 seconds.“It was my decision to continue racing so I take full responsibility for that,” she told BBC. “I didn’t really think about those around me… the decision that I made in hindsight was the wrong decision and I’m truly sorry for everyone that I did affect.”Organisers of Hyrox — where the 24-year-old Wietrzyk is a world champion — changed the rules after the incident in September to mandate that any athlete who experienced similar issues during the race would be removed from the race.Wietrzyk had faced intense criticism online after footage circulated showing her completing demanding workouts and using shared competition equipment despite having fecal matter running down her legs.Some of the criticism had been because of Wietrzyk, the world record holder in the Hyrox women’s solo event, posting a selfie on her Instagram handle from a hospital bed after the race where she had posted: “Go hard or go home … a win is a win. In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I’ll be back soon x.”After the backlash, she had deleted the post and subsequently issued a statement apologising and forfeiting her win.Story continues below this adWietrzyk also posted a video on her Instagram page from Hamburg, ahead of her return to competition in the sport’s Elite 15 division on Friday.View this post on InstagramA post shared by Joanna Wietrzyk (@joannawietrzyk)//www.instagram.com/embed.js“I’ve had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks on everything that happened in Beijing, and firstly I just want to say that I’m truly truly so sorry to everyone that I affected whether they were spectators or participants out on that race floor for my decision to choose to continue to race. Having that time to reflect I’ve really learned a lot from the situation and I am very very sorry for it all,” she said, repeating a previous public apology.“But I also want to say thank you to every person who has reached out to support and given me this overwhelming amount of support over the past couple of weeks. It’s been a very hard situation to navigate for me and very confronting as well so all the support, whether it was personally or through my team has been honestly so incredible and it goes a lot longer than I can truly express right now.”She added that she was “super excited” to be racing again and “back doing what she loves”.© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdAdvertisementLoading Recommendations...AdvertisementAdvertisement