'A win is a win' Hyrox world champion Joanna Wietrzyk forfeits Beijing victory after soiling herself mid-race

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

Joanna Wietrzyk, the Hyrox women's world record holder, has apologised and pulled out of a Beijing race she had won after experiencing bowel incontinence during competition on September 12. The 22-year-old Australian first removed a defiant 'go hard or go home — a win is a win' Instagram post before issuing a full apology on Thursday, saying she should have left the track. Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste also apologised, acknowledging the organisation had failed to step in straight away, and the competition has since updated its rules so that race directors can remove athletes when bodily fluids create a contamination risk.

Wietrzyk completed the entire race — shared sled pulls, rowing and sandbag lunges included — with faecal matter visible on her legs, finishing in a time of 1 hour, 1 minute and 23 seconds.

'I take responsibility for my decision to continue and am deeply sorry for the discomfort and disruption it caused,' Wietrzyk wrote, adding she would 'forfeit the points' she earned.

In interviews as early as 2024, Wietrzyk had said she hated the burpee broad jump station — the precise exercise at which the incontinence began.