Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste admitted the organization made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the Beijing race on September 12. Australian pro Joanna Wietrzyk suffered bowel incontinence and was allowed to continue in the competition despite the sanitation risk.
Wietrzyk ultimately won the women’s Pro race in 1:01:23, but by the finish, fecal matter was visibly covering much of her legs, shorts, socks, and shoes. This posed a significant problem in Hyrox, where athletes cycle through the same indoor course and workout areas.
The Hyrox course includes eight 1-kilometer runs broken up by stations such as SkiErg, sled pushes and pulls, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carries, sandbag lunges, and wall balls. The risk of contamination was high, and many questioned why Wietrzyk was allowed to continue.
Much of the anger was aimed at race officials, who were criticized for not stepping in and addressing the situation. Commenters pointed out the health risk of continuing across dirty floors and using equipment shared by hundreds of other athletes.
Hyrox’s first global statement explained that the organization had biocontaminant and medical protocols in place, but the line between its elite-racing procedures and mass-participation rules became muddled in Beijing. The organization admitted that people had legitimate reasons to question how the race was handled.
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Moritz Fürste’s separate statement placed the responsibility more squarely on Hyrox leadership, apologizing to those affected and acknowledging that Hyrox should have been better prepared. He said the organization started revisiting its event processes and rulebook immediately after Beijing, with new procedures now in place to prevent similar situations.
However, neither Moritz Fürste nor Hyrox has explained exactly what these new procedures require. The organization did draw a hard line around the abuse directed at Wietrzyk, stating that there is no place in the community for threats of violence or encouragement to harm an athlete.
Joanna Wietrzyk’s response to the incident, in a since-deleted Instagram post, did little to calm the situation. She wrote, “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.” Her most recent Instagram grid post currently has comments turned off.
Hyrox said it will permanently ban anyone identified making threats through comments, direct messages, or social media. The organization is taking steps to address the situation and prevent similar incidents in the future.
