Hyrox will review its rules after allowing the world champion to compete covered in feces in Beijing

The German company Hyrox , organizer of the sports competition that attracts thousands of people around the world, will review its rules after the scandal caused this weekend in Beijing by an Australian athlete who was allowed to finish the race despite being covered in feces.

Joanna Wietrzyk, the current world champion in her category, suffered sudden stomach incontinence on Saturday while competing, but she finished the race and took first place. The incident, which has gone viral on social media , has caused outrage among numerous fans of the discipline and editorials in specialized media outlets, which believe that in an event where spitting on the track or pouring water over oneself is penalized, the athlete received special treatment because of her elite status and because she is sponsored by Puma, which is also an official sponsor of Hyrox.

Wietrzyk later posted a photo of herself on a medical stretcher on Instagram with the text "a win is a win", but she later deleted it, though not before receiving hundreds of comments questioning her sportsmanship and reproaching her for not withdrawing so as not to put the health of the rest of the participants and venue staff at risk.

"As our sport evolves, we encounter new and increasingly complex situations that pose a challenge and in which greater clarity is needed," says a statement from the franchise issued this Monday, which also states that Hyrox "applies clear medical and biocontamination protocols".

The statement says that what happened last Saturday in the Chinese capital was "an unexpected situation in which the protocols designed for elite competition and mass participation competition became blurred, creating ambiguity in how they were understood and applied."

"We recognize that this can, naturally, cause frustration, questions, and heated opinions within our community. Those concerns are legitimate and, as organizers, we must be prepared to listen to them, investigate what happened, and hold ourselves accountable so we can continue improving," it adds.

The company also issued a stern warning after Wietrzyk allegedly received threats online and said it is investigating and will ban those responsible from attending future events.

A participant who competed on the day of the incident and witnessed what happened live told EFE that the situation was exactly as shown in the images circulating on social media: the athlete suffered severe incontinence less than halfway through the race but remained in the competition, leaving feces on the running track as she went and on the equipment, machines, and mats shared with the rest of the athletes.

"The cleaning was not carried out at that moment , but rather at the end of the day, and there were people who got soiled and even slipped on the feces," the witness said.

The Chinese state-run newspaper Global Times also reported on the controversy this Monday, quoting sports commentator Zhu Meng: " True sportsmanship is about knowing where to draw the line , because competition should never continue at the expense of public health and the rights of other athletes," he said.

Likewise, Chinese social media has reacted with indignation, questioning why the organizers and the medical team did not act in time, while participants from that same day said that the proper course of action would be for Hyrox to refund the money—about $150 per participant—to the people who competed at the same time as the Australian woman and were exposed to health risks.

Hyrox is a sports competition created in 2017 that alternates eight kilometers of running with eight strength exercises, with the goal of completing it in the shortest possible time. It is held in venues in more than 20 countries, and its franchise was valued at more than 600 million euros by the end of 2025, according to Forbes magazine.