A HYROX athlete and fitness coach from Australia went viral over the weekend when she soiled herself during the HYROX indoor fitness competition in Beijing, China.
22-year-old Joanna Wietrzyk, Australia’s fastest woman, suffered fecal incontinence during the highly competitive fitness event, but she went on to finish No. 1 on Saturday, September 12.
Photos of the unfortunate incident went viral on Saturday, sparking outrage around the world. Joanna further antagonized critics by writing: “go hard or go home … a win is a win,” in a now-deleted Instagram post.
Joanna shared a hospital selfie that shows her receiving intravenous hydration treatment.
HYROX, which sponsors the annual fitness event, announced rule changes on Monday.
HYROX co-founder Moritz Fuerste announced the rule changes after a “major clean up” at the facility, according to LAD Bible.
“As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again,” he added.
The German company included a “Did Not Finish” amendment in the rule book.
“If a racer’s blood, vomit, urine, or feces poses a welfare or contamination risk to the racer or to other racers, a Race Director may withdraw the racer from the race on medical grounds, in line with HYROX’s medical and hygiene SOPs. Any such withdrawal is recorded on the leaderboard as Did Not Finish [DNF].”
The rule also allows athletes to voluntarily withdraw from the competition.
HYROX asked the public not to attack the athletes themselves. “They are the people who put themselves on the line, compete at the highest level and make competition what it is,” Fuerste wrote in a statement.
“There is no place in our community for threats of violence or encouragement to harm an athlete. As this has happened this weekend, we want to be very clear and direct: Any person identified as engaging in this behavior – whether through comments, direct messages or social media – will be permanently banned from all HYROX events.”