Watch: ‘I made the wrong decision,’ Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk tells BBC
An Australian athlete has admitted putting others at risk by continuing to race after soiling herself during an endurance sports event.
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Speaking exclusively to the BBC ahead of her return to the sport, Joanna Wietrzyk suggested her determination to win the Hyrox race in Beijing in September had clouded her judgement: “It was my decision to continue racing so I take full responsibility for that.”
Challenged over why she carried on, she said: “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.”
The 24-year-old said that the experience and subsequent backlash was “traumatic”. She also said she had considered walking away from the sport, in which she holds a world record.
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Roughly halfway through her event, Wietrzyk suffered a bout of diarrhoea. Images of faecal matter on parts of her body were then shared widely online.
Asked whether officials should have stopped her, she said no-one encouraged her to do so the time.
Hyrox’s co-founder, Moritz Fürste, has issued an apology saying it had been a mistake not to react immediately during the race.
New rules have now been introduced giving race directors the power to remove athletes if their vomit, urine or faeces pose a risk of contamination or threaten the welfare of themselves or others in a race that is primarily held indoors using shared equipment.
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Hyrox sees participants alternate between running a kilometre and doing fitness exercises, including a sled push, burpee jumps, indoor rowing, and lunges while carrying a sandbag.
The competition has exploded in popularity since it was founded in 2017 in Hamburg, in northern Germany, and is now held across the world.
Although initially defiant in a now-deleted Instagram post, Wietrzyk apologised in the week after the Beijing event and said she would forfeit the win and retroactively withdraw from the race.
Due to compete in Hamburg on Friday, she said she was “nervous” about her return and hoped that the high-profile incident would not define her.
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“I don’t want it to become my identity,” she said.
In her first interview since Beijing, Wietrzyk said she had suffered a bacterial infection from food poisoning but had gone into the race “feeling fresh, feeling really, really good”.
“It was a very sudden experience,” she told the BBC.
“It wasn’t until about halfway through the race where everything did transpire… In that moment, right then and there, as a very competitive person… and an elite athlete that I am, my only focus is on racing.
“I didn’t really think about those around me which, looking back and looking back at the decision that I made, in hindsight, was the wrong decision and I’m truly sorry for everyone that I did affect in that situation.”
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Following the incident, some of Wietrzyk’s co-competitors at September’s tournament in Beijing demanded an apology from Hyrox.
Hyrox China has since reportedly refunded some competitors their entry fees.
Wietrzyk admitted that: “Obviously I did put other people at risk.”
She also said she regretted an initial social media post published after the race which included the words “Go hard or go home” and “a win is a win”. She said she had been in “flight or fight mode” as she sought hospital treatment.
“I didn’t really account for what the public would have seen that situation as.”
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Challenged over whether her apology could be seen as an effort at damage limitation, or too late, she said that she hadn’t expected so much exposure from the incident.
“I needed those days to reflect on it and process it.”
Speaking about the mentality of elite athletes, she said: “They’re so hyper-vigilant on winning and doing the best that they can, putting their training to good use and showcasing their fitness to the world.”
After reflecting over the past weeks, she said: “There is more to life… than just racing and just winning.”
After Wietrzyk’s identity was shared online, Hyrox said anyone sending abuse or threats to the athlete would be banned from future events.
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Wietrzyk told the BBC that it had been a “mentally and emotionally taxing period” and she had not expected the global scrutiny, saying her family had also received threats.
The backlash, “Was very eye-opening for me to see the effect of social media nowadays especially from someone who’s 24, just out there racing.
“Yes, I did make the wrong decision but I don’t believe I should have received such backlash and such scrutiny online … At the end of the day I’m only human.”
Wietrzyk said that she had been mainly offline and sought to “isolate herself from the world” for a time but, “I can’t do that forever.”
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“I still have so much more I can achieve in this sport so I think, for me, my mental resilience is the key here where I can inspire others through what I’ve been through.”
