HYROX sends new message to participants in race where woman soiled herself
HYROX China has issued new protocols following an incident involving an athlete soiling herself last weekend.
Joanna Wietrzyk experienced bowel incontinence during a HYROX race in Beijing on Saturday (12 September).
Although the Australian athlete managed to not only finish, but win the race, the incident has sparked debate across social media as to whether or not the competition should have stepped in and perhaps paused proceedings.
A screenshot of the widely shared response from HYROX China to participants about the incident read: "Dear HYROX Athlete, First and foremost, regarding the afternoon race at the HYROX Beijing event on 12 September, when the on-site incident occurred, we failed to promptly remove the involved athlete from the track.
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"We sincerely apologise that this operational oversight meant we were unable to provide you with the race experience you deserved.
"Following the incident, our on-site team completed the sanitisation procedures and full turf replacement.
"We understand our sport cannot thrive without the support of all athletes. We deeply cherish this support and will take concrete steps to reciprocate your trust."
They said that 'thorough internal procedural review' they have offered a 'full refund' for athletes competing on Saturday.
"Athletes who had started their race before 2:40 PM on 12 September and were still racing at 2:40 PM that day," HYROX added.
"All athletes in wave batches starting between 2:40 PM and 8:40 PM on 12 September.
"At the same time, HYROX's official Rulebook has been updated to include an emergency-response protocol for biological-contamination incidents, which is now officially in effect globally, to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.
"Moving forward, we are committed to repaying your passion and support for HYROX with a more seamless and improved race experience."
After winning her Pro Women event with a time of 1:01:23 on Saturday, Wietrzyk thanked everyone for their support in a since-removed Instagram story.
"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," she wrote in the caption.
Following the backlash online, the company said in a statement not to blame the athlete for what happened and said: “They are the people who put themselves on the line, compete at the highest level and make competition what it is.
“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 behaviour - whether through comments, direct messages or social media - will be permanently banned from all HYROX events.”
Anish Vij