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It may be the stinkiest debate of the year.
A Hyrox athlete has divided the internet after losing control of her bowels mid-race and refusing to stop, raising questions about whether she should have hung up her diarrhea-splattered sneakers rather than power through to the finish line.
Joanna Wietrzyk, a 24-year-old Australian, was caught on camera running, rowing and lunging through the Beijing fitness competition over the weekend as fecal matter streamed down her legs — and somehow still managed to clinch first place.
Photos and videos from the event have quickly gone viral on social media, with viewers divided over whether Wietrzyk pulled off an impressive display of athleticism or posed a threat to public safety.
“Honestly. Disqualify her and restart the race. A normal human would stop and not s–t themselves around people. Sorry you are stressed honey, so is everyone else,” one user wrote on X.
“Should be an immediate forfeit. Pretty selfish as others runners had to literally run and slip on her crap,” commented another.
That’s not an exaggeration.
Chinese officials said staff swiftly cordoned off the affected areas, disinfected the site through the end of the day, removed contaminated equipment and arranged to replace the carpet once the event was over, according to the South China Morning Post.
But the cleanup apparently couldn’t keep pace with the mess. Participants and spectators reported that poop was left smeared on equipment and across the track after Wietrzyk suffered a bout of fecal incontinence, causing several athletes to fall.
“It’s a biohazard, how they let the competition go on is beyond me,” one person wrote on Reddit.
“Not only endangered them, but it also just generally affects performance. I’d have trouble bracing me core, looking at a lady dripping s–t everywhere,” chimed in another.
“Losing control of your bowels can happen. Continuing the race while liquid feces run down your legs is another thing entirely. That’s not grit. That’s a hygiene and safety failure,” wrote an X user.
Wietrzyk, for her part, seemed to have no shame about her messy finish — at least at first. “Go hard or go home they say… a win is a win,” she wrote on Instagram, before deleting the post as backlash over her decision to remain in the race reached a fever pitch.
“How could anyone justify this? She should be penalized for her actions rather than celebrating them,” an X user wrote.
“What a s–t show,” quipped another.
The pro-poo crowd: Why some people are rooting Wietrzyk on
For some, Wietrzyk’s victory wasn’t a crappy performance — it was a demonstration of grit.
“You may think you’re a tough athlete or a tough SOB, but are you ‘I s–t myself thru an entire physical competition and still f—–g won’ tough??? Respect to Joanna Wietrzyk for not letting some incontinence slow her down. The Aussies are just born tougher, y’all,” wrote one defender.
“She achieved what she came for and won,” an Instagram user commented. “S–t happens and nothing to look down if it wasn’t intentional. We all are humans after all.”
“Why can’t we just say she s–t her pants, we all do it and move on,” asked another social media user, whose response generated its own side-eyed replies from people questioning their use of “we.”
Hyrox’s says: ‘Courage, resilience and refusal to give in’
On Monday, Hyrox addressed the incident, issuing a statement about what it described as the “increasingly complex situations” arising at its competitions.
“We ask our athletes to push themselves to the highest levels. At times, they will go beyond what even we thought was possible,” they wrote on Instagram.
“That courage, resilience and refusal to give in are precisely what makes elite athletes so extraordinary. Our role is to give them the right framework and the right boundaries within which they can compete, perform and express themselves at their very best.
“HYROX has clear biocontaminant and medical procedures in place. In this instance, an unforeseen situation arose in which protocols designed for elite competition and mass participation became blurred, creating ambiguity in how they were applied and understood.
“We recognize that this can understandably lead to frustration, questions and strong views within our community. Those concerns are legitimate and, as organizers, we must be prepared to hear them, examine what happened and take responsibility for continuing to improve. And we will.”
Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fuerste later commented on the poop-fiasco, admitting the organizers “made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race.”
He said that the competition has “started improving event processes, plus making rulebook changes immediately.”
“As of this moment, there are new rules and procedures in place to prevent situations like this from happening again,” Fuerste wrote on Instagram.
Whatever side of the great poop debate you’re on, one thing is hard to dispute: Wietrzyk may have crossed the finish line first, but the internet has already decided on how she’ll be remembered.
“She thinks she’s winning, but the sad reality is that her legacy will forever be that of the pants s–tter rather than the winner,” an X user wrote.
Why would someone get diarrhea during Hyrox?
Fecal urgency or incontinence — essentially, the sudden, strong need to go or the inability to hold it in — is a real phenomenon that can happen during exercise, particularly in endurance sports.
Also known as runner’s diarrhea, runner’s colitis or runner’s trots, the uncomfortable experience can strike for several reasons.
For one, during strenuous, prolonged exercise, the body redirects blood flow away from the gastrointestinal tract and toward working muscles and other tissues that need it most in the moment.
“This decrease in blood flow can irritate the gut and cause diarrhea,” Dr. Dana Zalkin, a gastroenterologist and assistant professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, previously told The Post.
Dehydration can make matters worse, as can loading up on concentrated sugars, fats, fiber or certain carbohydrates before a race.
In Wietrzyk’s case, the street food she appears to have enjoyed in Beijing before race day may have added fuel to the fire.
And then there’s the bouncing. The mechanical jostling that comes with activities like running and heavy lifting can also send the digestive system haywire.
“The repetitive motion of moving up and down can irritate the organs in the abdomen and cause symptoms such as nausea, abdominal cramping and the urge to defecate,” Zalkin explained.
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