Joanna Wietrzyk wins HYROX Hamburg on return after Beijing

Seven weeks after the race that made her famous for the wrong reasons, Melbourne’s Joanna Wietrzyk won her comeback race. The Australian clocked 56:10 in the Elite 15 women’s race in Hamburg, Germany, the first of the new season, having started it at the top of the women’s rankings (BoxRox live recap; The Barbell Spin).

It’s her first race since HYROX Beijing on 12 September, where she lost control of her bowels during the race, kept going on a course other athletes were sharing, and crossed the line first. The clip went around the world. Five days later she apologised and gave up the win.

What happened in Beijing

Wietrzyk had faecal incontinence during the women’s pro race at HYROX Beijing. She didn’t stop. She finished in 1:01:23, first in the field (ESPN). The race is run on a shared floor with shared equipment, and the backlash was about that rather than the accident itself: other athletes and fans asked why officials let her keep racing.

She didn’t help herself at first. A post from what looked like a hospital bed, captioned “Go hard or go home … a win is a win”, was quickly deleted (ESPN; USA Today). On 17 September she issued a formal apology, withdrew from the result and forfeited the points that came with the win (USA Today; Gulf News).

How HYROX changed its rules

HYROX took the blame too. “HYROX made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race,” co-founder Moritz Fürste said. “In the end it is my job to foresee these potential incidents – and I did not.”

The rulebook now gives race directors the power to withdraw an athlete if blood, vomit, urine or faeces creates a welfare or contamination risk to them or other competitors. An athlete pulled out under that rule is recorded as not finishing (ESPN; Complex). HYROX also condemned the abuse aimed at Wietrzyk online and said anyone making threats of violence would be banned for life.

That takes the decision she faced in Beijing out of an athlete’s hands. In a sport built on not stopping, that’s probably the right call. It isn’t the first time HYROX has had to think about where the limit is: seven people were taken to hospital at HYROX Perth in August.

What she said before Hamburg

Wietrzyk announced her return in an Instagram video on 28 October. She called the past few weeks “a very hard situation to navigate for me and very confronting as well” and apologised again: “I’m truly, truly so sorry to everyone that I affected, whether they were spectators or participants out on that race floor, for my decision to choose to continue to race.”

“I’m super excited to go back to doing what I love and hopefully see you all out there,” she said (USA Today; LADbible).

Joanna Wietrzyk’s update from Hamburg, on Instagram (@joannawietrzyk)

Who is Joanna Wietrzyk?

Before HYROX, Wietrzyk played tennis at national level and netball for her state, and coached F45 classes in Melbourne (BoxRox). She was the first Australian woman to qualify for the Elite 15, the sport’s top tier (BoxRox; Amazfit). Her record:

• Runner-up at the HYROX World Championships in 2025 and again in 2026, when she finished second to Alyssa McElheny in Stockholm (Amazfit; BoxRox; RoxRadar)
• Women’s Solo Pro world record: 54:25, set at the Warsaw Major in April 2026 (BoxRox; RoxFit)
• Leader of the elite women’s singles rankings going into Hamburg, even after forfeiting her Beijing points (USA Today; Gulf News)

A HYROX race is 8 km of running split by eight workout stations, from the SkiErg and sled push to wall balls. Our guide to HYROX explains the format, and HYROX stations and weights has every station in order. If her story has you thinking about a first race, HYROX Melbourne is in her home town.

Sources: ESPN; USA Today; LADbible; Gulf News; NBC News; Complex; BoxRox; Amazfit; RoxRadar; Box Life; The Barbell Spin. Checked 30 October 2026.