HYROX women's world record holder Joanna Wietrzyk has responded to fierce backlash after pooping herself during a race.

Wietrzyk, who holds the women's world record with a time of 54:25, began experiencing diarrhea just two kilometers into the competition in China but continued to race and secured another championship title. Images shared online showed the athlete completing burpee broad jumps, lunges and wall balls, with visible fecal matter on her legs.

An event organizer later confirmed that contaminated equipment had been removed, affected race lanes were closed and the venue would undergo a thorough overnight clean, including carpet replacement, ahead of the following day's competition.

Wietrzyk admitted that the backlash following the incident had been “a hard situation to navigate” as she reiterated her earlier apology for continuing to compete during the fitness race in Beijing. The 24-year-old shared a video on Instagram from Hamburg, Germany, where she is preparing to return to competition in the sport’s Elite 15 division on Friday.

She said: “I’ve had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks on everything that happened in Beijing, and firstly I just want to say that 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.

“Having that time to reflect I’ve really learned a lot from the situation and I am very very sorry for it all. But I also want to say thank you to every person who has reached out to support and given me this overwhelming amount of support over the past couple of weeks.

“It’s been a very hard situation to navigate for me and very confronting as well so all the support, whether it was personally or through my team has been honestly so incredible and it goes a lot longer than I can truly express right now.”

She added that she was “super excited” to return to competition and be “back doing what I love”.

Both the company and Wietrzyk, who completed the race in 1 hour, 1 minute and 23 seconds, faced fierce online criticism, with many highlighting the health risks of allowing her to continue competing.

Wietrzyk, who is from Melbourne, initially shared a selfie from a hospital bed on Instagram after the race, alongside the caption: “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 later deleted the post and issued a statement apologizing for the incident, in which she also forfeited her victory.

Organizers also changed the rules following the incident in September, introducing measures to ensure athletes are removed from the race if similar situations occur in future.