Hyrox athlete apologises for previous behaviour as she prepares to race again. The 24-year-old says she hopes this isn't the moment that defines her after receiving severe hate online.

The 24-year-old Australian athlete who accidentally soiled herself midway through a Hyrox competition has admitted she made the wrong call.

Speaking to the BBC, Joanna Wietrzyk acknowledged that she had “made the wrong decision” by continuing to race at the Hyrox event in Beijing this September. She blamed her determination to win and took full accountability, stating that it had been her "decision to continue racing".

She also acknowledged that by continuing to race she “didn’t really think about those around [her]”, putting the other racers at risk. She commented that she was “truly sorry for everyone that I did affect.”

Halfway through the race, the world record holder suffered an embarrassing bout of food poisoning-induced diarrhoea. Wietrzyk explained that she only started feeling ill halfway through the race and described feeling “fresh” in the hours before.

In a since-deleted social media post, Wietrzyk initially defended her decision to continue racing, saying a “win is a win” and “Go hard or go home”.

Photos and videos of Wietrzyk’s accident have since gone viral online, with the athlete receiving some pretty severe backlash. This incident also caused her to lose some of her brand deals.

She has since conceded: “I didn’t really account for what the public would have seen that situation as.”

Calling the experience "traumatic", she admitted that at one point, she had considered walking away from the sport.

Wietrzyk, who is the current solo world record holder, was scheduled to race again on Friday in Hamburg, Germany. She has described feeling nervous about the race, telling the BBC that she did not want it to become her “identity”.

Since the incident, Hyrox has introduced new rules. Athletes can now be removed if their faeces, vomit, or urine pose a risk to the welfare of themselves or other racers.

Moritz Fürste, Hyrox co-founder, also admitted an error in judgment for not removing Wietrzyk from the race.

After the dramatic online response to the incident, Hyrox criticised the sending of threats to the athlete, saying that anyone participating in abuse would be banned from events in the future.

The organisation also said that they fully intended to support Wietrzyk, discussing the sometimes “toxic” nature of social media.