The coach of a Hyrox athlete who went viral for completing a competition after soiling herself believes his pupil has been through enough crap.
Chris Bayens, who trains Joanna Wietrzyk, broke his silence one day after photos emerged of the Australian champion, 24, continuing to compete at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing despite appearing to have fecal matter running down her leg.
In a statement shared via Instagram, Bayens pleaded with the public to stop harassing Wietrzyk with “hatred and personal attacks.”
“The physical health and performance of an athlete is my job,” Bayens wrote in the caption to his Sunday, September 13, post. “The mental health of athletes is shaped far more by the community around them, and right now that community should take a hard look at itself.”
Bayens shared a screenshot of his full statement, which painted the situation as one that was impossible to have foreseen.
“What happened was an extraordinary set of circumstances that were unforeseen, rapidly evolving and almost impossible to fully comprehend in real time,” he wrote. “Decisions were made under competition conditions by an athlete, judges and officials, all responding to a situation none of them could reasonably have been prepared for.”
Bayens continued, “It is very easy to construct the perfect response once the moment has passed. Hindsight gives people time, information and distance that simply did not exist for those actually living it.”
Hyrox is a type of fitness competition that combines running and functional workout stations. Competitors must run one kilometer before visiting one of the workout stations and repeating the process seven more times.
Despite clearly becoming ill during the competition, Wietrzyk actually won, finishing with a time of 1 hour, 1 minute and 23 seconds.
“Go hard or go home … a win is a win,” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post that included a selfie from what appeared to be a hospital bed. “In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I’ll be back soon x.”
Hyrox cofounder Mo Fuerste issued a public apology on Monday, September 14, in which he admitted Hyrox “made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race.”
“In the end it is my job to foresee these potential incidents — and I did not,” he wrote in his statement, shared via Instagram. “Of course, we 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.”
In a separate statement, Hyrox explained it 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,” the statement read.
