// BBC WORLD NEWS — MONDO
Hyrox athlete who soiled herself in race tells BBC she put others at risk but says backlash was traumatic
Watch: 'I made the wrong decision,' Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk tells BBC
An Australian athlete has admitted putting others at risk by continuing to race after soiling herself during an endurance sports event.
Speaking exclusively to the BBC ahead of her return to the sport, Joanna Wietrzyk suggested her determination to win the Hyrox race in Beijing in September had clouded her judgement: "It was my decision to continue racing so I take full responsibility for that."
Challenged over why she carried on, she said: "I didn't really think about those around me… the decision that I made in hindsight was the wrong decision and I'm truly sorry for everyone that I did affect."
The 24-year-old said that the experience and subsequent backlash was "traumatic". She also said she had considered walking away from the sport, in which she holds a world record.
Hyrox sees participants alternate between running a kilometre and doing fitness exercises, including a sled push, burpee jumps, indoor rowing, and lunges while carrying a sandbag.
The competition has exploded in popularity since it was founded in 2017 in Hamburg, in northern Germany, and is now held across the world.
Wietrzyk said she had suffered a bacterial infection from food poisoning
Roughly halfway through her event last month, Wietrzyk suffered a bout of diarrhoea. Images of faecal matter on parts of her body were then shared widely online.
Asked whether officials should have stopped her, she said no-one encouraged her to do so at the time.