Ew.
Joanna Wietrzyk is the world champion of Hyrox, a sport I had never heard of before today and was not the worse for it. It is an indoor fitness competition where athletes alternate between completing eight 1km runs and eight workout stations until they win or drop. Wietrzyk won the age 16-24 elite event in Beijing over the weekend, but the stress of the ordeal caused her to have a diarrhea attack mid-race. Video online shows Wietrzyk with brown stuff running down her legs as she ran.
It isn’t that rare for athletes to have such accidents while competing in high-stress endurance events. Severe stomach cramps forced Paula Radcliffe, a champion marathon runner, to, uh, relieve herself by the side of the road during the 2005 London Marathon. In 1998, Ireland’s Catherina McKiernan had the same mishap while winning the same race. It isn’t only the endurance competitions either where such involuntary occurances happen. Kansas City Royals pitcher Craig Kimbrel vomited on the pitcher’s mound this month while playing baseball in extreme heat.
Oddly, participants and fans of an athletic event that they know puts competitors under extreme conditions revealed themselves as weenies after the Wietrzyk episode. One male competitor in Beijing wrote on Instagram: “For people who were exposed to that situation, there could be genuine physical and psychological consequences. I paid Hyrox to provide a professionally organised and safe event. [Yes, competitors pay an entrance fee] So while I understand the athlete perspective, ultimately my contract and expectation is with Hyrox. If the organisation accepts that something went wrong, why not offer affected participants refunds, credits, or some meaningful form of compensation?”
Other social media mobsters attacked the organizers and Joanna Wietrzyk. What, exactly, did they expect the competition to do in the name of avoiding “genuine physical and psychological consequences”? Drop a tarp over her? Call in a HAZMAT team? Hose her down as she ran?
Ethics Alarms 
I dunno. I guess it is an “ick” factor more than anything.
Having almost suffered a similar calamity in the London Marathon in 1998 (thank heavens for those ever-present portopotties! One does learn to “puckerr and sprint”) I don’t see this is either a fault of the competitor or the organizers. Those complaining should grow up and face rreality. Extreme sports competitions do wreak havoc on one’s body. I suspect this competitor suffered stomach issues because she was in a new country, out of her routine, and ate things that she was not accustomed to eating prior to competing. I say kuddos to her for finishing and winning. I would worry about dehydration more than anything during a competition like that.
jvb
Welcome the the messy world of biology. I think she should have kept the post. The ‘I didn’t stop because of some inconvenience’ is integral to sports, even if I think it goes to far. People have competed with broken bones. Tiger woods won the 2008 US Open with a torn ACL and multiple stress fractures in his legs. She should have gotten a lot of support for that post. The fact that she deleted it suggests that she did not. I worry about the current generation.