Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk caused a huge controversy when she continued to compete after incontinence at the Hyrox Beijing event last month. She will return to compete in Hamburg, Germany, this Friday.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC before returning to the competition, she said that her focus on winning in the Beijing competition affected her judgment. "It was my decision to continue competing, so I am willing to take full responsibility."
"I really didn't consider the people around me at the time... Looking back in hindsight, I made the wrong decision. I'm sincerely sorry for the people who were affected."
The 24-year-old said she felt "traumatic" by the events in Beijing and the subsequent public backlash. She considered leaving the sport, in which she currently holds a world record.
She said on the eve of the game in Hamburg that she was "nervous" about returning and hoped her previous incontinence incident would not define her.
"I don't want it to become my identity."
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"The only focus is the game"
Hyrox was founded in Hamburg, Germany in 2017 and is now held all over the world.
The relevant competition format is for participants to alternately run one kilometer and perform physical training, including sled pushing, burpee jumping, indoor rowing, and lunges and squats while carrying sandbags. The competition is held indoors, and players have to share equipment.
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About halfway through last month's Beijing tournament, Vitritsk suffered diarrhea. Later, images of her body covered in excrement were widely circulated online.
Asked whether convention staff should have stopped her, she said no one encouraged her to stop.
After the incident, Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste issued an apology, saying it was a mistake not to react immediately during the game.
Organizers subsequently updated the rules to give tournament directors the power to expel players from the venue if their vomit, urine or feces poses a risk of contamination to others or endangers themselves or others.
Vitritske initially took a tough stance on her Instagram feed, but she later deleted the content and apologized within a week of the event, saying she would give up the championship and withdraw from the event retroactively.
This was her first interview since the Beijing competition. Vitritske said that she contracted bacteria due to food poisoning, but she "felt in good spirits and in really good condition" at the beginning of the competition.
She described it to the BBC as a "very sudden experience." "It didn't really happen until halfway through the game... At that moment, as a very competitive person and an elite athlete, my only focus was the game."
"Obviously, I did put other people at risk," she admitted.
After the incident, some fellow players at the Beijing event demanded an apology from Hyrox, the organizer. According to reports, Hyrox China has refunded registration fees to some contestants.
"Life is not just about competition and winning"
Vitlitzk also said she regretted her first social media post after the game, which included the words "Go hard or go home" and "A win is a win." She said she was seeking hospital treatment and was in "flight or fight mode" at the time.
"I didn't really think about how the public would view that situation," she said.
Asked whether her apology could be seen as crisis management, or whether it was too late, she said that she did not expect that this incident would attract so much attention. "I need a few days to reflect and digest this matter."
Talking about the mentality of elite athletes, she said: "They are very sensitive to victory and very obsessed with showing their best, bringing out the results of their training and showing their abilities to the world."
After weeks of reflection, she decided that "there is more to life than... competing and winning."
After Vetriczyk's identity was revealed online, Hyrox said anyone who sent her abusive or threatening messages would be banned from future events.
Vitritske told the BBC that the period had been "very mentally and emotionally taxing" and that she had not anticipated the global attention she would receive, adding that her family had also received threatening messages.
"This made me deeply see the influence of social media today, especially for a 24-year-old who just comes out to compete."
"Yes, I did make the wrong decision, but I don't think I deserved such strong backlash and online scrutiny... In the end, I'm just an ordinary person."
Vitritske said she has tried to stay off the Internet and "isolated myself from the world" for a time, but said: "I can't do that forever."
"There's a lot more I can do in this sport, so I think for me, my mental toughness is the key and I can use my own experiences to inspire others."
This article was originally written in English. We used artificial intelligence to assist in translation and was reviewed by BBC journalists before publication. Learn more about how we use artificial intelligence.
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