At HYROX Beijing on September 12, Australian athlete Joanna Wietrzyk suffered bowel incontinence during the race. Faeces were visibly on her body, yet she continued using the same course and equipment shared by other competitors, and ultimately finished first in the women’s Pro division. After the race, she briefly wrote on social media: “A win is a win.” Only after the incident sparked major controversy did she publicly apologise, announce a retroactive withdrawal from the race and give up the points she had earned. HYROX also admitted that the situation had been mishandled on site and announced changes to the relevant rules.
What this incident truly makes clear again is that “winning is everything” has always been wrong.
That is also why Kodokan Judo has never placed victory above a person’s character, responsibility and self-cultivation.
Today, there is a type of new commercial sport whose greatest success is not the creation of a sporting culture, but the transformation of “feeling like an athlete” into a product. Pay an entry fee, wear the latest gear, take photos, check the leaderboard, chase a PB, and let every ordinary participant briefly experience the illusion of crossing the finish line like an Olympic athlete. The problem is that real competitive sport is not only about physical ability and results. It also involves rules, opponents, respect, responsibility, and knowing when one should stop.
If someone has already contaminated a shared venue and shared equipment, yet still believes that “as long as I finish first, I have won,” that is not a question of extraordinary willpower. It means they cannot distinguish between winning and the spirit of sport, or understand which matters more.
What we learn from childhood in Kodokan Judo is exactly the opposite. You can lose. You can be thrown for ippon. You can simply be less skilled than your opponent. What you must never lose is respect for your opponent, the dojo and yourself. Winning and losing are only the result of a match. They are not the most important thing.
The ugliest part of the HYROX incident was not simply the incontinence itself, but the sentence: “A win is a win.”
The rules and etiquette of traditional martial arts can no longer be seen in the free-form education of the new generation. Excessive freedom has encouraged a new generation to let itself go without restraint, pushing the world further downhill. This incident is only the beginning.
When a person thinks only about winning and will use any means necessary, in reality, they are nothing.
Sources
ABC News Australia, 18 September 2026：
Channel NewsAsia, 17 September 2026：
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/joanna-wietrzyk-apologises-beijing-hyrox-soiling-6393696
Runner's World, 17 September 2026：
https://www.runnersworld.com/news/a73774792/hyrox-athlete-apologizes-bowel-incontinence/
Kodokan: Purpose of Judo：