HYROX women's world record holder Joanna Wietrzyk has addressed significant criticism following an incident in which she defecated during a race.

Wietrzyk, who holds the women's world record with a time of 54:25, began experiencing diarrhea just two kilometers into the competition in China but pressed on to claim yet another championship title. Photos circulated online showed the athlete performing burpee broad jumps, lunges and wall balls, with visible fecal matter on her legs.

An event organizer subsequently confirmed that contaminated equipment had been removed, affected race lanes were closed and the venue would undergo a comprehensive overnight clean, including carpet replacement, prior to the following day's competition.

Wietrzyk acknowledged that the fallout from the incident had been "a hard situation to navigate" as she repeated her earlier apology for continuing to compete during the fitness race in Beijing. The 24-year-old posted a video on Instagram from Hamburg, Germany, where she is gearing up to return to competition in the sport's Elite 15 division on Friday.

She stated: "I've had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks on everything that happened in Beijing, and firstly I just want to say that I'm truly truly so sorry to everyone that I affected whether they were spectators or participants out on that race floor for my decision to choose to continue to race."

"Having that time to reflect I've really learned a lot from the situation and I am very very sorry for it all. But I also want to say thank you to every person who has reached out to support and given me this overwhelming amount of support over the past couple of weeks.

"It's been a very hard situation to navigate for me and very confronting as well so all the support, whether it was personally or through my team has been honestly so incredible and it goes a lot longer than I can truly express right now."

She noted she was "super excited" to get back to competing and be "back doing what I love".

Both the organization and Wietrzyk, who finished the race in 1 hour, 1 minute and 23 seconds, encountered intense online backlash, with numerous people emphasizing the health dangers of permitting her to keep racing.

The Melbourne native initially posted a hospital bed selfie on Instagram following the race, captioned: "Go hard or go home ... a win is a win. In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I'll be back soon x."

She subsequently removed the post and released a statement apologizing for what happened, in which she also relinquished her victory.

Race officials also revised the regulations after the September incident, implementing protocols to guarantee athletes are withdrawn from competition if comparable circumstances arise going forward.