The Hyrox Debacle and Our Sick Relationship to Competition

The repellent images have been hard to avoid: A very toned young woman with feces running down the back of her legs. Joanna Wietrzyk, who is from Australia, continued to carry weights and do burpees as part of the indoor international fitness competition Hyrox even after her accident. Wietrzyk was on her way to winning the event in Beijing last weekend, and she used shared equipment in the carpeted arena, ostensibly leaving a biohazardous trail and creating a dangerous environment for her fellow competitors.

After she indeed won, Wietrzyk posted a selfie to social media, which depicted her getting an I.V. in a medical setting with a caption that read, “Go hard or go home they say … a win is a win.” Hyrox posted a mealy-mouthed statement, in which the organization........

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