Hyrox athlete behind fecal disaster appears to suffer Puma blow - Newsweek
Sports brand Puma appears to have removed a dedicated online sportswear collection associated with athlete Joanna Wietrzyk, as the Australian athlete continues to face scrutiny over her controversial victory at a recent Hyrox competition in Beijing.
The "Joanna Wietrzyk x Puma" page on the company's online store now redirects to a generic Hyrox fitness and training page, with no products linked to Wietrzyk currently visible.
The development doesn’t necessarily mean Puma has formally ended its relationship with Wietrzyk. The company hasn’t publicly announced that her sponsorship has been terminated, and it remains unknown whether the unavailable collection reflects a deliberate response to the Beijing controversy, a technical issue, inventory changes, or part of a broader website update.
Newsweek has reached out to both Puma and Wietrzyk for comment and is awaiting a response.
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Wietrzyk has been associated with Puma since at least October 2025, when the sportswear giant expanded its roster of elite Hyrox ambassadors as part of a renewed long-term partnership with Hyrox.
Over the last year, the Australian athlete has become one of the faces of Puma's Hyrox marketing efforts, with the company launching a dedicated "Joanna Wietrzyk x Puma" online collection and featuring her in promotional material tied to its performance footwear and clothing ranges.
Wietrzyk suffered an episode of fecal incontinence while competing in the women’s elite race at Hyrox Beijing on September 12.
She continued to complete the indoor course, which incorporates shared exercise stations and equipment, and won in a time of 1 hour, 1 minute, and 23 seconds.
Images and videos of the incident circulated widely online, producing two competing reactions.
Some people praised Wietrzyk’s determination to finish, while others argued that continuing created a contamination risk for competitors, judges, and event workers.
Wietrzyk appeared to address the controversy in a since-deleted Instagram post showing her in what looked like a hospital bed. In the post, she wrote “Go hard or go home they say... a win is a win,” before thanking people for their support and saying she would return.
In a post shared to Instagram on Thursday, Wietrzyk apologized over the incident, and confirmed she was forfeiting the Hyrox win after the backlash.
In a statement published through its official Instagram account, Hyrox said that the protocols designed for elite competitions and mass participation had become “blurred.” It said the concerns raised by the community were legitimate and promised to review what had happened.
Co-founder Moritz Fürste subsequently went on to say that the organization had made a mistake by failing to intervene immediately during the race. He apologized to those affected and said it was ultimately his responsibility to anticipate these types of circumstances and take appropriate action.
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Hyrox has since updated its rulebook so a race director can now withdraw an athlete when blood, vomit, urine, or feces creates a welfare or contamination risk.
“If a racer’s blood, vomit, urine, or faeces poses a welfare or contamination risk to the racer or to other racers, a Race Director may withdraw the racer from the race on medical grounds, in line with HYROX’s medical and hygiene SOPs. Any such withdrawal is recorded on the leaderboard as Did Not Finish [DNF].”
The change places responsibility on officials to intervene rather than leaving an athlete, who may be ill and competing under extreme pressure, to make the decision alone.
Public reaction from within the sport has included criticism of the health and fairness implications, as well as concern about the personal attacks directed at Wietrzyk.
Her coach, Chris Bayens, described the episode as an extraordinary and rapidly developing situation in which athletes, judges and officials were required to make decisions under pressure. He said those decisions could legitimately be reviewed, but argued that judging someone’s character or intentions with the benefit of hindsight was unfair.
“Discussion is legitimate. The hatred and personal attacks that have followed are not,” he wrote.
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While Puma's apparent removal of its dedicated "Joanna Wietrzyk x Puma" collection has raised questions about the future of that relationship, so far, there hasn’t been any indication that Wietrzyk's other major sponsors have distanced themselves from the athlete.
As of September 17, sponsorship-related content featuring Wietrzyk remained live across several partner websites.
Most notably, smartwatch manufacturer Amazfit continues to feature Wietrzyk on its official athlete roster. The company, which announced Wietrzyk’s addition to its athlete roster in September 2025, describes her as “one of Australia’s fastest-rising stars,” highlighting some of her biggest achievements, including becoming the first Australian woman to qualify for the Elite 15 Series. Her athlete profile remains visible on Amazfit's website, and there has been no public announcement suggesting any change to that partnership.
Wietrzyk also remains listed as a sponsored athlete by fitness platform RoxFit.
The company's athlete page continues to feature her profile, race results and training information following the Beijing controversy.
There has been no public statement from RoxFit indicating that the partnership has been suspended or has come to an end.
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Similarly, Australian hydration brand Dr Hydrate continues to feature Wietrzyk among its sponsored athletes on its website, with no indication that the sponsorship arrangement has changed.
Taken together, the currently available evidence suggests that, despite the significant backlash surrounding the Beijing incident, Wietrzyk's broader sponsorship portfolio remains intact.
While Puma's decision to remove or disable her branded Hyrox collection page has fueled speculation about its relationship with the athlete, none of her other public sponsors appear to have done anything similar. That could indicate that other brands are adopting a wait-and-see approach while the controversy continues to unfold.
Newsweek has contacted all three companies to establish the current status of their sponsorship relationship with Wietrzyk.
The disappearance of a dedicated retail page can be commercially significant because athlete sponsorships often go beyond wearing a brand’s products. They sometimes involve advertising campaigns, social-media content, appearances, bonuses, and athlete-branded online merchandising.
However, removing or emptying a collection page is not conclusive evidence that a contract has been canceled. Until PUMA or Wietrzyk confirms a change, it would be premature to say she’s been dropped by the brand.
If the company has suspended promotion while it assesses the scale of the backlash, the immediate consequences could include reduced visibility, fewer campaign opportunities, and uncertainty over future sponsorship income.
A formal termination could have wider implications for Wietrzyk’s commercial profile, though, particularly because PUMA is closely associated with Hyrox.
Despite the intense online backlash surrounding Wietrzyk and criticism directed at Hyrox, there is little evidence so far that the controversy has had a measurable financial impact on PUMA.
Data from PUMA's share-price tracker shows that the company's stock gained value between September 14 and September 16, continuing an upward trend, indicating a positive market reaction during that period.
While stock movements are influenced by a wide range of factors, including broader market conditions, company performance, and investor sentiment, the gain suggests the controversy hasn’t triggered any obvious negative reaction from investors.
As a result, any decision by Puma to reduce or remove Wietrzyk-related branding would likely be driven by reputational considerations rather than pressure from the financial markets.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here.
Contact Newsweek editor on this story: Edward Pearcey.
