Puma has quietly taken down the page promoting Joanna Wietrzyk's 'Hyrox Picks', just days after footage showed the world record holder finishing a Beijing event with faecal matter visibly running down her legs. She kept competing anyway, using shared equipment the whole way through, and went on to win her division.
Within hours, 'Poo-ma Pants' was doing the rounds online, with people flooding Puma's own social posts simply because Wietrzyk is one of its sponsored Hyrox athletes.
Hyrox has since changed its rulebook because of what happened. Puma's response, by contrast, looks like a brand trying to wait out the story quietly rather than address it head-on.
What Puma Removed
The page is gone, but it was never a Wietrzyk-branded product line to begin with. It simply pointed shoppers towards the shoes, apparel and accessories she wears on race day, tagged as her personal picks.
Parts of Puma's online store no longer feature that page, although it still appears on some regional sites. Her Instagram bio still lists her as a Puma Training athlete, and older promotional content featuring her remains available elsewhere.
Puma rotates its site content all the time and hasn't said a word publicly connecting the two. That hasn't stopped people online from connecting the dots themselves.
Hyrox's New Medical Withdrawal Rule
The day after the Beijing race, Hyrox changed its rules so that race directors can now pull an athlete from competition on medical grounds if blood, vomit, urine or faeces is involved, and any such withdrawal now counts as a DNF.
Staff at the Beijing venue were left disinfecting surfaces and equipment while the race was still going on because nobody in charge stepped in to stop it, which has baffled plenty of netizens.
The new rule exists only because officials had the power to act and didn't, and it shouldn't have taken a viral video to close that gap.
What Happened at the Venue Afterwards
Hyrox China said it isolated and disinfected the contaminated areas, pulled the affected equipment from use, and eventually replaced the venue carpet before the competition could carry on. It's a reminder that this went well beyond one uncomfortable moment for one athlete. It became a genuine clean-up operation.
The organisers have gone a step further, offering full refunds to everyone who was still racing between 2:40 PM and 8:40 PM on the day, the window in which competitors were affected by the contaminated course.
In its notice to participants, Hyrox China admitted it had failed to arrange for Wietrzyk to leave the course in time, telling entrants that 'due to this operational oversight, you were unable to receive the good event experience you deserved.'
Wietrzyk's Public Apology
Wietrzyk posted on Instagram on 17 September what she called a sincere apology to the people of China, her fellow competitors, spectators and the Hyrox organisers, saying she recognised she should have made a different choice that day.
She confirmed she was withdrawing from the Beijing race retroactively and giving up the points she'd won, adding that she was learning from the experience and would remember there's more to life than racing.
It's a noticeably softer tone than the defiance she reportedly showed straight after the race, suggesting the reaction hit harder once her sponsor got dragged into it too. Puma, meanwhile, will be hoping the jokes fade faster than the page did.
