Several Australian footballers have adopted homemade costumes to mock Hyrox athlete Joanna Wietrzyk's widely publicized bowel accident during a Beijing race. The players, whose names and clubs have not been identified, were photographed wearing black exercise gear, with brown smears on their legs, and carrying signs referencing the incident. One costume featured a sign that read "SPRAYGUN ON MAD MONDAY."
Images of the costumes circulated online, eliciting approving responses from some social media users who predicted similar outfits would become a popular choice for Halloween. "Knew this would be coming, and absolutely here for it," one commenter wrote, while another speculated that "spray bums" would be more common than other costumes during the holiday.
Wietrzyk's incident occurred during a Hyrox race in Beijing, where she continued competing after the accident, with footage showing her using shared equipment. She later issued a public apology, acknowledging she should have withdrawn from the race, and voluntarily forfeited her victory. "I take responsibility for my decision to continue and am deeply sorry for the discomfort and disruption it caused," she stated on Instagram, adding she would take time to recover.
Hyrox co-founder Moritz Fürste acknowledged that race officials should have intervened more promptly. Following the event, the sport updated its rulebook to include provisions for withdrawing athletes on medical grounds if bodily fluids pose a welfare or contamination risk to themselves or others.
The incident also prompted discussions about the personal impact of such public scrutiny on athletes. Former professional triathlete Bec Hoschke commented on the potential mental toll on Wietrzyk, noting the athlete is in her early 20s and that the situation would be "enormously confronting."