The Australian athlete who sparked outrage when winning a Hyrox event in Beijing despite soiling herself during the race has returned in style with victory in the first event of the new season in Hamburg.

Joanna Wietrzyk won the endurance sports event in China last month but forfeited the points and soon faced a stinging public backlash as footage of her continuing through demanding exercises and using communal equipment with faecal matter running down her legs went viral on social media.

The 24-year-old posted a statement on social media with an apology in the aftermath of the incident before stepping away from the public eye. The Melbourne-born athlete returned to speak on a pre-race video this week where she said she was “truly, truly so sorry to everyone that I affected”.

Wietrzyk, the world record-holder in the Hyrox women’s solo event, added the attention that had stained her reputation had been “very hard” and “very confronting” to deal with before she put the storm behind her to win the Hyrox event on her comeback to competition on Friday.

“I’ve had some time to reflect over the past six to eight weeks of everything that happened in Beijing and firstly I 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,” Wietrzyk said in a post on Instagram. “Having that time to reflect, I’ve really learnt a lot from the situation and I am very, very sorry for it all.”

She added: “It has 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 far longer way than I can truly express right now.

“I’m super excited to go back to doing what I love.”

Hyrox is an increasingly popular fitness competition that sees participants alternate between running a kilometre and doing fitness exercises at shared high-intensity stations – including a rowing machine, sled pushes, burpee jumps, medicine ball throws and lunges while carrying a sandbag.

The competition launched in Germany in 2017 and is now held in locations across the world with the 2026-27 season to include races in London, Bangkok, Las Vegas and Lyon after the opener in Hamburg.

Wietrzyk took an early lead in the Elite 15 competition when winning the fitness event in Hamburg in 56:10.21 ahead of American pair Lauren Weeks (56:24.37) and Vivian Tafuto (57:55.34).

Hyrox apologised and pledged immediate rule changes after Wietrzyk was allowed to finish and win the Beijing race in September even as she suffered from a bout of diarrhoea. Co-founder Moritz Fürste said after the event that organisers “made a mistake by not reacting immediately during the race”.

New rules have since been introduced to give race organisers the power to remove an athlete if their “blood, vomit, urine, or faeces poses a welfare or contamination risk to the racer or to other racers”.

Rules were already in place to penalise athletes for minor infractions such as littering on the course, or spitting or clearing their nose on the floor.

Wietrzyk was subjected to vitriol when her identity was shared online following the incident in Beijing, prompting Hyrox organisers to warn that anyone sending abuse or threats of violence towards the athlete would be banned from future events.