The name Joanna Wietrzyk is now world famous for all the wrong reasons.

The Hyrox Beijing athlete defecated mid-race, reportedly during the burpee broad jump segment — and kept going anyway, winning the event despite it. I won’t pile onto the online pile-on. Instead, let’s look at why this happens at all.

Fecal incontinence is far more common in endurance sports than most people assume.

Paula Radcliffe famously stopped mid-marathon in London in 2005, squatted roadside in full view of cameras, then resumed and won.

Cyclist Tom Dumoulin did something similar during the 2017 Giro d’Italia, losing over two minutes to a bathroom break in a field before holding onto the overall lead by 31 seconds and winning the race.

Both, notably, stopped to relieve themselves rather than continuing through it — which is what made the Hyrox incident so unusual.

Several physiological, nutritional, and environmental factors can converge to produce that perfect shitstorm, pun intended.

Blood redistribution. During intense effort, the body shunts blood away from the gut toward working muscles, the heart, and the skin. Starved of normal blood flow, the digestive system misfires — producing nausea, cramping, urgency, and diarrhea. Heat and dehydration make it worse.

Mechanical jostling. Running batters the intestines with thousands of repetitive impacts while also altering gut motility — the basis of the well-known “runner’s trots.” Add movements that spike intra-abdominal pressure, like squats, lunges, jumps, and burpees, and an already urgent bowel becomes nearly impossible to control.

Pre-race diet. Large meals, fatty or spicy food, high-fiber foods, excess coffee, dairy for the lactose-intolerant, and poorly absorbed carbs can all trigger diarrhea. Sugar alcohols like sorbitol and mannitol act as laxatives.

Sports nutrition. Ironically, the fuel meant to help performance can backfire. Concentrated carbohydrate gels and drinks draw water into the intestine when poorly absorbed. Magnesium can cause diarrhea. Heavy caffeine also stimulates bowel activity.

Sodium bicarbonate. One supplement floated as a possible factor in Wietrzyk’s case is baking soda — a legitimate performance aid that buffers the acidity of repeated high-intensity efforts. Its downside is well documented: gastrointestinal distress is among its most common side effects. Athletes typically dose at 0.2 to 0.3 grams per kilogram of body weight — for a 60-kilogram athlete, that’s 12 to 18 grams, a substantial load. Bicarbonate reacts with stomach acid to produce carbon dioxide, causing bloating and gas, while the sodium and bicarbonate reaching the intestine can draw water in osmotically. In susceptible athletes, the result is cramping, nausea, urgency, and sudden watery diarrhea.

Nerves. Finally, competition stress itself stimulates the colon — the same mechanism behind the pre-race bathroom line every runner knows too well.

The takeaway is that fecal incontinence in competition doesn’t necessarily point to an underlying continence disorder. It’s often a perfect storm — gastrointestinal irritation, altered gut blood flow, mechanical strain, dehydration, and overwhelming urgency arriving all at once. Once diarrhea sets in, exhaustion and repeated abdominal pressure can make voluntary control nearly impossible to hold onto.

Bottom line is, fecal incontinence has been around since sports began. Knowing the potential triggers helps us avoid our own poopgate scandal.