Diarrhea-stricken Hyrox champs coach defends her amid extraordinary and deeply human incident

Some people are causing quite a stink.After losing control of her bowels mid-race, Hyrox competitor Joanna Wietrzyk, 24, has divided the Internet on whether she should have rushed for the bathroom instead of the rowing machine.Now, the reigning champ’s coach has weighed in on a truly crappy situation.Wietrzyk quickly went viral when photos and videos surfaced showing that she had suffered fecal incontinence before winning a Hyrox competition in Beijing — with many people expressing outrage at both the Australian athlete and race officials for not handling the situation better.Social media users and fellow athletes complained that the other competitors were exposed not just to a dangerous and slippery situation, but also to a potential biohazard after fecal matter was smeared on shared equipment.Although deleting an Instagram post that stated, “Go hard or go home … a win is a win,” she soon received a slew of online hate, harassment and death threats.Her coach, Chris Bayens, is now speaking out about the online abuse via Instagram, defending his star student and calling out the backlash.Bayens described the situation that transpired as “an extraordinary set of circumstances that were unforeseen, rapidly evolving and almost impossible to fully comprehend in real time.”Citing the decisive decision the organization made during the competition to allow the 24-year-old world record holder to continue on, Bayens argued that hindsight gives time and distance to a situation and officials faced a difficult choice.“It is very easy to construct the perfect response once the moment has passed.Those decisions can be reviewed and lessons can be taken from them,” he wrote.Most importantly, he hit back at the “hatred” she has received, calling it “ugly.”“Judging someone’s intent, character or morality through the clarity of hindsight is neither fair nor honest,” he said.

“discussion is legitimate.The hatred and personal attacks that followed are...