Health expert warns incidents like Hyrox woman who pooped herself are more dangerous than people realize

This week's Hyrox incident is hopefully a one off, however, an expert has warned of the potential dangers, should a similar incident occur.

For those who aren't aware, the Hyrox event in Beijing gained huge media attention - but not for good reasons. During the race, winner Hyrox champion Joanna Wietrzyk had pooped herself - and could be seen with what appeared to be fecal matter down her legs as she completed the course.

Despite looking, and smelling unpleasant to others, Professor Ramon Shaban, a communicable disease expert from the Sydney Infectious Disease Institute at the University of Sydney, told news.com.au, that many nasty illnesses can spread this way, including gastrointestinal infections and the dreaded norovirus.

As per Cleveland Clinic, norovirus is ' is a common and very contagious virus. It causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea'.

It can easily spread through close contact or on contaminated food or surfaces, which can include gym equipment.

“Whenever people come together at mass gathering events or events of this nature, it is always important to consider what both individuals themselves and organisers can do to lower the risk of transmission of infection from one person to another,” he emphasized.

He then said that both the organizers, and individuals have the responsibility 'to ensure that they conduct themselves in a way that minimises the risk of the transmission of any kind of infectious agent'.

Hyrox co-owner says we 'did not handle the situation like we should have'

Following the incident, Hyrox confirmed that they had launched a 'major cleanup operation' after the event, in preparation for the next day. Alongside this, they also replaced particular sections of the carpet, and also sanitized equipment.

The German fitness company said they understood the incident could 'lead to frustration, questions and strong views within our community'.

Those concerns are legitimate and, as organisers, we must be prepared to hear them, examine what happened and take responsibility for continuing to improve. And we will…" they added.

However, they then announced that 'there is no place in our community for threats of violence or encouragement to harm an athlete,' as people began to send unkind messages to Wietrzyk online.

Elsewhere, the co-founder of Hyrox, Mo Fuerste, took to Instagram to apologize to 'all that were directly or indirectly affected, as well as to everyone who felt like we did not handle the situation like we should have'.

He then said that the company would be 'improving event processes, plus making rulebook changes immediately,' while confirming that there are now new rules and procedures in place to prevent these kinds of situations from happening again.

He also took full accountability in the statement, saying that the company 'did not handle the situation like we should have'.

Joanna Wietrzyk has not spoke out directly following the incident. However, shortly after the race, in a now deleted Instagram story, the athlete posted a picture of herself hooked up to an IV, in which she penned: "Go hard or go home … a win is a win. In all seriousness, thank you for all the support. I’ll be back soon x."