What the Shitty Hyrox Incident Tells Us About the State of Our Manners

16.09.2026, 02:24 allure.com

“Put your napkin in your lap.” “Hold the door open for people behind you, regardless of gender identity.” “Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’” “A handwritten thank you note goes far.” “Oh, and don’t defecate on equipment other people will be using right after you.”

One of these things is not like the other, but apparently, they all need to be said. On Monday, Hyrox announced it would be making unspecified changes to its rulebook after a participant in the high-endurance fitness contest had a serious intestinal incident and continued the race. Joanna Wietrzyk completed the course, in Beijing, looking like she had skidded down a muddy slip-n-slide. (She still got a first-place time.)

Listen, I’m not here to shame anyone. I’m training for my third marathon, I subsist on black coffee, and I have Celiac disease, so I understand commitment, endurance, and sprinting to the loo. But at the risk of sounding equally old-school and finishing school, all I can ask myself is: Have we officially flushed our manners down the toilet?

I know things are wonky, and it feels like the social contract is eroding in real time. (If you’ve ever been smacked in the face by someone’s backpack on the New York City subways, been nonconsensually subjected to someone else’s playlist on the street, or tried to navigate the aisles of a local Trader Joe’s, you know exactly what I mean.) To be clear, history has felt this way before. It’s just that when Joan Didion wrote “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” about ‘60’s counterculture, I don’t think the choice to open with “The center was not holding” was a nod to bowel incontinence.

In 2026, we are, as a society, well aware that open defecation can spread the transmission of a plethora of diseases. Rightfully, that’s what drew much of the internet’s ire—the idea that it’s not just smelly and unbecoming to soil oneself, it’s an actual endangerment to the health of others who are doing burpees in your wake.

But some people looked straight into the eye of the shit(stain) storm and saw only shining glory, fierce dedication. Wietrzyk, the current Hyrox world champion for the women’s solos, has received plenty of praise (even amidst the backlash) online. One Allure staffer is concerned about her family’s common spaces after her partner (a Hyroxer himself) responded to this episode on the family group chat with: “I for one salute her.” Wietrzyk’s now-deleted post-race Instagram post was captioned, “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.”

For me, this whole episode is a supreme example of a phenomenon I witness in less revolting ways all the time: In our pursuit of self-optimization, we’re forgetting that other people exist, let alone that our choices might affect them. Just look at the misappropriation of therapy-speak: “My boundaries,” “my authentic self,” “my truth.” But what happened to “excuse me” and “how can I help you?” What happened to basic manners? Write thank you notes, RSVP on time, step away from social situations after you defecate on yourself.

Look, as an athlete myself, I get it. We’re human, and we have bowels. I’ve had to hopscotch my way through droppings in the final few miles of a marathon before, in a test of both my breath-holding capacity and athletic agility. They’re called “accidents” for a reason. But as headlines ask why social connection is so hard for Gen Z, or lament an age of loneliness, it might behoove us to back way up and remind ourselves that we do have obligations to strangers. And sometimes they will slow us down. But meeting them is ultimately worth it, for all of us. Maybe we can start with “please” and “thank you”—and taking an Imodium before a big race.

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