Athlete Spotlight: Joanna Wietrzyk
It’s been less than three months since Joanna Wietrzyk competed in her first Hyrox event. In the space of just seven weeks, the Aussie athlete has accomplished something no other female has achieved in the history of the sport - a sub 61 minute time in her third pro race! She now holds the fourth best time globally for the Hyrox Women’s Pro event and is the first Australian female to qualify for the Elite 15 series. And she’s only just getting started…
The 22-year-old athlete is no stranger to competitive sport, having grown up playing tennis at a national level in Australia before moving onto netball towards the end of high school. She quickly adapted to the team sport environment that netball offered and began playing at a state level.
Now an F45 coach in Melbourne, Joanna ‘accidentally’ found Hyrox after her gym members and fellow trainers encouraged her to sign up.
“I actually knew nothing about Hyrox as of three months ago,” she said.
“All our members were doing it, everyone was talking about it. All our trainers were doing it. People were like ‘Jo, why aren’t you doing it?”
Joanna competed in her first Hyrox event in Melbourne this year. She finished first in the Women’s Pro event on the Saturday, however, due to an unfortunate incident with her timing chip, the result was not recognised. She returned the following day to take out first place in the Women’s Open race with a time of 1 hour and 30 seconds.
She hadn’t planned on attending the Hyrox Sydney event that was taking place four weeks after Melbourne, but the timing chip mishap sparked an unwavering desire in her to race the pro event again. Joanna jetted to Sydney and with her timing chip strapped securely to her ankle, the young Aussie athlete ended up winning the Women’s Pro race in an impressive time of 1 hour 5 minutes and 7 seconds.
Fast forward to now and within less than three months, Joanna has become the APAC region’s most promising new talent in the Hyrox world after achieving a sub 61 minute time at Hyrox Brisbane - something only four women have achieved in the history of the sport, Joanna being one of them. Joanna’s finishing time of 1 hour and 52 seconds is ranked the fourth best time globally in the Women’s Pro event. She also broke her personal best by almost five minutes in the space of just three weeks.
When asked what she puts her improvement down to, Joanna said it wasn’t just her training that changed in between the Sydney and Brisbane event; it was her mindset.
“I’ve recently started with James and obviously the volume there is huge,” she said.
“James obviously has a very good training style…but also in that little three week break, my mindset (changed) as well.”
“I’m training for Hyrox now, so my whole mindset going into the race was definitely ‘ok, you’re training for this. This is what you trained for’. I was a bit more switched on to what I needed to do.”
Joanna’s incredible finishing time in Brisbane has secured her a place in this season’s Elite 15 series Major Qualification Ranking, with the average time from her two best results currently ranking her in ninth place amongst the females. This means Joanna will be the first Australian female to race in the Elite 15 series, having recently made the decision to fly to Amsterdam in October to compete at the first Hyrox Major of the 24-25 season.
“ Honestly, I didn’t even think that was going to be possible. I’m still wrapping my head around it,” she said.
With Hyrox Perth still to come, we are so excited to continue seeing Joanna progress in her new sport of Hyrox. The young, promising athlete still has so much more to come!
Joanna Wietrzyk has taken the Hyrox world by storm in the 24-25 season.
