Joanna Wietrzyk, the HYROX competitor who faced fierce criticism after carrying on with a race despite suffering bowel incontinence, has made a winning return at the opening event of the new season in Hamburg.

The 24-year-old Australian endurance athlete became the subject of international attention last month when she chose to finish competing after losing control of her bowels during a HYROX race in Beijing.

Wietrzyk crossed the finish line first, but her result was later stripped of its points. Video showing faecal matter on her legs as she used equipment shared with other athletes spread rapidly online, prompting a wave of public outrage.

HYROX organisers apologised after the incident. Wietrzyk initially defended her decision to continue, but issued her own apology earlier this week following the backlash.

She described the reaction as “traumatic”, saying she had endured personal attacks, while acknowledging that she should have stopped competing once the incident occurred.

Speaking to the BBC, Wietrzyk said: “It was a very sudden experience. It wasn’t until about halfway through the race where everything did transpire.

“In that moment, right then and there, as a very competitive person… and an elite athlete that I am, my only focus is on racing. Obviously I did put other people at risk.”

She continued: “Yes, I did make the wrong decision but I don’t believe I should have received such backlash and such scrutiny online. At the end of the day I’m only human.”

The athlete also expressed regret over an Instagram message posted soon after the Beijing race, which included the phrases “Go hard or go home” and “a win is a win”. She said she was in “fight or flight mode” while seeking medical treatment at hospital.

“I didn’t really account for what the public would have seen that situation as.”

Asked whether the apology might be viewed as an attempt to limit the damage to her reputation, Wietrzyk said she had never anticipated that the incident would attract such widespread attention.

“I needed those days to reflect on it and process it.”

Reflecting on the mindset of elite competitors, she said: “They’re so hyper-vigilant on winning and doing the best that they can, putting their training to good use and showcasing their fitness to the world.”

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After several weeks of reflection, Wietrzyk said she had come to understand that “there is more to life… than just racing and just winning”.

Before Friday’s Hamburg race, she admitted feeling “nervous” about stepping back onto the course and hoped the controversy would not overshadow her wider career.

“I don’t want it to become my identity,” she said.

The controversy also raised wider questions about hygiene, possible contamination and whether organisers acted quickly enough after the Beijing incident.

HYROX said the affected lanes were cordoned off, contaminated equipment was taken away, and cleaning work was carried out overnight. Carpeting was also replaced before the competition continued.

HYROX China has also reportedly refunded some competitors their entry fees.

After Wietrzyk’s identity was shared online, HYROX said anyone sending abuse or threats to the athlete would be banned from future events.

Her coach, Chris Bayens, defended Wietrzyk against attacks while acknowledging that decisions made during the event could be reviewed.

‘Decisions were made under competition conditions by an athlete, judges and officials, all responding to a situation none of them could reasonably have prepared for,’ he wrote on Instagram.

‘It is very easy to construct the perfect response once the moment has passed. Hindsight gives people time, information and distance that simply did not exist for those actually living it.’

Bayens urged people to distinguish scrutiny of the incident from attacks on the athlete.

‘Sport occasionally produces moments that are imperfect and deeply human,’ he said. ‘Discussion is legitimate. The hatred and personal attacks that have followed are not.’

HYROX combines eight one-kilometre runs with eight workout stations, including sled pushes, rowing, sandbag lunges and medicine ball throws.

The competition launched in Germany in 2017 and is now held in locations across the world, with the 2026-27 season set to include races in London, Bangkok, Las Vegas and Lyon after the opener in Hamburg.

Federal authorities have arrested a 42-year-old Michigan man accused of making death threats against FBI Director Kash Patel.

Anthony Daniel Palazzolo of Chesterfield Township, Macomb County, was taken into custody by federal agents on October 30. The allegations are detailed in a criminal complaint that has since been unsealed.

According to court records, Palazzolo sent a disturbing Facebook message to an acquaintance earlier in October.

In the exchange, he allegedly claimed he had “put a hit out” on the person before directing his attention to Patel.

Palazzolo reportedly insulted the FBI director with explicit language and wrote that Patel was a “punk a**” who was also a “dead mf,” according to prosecutors.

During an October interview, Palazzolo acknowledged sending the messages and apologized. An FBI agent said he claimed to have had “no intent to harm anyone.”

However, other messages allegedly conveyed a more serious threat. In one exchange, Palazzolo said he would go to an FBI office and “use deadly force against every single one of you government officials.”

The alleged threats extended beyond those messages.

Court filings also allege that Palazzolo sent a message targeting the Secret Service, the Supreme Court and a Texas court. In it, he explicitly threatened to sodomize a government official.

Palazzolo appeared in Detroit federal court on October 30 and was charged with transmitting threatening interstate communications, a felony punishable by up to five years in federal prison.

He remains in custody pending a detention hearing set for November 2.

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His attorney declined to comment.

The FBI said Palazzolo has a lengthy criminal history spanning Michigan, Texas and Florida.

His record includes a 2018 charge for falsely reporting a terrorist threat, along with a separate charge related to a fabricated bomb threat.

The case comes as federal authorities confront a troubling increase in criminal prosecutions involving violent threats against politicians and other public officials.

Research from the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center at the University of Nebraska Omaha and Chapman University indicates that more than 850 threat-related cases have been prosecuted nationwide since 2013.

That figure peaked last year with an all-time high of 133 cases, and federal authorities are currently on track to shatter that record this year.

The alarming incident is not the first time threats have hit close to home for the FBI Director.

Earlier this year, federal agents arrested a Massachusetts man after he allegedly sent threatening emails targeting Patel’s girlfriend.

26-year-old Alden Welch Ruml allegedly sent a violent email to Alex Wilkins, Patel’s girlfriend. 

Court documents reveal he said he would be ‘happy’ when her face is ‘canoed by an assault rifle.’

Ruml was taken into custody and charged with making threats in interstate commerce.

The Daily Mail contacted the FBI for comment.  

To residents of the quiet Leeds suburb of Rothwell, Andrzej Freda appeared to be the ideal neighbour.

Friendly and courteous, he had lived in the ageing terrace for 20 years without causing any trouble.

Although he spoke with a gentle eastern European accent, the 60-year-old had become part of the local community. He worked as a Polish translator nearby and was raising a family.

His imposing, Viking-like appearance was perhaps the only feature that made him stand out: years of kick-boxing had given him a powerful physique, while his long, greying hair was usually tied neatly in a bun.

That quiet image was shattered on September 26, 2022, when police descended on the estate, repeatedly buzzing intercoms before handcuffing Freda and taking him from his home.

Residents watched in disbelief from their windows as the dramatic operation unfolded and their neighbour was taken away for questioning.

They had no idea that the man they exchanged small talk with on the way to work each morning had been concealing a deeply disturbing secret.

Freda was not simply a middle-aged father of three. He was a convicted killer who had remained beyond the reach of the law for almost 30 years.

At a court in Bochum, western Germany, last April, judges heard that Freda stabbed father-of-two Reinhardt Schönig to death in 1996. He then fled to his native Poland before eventually beginning a new life in Britain.

By 2001, he had quietly established himself in suburban Yorkshire, where he raised a son and daughter with his wife.

Freda also attempted to pursue acting, using the name ‘Jack’. However, his profile on The Mandy Network, a global casting and audition platform, lists just one credit: a role as an extra in a low-budget film.

His hidden past finally began to unravel in 2022, after a major DNA breakthrough linked him to the weapon used to kill Mr Schönig.

When The Crime Desk visited Rothwell earlier this month, neighbours were cautious about discussing Freda. Some recalled the police raid, while one resident described him as ‘friendly’ and a ‘gentleman’. Most, however, declined to speak at all.

Their reluctance is perhaps understandable: Freda still lives next door.

Because of a legal loophole, he walked free from court ten months ago, despite judges concluding there was ‘no reasonable doubt’ that he had repeatedly stabbed Mr Schönig with ‘absolute will’.

When confronted at his home, Freda refused to answer questions about his violent past.

He opened the door of his dingy flat wearing scruffy shorts and a T-shirt and said: ‘I don’t want to talk about that,’ before slamming it shut.

About an hour later, Freda drove past the reporter. The karate black belt lowered his car window a few inches and stared her down. He was later photographed smirking as he walked towards his vehicle.

But Freda has reason to feel smug. Not only did he avoid a long prison sentence in Germany, a source said he also faces no risk of deportation for his crime as he was granted indefinite to leave to remain in the UK just months before his arrest in 2022.

Our pictures of the knifeman enjoying life as a free man would be agony for the detective who dedicated 21 years of his life to the hunt for Mr Schönig’s killer.

Axel Pütter is a former senior murder detective for Bochum Police, who launched the investigation into the crime and even worked on it after his retirement.

He tells us: ‘The verdict was an extremely deep and personal disappointment for me, something I had never experienced before as a murder investigator.

‘Particularly as the court was convinced of his responsibility for the crime.’

The cause of Mr Pütter’s immense disappointment is a quirk of the German legal system that allowed Freda to worm his way out of a long sentence in a prison cell. But more on that later.

The story of this devious and dangerous killer begins shortly after midnight on March 2, 1996.

Car factory worker Reinhardt Schönig was making his way home from a night at the pub in Germany’s industrial North Rhine-Westphalia region when he was suddenly attacked.

The 54-year-old screamed for help and tried to escape but the attacker held him by his jacket and continuously stabbed him with a folding knife.

The double-edged curved blade cut into his left shoulder five times, severing the bone in his shoulder blade.

The attacker then drove the knife repeatedly into his upper body. Blows struck his chest, torso and face, and one pierced his heart.

Looking from their windows, witnesses saw two male figures in the street. One ran, while the other – Mr Schönig – staggered a few steps and collapsed.

He was left to bleed to death on the pavement before medics could reach him.

Meanwhile, the killer fled, ripped the black wool hat off his head and put it in the inside pocket of his black waterproof jacket, he then stuffed the blood-stained coat inside a bin as well as the weapon used in the attack.

The crime perplexed German police: the victim, a popular worker at the local Opel car factory, had no enemies and there was no obvious motive for his killing.

Little did they know that the killer they would snare decades later didn’t just live in the same town – there was a good chance he knew his victim.

Andrzej Freda, a Polish national, had moved to Germany with his wife and their young son in the late eighties.

He leased a kiosk where Polish immigrants would gather to gossip and buy magazines and cigarettes. The shop was a cornerstone of the community and he was popular with customers.

While friends described him as ‘handsome, athletic and confident’. 

Freda was proud of his athletic ability, especially his love of martial arts, and had a punch bag hanging in a side room in his kiosk.

He was also a lover of flash cars and drove a white Porsche while having a string of affairs behind his wife’s back, his trial heard.

Mr Schönig meanwhile, lived with his wife Barbara and the couple had two children who had left home by the time of the stabbing; they also took in a foster daughter.

He spent his free time with his family and at events run by the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

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Detectives now believe the two men may have crossed paths as Mr Schönig, who was a heavy smoker, lived nearby and would have bought cigarettes from Freda’s kiosk.

After the stabbing, police formed a murder squad and launched an intensive hunt. Leaflets were distributed and the killing was reconstructed on the German TV equivalent of Crimewatch. A composite image of the suspected attacker was circulated – but no name emerged.

Mr Pütter, who was deputy head of the homicide department at Bochum Police Headquarters and a murder investigator for 21 years, says: ‘The investigation proved extremely difficult because no recognisable motive could be established. There were numerous lines of enquiry, but none of them could be substantiated.

‘The investigation into Freda only became concrete when the DNA match in Great Britain was reported.

‘To the best of my knowledge, we had not previously identified him [Freda] by name in the case files.’

Years went by and the case remained one of the country’s biggest cold cases.

Mr Pütter said: ‘I continued to work specifically on the murder of Mr Schönig until my retirement.

‘I always kept the case file in my office and repeatedly went through it, looking for investigative approaches.

‘Our investigation never came to a complete standstill because the case repeatedly attracted media coverage [in Germany], and information continued to come in over the years. These leads were investigated, unfortunately always without success.’

Then, in 2020, detectives were given the breakthrough they had been waiting for. But it wasn’t only thanks to diligent policework, in fact it was a gift from the killer himself.

After getting arrested following a bar fight back in the UK, Freda’s DNA was inputted into a global database.

This meant that when German detectives investigating the case were looking through DNA labs they got an alert from colleagues in Britain.

The database found Freda’s DNA matched samples found on the clothing and the knife taken eight years before by cold case detectives for Bochum police.

British police officers arrested Freda in 2022 and he was brought before Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London and remanded in custody ahead of an extradition hearing.

German authorities wanted him returned to face a single charge of murder, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Freda fought back – saying he had no knowledge of the stabbing and that he would struggle to reconstruct his movements from almost three decades earlier.

In November 2024, the High Court in London dismissed Freda’s final appeal against extradition and in January 2025, he was collected from British custody and flown to Dusseldorf.

He was transported to Bochum and served with a German arrest warrant for murder.

For the police and prosecutors, the breakthrough represented the end of an almost 30-year hunt.

On Facebook, Bochum Police were quick to celebrate their ‘successful resolution of a cold case’.

They wrote: ‘After nearly three decades of intensive investigation, the police and public prosecutor’s office have succeeded in solving a murder case that had been open since 1996.’

Interior minister Herbert Reul said: ‘No perpetrator should feel certain after such a heinous crime that we won’t catch them – not even after so much time.’

Yet there proved to be an extraordinary sting when Freda eventually stood trial at Bochum Regional Court on April 1, 2025.

The judges concluded that he had repeatedly stabbed Mr Schönig – but acquitted him of murder.

In Germany, prosecutors must prove that a specific aggravating feature is involved to classify a killing as a murder, such as greed, cruelty, treachery or an attempt to conceal another crime.

During the trial – where a police source told us Freda remained ‘relaxed’ throughout – the prosecution’s case depended on establishing treachery to classify the killing as murder.

But judges found this could not be proved because a medical professional said Schönig had been stabbed from the front rather than unsuspectingly from behind, as the prosecution had initially thought.

Instead, the court found Freda had killed Schönig but with no aggravating feature, and so, it was classified as Totschlag – an intentional homicide often translated as manslaughter.

‘Murder carries a mandatory life sentence. There is no exception,’ explained Professor Dr Liane Wörner, a criminal law expert based at the University of Konstanz in southern Germany.

‘Because the punishment is so severe, the law must necessarily be interpreted restrictively.’

She adds: ‘Totschlag is the basic offence of homicide. It punishes the intentional killing of a person. Intent means that the perpetrator acts with knowledge and will. The elements of the offence consist simply of killing someone, regardless of how, with knowledge and intent.’

However, while murder has no statute of limitations in Germany, Totschlag cannot be prosecuted more than 20 years after the event.

By the time Freda’s DNA was linked to the evidence that period had expired.

The judges were therefore unable to convict Freda, even though they found he had killed Mr Schönig.

‘The police investigation had established the murder characteristic of treachery. I therefore expected that a conviction for murder would be possible.

‘In the case of such a brutal crime, one must generally assume that the perpetrator should be considered dangerous,’ Mr Pütter said.

Almost three decades of forensic work, international police co-operation, extradition proceedings and courtroom argument had produced a conclusion – but no punishment.

Freda was able to return to his home in Leeds where he continues to work as a translator.

He lives with his wife and the mother of two of his children, who refused to comment when approached by The Crime Desk.

The one question that haunted investigators from the very beginning of the case still remains unanswered: Why?

Sadly, unless Andrzej Freda ever reveals the dark secrets behind his horrifying crime, Mr Schönig’s family and the detectives that finally snared him will never find out. 

• Additional reporting by John Siddle 
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