One week before the Opening Ceremony, the 19-year-old captain of Japan’s women’s gymnastics team has been sent home after she admitted to underage smoking and drinking.
According to The Japan Times, Shoko Miyata withdrew from the 2024 Summer Olympics after revealing she had smoked cigarettes in her private time and consumed alcohol at the National Training Center in Tokyo.
The Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) received information about Miyata’s drinking and smoking on Monday, July 15. The following day, Miyata confirmed the allegations. She was sent back to Japan from Monaco, where the team was training, on Wednesday, July 17.
Japanese law stipulates that individuals must be 20 years old to consume alcohol or smoke. JGA’s code of conduct prohibits any gymnast from smoking or drinking during team activities, even if they are of legal age.
“I offer my sincere apologies for causing a great amount of trouble to many people over Miyata,” JGA Chairman Tadashi Fujita said in a news conference on Friday, July 19. “I’m very sorry.”
JGA executive Kenji Nishimura said Miyata drank and smoked “out of pressure” surrounding the upcoming Summer Games.
The sentiment was shared by Miyata’s coach Mutsumi Harada, who said, “She was spending her days really burdened with so much pressure. I would implore people to understand that.”
Friday’s press conference was criticized by some for being hasty and hurried, which the JGA acknowledged in its aftermath.
“We deeply apologize for the loss of the various opinions we received,” the organization shared via X. “We will take all of them seriously and use them to build a better future. All members of the Japanese women’s gymnastics team will continue to fight as one. We appreciate your continued support.”
The decision to cut Miyata from the team was met with backlash on social media.
“Shoko Miyata you will always be loved by international fans, this is just a completely disproportionate punishment and borderline character assassination,” one person wrote via X.
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The Japanese women’s team will now comPete with four gymnasts instead of five. A replacement for Miyata will not be named. Miyata won a bronze medal in balance beam at the 2022 World Championships and came in eighth in the all-around comPetition.
The Japanese women’s gymnastics team has not earned an Olympic team medal since taking home bronze in 1964.
