shoko Miyata, 19-year-old captain of Japan’s Olympic artistic gymnastics team, left the sporting event after smoking cigarettes, in violation of the team’s code of conduct, the Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) said on Friday. It is understood that Miyata also consumed alcohol.
In Japan, smoking and drinking alcohol are illegal until age 20. However, the JGA contains additional rules that effectively prohibit its athletes from smoking and drinking during team activities, even if they are over the age of 20. by Japan Times.
TIME has reached out to the Japan Gymnastics Association for further comment.
Miyata’s departure comes as the Japanese national team hopes to win a team medal for the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The team will now be required to compete with four athletes instead of five, limiting the depth it can bring to every aspect of the competition.
“She was spending her days overwhelmed with so much pressure,” said her coach, Mutsumi Harada. by Reuters. “I would implore people to understand that.”
JGA officials said Miyata arrived in Japan on Thursday after leaving the team’s Olympic training center in Monaco. Miyata is a very strong gymnast who had already won the bronze medal on the balance beam at the 2022 World Championships and placed eighth during the 2022 individual all-around Final.
The mental health of Olympic athletes has increasingly come under the spotlight as more athletes open up about the pressure of competing at the highest level in the world. Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, has withdrawn from the Tokyo Olympics due to mental health issues.
“I hope young women learn that it’s okay to not be okay. You can stand up for what you believe in and you can do things yourself,” she said in a 2021 interview with the official website of the Olympics.
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