Japanese Gymnast Shoko Miyata To Miss 2024 Olympic Games for Smoking Violation

A Japanese Olympic gymnast has been sent home after she admitted to underage smoking and drinking.

According to The Japan Times, Shoko Miyata had to withdraw 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 which violates the team’s code of conduct.

The 19-year-old captain of the county’s women’s artistic gymnastics team was sent back to Japan on Thursday, July 18, just 10 days before the global competition, the Japanese Gymnastics Association (JGA) said on Friday, July 19, per BBC News and The Guardian.

“We apologise from the bottom of our hearts for this,” JGA’s president Tadashi Fujita said in a hastily arranged news conference on Friday.

Coach Harada said that while Miyata’s conduct had been reckless, she had been under extreme pressure to perform at the highest level. “She was spending her days really burdened with so much pressure,” he said, wiping away tears. “I would implore people to understand that.”

Shoko had proven her talent in the sport, winning bronze in the balance beam event at the 2022 World Championships and gold at the All Japan Championship this April. Miyata is the reigning Japanese national champion.

In reaction to the decision, some observers said that having Miyata leave the team appeared to be overly harsh.

Dai Tamesue, a 400-meter hurdler in three Olympic Games from 2000, posted on X before the news conference that, although Miyata’s actions were problematic, she shouldn’t be removed from the squad.

Aiko Sugihara, who is listed as a reserve for the women’s team, had been considered as a potential replacement for Miyata at the Games. However, the JGA decided not to make the move at this time, as substitutes are intended to replace athletes who fall ill or get injured. According to Nikkan Sports, Japan would still be able to compete with a team of four, but it would be at a significant disadvantage.

The qualification round for women’s gymnastics is slated to start on July 28. Japan has not medaled in the women’s gymnastics team all-around competition since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The mental health of Olympians has been a major point of conversation, with many competitors opening up about their own struggles. Simone Biles withdrew from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after she realized she had the twisties—a gymnastics phenomenon where an athlete suddenly loses their sense of where their body is in space—and decided to take a step back to prioritize her mental health.

“For anyone saying I quit, I didn’t quit,” Simone wrote on Instagram after her decision. “My mind & body are simply not in sync—as you can see here. I don’t think you realize how dangerous this is on hard/competition surfaces. Nor do I have to explain why I put health first. Physical health is mental health.”