Shoko Miyata, the 19-year-old captain of Japan’s women’s artistic gymnastics team, has withdrawn from the squad for the Paris Games after violating the team’s code of conduct by smoking, the Japan Gymnastics Association (JGA) said on Friday.
JGA officials said Miyata arrived in Japan on Thursday after leaving the team’s training camp in Monaco for an investigation, which confirmed the violation, which includes drinking alcohol. The women’s team will compete with four athletes instead of five, the JGA said at a news conference.
Related: Paris mayor swims in the Seine as river is cleaned up just in time for Olympics
“We apologize from the bottom of our hearts for this,” JGA president Tadashi Fujita said, bowing deeply alongside other officials including Miyata’s personal trainer Mutsumi Harada.
Hopes were high for Japan’s women’s gymnastics team, which was seeking to win a team medal at the Paris Games for the first time since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Miyata was expected to lead a team made up entirely of first-time Olympians and teenagers after it secured its spot in Paris in May with a third straight NHK trophy.
Coach Harada said that while Miyata’s conduct had been reckless, she had been under extreme pressure to perform at her highest level. “She spent her days really burdened by so much pressure,” she said, wiping away tears. “I ask people to understand that.”
Mental health issues facing young athletes took center stage at the previous Olympics in Tokyo, when gymnastics superstar Simone Biles withdrew from competition after competition.
Miyata is the reigning Japanese national champion. Although Japan is not considered a contender for a team medal in Paris, Miyata won bronze on beam at the 2022 world championships and placed fifth in the all-around competition.
Japan’s men’s team won gold in gymnastics at the 2016 Olympics, while the women last won a team medal in 1964. Mai Murakami won bronze in the floor exercise at the 2020 Games, becoming the first Japanese woman to win an individual artistic gymnastics medal at the Olympics.
