In brief:
Japan’s girls’s creative gymnastics captain Shoko Miyata has withdrawn from the Paris Olympics after violating the staff’s code of conduct by smoking.
Miyata’s coach, Mutsumi Harada, mentioned the 19-year-old had been “spending her days actually burdened with a lot stress”.
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Shoko Miyata, the 19-year-old captain of the Japan girls’s creative gymnastics staff, has withdrawn from the squad for the Paris Video games after violating the staff’s code of conduct by smoking, the Japanese Gymnastics Affiliation mentioned on Friday.
JGA officers mentioned Miyata arrived in Japan on Thursday after leaving the staff’s coaching camp in Monaco for investigation, which confirmed the violation together with ingesting alcohol.
The ladies’s squad would compete with 4 athletes as an alternative of 5, the JGA advised a media convention.
“We apologise from the underside of our hearts for this,” JGA president Tadashi Fujita mentioned, bowing deeply together with different officers together with Miyata’s private coach, Mutsumi Harada.
Hopes had been excessive for the Japan girls’s gymnastics staff, which was searching for to win a staff medal on the Paris Video games for the primary time for the reason that 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Miyata had been anticipated to guide a staff comprised fully of first-time Olympians and youngsters after she secured her Paris berth in Might with a 3rd consecutive NHK trophy.
Coach Harada mentioned that whereas Miyata’s conduct had been reckless, she had been beneath excessive stress to carry out on the highest degree.
“She was spending her days actually burdened with a lot stress,” he mentioned, wiping away tears. “I might implore individuals to know that.”
Psychological well being dealing with younger athletes took centre stage on the final Olympic Video games in Tokyo when gymnastics celebrity Simone Biles pulled out of 1 competitors after one other.
Creative gymnastics is without doubt one of the hottest sports activities on the Summer time Video games and will likely be held from July 27 to August 5.
Reuters
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