Japanese Gymnast Shoko Miyata Sent Home from Paris Olympics for Violating Team Smoking Ban

Japanese Olympic gymnast Shoko Miyata is set to miss the 2024 Paris Olympics for smoking.

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 the Kyodo News, BBC News and The Guardian.

JGA officials also confirmed Friday that Miyata’s transgressions included both smoking and drinking alcohol, reported The Guardian.

“We apologise from the bottom of our hearts for this,” JGA’s president Tadashi Fujita said about the incident, according to BBC News and The Guardian.

“With her confirmation and after discussions on all sides, it has been decided that she will withdraw from the Olympics,” Japan Gymnastics Association secretary general Kenji Nishimura also told reporters in Tokyo, per the BBC.

Miyata’s coach Mutsumi Harada added that the gymnast — who is Japan’s reigning national champion — had been struggling with the intense “pressure” of representing her country at the Paris Games during the team’s training camp in Monaco.

“She was spending her days really burdened with so much pressure. I would implore people to understand that,” Harada said Friday.

The first indication that Miyata would miss the games came on Wednesday, July 17 when she failed to attend an open training session.

The gymnast previously placed three times at the Asian Championships and three times at the World University Games — including receiving a bronze medal in the balance beam at the 2022 World Championships.

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More recently, in April, she won her first gold medal at Japan’s national championships, after she previously received back-to-back silver medals.

Japan has not medaled in the women’s gymnastics team all-around competition since the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

The 2024 Summer Olympics will be broadcast live from Paris from July 26 to Aug. 11 on NBC.