Japan women's gymnastics captain Miyata out of Olympics for smoking, drinking

Japan women's gymnastics captain Miyata to leave France over smoking

A woman. Smoking. In France.

She obviously just was observing "When in Rome..."

The JOC needs to stop cracking down on athletes fro minor expressions of youthful exuberance and go after their leagues of corrupt officials and cronies.

send Miyata home from its training camp in Monaco

Wow! Couldn't they have found a cheaper place to train? Even with a weak yen they seem to have plenty of money.

Lunacy!

Uh, JOC, your most esteemed gynmast, Kohei Uchimura, smoked through his career.

I guess because she's a woman? Cigarettes and sports go hand in hand in Japan. A bunch of Japanese guys in my tennis group huddle for a smoke between sets, much to the amusement of the foreign members. My cousin in Canada said the sight of Japanese skiers at Whistler in the 90s puffing away on cigarettes at the bottom of the runs was a quirk that raised a few eyebrows. LOL.

Japanese athletes get a training camp in Monaco?

Wow!

Seems unfair - probably wouldn't happen to a male athlete. But I guess Japanese do expect their laws to apply to Japanese anywhere in the world. She is under-age to smoke.

Surely a final warning should suffice at this point?

All those years training down the drain.

She'll need a joint after all that

I hate smoking but even I think this is a bit extreme.

"...the sight of Japanese skiers at Whistler in the 90s puffing away on cigarettes at the bottom of the runs was a quirk that raised a few eyebrows. LOL."

Very interesting! I can well remember stopping over to change planes at YVR Vancouver International Airport in the 1990s and seeing a crowd of male Japanese travelers, all wearing business suits and puffing frantically in the smoking area between flights...

I don't condone smoking but is tobacco a PED now? This is utter stupidity.

And….. so what?

Crime of the century.

Regardless of rules, why would a top tier athlete need to smoke??

Athletes shouldn’t smoke. However this is very unusual for Japan. The rate of smoking in Japan is much lower than western countries. You can’t go anywhere in most foreign countries without seeing hordes of smokers. The few that do smoke in Japan smoke in the designated smoking areas.

Athletes shouldn’t smoke. However this is very unusual for Japan. The rate of smoking in Japan is much lower than western countries. You can’t go anywhere in most foreign countries without seeing hordes of smokers. The few that do smoke in Japan smoke in the designated smoking areas.

Which Japan do you live in?

I live in the one where smoking rate is around 20%; roughly the same as Germany and the Netherlands, but much higher than England.

If she was not smoking crack,what the big deal

A cigarette not crack heroin or even a joint. How freaking rediculous. She's over 18, it's completely legal in France.

Probably has to do with the fact that smoking is illegal in Japan for persons under the age of 20. Still, this seems a little harsh. Even when a high school student is found smoking, they are taken to a room for a thorough talking-to, and perhaps made to write an essay on how smoking is bad. This should have been kept within the team and not made public.

Didn't Yu Darvish get caught smoking underage and playing pachinko? I think it was right after he got drafted, but was still in high school. I think the punishment was something like, "Naughty boy, don't ever get caught again." I guess if she were a male in a more popular sport, she'd not be in trouble.

Also, I can't go along with this idea the Japanese authorities have of "you can't do anything that is illegal in Japan when you are abroad even if what you are doing is legal in the country you are in." I wonder if this idea has ever been challenged in court. If a 20-year old from the US drinks a beer in Japan, even though the legal age in most places is 21, that person would not get in any trouble. Heck, an 18-year old from another state can go to Texas and have a beer (18 is legal drinking age in Texas) and not get in any trouble in their home state.

She's over 18, it's completely legal in France.

Reminds me of when they were threatening to arrest Japanese citizens returning to Japan if they were found to have used legal weed in Canada. I am not sure if they enforced this but ridiculous nonetheless.

This world has become irreparable mind-sick. And this news is only another small brick for proving it.

@chibitanuki--Did not know Uchimura smoked, so the media must have kept a lid on it. I remember he would munch on Black Thunder thrown from his support team in the stands, which led to a sponsorship deal. Ichiro Suzuki was always in beer CMs but has never had a beer belly physique so I doubt he drinks beer every day.

Let her compete..

Pathetic OIC

Japan shaming culture strikes again.

Europeans smoke like they have six fingers all the time, even on vacation.

Japanese also smoke and drink a lot.

Was she told about the rules?

She knew the rules and she decided to not respect them.

My guess is mostly about her sponsor's image, no sponsor = no money.

My guess is the "sponsor " would'nt even know if she smoked.

So I just "smoked " that theory.

The JOC is such a kempeitai! They're allowed to smoke at 18 in France and that's where they are.

Cut her some slack and don't kick her off the team.

The JOC is only making the team weaker and punishing her teammates on top of it.

You have to think, who does this serve?

This seems too harsh to me. Very cold too by the Association. Cold as ice. She made a mistake. Just punish her in a suitable way such as a fine. Let her continue her training and let her compete in the upcoming Olympics.

Smoking what, to justify this? If tobacco then some geezer officials at whatever commitee behind this needs to get their heads of of their rear ends. Japan like most countries needs to maximize their chances for gold. Not minimize them.

They should’ve been more forgiving. She shouldn’t have been sent back home, especially over tobacco.

I want to know who snitched?

Smokers today are hiding wherever they can to have a smoke peacefully. Smokers are trying to avoid the masses. Nobody wants to expose you to something that you don't want to do.

I can't imagine she walked into a gym with a lit Marlboro hanging from her mouth. Did they search her bags? Did she come to the gym smelling like a BBQ?

Most likely she was off on her own trying to get a good drag, someone walked around the corner, found her, and then snitched.

Prayers to her. All the broken dreams, broken hearts, her family and friends. Pray that she gets the support she needs. No one this young should endure such scandal, disgrace and possible alienation.

Ridiculous, and the gold goes to stupidity.

You're willing to sacrifice our love?

This seems too harsh to me. Very cold too by the Association. Cold as ice

Japan is a lovely modern nation but some of its rules seem ridiculous and would be considered usupportable in law elsewhere. As long as what you do is legal in the country you do it in, how can an offence have occured?

Example: Americans cant consume alcohol before 21, but go to a nation where the legal age is 18 and they can consume alcohol there when they visit that nation. They cant be found guilty when returning to America.

Japan should embrace such acceptance as well.

Monaco is not France, so is not coming back from France...LOL

And know you can buy and smoke tobacco from 16 in Monaco !

The article says she was in Monaco, so how is she leaving France? This is not France, Monaco is a sovereign city-state.

This was surely not wise from her to smoke while supposedly being an athlete but at the same time she does not deserve at all the public shaming. They could just have resolved the matter quietly but no, she had to go through the Japanese shaming machine

Perhaps a chain smoker and must be with her attitude of how she was smoking.

Monaco is not France, so is not coming back from France...LOL

The closest airport to Monaco is in France, in Nice. When you arrive by plane at Nice Côte d´Azur airport.

She's old enough to legally smoke in Monaco, so this sounds draconian. That's assuming smoking was allowed in the location she did it at, and she wasn't just doing it on the sly in a hotel room or other place where it is banned.

I hope this is just a public slap on the wrist and she'll get to compete in the Olympics.

Well done JGA. A textbook case of cutting off your nose to spite your face...

An athlete do not smoke, it is bad for her, bad for the sport. Why so many defend her?

Break the rule, you pay the price! Nothing more.

Break your contract and you go home. It is that simple.

Not buying this. Sounds like a cover story or diversion from something else.

SanjinosebleedJuly 19  07:24 am JST

Lunacy!

Stuoidity! Therse cretins think people don't drink or smoke. Smoking is bad of course, it can affect your athletic ability but drinking?

Then Japan should send home most of the rest of the team. The whole thing is ridiculous. These kind of stories make Japan look, I didn't want to say ridiculous again, but it does.

From 30 years ago to now the number of smokers has dropped dramatically and grateful for that, too.

Now onto this young lady, voting age is now 18, and so, really, they did not drop the drinking and smoking age, too?

I am not a smoking fan by no means, however, unless she signed a document saying she would not smoke, or drink how can they do this? Who outed her a fellow Olympian? There is more to this story for sure for her to be booted out on such a small technicality.

So she was in France where the legal drinking, smoking, voting age is 18. Goes back to Japan where you can vote at 18. The results of a vote can affect many people. But she can't drink or smoke! Mind boggling! Time for Japan to update their backwards laws.

WTF, I had cigarettes and alcohol when I was 13, I never got banned from anything. The world has gone insane.

Knowing Japan, she was probably also forbidden from dating. The men, no problem; drink and smoke, and go after the women all you like. For the women, though, they are strictly controlled.