27 Jul 2025

Golden comeback for Shoko Miyata as Japan top artistic gymnastics medal table

ESSEN - With four golds and a bronze, gymnast Shoko Miyata (JPN) made a resounding return to international competition just a year after missing the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

On Sunday, the 20-year-old completed a sensational week, adding two more golds (vault and floor) and a bronze (uneven bars) to her earlier all-around and team titles at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 World University Games. Her standout performances helped Japan to the top of the artistic gymnastics medal table.

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Japan finished the competition with a total of 17 medals, including eight golds – well ahead China, who collected five medals, three of them gold.

Rhine-Ruhr 2025 was Miyata’s first international appearance since she was expelled from Japan’s Olympic team for violating team rules related to smoking and drinking. “I struggled with mental health issues, but it’s getting better,” Miyata said, declining to discuss what happened last year.

Instead, she let her gymnastics do the talking. "This was a perfect performance and a perfect finish to this event,” Miyata said after taking gold in the floor final. “It was the perfect international comeback for me, the best way of showing what I can do. I'm happy about all those medals. It’s amazing.”

Miyata reached the podium in every final she contested, only missing the balance beam final after placing third in qualification behind two of her teammates.

She wasn’t the only Japanese gymnast to claim gold on the final day. Ashikawa Urara won balance beam, while Tsunogai Tomoharu took gold on parallel bars.

Mixed feelings

Team and all-around champion Daiki Hashimoto (JPN) earned two silvers on the final day – on pommel horse and high bar – but the Tokyo 2020 individual all-around champion left Essen with mixed feelings.

“I’m frustrated and regretful, because I didn’t get the gold (on high bar),” Hashimoto said after losing out to Felix Dolci (CAN). “I couldn’t perform like myself, my maximum, on the high bar. This was the last day of competition and it’s frustrating to end like this.

“It was very good to get the gold in the team and individual all-around, but at the same time I couldn’t perform to my maximum today and that was frustrating and regretful. Overall, it was a good international competition. Also, I have found things to work on. It was an important test for the world championships later this year.”

Shinnosuke Oka (JPN), the three-time Olympic champion from Paris 2024 (team, all-around and high bar), added two more silvers (floor and parallel bars) after helping Japan win team gold. Oka, who missed the all-around final, came to Essen as the favourite but couldn’t live up to expectations.

“I knew that I was getting a lot of attention and that people expected me to win a lot,” Oka said. “I will work hard to compete like myself again.”

The 21-year-old struggled with back problems throughout the event. “It’s getting better and better every day. Right now, it’s not too painful to compete and practise. I hope it will get better so that I can be better at the world championships (in October).”

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