Yukari Murata
| Yukari Murata | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 9 October 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gymnastics career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Rhythmic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country represented | Japan (1998–2006) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Yukari Murata (村田 由香里, Murata Yukari; born 9 October 1981) is a Japanese retired individual rhythmic gymnast. She is currently the head of training for rhythmic gymnastics at the Japan Gymnastics Association.
Career
Murata participated at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.[1] She also competed at world championships, including the 2005 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships.[2][3]
Post-competitive career
After her competitive career, she became the head of training for rhythmic gymnastics at the Japan Gymnastics Association. In November 2021, she began training in the national group.[4]
In May 2025, it was reported that gymnasts had complained that Murata was abusive in training, with gymnasts having left the national team because of her impact on their mental health.[5] Four top athletes, including Ayuka Suzuki, left their athletes' housing in February and boycotted their training until they were persuaded to return later that day. The reasons they gave for leaving were her treatment of them as well as sexual harassment from an unnamed male trainer.[4]
Murata was given a leave of absence and a warning but then resumed her position; the Japan Gymnastics Association stated that athletes did not wish for her to be punished or acknowledged as carrying out power harassment.[5] They said their investigation was suspended and would not proceed without a request from the gymnasts.[6] She denied being abusive, but she said that she may have pressured athletes too much and that she did not properly support them mentally, saying that "our communication sometimes slipped out of sync". She also added that she wanted to learn from what had happened. The Japanese Gymnastics Association assigned her two support staff and created more support systems to connect the gymnasts with external resources.[6]
Later that year, under Murata's instruction, the Japanese group won their first-ever all-around World Championships gold medal at the 2025 World Championships held in Rio de Janeiro. After the competition, however, the cosmetics brand Pola, which had sponsored rhythmic gymnasts for 18 years, withdrew their sponsorship as a result of the unresolved allegations of harassment, though they noted they might restart their sponsorship if more safeguards were implemented.[6]
References
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Yukari Murata". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020.
- ^ "2005 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships athletes – Yukari Murata". Longinestiming.com. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
- ^ "Rhythmic Gymnastics Japanese Nationals 2005". GYMmedia.com. 18 February 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- ^ a b "《代表選手によるボイコット騒動の真相》新体操「フェアリージャパン」強化本部長がパワハラ指導で厳重注意 男性トレーナーによるセクハラ疑惑も" ["The truth of the boycott by national athletes": Trainer of "Fairy Japan" rhythmic gymnasts reprimanded for power harassment; also suspicions of sexual harassment from male coaches]. NEWSポストセブン (in Japanese). 19 May 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
- ^ a b "新体操日本代表で威圧的指導か 選手が被害訴えも強化本部長続投 ｜ 共同通信" [Training chief to remain in post despite athletes' complaints that Japan's rhythmic gymnastics team was coached abusively]. 共同通信 (in Japanese). 19 May 2025. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
- ^ a b c Yoshikawa, Mai (28 October 2025). "Tough love or too far? Inside Japan's rhythmic gymnastics coaching scandal". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 29 October 2025. Retrieved 29 October 2025.