The Japan Swimming Federation announced that Miyakawa Miya (née Tachibana) has been appointed as the new head coach of the Japanese artistic swimming team.

A three-time Olympian, Miyakawa is amongst one of the most decorated artistic swimmers in history. She won bronze in team at the 1996 Atlanta Games, and then went to winning two silver medals at both the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics.

She has also won eight medals at the World Championships, including a historical gold medal in duet alongside Takeda Miho in 2001. It was the first gold medal for a Japan in the history of the competition.

Miyakawa has been a leading coach of the A team at the renowned Imura Artistic Swimming Club, and was part of the national team coaching staff from 2014 to 2021.

She replaces Nakajima Takako, who had been in the position from 2022 through the 2024 Olympic Games. In Paris, Japan placed fifth in the team event and eighth in the duet event.

 

Miyakawa will make her first appearance as head coach at the upcoming World Cup in Paris, where the Japanese national team is expected to compete in some of the duet and team events. The squad  is ultimately preparing for the World Championships, scheduled in Singapore in July.

The federation also announced the team members selected for these World Championships, which includes three Paris Olympians: Higa Moe, Sato Tomoka and Kobayashi Uta. Olympic reserve Fujii Moka was also named to the team.

Olympian Yasunaga Mashiro, who paired up with Higa to become World Champions in 2023 in the technical duet, has officially retired.

ARTICLE BY CHRISTINA MARMET

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