Japanese Olympic hopeful killed in France
Japanese athletics is in mourning after the life of Paris 2024 hopeful Tsudoi Miyazaki was tragically cut short.
Miyazaki had dreams of making the Olympic Games and was training toward qualifying for the athletics spectacle in the city of Orleans, which is around 120 kilometers southwest of the French capital.
According to the Japan Triathlon Union (JTU), she was fatally struck by a car on Wednesday at a bicycle training camp and passed away aged 25.
"World Triathlon and the Japan Triathlon Union want to offer our deepest condolences to Ms. Miyazaki family, friends, coaches and teammates," said the JTU, which is cooperating with local authorities, in a statement.
"The thoughts of all the Triathlon Family are with you all in these terrible times."
French police are still investigating the incident and haven't released any information in relation to it yet.
A native of Toyama City in Japan, which is around 300 kilometers from Tokyo and 200 kilometers from former Winter Olympics host Nagoya, Miyazaki started her triathlon career while in college and showed early promise by winning Japan's U23 Triathlon Championships in 2019.
Placed 142 in the women's World Triathlon rankings and 14th in Asia, she was training for the summer Olympics in Paris in 2024 and had her eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics too.
Miyazaki was most recently seen competing in the Pontevedra World Cup held in Spain last weekend and finished 50th with a time of 2:13:33.
Taking to Instagram to address the performance, she admitted that she hadn't "reached a good level yet" but seemed upbeat.
"It was a good experience, so I want to make use of what I felt next so that it doesn't end there!" she added while thanking the organizers for letting her "take on the challenge" plus her followers for their encouragement.
While making its joint tributes with the JTU, World Triathlon noted that Miyazaki was expected "to grow into a leading, high-performing triathlete in the future".
