Scandal As Top Figure Skater Has Child Out Of Wedlock
by Mika on Wednesday, July 3, 2013
by Mika on Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Shotgun weddings are remarkably common in Japan.
This is because “fatherless children” not registered on the father’s koseki (i.e. the national household registration system) sometimes suffer the consequences as far off in life as university admissions or job hunting. Many women would therefore rather put up with a bad marriage and divorce than harm their children’s chances or face the shame of single motherhood.
It’s therefore pretty rare for a Japanese woman to actively defend their rights as a single mother, let alone be proud of it and continue working all the while, but this is exactly what Ando Miki, one of the top figure skaters recently shocked Japanese sport fans by doing. On top of all this, she’s still drilling for the winter Olympics next year…
From Sports Navi:
Miki Ando Gave Birth Out Of Wedlock In April — “I Chose The Child’s Life Over Skating”
It was recently revealed that figure skater Ando Miki (25), a the former queen of the figure skating world championships, gave birth to a girl in April. She appeared on a VRT interview for Asahi Television’s “News Station” on July 1 and announced that “I decided that I wanted to have a kid as a single woman, gave birth without complications to a baby girl in April and became a mother.” She is not married and would not say who the father was. She said she would only retire after the Sochi Winter Olympic season.
After the winning her second World Championship in 2011, Ando broke off ties with her Nikolai Morozov as her coach. She said she was not participating in last October’s year’s Grand Prix season because she no longer had a coach and felt unprepared and resigned from her job at Toyota Motors on the 1st of January this year. Her last public appearance was last last November, however, and re-appeared at an ice show on the June 1 after almost 9 months. She showed off her jumps for the first time this year at an ice show on the 29th of June.
In her interview, she did not comment on whether she had been in a relationship with Morozov. She was already carrying the child when creating the short program for the Sochi Winder Olympics and said that “How can I put this… I knew I was pregnant, and because I didn’t want to have doubts until the end, the answer seemed to be to say goodbye [have an abortion]. Everyone was against it at first, but I then decide to choose the child’s life over skating. I came to that conclusion as an independent woman.” Then, in April, she gave birth to her first child, a little girl weighting 3,350 grams.
Furthermore, she announced that she will retire after her last season and said that “I want to live as an independent woman”.
To the very end, Ando did not reveal details about the child’s father. She only just revealed this May that she has started living with fellow pro-skater Nanri Yasuharu. Ando is also scheduled to skate along with Suzuki Akiko for two weeks form the 14th in the “2013 Tokyo Prince Ice World Show” (opening on the 12th in at the Tokyo DyDO Drinco Ice Arena).
