This story has been bubbling away for a few days and it’s finally time to write it up here.
The former figure skater Miki Ando has been accused of having an inappropriate relationship with her 16-year-old male protégé after a tabloid snapped them out together on a date.
The 36-year-old Ando, a two-time former world champion, famously left the figure skating world in the early 2010s to raise her child as a single mom and, despite intense media speculation, never named the father. (It is rumored to be a foreign skater or couch.)
Bunshun published allegations on June 26 that Ando was unnaturally close to her student, even going to Universal Studios Japan with him and his mother. When the latter was away for a moment, the pair would quickly hold hands. They were also spotted with their arms around each other’s waists.
Ando has denied a romantic relationship, but a further report has emerged.
Weekly Women’s Prime published an allegation on July 1 that Ando would frequently enter the men’s changing room to talk to her her student. Ando has not denied this, explaining that mothers and other couches often did this.
Nonetheless, it will only swell the rumors that she is either grooming the young man or already in a romantic relationship with him.
Long a target of the tabloids, Ando has reacted with her customary honesty to the current controversy, posting in English on social media on June 25: “I can’t take it anymore. I feel really burned out.”
Personally, our take is that if the young man is willing, what’s the issue? The age of consent is 16 and Ando is an attractive woman still only in her thirties. Professionally, of course, it gets very complicated if the couch and skater have a relationship that goes beyond the rink, but we certainly won’t be condemning Ando until we hear the young man’s side of the story.
