Olympian quit and became adult film star after being slammed as ‘national embarrassment’
A snowboarder who suffered a devastating crash at the Winter Olympics became a sex worker
Melo Imai moved into the adult industry after flopping at the Winter Olympics(Image: Clive Mason/Getty Images)
A Winter Olympian swapped the slopes for the world of adult entertainment after being dubbed a ‘national embarrassment’.
At just 18, Japanese star Melo Imai was regarded as a snowboarding prodigy when she arrived at the 2006 Games in Turin. However, her Olympic dream turned into his nightmare when she crashed heavily during the halfpipe event and had to be carried off the slopes. There was little sympathy in her homeland, though.
Having finished 34th out of 34 competitors, the domestic media branded her a “waste of taxpayers’ money” and “Japan’s embarrassment”. Imai admitted the occasion was too much for her, telling the Tokyo Weekender. “I don’t just mean because I got injured and failed to progress. The whole experience was terrible.
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“Leading up to the Games, I had this constant fear of failure, like a choking feeling. It was the same throughout my career.”
After such a devastating performance, Imai’s life took a very different direction. After a brief marriage, the mother-of-two began working as a hostess in a bar, which led to work as a prostitute in a sex parlour, naked photo shoots and pornographic films.
She once revealed: “After the Olympics, I was making as much as a company president, and sometimes I’d go party at a host club and drop £6,670 in a single night.”
Such a drastic move can perhaps be traced back to her strict upbringing, which was controlled by her father, who was also her coach. She said in 2016: “I was raised by a very strict father until I was 17. I was forbidden from any sort of behaviour that was girly, like wearing a skirt or putting on make-up.
“I envied people my age having the freedom to do the kind of things that are considered normal for most teenagers. It just wasn’t an option for me as I felt I couldn’t disobey my father.”
She said working in the sex industry allowed her to come out of her shell, saying: “I used to be really shy and felt that I always needed to cover my body.
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“That is something that has changed in recent years. I’ve had work done, but it isn’t the only reason. I began to believe in myself much more. To do that kind of job you can’t be a shrinking violet. It has helped me a lot.”
Imai, who became a media personality in Japan for her exploits, returned to snowboarding, winning the All Japan Championships in 2018 soon after returning to full training. However, her hopes of competing in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing did not come to fruition.
Speaking in 2018, she insisted he life was in a good place, saying: “There’s been a lot written about my life in magazines and newspapers, but I believe people shouldn’t judge me based on what they’ve read.
“Speak to me and you will see that not everything is negative in my life. I’m enjoying my work and am back snowboarding again.
“I’m also coaching the sport to various kinds of people, including my son and daughter. I want to make it fun without putting them under any pressure at all: The exact opposite to how I was taught.”
Watch Winter Olympics 2026 live on discovery+
The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games is running from February 6-22 and fans can enjoy more than 850 hours of action live on discovery+ via Prime Video.
Throughout the games, the £3.99 discovery+ Entertainment subscription will provide access to TNT Sports 2, the home of 24/7 Olympic coverage.
