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Melo Imai (今井 メロ, 今井 夢露, Imai Mero, born 26 October 1987 in Suminoe-ku, Osaka) is a Japanese TV personality and half-pipe snowboarder. Her maiden name is Narita (成田).

Imai's father is snowboarding coach Takashi Narita, and she has two brothers: former snowboarder Dome Narita and trampoliner Grim Narita.

She gave up snowboarding after the 2006 Winter Olympics and became a television presenter, then a nude model appearing in several gravure DVDs. In 2017 she had a short career as pornographic film actress and in 2018 announced a return to snowboarding. The same year she won the All Japan Snowboarding Championships.

Early life

From the age of 7, Imai's father, snowboarding coach Takashi Narita (成田 隆史), trained her and her brother Dome in snowboarding. They trained up to 18 hours a day, and when they finished high school, he had them forgo post-secondary education to focus on snowboarding. Imai has said she envied others her age for being able to lead ordinary lives, and at one point attempted to take her life by slashing her wrists.

Early snowboarding career

Imai specialized in the half-pipe. She participated in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, but came in last after severely injuring herself. Upon her return to Japan, she suffered public humiliation, with commenters calling her "a waste of tax money" and "a national embarrassment". She later stated, "For many athletes, the Olympics are the peak of their career, but for me it was a nightmare." She suffered from depression, and gave up the sport.

Career in the sex industry, nude modelling and AV career

After leaving the sport, Imai supported herself over the years by working in bars, and soon became a hostess and then an escort, working three days at a sex parlor. She moved on to appearing in television programs as a tarento and as a nude model in pornographic magazines. Between 2014 and 2016 she appeared in over a dozen nude gravure DVD's, a genre of softcore pornography, all of them being produced by the company Kingdom. In 2017 she made her hardcore pornographic video début in Snow Drop and Snow Out. Both movies were released by Muteki, an AV company specializing in making the adult film debuts of gravure idols and minor celebrities. Upon being asked why she didn't maintain a longer career in AV, Imai said that she was more interested in returning to snowboarding and "didn't wanted to overdo it in AV".

Return to snowboarding

Imai returned to snowboarding in 2017, and won gold at the All Japan Snowboarding Championships in 2018.

Personal life

Imai has a son and daughter, whom she has raised as a single mother. Imai has stated she is not embarrassed by her past in pornography, as she did it voluntarily out of the need for money, and considers herself to have been a good mother who did everything to support her children.

Main results

Filmography

TV drama

Bibliography

Photo albums

DVD

See also

• Japan at the 2006 Winter Olympics

References

1. "今井メロ". &M (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 7 September 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
2. "Ex-Olympic snowboarder Melo Imai to make porn debut". Tokyo Reporter. 10 April 2017.
3. ^ Del Pino 2018.
4. "Melo Imai opens up about her troubled past, return to snowboarding". Tokyo Reporter. 16 November 2017. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
5. "Melo Imai softcore movies". Javlibrary. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
6. "Melo Imai: 'I don't want to overdo it in AV'". Tokyo Reporter. 11 July 2018. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
7. Sunday Japon. Tokyo Broadcasting System. 18 Mar 2012.
8. "今井メロ、6年越しの告白 あのラップは「大人」にやらされていた". j-cast News (in Japanese). 18 March 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2016.
9. "Japanese snowboarder Melo Imai competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics". The Express. 16 February 2018.

Works cited

• Del Pino, Andrea M. Rosa (22 February 2018). "Melo Imai, la deportista olímpica japonesa que deja el porno para volver al snowboard". El Mundo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 22 February 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2018.

External links

• WWS Channel interview (in Japanese)
• &M official website (in Japanese)

• Japanese actresses
• Japanese female adult models
• Japanese female snowboarders
• Olympic snowboarders for Japan
• Snowboarders at the 2006 Winter Olympics
• Sportspeople from Osaka
• 1987 births
• Living people
• People from Suminoe, Osaka
• 21st-century Japanese sportswomen