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A Winter Olympian abandoned the slopes for the adult entertainment industry after being labelled a 'national embarrassment'. At just 18, Japanese sensation Melo Imai was hailed as a snowboarding prodigy when she competed at the 2006 Games in Turin.

However, her Olympic aspirations quickly unravelled when she suffered a serious crash during the halfpipe event and had to be stretchered off the mountain. Her homeland showed little compassion, though. Having placed 34th out of 34 competitors, the domestic press condemned her as a "waste of taxpayers' money" and "Japan's embarrassment". Imai confessed the experience overwhelmed her, telling the Tokyo Weekender: "I don't just mean because I got injured and failed to progress. The whole experience was terrible.

"Leading up to the Games, I had this constant fear of failure, like a choking feeling. It was the same throughout my career."

Following such a catastrophic performance, Imai's life took a dramatically different turn. After a short-lived marriage, the mother-of-two started working as a hostess in a bar, which eventually led to employment as a prostitute in a sex establishment, nude photography sessions and adult films.

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She once disclosed: "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 dramatic decision can likely be attributed to her restrictive upbringing under her father's control, who also served as her coach. In 2016, she revealed: "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 makeup.

"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 explained that working in the adult entertainment industry enabled her to break free from her inhibitions, saying: "I used to be really shy and felt that I always needed to cover my body.

"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 gained celebrity status in Japan through her endeavours, made a comeback to snowboarding, claiming victory at the All Japan Championships in 2018 shortly after resuming intensive training.

Nevertheless, her ambitions to participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing were not realised. In 2018, she maintained she was happy with her decisions, declaring: "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."