Murakami Mai

2012–2013 Murakami competed at the 2012 All-Japan Championships, where she placed 11th in the all-around but won the floor exercise title. She was not named to the 2012 Olympic team. Murakami competed at the 2012 Stuttgart World Cup where Japan finished second to Russia.

Murakami competed at the 2013 City of Jesolo Trophy, where she won bronze with the Japanese team and placed 22nd in the all-around. She finished third in the all-around at the All-Japan Championships, behind Natsumi Sasada and Yu Minobe. She then finished fourth on the floor exercise at the 2013 World Championships. She then placed sixth in the all-around at the All-Japan Championships and fourth at the NHK Cup. She secured a berth for the 2014 World Championships team by winning the floor exercise title at the All-Japan Event Championships. After the World Championships, she finished the season by placing fifth in the all-around at the Glasgow World Cup and then winning the vault and floor exercise events at the Toyota International.

At the 2015 All-Japan Championships, Murakami placed tenth in the all-around, and she placed eighth in the all-around at the NHK Cup. Due to these results, she was initially named as the second alternate for the 2015 World Championships team, and placed fifth in the team final. Murakami's sixth-placed finish in the all-around was the best result by a Japanese woman since 2009.

2016–2017 Murakami began the 2016 Olympic season at the American Cup, where she placed sixth in the all-around. She then won her first all-around title at the All-Japan Championships. Then at the NHK Cup, she finished second in the all-around behind Asuka Teramoto. She was then named to represent Japan at the 2016 Summer Olympics along with Teramoto, Aiko Sugihara, Yuki Uchiyama, and Sae Miyakawa. The team finished fourth in the team final. Individually, Murakami placed 14th in the all-around final and seventh in the floor exercise final.

Murakami won her second consecutive All-Japan all-around title in 2017. She also won the all-around at the NHK Cup and was then automatically named to the World Championship team along with Aiko Sugihara. She then won silver on the floor exercise and placed fifth on vault at the All-Japan Event Championships. At the World Championships in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, she qualified first into the all-around final. However, she fell off the balance beam in the final and placed fourth, one-tenth of a point behind the bronze medalist, Russia's Elena Eremina. She bounced back in the floor exercise finals, where she placed first ahead of Jade Carey and Claudia Fragapane. She is Japan's first World gold medalist on this event, and Japan's second World gold medalist on any women's gymnastics event, after Keiko Tanaka-Ikeda won the gold on the balance beam in 1954. Afterward, she won gold on floor and bronze on vault at the Toyota International.

2018–2019 Murakami finished second in the all-around at the 2018 American Cup, behind Morgan Hurd. She then won the all-around at the Tokyo World Cup. She also won the all-around at both the All-Japan Championships and the NHK Cup. At the All-Japan Event Championships, she won gold on the balance beam and floor exercise. At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, the Japanese team finished in sixth place. Individually, she won the silver medal in the all-around final, behind Simone Biles. It was the first women's all-around silver medal in Japan's history. She then won the bronze medal in the floor exercise final, behind Biles and Hurd.

Murakami won a bronze medal in the all-around at the 2019 American Cup behind Americans Leanne Wong and Grace McCallum. Murakami missed the NHK Cup due to a back injury, and because of this, Murakami was deemed ineligible to make the Japanese team for the 2019 World Championships. Her petition to be added to the team was denied by the Japan Gymnastics Association.

2020–2021 In February 2020, it was announced that Murakami would represent Japan at the Tokyo World Cup in April. However, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. She returned to competition in September at the All-Japan Senior Championships, where she won gold in the all-around. In addition, she won the vault and floor exercise gold medals.

After winning the all-around titles at the 2021 All-Japan Championships and the NHK Trophy, Murakami was selected to represent Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics and was named team captain. and Murakami also placed fifth in the all-around final. In the floor exercise final, she tied with Angelina Melnikova for the bronze medal. She became the first female Japanese gymnast to win an individual medal at the Olympics. There, she won the gold medal on the floor exercise and the bronze medal on the balance beam.

Coaching career After retiring as an athlete, Murakami began coaching gymnastics at Nippon Sport Science University. She was named the head coach of the Japan women's national artistic gymnastics team in 2024.

Early and personal life Murakami was born in Sagamihara, Japan, and began gymnastics when she was two years old. As a child, she participated in a children's theatre troupe and also acted in TV dramas.

Murakami attended university at the Nippon Sport Science University in Tokyo.

Competitive history +Competitive history of Mai Murakami YearEvent 2012All-Japan Championships 11 Stuttgart World Cup 2013 City of Jesolo Trophy 22 All-Japan Championships NHK Cup World Championships 4 2014 Pacific Rim Championships 4 9 7 7 6 All-Japan Championships 6 NHK Trophy 4 All-Japan Event Championships World Championships 8 Glasgow World Cup 5 Toyota International 2015 All-Japan Championships 10 NHK Trophy 8 All-Japan Event Championships All-Japan Student Championships 6 World Championships 5 6 Toyota International 4 2016 American Cup 6 All-Japan Championships 5 NHK Trophy 5 19 All-Japan Event Championships 4 Olympic Games 4 14 7 All-Japan Team Championships Toyota International 2017 All-Japan Championships 4 NHK Trophy All-Japan Event Championships 5 All-Japan Student Championships 12 World Championships 4 4 All-Japan Team Championships Toyota International 2018 American Cup Tokyo World Cup All-Japan Championships 4 NHK Trophy 4 All-Japan Event Championships World Championships 6 2019 American Cup All-Japan Championships All-Japan Event Championships 2020 All-Japan Senior Championships All-Japan Championships 2021 All-Japan Championships NHK Trophy All-Japan Event Championships Olympic Games 5 5 World Championships