Sugihara Aiko

Junior career Sugihara made her international debut at the 2013 City of Jesolo Trophy and placed thirteenth in the all-around. At the 2013 All-Japan Championships, she finished eighth in the all-around. She then finished eleventh in the all-around at the 2013 NHK Trophy. At the 2013 All-Japan Event Championships, she finished fourth on the vault and eighth on the floor exercise. In September, she competed at the 2013 Junior Japan International, where she placed eighth on the vault and sixth on the floor exercise. At the 2014 All-Japan Championships, she finished sixteenth in the all-around. Then at the 2014 NHK Cup, she finished twelfth in the all-around.

Senior career 2015 Sugihara won the bronze medal in the all-around at the All-Japan Championships behind Asuka Teramoto and Yuki Uchiyama. She then won the all-around at the NHK Cup and was named to compete at the World Championships. At the All-Japan Event Championships, she finished eighth on the uneven bars and won the bronze medal on the balance beam and the silver medal on the floor exercise.

She was selected to compete at the Asian Championships in Hiroshima alongside Natsumi Sasada, Asuka Teramoto, Sakura Yumoto, Yuki Uchiyama, and Sae Miyakawa, and they won the team gold medal. Individually, Sugihara won the gold medal in the all-around with a total score of 58.050. In the event finals, she won the silver medal on the uneven bars behind Zhu Xiaofang and on the floor exercise behind Wang Yan. She then competed at the World Championships alongside Asuka Teramoto, Mai Murakami, Sae Miyakawa, Sakura Yumoto, and Natsumi Sasada, and they finished fifth in the team final.

2016 Sugihara won the bronze medal in the all-around at the All-Japan Championships. She also won the bronze medal in the all-around at the NHK Cup behind Asuka Teramoto and Mai Murakami, and she was named to the seven-person Olympic training squad from whom the final team of five would be selected. At the All-Japan Event Championships, she won the silver medals on the uneven bars and the balance beam.

She was selected to represent Japan at the 2016 Summer Olympics alongside Sae Miyakawa, Mai Murakami, Asuka Teramoto, and Yuki Uchiyama, and they finished fourth in the team final. After the Olympics, she competed at the Toyota International and won the silver medals on the uneven bars and on the floor exercise, and she finished fourth on the balance beam.

2017 At the All-Japan Championships, Sugihara won the silver medal in the all-around behind Mai Murakami. She then won another all-around silver medal at the NHK Trophy. At the All-Japan Event Championships, she finished fourth on the uneven bars and fifth on the floor exercise.

Sugihara competed at the World Championships in Montreal, where she finished sixth in the all-around final. In December, at the Toyota International, she finished ninth on the balance beam and won the silver medal on the floor exercise behind Mai Murakami.

2018 Sugihara finished sixth in the all-around at the Tokyo World Cup. She then finished fourth in the all-around at the All-Japan Championships and at the NHK Cup. She withdrew from the World Championships due to a back injury.

2019 Sugihara finished fourth in the all-around at the Tokyo World Cup. She then competed at the All-Japan Championships and finished fifth in the all-around. At the NHK Cup, she finished fourth and was selected to compete at the World Championships. At the All-Japan Event Championships, she placed sixth on the balance beam and won the silver medal on the floor exercise behind Asuka Teramoto.

At the Summer Universiade, she won the team gold medal alongside Teramoto and Hitomi Hatakeda. She finished fourth in the all-around final with a total score of 52.450, and she also finished fourth in the balance beam final. In the floor exercise final, she scored 13.000 and won the silver medal behind Italian gymnast Carlotta Ferlito. She then competed at the World Championships alongside Hitomi Hatakeda, Nagi Kajita, Akari Matsumura, and Asuka Teramoto, and they finished eleventh in the qualification round, which earned Japan a team spot for the 2020 Olympic Games. After the World Championships, she competed at the Toyota International, where she finished sixth on the balance beam.

2020-2021 The 2020 All-Japan Championships were postponed until December due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan, and Sugihara finished eighth in the all-around. Then at the 2021 All-Japan Championships, she finished fourth in the all-around. At the 2021 NHK Trophy, she once again finished fourth in the all-around and was named to Japan's 2020 Olympic team alongside Hitomi Hatakeda, Mai Murakami, and Yuna Hiraiwa. Then at the All-Japan Event Championships, she won the silver medal on the balance beam behind Murakami, and she won the gold medal on the floor exercise.

At the postponed 2020 Olympic Games, she helped Japan finish fifth in the team final, contributing scores on vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise.

2022 Sugihara took a year off from competition due to burnout.

2023 In June, Sugihara founded her own company, TRyAS, to popularize artistic gymnastics and support gymnasts.

2024 Sugihara worked with a leotard manufacturer to design a new leotard, which she dubbed the "Aitard" after herself and debuted in competition. The leotard has a lower cut, with fabric extending to the top of the legs, and is based on the attire worn by men's aerobic gymnasts. Sugihara said that while she had not minded wearing high-cut leotards when she was younger, as she grew older, she began to have concerns about wearing them, and photographs of her in leotards had received sexual comments online. She was inspired to create a new leotard design after the German women's gymnastics team competed in unitards at the 2020 Summer Olympics and after a male employee of hers suggested creating a new gymnastics outfit for parents who did not want their children wearing revealing leotards. The new leotards conform to International Gymnastics Federation rules. Due to her results, she was named an alternate for the Japanese team for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

In September, Sugihara competed in the National Sports Festival, representing her home prefecture of Osaka, where she won a team gold medal. One week later, she competed at the All-Japan Senior Championships, which she won for the third time, seven years after her prior victory there. In April, she was second at the individual All-Japan Gymnastics Championships.

Ahead of the NHK Trophy in May, she said that she was trying to focus on herself and enjoy the competition rather than thinking of qualifying to the 2025 World Championships team, as she felt she had not performed as well as she wanted to at the previous year's NHK Trophy due to focusing on making the Olympic team. Ten years after her first NHK Trophy victory, she won the all-around for a second time, just .033 points ahead of Rina Kishi. The result gave her a place on the World Championships team.

At the 2025 World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sugihara qualified for the all-around, balance beam, and floor exercise finals. During the qualification round, she earned an all-around total of 54.099, putting her in second place. However, a fall during the all-around final dropped her into seventh place. In the balance beam final, Sugihara won the bronze medal behind Zhang Qingying of China and Kaylia Nemour of Algeria. Later that same day, she earned a gold medal in the floor exercise final, her first-ever World Championship title.

Eponymous skill Sugihara has one eponymous skill listed in the Code of Points. ApparatusNameDescriptionDifficultyAdded to the Code of Points Balance beam Sugihara 2/1 (720°) turn with free leg held upward in 180° split position throughout the turn E (0.5) 2017 World Championships

Competitive history +Competitive history of Aiko SugiharaYearEvent 2013 City of Jesolo Trophy 13 All-Japan Championships 8 NHK Trophy 11 All-Japan Event Championships 4 8 Junior Japan International 8 6 2014 All-Japan Championships 16 NHK Cup 12 2015 All-Japan Championships NHK Cup All-Japan Event Championships 8 Asian Championships World Championships 5 2016 All-Japan Championships NHK Cup All-Japan Event Championships Olympic Games 4 Toyota International 4 2017 All-Japan Championships NHK Cup All-Japan Event Championships 4 5 World Championships 6 Toyota International 9 2018 Tokyo World Cup 6 All-Japan Championships 4 NHK Cup 4 Toyota International 2019Tokyo World Cup 4 All-Japan Championships 5 NHK Cup 4 All-Japan Event Championships 6 Summer Universiade 4 4 World Championships 11 Toyota International 6 2020 All-Japan Championships 8 2021 All-Japan Championships 4 NHK Cup 4 All-Japan Event Championships Olympic Games 5 2025 Antalya World Cup 5 NHK Trophy Asian Championships World Championships 7 2026 Cottbus World Cup 8 NHK Trophy Asian Championships 5