The next women's gymnastics superstar?

I don't write that headline lightly. But it was impossible not to after being bowled over by Japan's Mai Murakami, who somehow competed through the 2009 Japanese Championships and the Junior Japan Invitational in Yokohama without really being noticed, which seems mind-boggling once you have a look at her routines.

But The Couch Gymnast and several others have noticed.

So the gym world has been abuzz with the brilliance of little Murakami Mai, a tiny little gymnast from Japan who posesses all the difficulty of a junior Shawn Johnson and (on floor) all the polish of, well, someone far more graceful.

Want to see a double double? She can do it -- as a second pass. A 3.5 twist? Showed it in September. A double layout? Not a problem. A triple full? Does it on floor, does it off beam. Puts all the effort that most gymnasts put into a double full.

Mai Murakami, 2009 Japanese Championships Event Finals, Floor Exercise:

Mai Murakami, 2009 Junior Japan Invitational All-Around, Floor:

On beam, she does two back handsprings into a full-twisting back layout. Then there's an (almost) triple turn (Okino) into an immediate layout stepout. And a side aerial, sheep jump combination. And the aforementioned triple full off.

2009 Japanese Championships Event Finals, Beam:

Murakami, 13, has the same body type as Shawn Johnson, but more grace. As one person who commented on The Couch Gymnast's entry put it, "she could be World floor champion right now!" No bars routine has surfaced from Murakami, but she does a decent double twisting Yurchenko vault, particularly given her height.

Mai Murakami, 2009 Japanese Championships Team Finals, Vault:

Why haven't we heard of her before? For one thing, she didn't win the Japan Junior meet in Yokohama. Technically, she didn't even compete -- each country was only allowed to enter two gymnasts in the all-around, and Japan used Natsumi Sasada and Yoshino Taniguchi and snuck Murakami and Seira Suzuki in as exhibitionists. (Suzuki, by the way, stood up an Amanar vault in event finals.)

Even if her scores had counted, Murakami only would only have placed seventh. That's partially because of a 12.8 on bars, which may confirm some suspicions that Murakami is a three-event gymnast in the mold of Cheng Fei (whose bars were never that bad.) The judges also hit her hard for the wobbles on those incredibly difficult elements on beam.

Japan has a great thing going with its juniors -- both men and women. But while the men's team regained the strength it had during the 1960s after the 2000 Olympics, the women's program is only beginning its ascent, and most of its best gymnasts are still juniors.

We've seen Natsumi Sasada, who does a layout Garrison mount on beam and has added a double double on floor. Koko Tsurumi broke through at the 2009 World Championships to become the first woman win a medal there in more than 40 years, and currently sits as the second best on bars in the world.

Natsumi Sasada, 2009 Japanese Championships Event Finals, Floor:

And now this. "The women's team hasn't been strong, but since last year there's been more attention paid, and they're getting stronger and stronger," Tsurumi said at the World Championships in October.

No kidding.