Rio Nakata

Rio Nakata (中田璃士) is a Welsh–Japanese figure skater. He is the 2024 Junior World silver medalist, 2023–24 Junior Grand Prix Final champion, a three-time ISU Junior Grand Prix medalist, and 2023 Japanese Junior national silver medalist.

Personal life
Nakata was born on 8 September 2008 in Cardiff, Wales to his Welsh mother, Hollie Mason, and Japanese father, Makoto Nakata. The family moved to Chiba in 2022. Nakata primarily speaks English at home and is fluent in the language.

He is currently a student at Wakamatsu Junior High School.

His figure skating idol is Shoma Uno.

Early career
Nakata began figure skating in 2011 at the age of three and his father, a former figure skater, has been his coach since then.

He debuted at the novice b level by winning silver at the 2018 Tokyo Regionals, before going on to win bronze at the 2018–19 Japan Novice Championships. The following year, Nakata won gold at both events.

Competing at the novice a level, Nakata won gold at both the 2020 Tokyo Regionals and the 2020–21 Japan Novice Championships. As the reigning Japanese national novice champion, he was invited to skate in the gala at the 2020 NHK Trophy. He was then selected to compete at the 2020–21 Japan Junior Championships, finishing seventeenth. The subsequent season, Nakata won silver and gold, respectively, at the 2021 Tokyo Regionals and the 2021–22 Japan Novice Championships. He then placed seventeenth at the 2021–22 Japan Junior Championships.

In summer 2022, Nakata began training at the MF Figure Skating Academy after his father got a job there as a coach. It was there that Kensuke Nakaniwa also began coaching Nakata.

2022–2023 season
Making his junior international debut, Nakata competed on the 2022–23 ISU Junior Grand Prix, winning silver at the 2022 JGP Latvia and finishing fourth at the 2022 JGP Poland II. With these results, Nakata was named as the first alternate for the 2022–23 Junior Grand Prix Final.

He went on to compete at the Japan Eastern Sectional Championships, winning the gold medal. At the 2022–23 Japan Junior Championships, Nakata finished fifth and was selected to compete at the 2022–23 Japan Senior Championships due to this top eight finish. At those championships, Nakata finished twenty-sixth in the short program and did not advance to the free skate segment of the competition.

Nakata closed his season by winning silver at the 2023 Triglav Trophy.

2023–2024 season
Competing on the 2023–24 ISU Junior Grand Prix, Nakata began his season by winning gold at the 2023 JGP Thailand and silver at the 2023 JGP Turkey. These results guaranteed Nakata a spot at the 2023–24 Junior Grand Prix Final.

Nakata went on to win gold on the junior level of the 2023 Tokyo Regionals and the silver medal at the 2023 Japan Eastern Sectional Championships. He then won the silver medal at the 2023–24 Japan Junior Championships behind Shunsuke Nakamura. With this result, combined with his success on the Junior Grand Prix series, Nakata was selected to represent Japan at both the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics and the 2024 World Junior Championships. He was also selected to compete at the 2023–24 Japan Senior Championships due to his top eight finish at the junior championships.

At the 2023–24 Junior Grand Prix Final in Beijing, China, Nakata placed fourth in the short program after falling on a planned triple Axel attempt and receiving an edge call on his triple Lutz. However, he went on to win the free skate after landing a clean quad toe and seven clean triple jumps, and take the gold medal. At the event, Nakata said, "I wanted to show the world what I can do. It's my biggest competition yet so far and that made me really nervous. Being the youngest competitor here I feel like I am so small, and the others are so big. So, I have to compensate it by skating big!... I am so happy! Today is my mom's birthday and I think I gave her a nice present today... The result is a great achievement, but there are many competitions ahead this season. I need to work harder; I cannot relax now."

Competing on the senior level at the 2023–24 Japan Championships, Nakata finished seventeenth.

Nakata entered the Youth Olympics in Gangwon as one of the favourites for the gold medal in the men's event, which had been won by Japanese the prior two editions. However, after a "woeful" short program in which he made mistakes on two of three jumping passes and fell on a spin entry he finished thirteenth in the segment, and more than twenty points behind the leader. He rebounded in the free skate, coming second in that segment and rising to fifth overall. Nakata called it "a good experience for me this time. I felt the crowd's support for me. I was so happy that I showed everybody what I can do."

Finishing the season at the 2024 World Junior Championships, Nakata had a difficult landing on his jump combination and lost a level on one of his spins, but still earned 77.60 points and came fifth in the segment. He admitted that the Youth Olympic short program had been a "big shock" that left him "pretty scared of the short program today," but was pleased with the result. In the free skate his only error was stepping out of a quad toe loop attempt, and he won the segment with a personal best score of 151.71, earning a gold small medal. Nakata won the silver medal overall, 1.44 points behind champion Seo Min-kyu of South Korea.

Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix