Riki Nakaya

Riki Nakaya (中矢　力) is a Japanese judoka.

He is a two-time lightweight world champion and an Olympic silver medalist.

In 2007, Nakaya won the A-Tournament U20 in Saint Petersburg, and came second in the Asian U20 Championships in Hyderabad.

In 2008, he won bronze medals at the A-Tournament U20 in Lyon and World U20 Championships in Bangkok.

Nakaya made his transition to the senior level at the All Japan Championships in Fukuoka, finishing third.

Nakaya entered his first international senior tournament at the Grand Slam in Tokyo.

After winning by ippon and two yukos in both round of 64 and 32, he lost by waza-ari to Canada's Nicholas Tritton, ending his first IJF outing in his third fight.

Nakaya again won the bronze medal at the All Japan Championships.

Nakaya won all his fights by ippon en route to the final at the World Cup in Vienna.

He lost to fellow Japanese and local lightweight number one Hiroyuki Akimoto in the final when Akimoto scored two waza-aris for ippon.

Nakaya won the bronze medal for the third consecutive time at the All Japan Championships.

At the Grand Prix in Rotterdam, Nakaya failed to win a medal when he lost to Poland's Tomasz Adamiec by two waza-aris in the quarter-final.

Nakaya made a breakthrough in his career in his second Tokyo Grand Slam.

He faced against fellow countryman Yuki Nishiyama in the final, and won the gold medal by defeating Nishiyama with juji-gatame for ippon.

Nakaya continued his winning streak in his first Paris Grand Slam.

He defeated the Netherlands' Dex Elmont in the quarter-final, fellow Japanese Yasuhiro Awano in the semi-final, and Hungary's Attila Ungvari in the final, all by ippon, giving him his second IJF circuit and Grand Slam title.

Nakaya reached the semi-final of the World Cup in Budapest, and lost to Ungvari in a revenge match by ippon.

He then won the bronze medal by defeating Ukraine's Petro Kuzmin.

Nakaya then competed in his first and only continental tournament in his career in Abu Dhabi.

He reached the final after winning all his fights by ippon, but was faced against double world champion Wang Ki-chun, and lost by waza-ari, leaving him to settle for silver.

Nakaya won his third Grand Slam in Rio de Janeiro, winning three of his five fights by ippon.

He defeated Portugal's João Pina in the final by ippon.

Nakaya continued Japan's dominance in the lightweight division, taking over from Akimoto as the world champion.

He played ippon judo in his first five fights, before meeting defending champion Akimoto in the semi-final.

He defeated Akimoto with an osoto gari for waza-ari, and was set against Elmont in the final.

In the final, no actual throws were scored, but a yuko was awarded to Nakaya due to a second shido given to Elmont.

He defeated Elmont in a scoreless and shido-filled fight to become world champion.

Nakaya became the world number one in the lightweight division in September 2011.

Nakaya surprisingly failed to win a medal at his first outing as world champion at home ground at the 2011 Grand Slam in Tokyo.

After beating Russia's Murat Kodzokov in the quarter-final by ippon and yuko, he was defeated by long-time rival Akimoto by ippon in the semi-final, leaving him medal-less at fifth place.

Nakaya's first outing at a Masters was in Almaty in 2012, and beat his first two opponents by ippon.

Nakaya then met Akimoto again in the semi-final, and narrowly won by shido.

He was set to face world number two Wang in the final.

In a turn of events, it was again a score-less fight, and Wang would be the one to defeat Nakaya by shido, leaving him to settle for silver.

Nakaya married his high school sweetheart in 2014, and they have a one-year-old child.

Nakaya is sponsored by Sohgo Security (ALSOK) and Gillette.

Nakaya won medals in several competitions in his junior career.

He has competed in the lightweight division since he was a junior judoka.

He was also a finalist at the 2015 World Championships.

Nakaya began judo in kindergarten, following his older brother.