Nakata Rio looks to cast away Gangwon nightmare at World Junior Figure Skating Championships 2024
After a Winter Youth Olympic Games he'd like to forget, the 15-year-old Junior Grand Prix Final champion from Japan is raring to bounce back this week at the world juniors to cap his season.
Figure Skating
Every athlete goes through it. A moment when they are humbled by an opponent or an occasion, and ask themselves questions. Lots of questions.
That moment for Nakata Rio came in the figure skating short program at last month’s Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in Gangwon, Republic of Korea.
“I’ve never been this flattened in my life,” Nakata said as he sat down with Olympics.com after finishing fifth overall in the men’s competition.
“It was really frustrating. But now I can’t wait to get back to work and I want to win the world juniors 10 times more than I did before.
“After the short program, I was so frustrated and questioned myself. I’ve been struggling with the lutz in the short this season and was working hard at it.
“I was aiming for 80 and made mistakes when I knew I had no margin of error. I couldn’t understand why this was all happening to me.”
Escorted by his father and coach Makoto, Nakata Rio after the short program in tears at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, Republic of Korea.
In December at the Junior Grand Prix Final in Beijing, Nakata stormed back from fourth in the shorts to the top of the podium. He became the fifth Japanese to win the title, joining a select circle including Kozuka Takahiko, Hanyu Yuzuru, Uno Shoma and Sato Shun.
Nakata, 15, arrived in Gangwon as the men’s singles favourite alongside eventual champion Kim Hyungyeom from the host country.
But Nakata’s short program turned out to be a nightmare. He stumbled on the opening triple Axel and on his last jump, singled a triple lutz then fell on a combination spin.
The three most forgettable minutes of Nakata’s career placed him 13th ahead of the free skate, all but dashing his medal hopes and failing to follow in the footsteps of Yamamoto Sota and Kagiyama Yuma for gold. He was shellshocked afterwards, struggling for words as he wiped away the tears.
“My jumps felt good and I was making few mistakes in practice,” Nakata recalled. “But looking back now, I wasn’t practising enough. Which is why things turned out the way it did.
“I was the last one to skate. And it goes without saying that if you mess up in the short, you’re pretty much done. So I felt a lot of pressure. The crowd was loud which was good, but it only made things worse.
“I won the Grand Prix Final and felt pressed to win here. It was a lot for me.”
Lucky for Nakata that his father Makoto is also his coach. His mother, who is Welsh, and his relatives were all in the stands to support Rio.
Before the free program, father and son had a heart-to-heart. The conversation righted Nakata in time for the skate in which he finished second behind only Kim.
And dad’s words are going a long way - all the way to Chinese Taipei this week when a fired-up Nakata will compete at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships.
“After the short, he told me it was an achievement just to be here,” Rio said. “He said of course a higher place would have been better but if I gave it my all he didn’t care where I finished. That really made me happy.
“Down the road, my dream is to compete at the Olympics and win the medal I couldn’t win at the Youth Olympic Games.”
Those first steps will be taken at junior worlds.