The future of Japanese men’s figure skating has arrived.
Two-time world junior champion Nakata Rio threw down a statement skate in his senior international debut on Friday (4 September), grabbing the men’s short program lead with a 96.48 at the Kinoshita Group Cup on home ice in Tokyo.
“I didn’t really feel any difference today, to be honest,” said the 17-year-old Nakata, who held off Vladislav Dikidzhi (88.79) and Olympic bronze medallist Sato Shun (85.71) to top the 16-man field at Tokyo’s Tatsumi Ice Arena.
“I was just focusing on myself and tried to stay strong out there.
“I was aiming for a 100. Ninety-six is pretty good, but I’m sure my levels could have been better, so I need to be more thorough the next time out.”
As if to remind the world that untouchable junior queen Shimada Mao wasn’t the only one debuting on the global stage this weekend, Nakata, performing to Alive, walked off the ice without making a single mistake.
He landed all his jumps – a quad Salchow-triple toeloop combo, a quad toe, and a triple Axel – and had the latitude to pump his fists mid-skate.
Although the meet is a Challenger Series event, the skater line-up resembled that of a Grand Prix competition. Nakata took pride in his clean skate against a field that included Sato and fellow Milano Cortina 2026 Olympian Miura Kao (11th, 68.44) as well as the Russian-born skater Dikidzhi, ahead of Saturday’s free program.
“I’m happy with the clean skate,” Nakata said. “I’ve been skating clean in practice, and I was able to reproduce the form today. I wasn’t nervous, and I hope it stays that way next time out, and I can keep my confidence.”
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read more: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/figure-skating-kinoshita-group-cup-2026-men-short
