Riki Nakaya  Nakaya began judo in kindergarten, following his older brother. 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. 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.