is a Japanese artistic gymnast. Kaya was part of the Japanese team that won the gold medal in the team event at the

2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships was the forty-sixth edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from 23 October – 1 November 2015 at The SSE Hydro in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and is the f ...

. He also won a gold medal in the 2015 Asian Championships in Hiroshima. At the

2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships was the 48th edition of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. The competition was held from October 25 – November 3, 2018, at the Aspire Academy Dome in Doha, Qatar. It was the first ti ...

he wo
bronze
with the team to help Japan qualify to the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Personal life

Kaya began gymnastics in 2004 at the age of eight. He was inspired by watching the Japanese artistic gymnastics team win gold in the team event at the

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

in Athens, Greece. Kaya won the Inzai Citizen Honorary Award in 2015 and the Narashino Mayor Award in 2014. Kaya received a doctoral degree in sports science from

Juntendo University is a private university in Japan. Its headquarters are on its campus in Bunkyo, Tokyo, for the School of Medicine and in Inzai, Chiba, for the School of Health and Sports Science. The university was established in 1838 for medical and in 1946 ...

in Tokyo.

Career

2015

Kaya competed at the 2015 World Championships in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, where he placed third on pommel horse. His team placed first.

2018

Kaya competed at the 2018 World Championships in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the count ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

, where he placed sixth on the all-around. His team placed third.

2019

Kaya competed at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, where he placed third on the all-around and parallel bars, and fifth on pommel horse. His team placed third.

2021

At the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan, Kaya competed for Japan, a team that included Kaya,

Daiki Hashimoto is a Japan men's national gymnastics team, Japanese artistic gymnast. Widely regarded as the successor of Kohei Uchimura, he won two gold medals at the Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics, 2020 Summer Olympics, in Gymnastics at the 2020 Summe ...

, Takeru Kitazono and Wataru Tanigawa. The team won Olympic silver with a combined score of 262.397, 0.103 points between the winning team. He also won a bronze on the individual pommel horse event. At the 2021 World Championships also held at home in the replacement city of Kitakyushu, Kaya won the silver on individual pommel horse, and placed sixth on both individual floor exercise and parallel bars events.

Competitive history

References

FIG
1996 births Japanese male artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Chiba Prefecture Living people Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Medalists at the 2019 Summer Universiade Universiade medalists in gymnastics Universiade gold medalists for Japan Universiade silver medalists for Japan Universiade bronze medalists for Japan Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts of Japan Olympic silver medalists for Japan Olympic bronze medalists for Japan Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in gymnastics 20th-century Japanese people 21st-century Japanese people {{Japan-artistic-gymnastics-bio-stub