After finding the transition back to tennis difficult she was encouraged to switch to track and field and quickly found success, setting Japanese records in the F44 category for the 100 and 200 meter events shortly after.

Due to lack of funds, Nakanishi was unable to participate in the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Japanese government support for Paralympic athletes is limited,[3] and while training for the London Olympics in 2012 she found it difficult to raise enough funds to compete and to purchase a new prosthetic leg.

The calendar sold more than 3,000 copies and raised more than US$50,000 for equipment, training and travel expenses.

[6] In December 2014 sports writer Tatsuhito Kaneko [ja] published a biography of Nakanishi titled Last One (『ラスト・ワン』).