There is one reason why Nakada hasn't been hailed as the best setter to emerge from the Asian school in the past two decades. That reason is called Yang Xilan. To many, a setter's efficiency and skill is commensurate to the team's overall success. So even if you compare Yang Xilan and Kumi Nakada individually and see that Nakada had slightly better technique and court sense, it was the Chinese setter who functioned as the brain of a better team. The Japanese team into which Nakada entered as prime setter was already under the shadow of China during the mid-'80s. In their matchups, China was just too much for Japan, its offence too powerful, its defence too solid, and its blocking too impenetrable. But Kumi Nakada used every single resource at her disposal, including hitting quick ones herself in order to lift her team's performance!! Other examples were her two different types of serve, or dinking balls on the second touch more often than other setters in the world. But her ability to outclass Yang Xilan individually ended where the effectiveness of her offence began. And even though Japan always gave China a hard time with its quicker and trickier Asian offence, in the end a Lang Ping megakill over the Japanese block made all the difference.

In the '84 Olympics, Nakada did her best to try to lift Japan past China in the semifinals but to no avail. China was clearly superior and Japan had to content itself by beating Peru for the bronze. After a mediocre '86 World's, Japan went into the Seoul Olympics with much optimism.

Nakada had been joined by better, taller, more powerful players. Rookie Motoko Ohbayashi was a quick, versatile player, middle-hitter Norie Hiro was a strong, well-seasoned player, and outside hitter Kayoko Sugiyama was a reliable though stiff outside attacker. Ichiko Satoh and Yukiko Takahashi entered every once in a while to sharpen the defence, and Yumi Maruyama and Sachiko Fujita also contributed very well despite their average height. Cuba's absence left the quest for Olympic gold open, though China was the definite favourite, Japan and the USSR the traditional superpowers, and Peru, the USA, and East Germany the underdogs.

The first match for Japan was already a big upset in their favour: a 3-2 (19-17, 5th set) victory over the Soviet Union. But then Japan lost their concentration and with it a match to a good East German team (fourth at the '86 World's), thus coming in second place in their pool. They faced Peru in one of the semifinals, with China and the USSR squaring off in the other. 

The Soviets absolutely trampled over the stunned Chinese in straight sets (with embarrassing scores for the Asians), and awaited the winner of the Peru-Japan match. In the spotlight, Kumi Nakada showed the world that she was one of the best setters in that match. Down two sets to none, she engineered a miracle comeback in the 3rd and 4th sets, and took her team to a lead for most of the 5th set before losing 13-15. Nakada was brilliant in that match. She was running unstoppable slides, both quick and long, behind or in front of her, with Hiro and Ohbayashi. Her quick ones and shoots to middle hitter Maruyama were precision-guided, giving her a wide open court to hit to. And with all the action in the middle, her outside hitters Fujita and Sugiyama, were hitting around the single block that Peru had up against them.

Nakada and Ohbayashi seemed to communicate telepathically. In a scramble for a free ball, all the Japanese players would glide around the court, eventually giving way for Ohbayashi to come out of nowhere on an inward slide over her middle hitter. Amazing, truly amazing. The classical Japanese play of a hitter faking his/her own quick 1-ball, waiting a beat, and hitting a 2-ball on the same spot was working miracles for Japan. Nakada was running a machine of a team, and for a while Peru was completely panic-stricken and impotent against Japanese precision. So, one wonders, why didn't Japan win the match? Peru prevailed in the end, because it had an offence that put balls down when it mattered. As good as Nakada was, Japanese experience came a bit short on this important occasion, and they ended up so upset from this loss that an embarrassed China vindicated their own semifinal loss by beating Japan for the bronze in straight sets.

After Seoul, Nakada and Ohbayashi continued to improve. But while the world's players were getting taller and stronger, the players who replaced the great Hiros and Maruyamas of Japanese volleyball were nowhere at the level of their predecessors. Japan suffered greatly in terms of its offence, with only Ohbayashi and at times Mika Yamauchi as Nakada's go-to hitters. Blocking became a rarity when short blockers were up against taller hitters. As good as Japan was as a team, there was only so much players like Tomoko Yoshihara, Mika Saiki or Ikumi Ogake could do vis-à-vis a Mireya Luis, Ana Moser, or a Yevgenia Artamonova. So the frustrations began to mount for Nakada. A mediocre 8th place at the '90 World's, and a quarterfinal loss to Brazil after starting the Barcelona Olympics with a brilliant victory over the USA, was not what Kumi Nakada wanted to see. One could see how hard she would scramble for a ball, how much she would try to compensate for her team's lack of blocking by digging everything in sight, but Nakada's efforts were not paying off, and her over reliance on Ohbayashi became too obvious after a while. Thus, two of the most amazing players in volleyball history were playing together defending their national colours, but the joy of victory eluded them in every major international competition.

I don't know when it was that she got hurt and combatted a serious injury that almost ended her career, I think it was right after Seoul '88. She published a book titled Believe in Dreams in which she narrates the story of her volleyball career, and puts her goals and achievements into perspective. Surely, anyone who has followed her career has seen how she remained the jewel of the Japanese team, despite the transitions that stripped it of its former grandeur.