 Nadia
Comaneci was born on 12th November 1961 in Gheorghiu-Dej (Onesti)
in Romania. The daughter of an engineer and an office worker,
she was first introduced to gymnastics at the age of six, when
her mother introduced her to Bela Karolyi, who was destined
to become the most famous Pygmalion in the history of sport
(although in fact, Nadia’s true mentor was the wife of
her trainer, Marta Karolyi).
Nadia Comaneci enchanted the people of her country for the
first time in 1972, when, at the age of eleven, she won the
Romanian Junior and Senior championships.
Comaneci won her first international recognition at the 1975
European Championships that took place in Skien (Norway),
when she won four gold medals.
In the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games she became the first gymnast
in the history of Gymnastics to be awarded the perfect score
of 10.00 (the highest possible score) in the compulsory routine
of uneven bars. Furthermore she won three more gold medals
in the individual all-around competition, in uneven bars and
in balance beam.
At the European Championships held in 1977 in Prague, she
won once again the gold medal in the individual all-around
competition, and was placed first in uneven bars and second
in the vault.
A year later, she participated in the Strasburg World Championships
and won one gold medal in balance beam and a silver one in
vault.
In the Copenhagen European Championships in 1978, she won
the gold medal in the individual all-around event for the
third time, a record even for nowadays. At the 1978 World
Championships in Fort Worth, she led her country’s team
to its first gold medal, by performing an amazing program
in balance beam, although she was severely injured.
In the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games she won two gold medals
in balance beam and floor exercises and two silver medals
in team all-around exercises and individual all-around exercises.
After a victory at the 1981 World Student Games she ended
her career as an athlete, and began a more quiet life as a
coach in her country.
On 28 November 1989 she defected from Romania, following
the example of her Pygmalion, Karolyi, and travelled to the
USA, where she was granted political asylum. In 1994 she returned
to Romania after five years, where she was met with adulation.
A school was named after her, and she received awards from
the country’s President, Ion Iliescu and the Orthodox
Patriarch Theoktistos, who admitted, “Her presence brought
more people to the Church than I had ever seen before in my
life.” On 27 April 1996, Nadia married two-times Olympic
champion at Los Angeles Bart Conner in Bucharest and visited
her country again, donating a sum of 100,000 dollars to support
the gymnastics team for the Atlanta Olympic Games.
Today Nadia Comaneci, together with her husband, teaches
gymnastics at their own academy in Norman, Oklahoma. They
travel the world, advertising Kodak, Swatch and Coca Cola,
and doing charitable work, and from time to time Nadia adds
to her collection with honorary awards, the most prestigious
being that given to her and Carl Lewis when they were named
the top athletes of the twentieth century.
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