In all likelihood, you have probably already heard of the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci. She first shot into stardom with her amazing performance at the Montreal Olympic Games held in Quebec, Canada back in 1976. However, we are willing to bet that you don’t know the rest of her story. From how she became an Olympian to the way she escaped her home country, we have it all for you. Keep reading to find out more about this amazing woman!
The Early Days
Stefania and Gheorghe Comăneci welcomed a baby girl they named Nadia Elena Comăneci in Onesti, Romania on November 12, 1961. Her Romanian Orthodox parents were beyond excited about the birth of their firstborn child. Not long after this, the couple would be blessed with their second child.
The Early Days
Hope For Nadia
In Romania, it is not uncommon to find a girl named Nadia, though there was a special reason why her parents gave her that name. When her mother Stefania was pregnant with her, she had been watching a movie with Gheorghe. They were inspired by the film and liked the name of the protagonist. “Nadya” means “hope”, though we doubt they could foresee how suitable the name actually ended up being.
Full Of Life
As a little girl, Nadia was bursting with boundless energy. She was the type of child who enjoyed bouncing the day away as she jumped on the furniture. Her parents thought that it would be a good idea to sign her up for gymnastics so that she could have a positive outlet for it. At the time, they were unaware that this decision would alter the course of their lives.
Going Forward
It seems like Nadia was a driven individual from the beginning. She might have been young, though she knew she wanted to accomplish amazing things. Once, she described herself this way: “I was driven towards something I wanted to be the best at, and I didn’t know exactly what it was, it happened to be gymnastics.”
Young Talent
On one particular day, little Nadia had been spending some time on the playground with a school friend when she did some cartwheels. The kids had been too lost in playtime to notice a pair of adults keeping their eyes on them. The witnesses turned out to be the gymnastic coaches and married couple, Márta and Béla Károlyi. Back then, they were hanging out in the playground on the lookout for talented children. They decided to follow Nadia and her friend in an attempt to recruit the little girls to their gym.
Béla Károlyi
Béla Károlyi has been a huge sports fan since he was young and he ended up becoming an athlete himself. He got his start in the sport of hammer-throwing and he eventually became a champion in it. Later, he switched to coaching junior boxing. It was only when he met Márta Károlyi that he decided to convert to gymnastics. The couple normally went scouting for young talent and this was how they found Nadia.
Hard Work
Béla successfully recruited Nadia to his gym and he started mentoring the little girl. Nadia began training for three hours every single day and she was driven by a desire to succeed. Márta and Béla were both impressed with the talent and form possessed by the little girl. She was extremely driven as evidenced by the fact that she chose to get up every time she fell down.
Ups And Downs
The training routine her coaches made her undergo paid off and young Nadia Comăneci entered the Romanian Junior Championship at the tender age of eight years old. She managed to earn the 13th place and that was already pretty impressive for her age. However, she was clearly disappointed by her ranking. Still, she did not give up and she was only driven to try harder. The same motivation earned her the top spot in the following year!
Practice Makes Perfect
Béla Károlyi was the type of person who prioritized hard work and dedication. He must have been happy to take someone so similar under his wing. When Nadia was 13 years old, she was working with Béla 8 hours every day for 6 days a week. That’s the dedication it takes when you have dreams of greatness. Clearly, the pair was not going to let anything get in the way of their goals.
Never Too Much
A couple of years after winning her first championship, some people wanted to know if Nadia felt like the Károlyis pushed her too hard. She answered by saying that this was not true. In fact, she was the one who always wanted to take the extra mile by insisting on doing more whenever Béla assigned her an exercise. This was evidently someone who wanted to be the best at her craft no matter what.
Gold and Silver
During the European Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championship in 1975, Nadia wowed everyone with her European debut performance. During the course of the competition, she ended up winning nearly all of the competition she took part in. Nonetheless, she ended up bagging the silver medal in the only category she did not win gold in. Even more impressive is the fact that she was able to accomplish so much at the age of 13!
The American Cup
The next year, Nadia Comăneci left the European continent for the first time in order to attend the American Cup. The competition was considered to be a warm-up tournament before the athletes competed in the Summer Olympic Games to be held in Montreal in the same year. The world went wild as the talented gymnast bagged perfect scores.
Two Winners
After stunning everyone in the audience during the competition, the next event was the awarding ceremony. There were two silver cups for one male gymnast and one female gymnast. No one was shocked that Nadia Comăneci won and the other cup was given to the American athlete Bart Conner. This served as their first meeting and it ended up becoming a life-changing moment for both talented gymnasts!
Young Love
Photographers wanted to capture the image of the champions on film and they huddled together to snap photos as they showed off their medals. Someone yelled, “Kiss for the cameras, please!” The 18-year-old Bart Conner obliged the request by kissing Nadia on the cheek. The moment made for an adorable image and the photograph was definitely well-received. We daresay that the moment further catapulted Nadia into fame!
Summer Olympics
Only several months after she dominated the American Cup, Nadia delivered an incredible performance during the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal. She completely swept the floor and everyone could only watch her in amazement. Her performances earned the perfect score of 10 a total of six times! She was able to smash world records as she became the first gymnast to earn that amount of perfect scores in the history of the Olympics.
Confusion In The Crowd
This was the first time such a thing was recorded in Olympic history so it’s not surprising to hear there were some minor issues. The manufacturer of the digital scoreboards was a company called Omega SA. They did not program the display to show “10” since this was thought to be an impossible feat. This is why the board instead showed “1.00” when the time came. It’s safe to say that everyone was puzzled as they stared at it, though the moment only lasted until everyone realized the actual score.
Writing History
Everyone wanted to know what Nadia had to say about the unprecedented score she received. To everyone’s surprise, Nadia let the world know that she did not like looking at the scoreboards when she competes. She admitted, “I didn’t know I was making history when I got the 10.”
The Perfect “10”
Upon seeing the scoreboard, Béla Károlyi was infuriated. He was under the impression that the judges made a mistake or otherwise made a penalty he did not notice. He said, “I said ‘holy cow, they deducted something over here, there is a deduction, there is a penalty,’ I was on my way to the jury, then I heard, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, first time in the history of the sport, a perfect 10 in the Olympic Games.’”
For Now And Always
As if it is not already impressive to break such a record, it’s hard to believe that she was only 14 years old when she managed to do this. Regardless, she will forever remain the youngest person to do so as the Olympic committee has changed the rules since then. These days, one must be 16 years old in order to participate in the Olympic Games.
Humble Nadia
The awarding ceremony naturally followed her magnificent performance. When she was on stage, an official asked her what she thought of her record-breaking performance. Everyone was eager to learn how the 14-year-old gymnast felt about. Her response? “It’s okay. I’ve gotten 19 golds in other competitions”. Wow!
~Souece http://www.articlesvally.com/worldwide/nadia