Sports
ROMANIA
Nadia Comaneci - The Perfect 10
By Georgiana and Iulia
Nadia Elena
Com?neci is a
R o m a n i a n
g y m n a s t ,
winner of three
Olympic gold
medals at the
1976 Summer
Olympics in
Montreal and
the first female
gymnast to be
awarded
a
perfect score of
10
in
an
O l y m p i c
gymnastic
event. She is
one of the bestk n o w n
gymnasts in the
world. In 2000,
Com?neci was named as one of the
athletes of the century by the Laureus
World Sports Academy.
Beginning…
Nadia Com?neci was born in One?ti,
Romania, as the daughter of Gheorghe
and ?tefania-Alexandrina Com?neci. Her
mother named her Nadia which means
“hope”.
Gymnastics career
Com?neci began gymnastics in
kindergarten with a local team called
Flac?ra (“The Flame”), with coaches
Duncan and Munteanu. At age 6 she was
chosen to attend Béla Károlyi‘s
experimental gymnastics school.
Com?neci came in 13th in her first
Romanian National Championships in
1969, at the age of just 8. Béla Károlyi
thought this was unlucky and gave her a
doll to remind her never to place 13th
again—she did not. A year later, in 1970,
she began competing as a member of her
hometown team and became the
youngest gymnast ever to win the
Romanian Nationals. In 1971, she
participated in her first international
competition, winning her first all-around
title and contributing to the team gold. In
the pre-Olympic test event in Montreal,
Com?neci won the all-around and the
balance beam golds, as well as silvers in
t h e va u l t , f l o o r, a n d b a r s b e h i n d
accomplished Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim,
who would prove to be one of her
greatest rivals over the next five years. In
March 1976, Com?neci competed in the
inaugural edition of the American Cup at
Madison Square Garden in New York. The
international community took note of
Com?neci: she was named the United
Press International‘s “Female Athlete of
the Year”.
Montréal Olympics
At the age of 14, Com?neci became one
of the stars of the 1976 Summer
Olympics in Montréal. During the team
portion of the competition on July 18, her
routine on the uneven bars was awarded
a perfect ten. It was the first time in
modern Olympic gymnastics history that
the score had ever been awarded. When
Omega SA, the traditional Olympics
scoreboard manufacturer, asked before