All of us have probably watched many Olympics Games over the years, the most recent likely to be the impressive Beijing Olympics of 2008. There have been many athletes who have impressed us with their various skills in swimming, running, jumping, lifting, and so on ...
For me however, the most memorable athlete was one pint-sized lass who competed in the Montreal Olympic Games of 1976. Do you know who I'm talking about?
Yup, she's none other than Nadia Comaneci of Romania, who at age 14 scored the first-ever perfect 10.0 with her routine in the uneven bars section of the gymnastics event. It was the first time in modern Olympic gymnastics history that the score had ever been awarded. The scoreboards were not even equipped to display scores of 10.0 — so Nadia's perfect marks were reported on the boards as 1.00 instead !
In fact she scored 10.0 six more times during that Olympics. The world applauded and fell in love with her.
Here are two videoclips that will surely bring back memories ...
I remember there was even a "Nadia's Theme" music which did quite well in the pop charts after the Olympics.
Nadia also went on to win two more golds at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
But have you ever wondered what happened to Nadia Comaneci after those Olympic highlights?
Well, this is what Nadia looks like now ...
Obviously still a big star in her own right !
Anyway what I learnt was that Nadia went through some difficult years in the 80s. Her first attempt to defect resulted in her being closely monitored by the Romanian authorities. Eventually she did move to the US and holds dual citizenship (US and Romania).
In 1996, Nadia married US Olympic gymnast Bart Connor, himself a gold-medal winner. Together they run the Bart Connor Gymnastics Academy in Norman, Oklahoma. Their first child Dylan Connor was born in 2006.
In December 2003, Nadia published "Letters To A Young Gymnast", a combination of mentoring book and memoir. She has also been the subject of several unofficial biographies, TV documentaries and a made-for-television film, Nadia, that was broadcast in the United States just before the 1984 Olympics
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