If you enjoy practicing and watching artistic sports, you are probably already familiar with the brilliant career of former Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci, a legend of artistic gymnastics who stood out from the crowd for her impeccable execution on the floor. She was the first gymnast to be awarded ten points in an Olympic competition. She also collected nine Olympic medals, five of which were gold, twelve at the European Championships, where she was three-time champion in the individual all-around competition, and four at the World Championships.
After her retirement, the former gymnast continued to be involved in sports by belonging to associations and federations, creating her own gym in the United States, where she also obtained nationality, and collaborating for the magazine International Gymnast along with her husband, former gymnast Bart Conner. If you are interested in the world of artistic gymnastics and want to know more about one of the great legends of this discipline, keep reading to discover 10 interesting facts about her personal and professional life.
1. Where and when was Nadia Comăneci born?
The former gymnast was born on November 12, 1961 in Onesti, a city in Romania where she grew up with her parents until she moved to the United States after the success that artistic gymnastics brought her and due to the situation of the communist regime that was established in her native country. At just nine years old, she began to lean towards the discipline of gymnastics and quickly joined the artistic gymnastics team of her city, a team with which she competed at a national level from 1970 until her coach, Bela Karolyi, began to instruct her individually.
Recently, at the age of 60, she was granted American citizenship. In addition to being a great athlete, she has values that she is committed to, such as the cause of promoting sport among women and the disabled.
During her early years as a gymnast, she received rigorous training, as Bela Karoli believed that girls between the ages of 12, 14 and 16 could reach higher levels in the sport than older women. This strict training has made Nadia the woman she has become today.
2. What was the former gymnast's first success?
Nadia delved fully into artistic gymnastics after meeting the man who would be her mentor for years, Béla Károlyi, coach of great artistic stars such as Ecaterina Szabo and Mary Lou RettonIt was at the age of thirteen that the former gymnast won three gold medals and one silver at the European Gymnastics Championships held in Norway in 1974. That was the first of many successes that the former gymnast enjoyed during her active period.
3. Did you know that a news agency named her the athlete of the year in 1975?
In 1975, after having surpassed the Soviet gymnast Liudmila Turishcheva and becoming the winner in the individual general classification of the pre-Olympic competitions in Montreal, the former gymnast was named athlete of the year by the American news agency Associated PressA year later she continued her achievements in Montreal, where she became the first gymnast to achieve a 10 on the jury's score.
4.Why did the Romanian government put you under surveillance after your excellent performance in Montreal?
After her success in Montreal in 1976, the former gymnast returned to her hometown to celebrate the joy of victory with her loved ones. It was at this time that the president of the Romanian communist government, Nicolae Ceausescu, praised the former gymnast by giving her a car, a house and a host of luxuries that were secondary to her.
Nadia just wanted to keep training and competing to achieve her goals in artistic gymnastics. Nadia's image was propaganda for the communist government of Ceausescu, who finally ended up exercising maximum control over the former gymnast in 1981, when she had already retired. Seven years after an abusive control, the former gymnast decided to flee on foot to Hungary and then to Austria, where she would finally take a plane to the United States, where she settled permanently and was able to enjoy her freedom without pressure or stress.
5. When did Nadia Comăneci retire?
In 1980, after competing at the Moscow Olympics, the former gymnast hung up her gloves and said goodbye to top competition. Her last appearance in competition was just one year later at the World University Championships held in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, where Nadia won five gold medals.
After her retirement, the former gymnast did not leave the world of sport aside and established several gymnastics academies and sports equipment stores and began publishing articles for the American magazine International GymnastShe also held the titles of Vice President of the Special Olympics Council, Honorary President of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and Sports Ambassador of Romania, among others.
6. Which famous former gymnast did Nadia Comăneci marry?
The former gymnast married the also former American gymnast Bart Conner, a great professional of artistic gymnastics who managed to become Olympic champion in 1984 and world champion of parallel bars in 1979. They met at the American Cup held in New York in 1976. At that time she was 14 and he was 19 years old, and from that first meeting they maintained a long and beautiful friendship until 1996 when they married in Bucharest, Romania. After the wedding they moved to Oklahoma, United States, and began to develop multiple projects together, among which the Academy stands out. Corner Gymnastics. In 2006 the couple had a son named Dylan Jean.
7. When was the former gymnast a sports commentator?
It was in 2004 when Nadia began her career as a commentator at the Athens Olympic Games for the Mexican television network Televisa. In the following edition of the Olympic Games held in Beijing, she continued as a commentator for the same network and did a very professional job capturing the attention of the spectators in what had been her discipline: artistic gymnastics. At the 2012 London Olympic Games she also had a role as a commentator for this same sport.
8.What is the name of the former gymnast's book?
It was in 2003 when Nadia published her first book, Letters to a young gymnast, where, in addition to recounting some of her most representative feats in the world of artistic gymnastics, she also promotes values such as dedication, effort and passion for young gymnasts who decide to immerse themselves in the discipline. In an interview she gave in 2010, Nadia said that patience is one of the keys to success in a sport that requires as much tenacity and effort as gymnastics.
9. Did you know that the former gymnast participated in charitable foundations on multiple occasions?
In addition to having established a charity clinic to help orphaned children in her home country, the former gymnast is also a founding member of the Laureus Foundation, which, in addition to fighting major social problems such as sedentary lifestyles and childhood obesity, also promotes sport for people in disadvantaged circumstances. The former gymnast, who visited Spain in 2008 to promote the Special Olympics, collaborates on numerous projects of the foundation.
Nobody is moved by charitable causes such as doing gymnastics with disabled children at the Bucharest hospital that bears his name.
10. Did you suffer mistreatment from your coaches?
Despite always being grateful for the dedication with which her coach, Béla Károlyi, and his wife, Marta Károlyi, trained the former gymnast, Nadia confessed in several censored interviews in the 1970s that the treatment she and her teammates received from the couple was anything but healthy: they were forced to train tirelessly, they controlled everything they ate to the millimeter and they were beaten if the results were not ideal. A harsh situation that, like the communist regime, ended up damaging the mental health of the former gymnast.
Despite having suffered the harsh conditions of the Ceausescu communist regime and having experienced traumatic episodes due to the mistreatment of her coaches, the former gymnast has managed to rebuild her life and heal wounds thanks to her family and personal projects. There is no doubt that Nadia Comăneci was, is and will always be a great legend of artistic gymnastics, having inspired men and women to fight for a sport that is not only hard but also very rewarding.
