Growing Up In Public Nadia Pays Her Dues

John Rohde 08/15/1990

NORMAN Gymnast Nadia Comaneci bears little resemblance these days to the Romanian Gumby who delivered seven perfect scores at the 1976 Olympics.

Her personal life bears absolutely no resemblance.

Not only has the 28-year-old Nadia doubled in age since those Games in Montreal, she's also taken a crash course in growing up the past nine months.

The worldwide appeal Nadia possessed as a little girl has transformed into an appeal delivered by a grown woman. Nadia is a part-time model now.

But almost nine months ago, Nadia would have been forgiven if she had clicked her heels three times and begged to be a little girl again.

There was no place like home for Nadia, who had no desire to stay there.

So the night of Nov. 28, 1989, she endured a six-hour muddy trek through Romania toward freedom at the Hungarian border. A week later, Nadia was in Miami for a huge news conference. By her side was Romanian emigre Constantin Panait, who lived with his wife and kids in Florida. Panait soon revealed he would be leaving his family to be with Nadia.

Asked her reaction to Panait being married, Nadia replied, "So."

The nation was appalled by Nadia flippantness. But what Nadia had meant with her response was "so" what to Panait being married and wanting to be her manager; not "so" what to Panait leaving his family.

"I can now say it was a nightmare," Nadia said of the debacle with Panait. "I had a bad person close to me who did not know what he was doing."

Nadia got rid of Panait in February and her popularity has soared ever since.

She signed on with a management group; hired a new agent (Alexander Stefu, a former rugby coach in Romania); will perform in an upcoming exhibition tour; and is in the midst of making a movie about her life which is due to be finished next March. Nadia will not play the role of Nadia, however. "They'll have to have three Nadias little, medium and the one now," Nadia said. "I could play the one now."

Helping Nadia adjust since her defection have been three-time Olympic team member Bart Conner and former OU gymnastics coach Paul Ziert, who co-own The Gymnastic Chalet in north Norman.

Nadia seems perfectly at ease. "She's much more willing to talk about things if Bart's around," Ziert said.

Nadia kiddingly refers to Conner as Kurt Thomas (an old nemesis).

Conner counters and renames Nadia as Olga Korbut (Soviet gymnastics star from the 1972 Olympics).

Conner's and Nadia's current "vacation" has consisted of seven cities in five days Las Vegas, San Jose, Los Angeles, Las Vegas again.

Nadia made her first trip to Norman this week and chatted with 24 gymnasts at the Chalet early Tuesday afternoon.

"I like Oklahoma," Nadia said. "It's a quiet place. You can work and nobody disturbs you. I like Las Vegas because I like to gamble (blackjack is her favorite)."

Nadia still has no actual home, but is leaning toward living in Montreal. She spends most of her time traveling (she'll soon go to Japan for the fourth time in four months). It's gotten to the point where Nadia asks Conner, "Today do I pack, or unpack?"

Nadia is not certain what she wants to do exactly, except that she wants to be closely involved with gymnastics in some way. "I like (exhibitions), but it's not easy at my age," Nadia said with a laugh.

"I'm old."

She has shed 12 pounds since doing an exhibition in Reno last April and eats one meal a day maybe. "She loves Doritos especially the ones with jack cheese," Conner said. "She could live off Doritos . . . Doritos for breakfast, yuck."

Nadia smiles a lot more these days. She laughs quite a bit, too.

"Now, I feel good," she said.

There's no place like home for Nadia now -- wherever home is.

Corrections:

"She ... eats one meal a day maybe."

Not necessarily true. This is the only article that says that, and it sounds more like the author's speculation rather than something Nadia would tell them. (If she did only eat one meal a day, I doubt she would have told that to the author.)