Star Gymnasts Bart, Nadia Call Norman Home
Jim Richstad 02/08/1993
The parking sign outside the newly opened Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy in Norman symbolizes a daring and, yes, in the end, romantic stories out of world gymnastics and the Cold War.
Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci do not live in a dream world of Olympic 10s and gold medals anymore.
They live in Norman now, and a lot of other worlds.
They put on exhibitions, attend shows, model Jockey underwear and do other advertising commercials, make videos, run a major gymnastic center and do sports commentary on television.
Three years ago, Bart invited Nadia, one of the brightest jewels of gymnastics and the Olympics, to come to Norman. After some ups and downs, she came.
"Norman is what we call home," Nadia said.
"I like it. Norman is not a big place. You know everything. "
The two met at the America's Cup international gymnastics competition in New York's Madison Square Garden in March 1976, he an 18-year-old high school student from Chicago, she a 14-year-old from Romania touring the United States with her national team.
Bart won the men's title, and Nadia the women's.
"We had our picture with our trophies in the New York Times," he recalled.
They couldn't even dream, of course, of the dark and 1 dramatic months of late 1989 that would result in a reunion with two dozen red roses on the Pat Sajak show, and the struggles over the next few months before Nadia's breakaway.
Both went to the 1976 Montreal Olympics, with Nadia emerging with her perfect 10s, the first in Olympic gymnastic competition.
That part of Nadia belongs to history.
Bart, in a recent joint interview with Nadia during the Bart Conner Invitational at the gymnastics academy, noted he was recruited by then University of Oklahoma gymnastics coach Paul Ziert. Bart was part of OU's NCAA title winning team in 1977, putting Oklahoma on the gymnastics map.
Both Bart and Nadia continued in gymnastics after Montreal, and developed a friendly performing relationship over the years during a 1981 tour, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow.
Bart graduated from OU and continued a life as an international competitor, reaching a high point with two gold medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
His career in the 1980s included television commentary for ABC, Turner Broadcasting and ESPN, endorsements and shows and exhibitions, as well as his own gymnastics training center in Norman - the Chalet - now the new Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy (just north of Robinson Street off Interstate 35).
While Bart traveled a lot, Norman was home.
Life was not so bright for Nadia in Romania in the late 1980s.
She was denied permission by the government to go abroad to compete or take other jobs.
She fled Romania in November 1989, in a dramatic and well-publicized escape (Romania at that time remained firmly under hard line communist rule, unlike most other East European countries).
She was granted political asylum and came to the United States.
"I wanted to have a free life," she said, on her arrival in New York.
Nadia went to Florida with the man who helped her escape but soon felt commercially exploited by him, and even at times like a prisoner.
Bart, meanwhile, was trying to contact Nadia, and saw in late December 1989 that she was to be on the Pat Sajak show in Los Angeles on the very day he learned about it. He had just minutes to catch a plane for Los Angeles to make the show.
Bart rushed for the Oklahoma City airport. At Los Angeles airport, he boarded a CBS-arranged helicopter, and made it to the Sajak studio about 10 minutes after the show started.
Bart rushed to the studio, was handed roses to give to Nadia, and went in to welcome her to the United States. He hoped they "could work together at shows and exhibitions. "
"People were dying to see her again," he said.
A tense, confusing few months went by as Bart tried by telephone to maintain contact with Nadia, who was being screened from direct outside communication.
Finally, after what he calls her "second daring escape in three months," Nadia broke away and contacted Bart and others.
The two began a series of shows and exhibitions, and appeared on the Wide World of Sports television show.
Their relationship then was still one of a gymnast helping a fellow gymnast, but the relationship turned romantic about a year and a half ago.
Home in Norman doesn't mean a slackening pace. With Ziert as their business manager, they are on the move a lot, usually together.
They also spend some of their relax time at his Las Vegas home or Venice Beach place in California, and they will be traveling a lot as the gymnastics season opens this month and he does television commentary.
Bart sees continued growth in gymnastics in Oklahoma, especially since Shannon Miller of Edmond won five gymnastic medals at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The retirement of Nadia's former coach, Bela Karolyi, in Houston could also shift some of the focus to Oklahoma gymnastics.
"This is a good time to be growing with gymnastics," Bart said.
Corrections:
No. Nadia was pictured at the 1981 tour with Kurt Thomas, not Bart. Nadia was at the 1984 Olympics as a guest, and was not really allowed to talk to anyone. Nadia officially retired in 1984, so she was not competing in 1986.
"She was denied permission by the government to go abroad to compete...."
The government did deny her permission to travel abroad, however, Nadia wasn't competing then, so the government couldn't deny her permission to *compete.* :)