GYM-DANDY COMANECI, 32, STILL AN ACROBAT

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

When Nadia Comaneci defected from Romania in late 1989, she was doubly startled at the reaction she stirred in Americans. She was shocked that anyone remembered her.

She was even more shocked that everyone expected to see the Nadia of 1976, the doe-eyed stoic of 14 who was the first Olympic gymnast to score a perfect 10. That little Nadia has grown almost 6 inches, from 4 feet 10 1/2 to 5-4. "People come up to me now and say, `You were so cute then,' " Comaneci said, smiling wryly. Most strikingly, she also has grown into a woman of 32 with Hollywood looks. Her fans here can see for themselves today.

Comaneci and her companion, former U.S. Olympic gymnastics champ Bart Conner, will lead a program on behalf of the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival called "Festival Fun and Fitness for Kids." The hour-long sessions start at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. in the Dillard's Court at Crestwood Plaza. Each program features a half-hour demonstration by Comaneci and Conner, followed by another half-hour of give and take with youngsters in the audience.

When Comaneci first began meeting with American youngsters four years ago, she could not understand their adoration. "She had no clue what the reception would be," said Paul Ziert, Conner's former coach at the University of Oklahoma who now manages the couple. "She said, `These kids weren't even born in 1976.' I told her that their mothers saw her and that the kids probably have seen the movie about her." The TV movie "Nadia" was made with no input from Comaneci, who made no money on it.

"I think it's a pretty good movie," said Comaneci after a brief workout with Conner at the Central Academy of Gymnastics, near Dorsett Road and Interstate 270. "I didn't even know that there was a movie about me. What I like is that a lot of things with my gymnastics in the movie (are) not always good. They see the mistakes. They see me falling on the beam. "So little girls say, `Oh, Nadia falls, too.' And they know it' s OK to make mistakes."

As Conner, regarded as America's best male gymnast, put it, "When people here think of her, she was always perfect."

The gymnastics revolution in this country began in the 1972 Olympics with Olga Korbut, the endearing pixie from the Soviet Union. Comaneci then vaulted the sport past Korbut into a more complex and sophisticated level.

"Nadia was the first woman athlete who made it OK to be an athlete, a jock," Ziert said. "She was so feminine. She was so athletic. She was so strong. But she was in a female body.

"I think part of her appeal was to be the first one to be labeled perfect. It wasn't a man. It was a woman. A lot of young women relate to her, women from 28 to 35.

"She changed their lives. She made it OK for women to go out and do sports."

Comaneci sliced meticulously through the Montreal Olympics. She won three gold medals, including one for her perfect 10 on the uneven bars, a silver in the team standings and a bronze in floor exercise. American viewers couldn't get enough of the dark-haired waif, especially because she was not exactly revealing about herself.

"I thought, why does everybody want to know something I don't want to tell?" she said. Or couldn't tell. Her coach, Bela Karolyi, told her: "Don't tell them you train eight hours a day. It's our little secret." Comaneci, who says she remains close to Karolyi, said: "Everyone wanted to know how the Romanians were so good. They were all only training three to four hours a day.

"One time, we were in London for the World Championships, and a virus was going around. Bela gave us garlic tea. "When everyone saw us drinking garlic tea, they said, `Oh, that' s how they're so good!' "

For Americans, Comaneci seemed to disappear after Montreal. With the West boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, she returned to win two golds and two silvers. Then she slipped back behind the Iron Curtain. The lingering image of Nadia, the little girl, was of a humorless, robotic perfectionist. The immediate image of Nadia, the public woman, is spiced by her lively sense of humor. Conner, a bit of a scamp, constantly draws it out of her with needle after needle.

When asked how the couple met, he recalled another meet in 1976. They were the big winners there, too. When posing for a photographer, Conner, then 18, pecked the 14-year-old Comaneci on the cheek. When they finally got together after her defection, Conner tried to remind her of that foreshadowing. "I just remember it was a little blond guy," Comaneci said. "I' d see him in competitions. He didn't impress me too much. Boys were the last things I'd look for then."

The couple live in Conner's house in Norman, Okla., where they run the 900-member Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy. They have promotional deals for the Step Co. and Jockey, which posed Comaneci in underwear on billboards and magazines across North America. "I had to shock people," said Ziert, the agent. "I wanted people to realize she's grown up. She can't ever be 14 again." Comaneci has battled weight problems and a public fling with the married Romanian who helped her escape. Ziert, though, said the tabloids blew that romance out of proportion.

And after all these years, there's one other thing she'd like to get straight. Many of her fans remember when Comaneci was asked to pronounce her name. "Coe-muh-NEECH Nadia," she said. "Actually, it's Coe-muh-NECH," she said. "A short `e.' I went halfway between Romanian and yours."

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