COMANECI MAKES A CHOICE: FREEDOM
By George E. Curry, Chicago Tribune.
Phil Hersh and Chicago Tribune wire
services contributed to this report.
Published: Saturday, December 2, 1989
Section: SPORTS
Page: 1

Gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who gave an impeccable performance at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, had another perfect landing Friday, arriving in the United States after defecting from her native Romania.

``I wanted to have a free life,`` the 28-year-old told a packed news conference at John F. Kennedy Airport. She disclosed she had been contemplating defecting for ``a long time.``

Comaneci said she was unsure of her plans but expects at some point to meet with her former mentor and coach, Bela Karolyi, a fellow Romanian who fled to the West in 1981 and now coaches gymnastics in Houston. She gave no details about her escape from Romania.

Karolyi is returning to the U.S. Sunday from West Germany, where he had been coaching U.S. gymnasts in an international competition.

``I knew she was unsatisfied and unhappy about her personal situation,`` Karolyi said from Stuttgart. ``I was very happy to know she chose freedom and decided to make this very difficult step. But I got a little concerned because there were no indications as to her whereabouts.``

Karolyi said he suspects she will be bombarded by ``business propositions`` and that he will be advising her ``not to jump into any kind of commitment.`` Karolyi coached Comaneci during her perfect performances at the Montreal games. She was 14 then.

A source told The Tribune that Comaneci is likely to leave this weekend for Miami. She was to stay in New York Friday night.

The former Olympic star arrived from Vienna at 4:40 p.m. aboard Pan Am`s ``Liberty Bell.`` After the 10-hour flight, she was rushed through U.S. Customs and escorted to an airport lounge by Port Authority police for a brief meeting with reporters. She was accompanied to the news conference by Constanti Panit, a native of France, who said he was her friend.

Holding roses presented by Pan Am officials and speaking in clipped English, she expressed no reservations about her new life in the United States.

``I know it will be different,`` she said. ``I was nine times in the States, I know the life here.``

When asked whether her defection might reflect badly on the Romanian government, which had elevated her to celebrity status after her 1976 Olympic performances, she replied, ``It`s not my business.``

Comaneci`s business was gymnastics, in which she won five Olympic gold medals and collected seven perfect scores at Montreal. She was the first gymnast to earn a perfect 10 in Olympic competition. Her success led to special privileges, including access to the best clothes, like the denim pants and jacket she wore on her flight to the U.S. Those were the only things she had brought with her, she said, while fleeing Romania.

Comaneci also left behind her father, an automobile mechanic; her mother, an office worker; and a younger brother. They can expect harrassment ``for a couple months,`` according to another Romanian exile who was Comaneci`s choreographer.

Geza Pozsar, who defected to the U.S. with Karolyi in 1981 and now lives in Sacramento, Calif., was speaking from personal experience.

``Within two hours after the news came (to Romania) that Bela and I had defected, the police had sealed off the street in the apartment complex where we both lived,`` Pozsar said. ``Then they went into my house and took  everything, like vandals.``

Pozsar`s wife, Maria, was ``pushed around`` by the authorities before being allowed to join him in the United States 13 months later.

That sort of repression undoubtedly played a part in Comaneci`s decision to defect. Romania has been a holdout as political change swept Eastern Europe, and Comaneci apparently felt she could not wait for reforms to come to her native home.

Accompanied by six other Romanians, Comaneci crossed the border from Romania to Hungary before dawn Wednesday and remained out of sight until arriving at the U.S. embassy in Vienna either late Thursday or early Friday. Embassy officials quickly granted her refugee status.

That means U.S. officials believe Comaneci has a well-founded fear of persecution if she returns to Romania. She would be eligible to apply for permanent-resident status in the U.S. in one year, according to U.S. officials who requested anonymity.

At the State Department in Washington, deputy spokesman Richard Boucher said Friday that Comaneci ``contacted U.S. officials at one of our embassies in Europe today and was expeditiously granted refugee status in the United States.``

Asked about the speed with which the U.S. government granted Comaneci`s request for asylum, Boucher added, ``It was an obvious case.``