Road to Glory

As part of the pre Olympic hype, The History Channel featured "Road to Glory," a 1996 production focusing on Olympic gymnastics.  It was an excellent program for the gymnastics enthusiast.  Lots of footage graced the screen during the forty-five minute program.

"Road to Glory" follows the Olympics chronologically.  Black and white newsreel footage of gymnastics during the pre television days was a particular treat.  Also, seeing some of the other greats, like Ludmilla Tourischeva and Nelli Kim was a delight.

For Nadia Comaneci, a great deal of time was devoted.  Picking up Nadia at the Montreal games, she is introduced as the main threat to the Soviet domination of the sport.  Of course, Nadia's first 10, the compulsory bar exercise, was shown in its entirety.  Clips of her other performances were also featured.

The Nadia of today also appears in the program, as she tells her memories of the Olympics.  Of particular interest was the focus of claims that she "never smiled", was unemotional, and stiff.

For the American audience, the scenes from the Moscow games were fascinating to watch.  Most of us have never seen any clips due to NBC not covering the olympics as part of the U.S. boycott of the games. 

During the Moscow scenes, emotions changed constantly.  Nadia falling from the bars during the all around was particularly hard to watch.  Then to see the tension after her beam routine, when the judges took more than 25 minutes to post a score. And, of course, Bela Karolyi's flaring temper when the score put Nadia in second place. 

It was disappointing that during the Moscow segment, the program did not show an earlier beam routine when Nadia scored a 10.  It would have been great to see her reign supreme again. 

Nadia's segment ends with the Nadia of today, performing a little beam routine on a beach playground, dismounting with a backwards somersault.  It's always cool to see that she still has "the right stuff."