THE OLYMPIC SHOW, presented by CNBC, ran the
second part of a two-part program featuring Nadia Comaneci. Part one was shown last March.
The second part turned out to be a big disappointment. To
begin with (literally), part 2 starts with the first segment from Part 1! The host,
Dan Hicks, asked Nadia about how she felt when she received the first 10 at Montreal, and
what was it like to obtain perfection. When viewing the program, I started to think
it was a repeat. I almost erased the tape!
Following the first commercial break, the "new" material begins, starting off
with comments from Dominique Moceanu and Bela Karolyi. Dominique refers to Nadia as
her "second mom."
Moving back to Nadia, the discussion revolves around Miss Moceanu. Many had thought
Dominique would be the next Nadia, as they were both 14 at the time of their first
olympics. While Dominique and the USA team caught the team gold (Romania had taken
the silver in 1976), she did not have the individual medals that Nadia had
won.
"I'm sure it was disappointing for Dominique," Nadia said. "From what I
thought at that particular time (watching Moceanu in Atlanta), was Dominique was not
exactly ready to win that individual gold medal." Nadia had more thoughts about
Dominique to tell, but Dan Hicks cut her off. He wanted to focus more on the age
similarities.
The interview touched briefly on the minimum age requirement for the olympics, which was
recently changed from 14 to 16. "The only thing that is not good, are the
gymnasts who are going to lose (out in competing). Let's say they're born December
31st. They're missing, by a day, (a chance) to compete in those olympic games.
So think about the generational 15. If they don't catch the olympics at 14 or
15...they would have to go at 19. You know how hard it is to compete in the
olympics, the first time, at 19?"
Following the next commercial break, husband Bart Conner is brought into the
program. What is really cool here is seeing some video from their wedding.
Bart went on to tell about how they met, following Nadia's arrival in America, on the Pat
Sajak show. Again, the disappointing part here was not enough detail in the
story. Nadia, at that time, was still trapped by Panit. But whenever that
subject comes up, Nadia, by her choice, only speaks in very general terms.
Nadia then tells about how she came to trust Bart, which would evolve into love.
Nadia does a lot of smiling during this part.
The program comes to an abrupt end. Like the first part, the half-hour format was
not nearly enough to learn all there is to learn about Nadia. The host, Dan Hicks,
frequently cut them off and moved from one topic to another, sometimes with no coherency.