| C-NBC premiered "The
Olympic Show" on March 7, 1998. "The focus of the program will be Olympic
personalities from the past, present and future," stated the C-NBC March 3 press
release. "The show will highlight Olympic events and historic achievements and
also preview upcoming competitions relating to the Olympics."
In 1981, during an exhibition tour of the United States, Bela and Marta Karolyi decided not to return to Romania. "I didn't believe this (was) going to happen." Nadia went to Bela's hotel room to see if he really was gone. "I was afraid to open the door. And when I opened the door, there was nothing...I started to cry in the bus when we were going to the airport...I had no thoughts (about defecting). I was just hoping to go." Some time was then spent about her life in Romania after Bela's defection. Nadia said it was good that Bela did not try to contact her in Romania. Bela, of course, was considered a traitor for defecting. Nadia would have suffered reprecussions if she had contact with Bela. |
With all the political and
social pressure occuring in Romania in the late eighties, her final reason for leaving was
simply because the government officials would not allow her to travel. "I
wanted to be with my family. I didn't want to live far away from my family.
But just the idea of not being able to do what I want to do, (everything was above my
head)." The actual story of her flee from Romania had very few details. Perhaps those will be saved for the second program. But Nadia did reflect a little on it. "I decided to (defect) because I had somebody offering me an opportunity to get over the border... If it were just me, I wouldn't know how to do it." Nadia's family was also on her mind. "I couldn't go back, because there was nothing there...It was very hard, because I didn't tell my mom. I was afraid she was going to have a heart attack. The only person I told was my brother."
|
On March 28, it
was Nadia's turn. "The Olympic Show" ran the first of a two-part program
featuring an "in-depth" interview with Nadia. NBC sportscaster Dan Hicks
conducted the interview.
Quite a
bit of time was spent on Bela Karolyi. Nadia was very flattering towards him.
"During my career I had a chance to be coached by different people. I didn't
like it," said Nadia. "I wanted someone to be behind me...and push me a
little bit, because I don't know how much I can do...he was a family to me."
On
arriving at the airport in the United States, Nadia still felt she was in shock.
Fear that her new found freedom was temporary plagued her. "I had nightmares
that the Securitate (Secret Police) found me and said 'Oh, come on, that was a nice
dream. Let's go home."
The half
hour talk format left little time to get a lot of real information from Nadia. Not
that Nadia didn't have stuff to say. There were obvious edits in her answers and Dan
Hicks cut Nadia off in mid-answer to move her along.