Famed sports storyteller Bud Greenspan, wrote, directed, and produced this spectacular documentary for SHOWTIME.   Greenspan, an Emmy and Peabody award winning sports chronicler, focuses on five Olympic athletes.   Archive footage and interviews follow the experiences of American decathlete Dan O’Brien, Australian swimmer Duncan Armstrong, Ethiopian marathon legend Abebe Bikila, Russian Greco-Roman wrestler Alexander Karelin, and of course, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci.    Nadia’s story begins the program.

“The perfect 10” follows Nadia from Kindergarten through the Montreal Olympics.   Film footage of Nadia at age six, and “young, newly married” Marta and Bela Karolyi, provide a rare glimpse into the glory that was to come.   In an interview filmed for this documentary, Bela recounts again how he came across Nadia in a school playground.   Also appearing throughout the segment is Nadia herself, adding her thoughts about her gymnastics career.

The 1975 European Championships is the earliest glimpse of Nadia in competition.   Footage includes a devastated Ludmillia Tourischeva (who placed 4th in the AA), and a peek at 16-year-old Nelli Kim, who would be Nadia’s rival at the Olympics.

The segment’s main focus is, of course, the Montreal games of 1976.   Bud Greenspan’s storytelling style (a straight monotone delivery) is in full swing.   Classic competition scenes are interspersed with rare and unusual images (Nadia and Teordora Ungureanu going through security isn’t itself unusual, but you usually don’t see it).

The footage chronicles the team and all-around competitions.    Tourischeva and Kim are battling to catch Nadia, who began the all-around with .40 lead.   At the end, Nadia would have the gold by a margin of .60.   Greenspan’s does excellent work following the medal race step by step.   Pictures of gymnasts pacing the sidelines tell as much about the contest as does the routines themselves.

The Munich games of 1972 were marred by the killing of Israeli athletes by terrorists.   It was hoped that the Montreal games would restore faith in the Olympic ideal of world peace through sport.   However, shortly before the Montreal games began, several African nations boycotted the games for political reasons.   The prospect of future Olympics hung in the balance of uncertainty.   Bud Greenspan credits Nadia for saving the Montreal games, and possibly the entire Olympic movement.   “What started as a somber Olympic games with the African boycott, has turned into a spectacular one, because of the genius of a 4’ 11” fourteen year-old, named Nadia Comaneci.”