A quarter century ago, Skien, Norway hosted the 1975 European Gymnastics Championship.   13-year-old Nadia Comaneci, of Romania, was competing in her first major competition at the senior level.  She finished with the All-Around gold and three individual event gold medals, upsetting the dominant Soviet Union team, led by Ludmilla Tourischeva.  The victory was Nadia’s first steppingstone towards world recognition, recognition that would take on legendary proportions, fairy tale tones, and seemingly timeless endurance.

1976 saw the first American Cup Gymnastics competition at Madison Square Garden in New York City.  Nadia won the title by a wide margin that still holds today for the American Cup.  She received two scores of 10.00 (vault and floor), and received a congratulatory kiss from the men’s title winner, and her future husband, American Bart Conner.  Madison Square Garden, prizing itself as the most famous indoor arena in the world, saw greatness that day.  But they would not realize it for four months.

On July 18, 1976, in Montreal, Canada, at the Twenty-First Olympiad, Nadia cemented her place in gymnastic and Olympic history.   She scored the first ever 10.00 with her performance in the Compulsory Exercise on the uneven bars.  Nadia posted six more tens to win three gold medals (including the all-around), one silver medal, and a bronze.  She became "the most celebrated athlete at the games."

Afterwards, Nadia did not slip into obscurity.  She competed in major competitions the rest of the decade.  The world saw her mature from teen to adult.  Nadia’s personal struggle with fame put her center stage wherever she performed.  Weight problems, evidenced during the 1978 World Championships, led some to believe her competitive days were over.  But at the 1979 European Championships, a "slenderized, quick, thin" Nadia appeared.   She won her third European Championship title, and put herself back on top of the gymnastics world.

One honor that still eluded Nadia was a World All-Around title.  In 1979, the World Championships were hosted by the United States for the first time, in Fort Worth, Texas.  Nadia was favored to win the all-around.   But prior to the team competition, her left wrist swelled with an infection.   Badly bandaged, Nadia took only one swing on the lower uneven bar, so as not to be disqualified, and earned a 0.00.  After teammate Emelia Eberle fell during her beam exercise, Nadia was sent to do a full routine.  Her score gave Romania their first team gold, just edging out the Soviet Union.  That day, Nadia was hospitalized from the wrist infection.  She did not compete during the remaining competition.   Nelli Kim of the Soviet Union, whom Nadia first competed against at the 1975 European Championship, took the all-around.

The 1980 Olympics in Moscow were tarnished by a United States led boycott, which kept most western viewers from witnessing Nadia’s quest for her second Olympic All-Around gold.  In a heated battle with Yelena Davydova of the Soviet Union, Nadia was edged out of the all-around gold.   Perfect scores, which had been so rare in 1976, flew around the arena as much as the gymnasts.  Nadia received a 10.00 on the beam, while other perfect marks were scored by Maxi Gnauck of East Germany, Soviet star Natalia Shaposhnikova, Romanian Melita Ruhn, and Yelena Davydova.  Nadia earned two gold and silver medals, to bring her Olympic career totals to five gold, three silver, and a bronze.

Nadia’s last competition was in 1981 at the University Games in Romania.  Romania took the team gold, and Nadia earned all five individual gold medals.  Following a United States tour that same year (which saw the defection to the US by her coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi), it seemed Nadia would pass into history as she settled into life at home, away from prying western eyes.

American TV audiences last saw Nadia in 1984, when she announced her formal retirement from competition, and at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic games, as a VIP guest of organizer Peter Uberoth.  She was also awarded the prestigious Olympic Order from the President of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Following the defection of Nadia’s coaches during the US tour, Comaneci herself was kept under tight scrutiny by Romania’s communist regime.  With her travel privileges curtailed, Nadia settled into a minor coaching position.  But during the last few years of the 1980’s, the winds of political change blew through Eastern Europe.

Communist governments folded, or were overthrown.  Some countries gained independence through peace, others through violent revolution.  With a few days left in November of 1989, Nadia Comaneci joined a group of others to secretly escape to Hungary. On December 1, Nadia arrived at JFK airport in New York City.

Nadia rekindled an acquaintance with American gymnast Bart Conner.  In an interview, Nadia stated that she and Bart first met during the Romanian team tour of 1981.  Bart reminded her that it was at the American Cup in 1976 when he, as the men’s title winner, kissed her for the photographers.  Nadia says that all she remembered was that the American team was full of blonde men.  Their acquaintance moved to dating, then to love, followed by engagement in 1994.  Having found her prince, only a fairytale wedding would be proper.

A civil ceremony in Bucharest on April 26, 1996 was followed the next day with a lavish church wedding.  Nadia Comaneci, dressed in a white gown with six young gymnasts to hold the twenty-one foot train, exchanged vows with Bart Conner in front of 150 guests.  About 2000 spectators greeted the couple outside Bucharest's Casin monastery.  On the balcony, Bart and Nadia kissed, reminiscent of Charles and Diana (Nadia and Diana had the same dress maker).

Nadia and Bart reside in Norman, Oklahoma, home of the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy.  They are partners with Paul Ziert in the BCGA, as well as Grips, Etc., a manufacturing company.  Bart and Nadia work on the International Gymnast magazine as associate and contributing editors respectively.  They also are motivational speakers, appearing at companies and workshops around the country.   Both work as commentators at competitions for television and cable networks, and their own "Perfect 10 Productions."  Nadia, who is fluent in five languages, works for networks worldwide.  There is also the Nadia Comaneci Invitational for younger gymnasts, held at the BCGA in February around Valentine’s Day.

Nadia has committed herself to several charities, including Romanian Orphanages, the International Special Olympics, and the Muscular Dystrophy Foundation.  In 1995, she donated $100,000 to the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, in preparation for the Atlanta Games of 1996.

The final years of this century saw Nadia receiving special honors for her accomplishments.  In 1996, she was honored at the Atlanta Olympics as one of history’s "most influential Olympians" and was inducted into the Gymnastics Hall of Fame.

In 1999, many lists commemorating special achievements during the century  included Nadia.  ABC News and The Ladies Home Journal named her one of the 100 most important women of the 20th Century. Additional lists for top athletes or women athletes include: CNN/SI, Associate Press, Reuters, Real Sports magazine, and the International Association of Sports Writers.  Nadia even co-hosted a French TV program on athletes of the century, for which she herself was honored.

On November 19, 1999, the World Sports Awards of the Century were awarded in Vienna, Austria.  In an atmosphere one would see at Oscar time, sport stars were honored for achievement in their fields.   Nadia was awarded Best Woman Athlete in the "Athletic and General Sports" category.  Nadia shared the stage with such other legends as Muhammad Ali, Pele, Steffi Graf, Michael Jordan, and Carl Lewis.

To gymnastics, Nadia leaves the first 10.00 scored in the Olympics, along with the most perfect scores and the IOC Olympic Order.   She was awarded the "European Challenge Cup" for her three consecutive European titles, and a host of medals and titles from all around the world.  She is the first gymnast to work three elements into one move on the beam, and of course, she is known for the Comaneci Salto and Comaneci dismount.  But Nadia’s legacy surpasses mere scores and titles.

To a whole generation around the world, she is the little girl who appeared from nowhere to defeat a gymnastics giant.  She is the epitome of excellence, drive, and determination.  Nadia Comaneci leads a happy life, with her fair-haired prince, and continues to contribute to the sport she loves.

David Berry; Brewster, New York; February, 2000