This should be everyone's favorite Romanian

[Genie47]

Nadia Comaneci

 

The first perfect 10.0 on the uneven bars in Montreal 1976. The display buay tahan already. No extra digits so her score became 1.00!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tl0kE7Oels

 

You can see how tense her competitor from USSR Nellie Kim is.

 

Here again in Montreal 1976 on the balance beam.

 

 

Here is the floor routine from Montreal 1976

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B6IOpduitQ

 

I'm afraid the video is pretty poor in quality but you can make out the smile as she does the floor routine. More like she is having fun than competing.

 

Her book Letters to a young gymnast is available in the NLB. It is a good read and it does tell you the bleakness in a commie country. Also tells you how came to be under husband and wife coach Karolyis.

 

In the end, both the Karolyis fled Romania to the US. Nadia made her escape in 1989.

 

 

[Xtravagant]

i like her. . .

in her prime, she was the queen of gymnastic. . .

no one came close to her. . .

 

somehow just like how Usain Bolt is right now in track events. . .

 

[Genie47]

Her perfect 10 on the uneven bars set a new standard. Do you know that the dismount and that hand flip are sort of named after her.

 

Both have a difficulty of E.

 

It was her performances that made Olympic gymnastics popular. I think her coaches did that too. When they escaped to the US, they trained Mary-Lou Retton who is sort of the "US Nadia".

 

True enough, the Karolyis push the girls hard. She revealed in her book that to excel in gymnastics, your mindset should be to push yourself the breaking point and love it. The Karolyis are just what she needed then.

 

That is why it is kinda sad that I see the Chinese sending their kids to their national gymnastic schools and see the kids crying during training. To be a champion, you should be smiling at the training because you want to be the best and to you it is fun.

[Xtravagant]

That is why it is kinda sad that I see the Chinese sending their kids to their national gymnastic schools and see the kids crying during training. To be a champion, you should be smiling at the training because you want to be the best and to you it is fun.

 

but it takes 2 to clap. . . out of 100 that went to gymnastic school in China, i believe at least 20 of them went training with a smile on their face. It is because they really want to make it big. For the rest, IMO they were forced to take up gymnastic because their parents want to. Thats why they cannot endure the physical and mental part of the training thus end up crying during training when being pushed. . . its bout the mindset actually. . . we can't forced someone to do something that they dont wish to.

 

just my 2cents. .

[Karoon]

i feel sad that she has her innocence taken by caucescu the pig

[1l0v3you]

wah.. she is damn talented.

 

all those moves looks so painful to do.

[Tarzan666]

My fav romanian is Gheorghe Hagi ...

 

[Damienic]

I second that..I think his wizadry is no less than that of ZZ..

[Xtravagant]

My fav romanian is Gheorghe Hagi ...

 

i remembered when the whole team dyed their hair blonde. . .