Nadia Comaneci
Nadia Comaneci is one of the best-known gymnasts in the world. But, this season, you can see her competing against other celebrities on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice.
Nadia Elena Comaneci was born on November 12, 1961 in Onesti, Romania. She began taking gymnastic lessons at age 7 from Bela Karolyi after he saw her turning cartwheels in the schoolyard. Nadia placed 13th in the Romanian National Championships in 1969, but the next year, she became the youngest gymnast ever to win the Romanian Nationals. She won her first all-around title in an international competition against Yugoslavia in 1971. In 1973, Nadia won the all-around gold medal and the vault and uneven bars titles at the Junior Friendship Tournament.
At 13, Nadia competed in the 1975 European Championships in Norway. She won the all-around medal and gold medals in every event except the floor exercise. Nadia competed at the American Cup in 1976 in Madison Square Garden in New York. She received a first-time awarded perfect score of 10.0 on the vault. She also posted a perfect 10.0 at the Chunichi Cup in Japan in the vault and uneven bars events. By the end of 1975, Nadia had been named the United Press International’s “Female Athlete of the Year.”
It was at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 when the whole world would sit up and take notice of Nadia. She scored a perfect 10.0 – the first ever awarded – for her routine on the uneven bars. Even the scoreboards weren’t prepared for Nadia – they could not display a perfect score, so her 10.0 was shown as a 1.0. She would go on to receive six more perfect scores, capturing gold in the all-around, balance beam, and uneven bars events. She became associated with the theme song to “The Young and Restless,” which was renamed to “Nadia’s Theme,” although she never actually used the song in any performances. She was named the Associated Press “Female Athlete of the Year” for 1976.
In 1977, the leader of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, ordered Nadia to leave Karolyi and train in Bucharest. She was unhappy, with her training and personal life, and put on weight. Her gymnastics suffered and in 1978, she was allowed to return to Karolyi. She returned to form and Nadia won her third consecutive European all-around title in 1979 and helped her team win the gold medal at the World Championships despite having an infected hand.
Nadia placed second in the all-around event at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. She won gold for the balance beam and floor exercise. She retired from competition in 1981. She participated in a gymnastics exhibition in the U.S. in 1981 and during that time, her coaches Bela and his wife Marta Karolyi and the team choreographer Geza Pozar all defected. Nadia returned to Romania, but because of the other defections, her actions were strictly monitored and she was rarely allowed to travel. In November of 1989, an unhappy Nadia decided to defect. She arrived in the U.S., but eventually settled in Montreal. She began touring and promoting lines of gymnastics apparel.
It was in Montreal that Nadia reconnected with Olympic gold medal gymnast Bart Conner. The two had first met in 1976, but fell in love this time, becoming engaged in 1994 and marrying in 1996. Nadia became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 2001.
The couple runs the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy in Norman, Oklahoma, Perfect 10 Production Company, and several sports equipment shops. They also serve as editors for International Gymnast magazine and are involved in charity work. The couple welcomed their first child, Dylan Paul Conner, on June 3, 2006.
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