In 1976, the Montreal Olympic Games became the first Olympic competition that Nadia would enter. Nadia Comăneci was due to compete in several events in Montreal including both team and individual events.
The world didn’t know it at this time, but this young gymnast from a small town in Romania was about to make major history. She was going to do something that no other gymnast had ever done before.
Warm Up Competetion
Nadia continued to grow as a gymnast and take home more medals. By 1975, she was finally able to compete for senior level competitions and she entered the European Championships in Skien, Norway. This was her first major international success. Here she won the all-around title and gold medals on every event except for floor exercise, where she placed second.
It was her aspiration at the time to compete in the Montreal Olympics, so she decided to enter the American Cup as a warm-up. In Madison Square Garden in March of 1976, one male and one female competitor from each country took to the floor. Nadia won the competition, as she was getting used to doing by now.
Kiss For The Cameras!
When Nadia Comăneci mounted the winner’s stand to accept her award for silver, a photographer summoned her and the 18-year-old American standing next to her. “Kiss for the cameras, please!” he shouted, wanting a cute picture of the young, blonde American boy and tiny dark-haired Romanian girl.
That American boy was named Bart Conner, and he was more than happy to give Nadia a tiny kiss on the cheek. Both Nadia and Bart would be heading to the Olympics. They didn’t know it then, but their lives were about to become very entangled from that point on.
Perfect Score
On July 18, Nadia Comăneci made Olympic history, when she became the first gymnast ever to score a perfect 10. She was awarded the perfect score during a compulsory team section on the uneven bars. Initially, her score wasn’t clear because the scoreboard wasn’t configured to be able to show a 10. So, her score appeared as a 1.00, and the crowd was unsure of what was going on. However, when they fixed the malfunction, the audience, Nadia, and her coaches went absolutely crazy. She went on to snag six more perfect tens during the Montreal Olympics. Nadia was the first Romanian gymnast to win an all-around gold medal at the Olympics. She is also the youngest gymnast to ever win this title (now they've changed the age minimum of gymnasts at the Olympics so it's impossible to beat).
In an interview with ESPN, Nadia shared "It wasn't my goal to score a 10. Yes, gymnasts aim for perfection, but I never thought about the score. If that's what's in your mind, it will probably mess you up. I just remember trying to stay focused. It takes very little to break your concentration, and then you make mistakes." After this feat, Nadia took over the spotlight from Olga Korbut, the darling of the 1972 Munich Games. Comăneci’s achievements are on display in the entrance of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
Nadia’s Rise To Stardom
After being the first gymnast to ever score a 10 at the Olympics, Nadia Comăneci quickly rose to fame and got a lot of attention from the press, to the extent that she had her own theme song. The song was a part of the musical score from the 1971 film Bless the Beasts and Children, and it was originally called Cotton’s Dream.
However, when it was used on a feature piece for ABC’s Wide World of Sports after the Olympics, showing a montage of slo-mo videos and photos of Nadia, it immediately became associated with Nadia. The song became a top-10 single in the fall of 1976 and the composers renamed it “Nadia’s Theme” in her honor.