Romanian officials became concerned that Nadia would take off after her coach and also defect to the US. Because she was a valuable model as a communist athlete, they banned her from traveling to any Western country. The Western press had no access to her, and the Romanian government read her mail and tapped her phones. She was watched wherever she went and her activities were monitored. She was a prisoner of her home country, with no escape.
She later wrote in her memoir “Life took on a new bleakness. I was cut off from making the small amount of extra money that had really made a difference in my family’s life. It was also insulting that a normal person in Romania had the chance to travel, whereas I could not… when my gymnastics career was over, there was no longer any need to keep me happy. I was to do as I was instructed, just as I’d done my entire life … If Bela hadn’t defected, I would still have been watched, but his defection brought a spotlight on my life, and it was blinding. I started to feel like a prisoner.”
Nadia Tours The U.S.A
The Romanian government, seeing the financial opportunities they could have in Nadia Comăneci, decided to host the ‘Nadia Tour.’ They notified the athlete that she would be touring in America. So. in 1981, young Nadia set off to tour over 11 cities in America.
The government made around $250,000 for the state from this clever marketing tactic while the star of the show made just $1,000 from traveling around America. Around this time things were about to fall apart between her coach and Romania.
Károlyi Seeks Asylum
Things were growing more tense between Nadia’s coach, Károlyi, and the Romanian government following the scene he made at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. He was going to have to leave the country, and fast. So, during the 1981 ‘Nadia Tour,’ Károlyi, his wife, and the Romanian team choreographer, Géza Pozsár, defected on the last day of the tour.
Prior to doing so, Károlyi hinted a few times to Nadia that he might try and do so and indirectly asked her if she had an interest in joining. She preferred to go home to Romania. They sought political asylum in the US, but the Károlyis had to temporarily leave their 7-year-old daughter, Andrea, with family members back in Romania until they were granted asylum. Nadia was absolutely heartbroken when she learned the news that her beloved coach had defected and left the country.
Escape Plan
She thought that there was no way out, until 1987. Nadia met Constantin Panait who had escaped Romania some time ago – supposedly by swimming the Danube river. He made it to the U.S. and settled down in Florida where he became a roofer. He offered to help Nadia escape if she wanted.
Despite not really knowing Panait, she was desperate to escape the country. It was potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity to flee Romania for good and turn over a new leaf in the United States. Or so, she imagined in her dreams.
“You go and find a life”
Nadia was frightened that her mother would have a heart attack when she told her the news of what she was planning to do. At first, she confided in her younger brother who she refers to as her best friend. He told her “You go and find a life.” Nadia confesses that she was so scared she would never see her family again.
On the night that she was planning to escape, Nadia’s brother and sister-in-law came with her as near to the Hungarian border as was possible.