MONTREAL – Montrealers snapped photographs and posed with Nadia Comaneci as she returned to the city to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Summer Olympics. As a 14-year-old Romanian gymnast, she charmed Montreal and the world by scoring the first perfect 10 in Olympic history.
“I am here because a 14-year-old decided to do something 50 years ago,” said Comaneci. “I am impressed as an adult right now with the courage that this 14-year-old had. The courage to just go for it.”
She is a household name in Montreal, where she is nicknamed the Queen of the Games.
The years that followed her feat spawned a boom of babies named Nadia in her honour. As part of celebrations in Montreal, she will attend a parade of women named Nadia who were born between the years of 1976 to 1978. She will also unveil a plaque and receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Montreal.
“That’s probably what is good about making history at 14,” said Comaneci. “You get to celebrate the half-century anniversary.”
Her first perfect Olympic score came on July 18, 1976, during the team compulsory portion of competition. Her composure as she aced a routine on the uneven bars returned a score of 10.
“I decided to put a little more amplitude at every skill,” she said. “I call it the ‘Nadia Touch.’ So, I think that little thing, the Nadia touch, made my routine look just a little better.”
Not just better. In the judges’ eyes, it was perfect. But there was a glitch with the scoreboard: it had not been programmed to register a 10, and so it showed a “1.00,” sparking some confusion among athletes and spectators that had a front row to history.
“I was like, this is kind of a little weird, because one is not a very good score,” she said. “I realized there was something wrong with the scoreboard. But then the music started and we had to move to the balance beam. So, I didn’t have time to think about that too much.”
Comaneci now has a tattoo near her ankle with that score, “1.00,” below the Olympic rings.
Among those in the stands in the arena that July day was Bart Conner, a U.S. gymnast who competed in Montreal and went on to win two gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also went on to become Comaneci’s husband, and they have been married for more than 30 years with a son named Dylan.
He says Comaneci’s perfect 10 changed the trajectory of the Olympic movement.
“The Olympics were in trouble. In 1972, there was terrorism at the games. In 1976, there were several countries that boycotted,” he said.
A group of African nations boycotted the Games over the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to ban New Zealand’s rugby team after its tour of apartheid South Africa. There were also deep geopolitical divisions over the Cold War.
And in Montreal, the costs of hosting the games had ballooned to historic proportions, despite then-Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau’s infamous statement in 1970 that “Olympics could no more have a deficit than a man could have a baby.” Labour disputes, accusations of corruption and a complex design for the Olympic stadium pushed up costs.
Many Montrealers still call it “The Big Owe” today.
“I think the whole Olympic movement was in trouble,” said Conner. “And all of a sudden, a 14-year-old girl comes from Romania and scores a perfect 10, which had never been accomplished. It reinvigorated the value of the Olympics.”
Conner says the world was reminded that the Olympics exist to give young people a chance to show their expertise and their excellence.
“Had she scored 9.999, she would have been another great champion. But when she scored 10, it somehow changed everything,” he said. “It also started a conversation about whether perfection is even possible. And there were questions as to why this young lady, why is she so good at such a young age?
“I think that was probably a paradigm shift for the Olympic movement,” he added.
Comaneci went on to score six more perfect 10s in Montreal, and pick up a total of five medals, including three gold, one silver and a bronze. She collected more hardware at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, taking home two more gold medals and two silvers.
In 1989, Comaneci defected to the United States, escaping the oppressive regime of President Nicolae Ceaușescu weeks before the Romanian revolution.
In June, she returned to her hometown of Onesti in eastern Romania, as part of celebrations marking the 50-year anniversary of her achievements in Montreal. Children chanting her name greeted her as she arrived, and she also watched young gymnasts who followed in her footsteps on the balance beam and on uneven bars in action.
“I think that is her legacy,” said Conner. “She is a young girl who came from a poor city in Romania, and yet somehow proved to the world that with hard work and dedication, you can do a lot of amazing things.
“The fact that she is being celebrated all these years later is really powerful.”
Comaneci is also greeted like a local hero in Montreal, where fans love to share their Olympic memories with her.
“It’s a long time ago and we live in a world where the tendency is to forget moments very fast,” said Comaneci. “To be here to celebrate this amazing 50 years since ‘76 is, I don’t know, a once in a lifetime event.”
