On July 18, 1976, at the Montreal Olympic Games, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci made history by scoring the first perfect 10.00 in artistic gymnastics.
The result was so unexpected that the electronic scoring system was not programmed to display a score of 10. Only 1.00 was displayed on the scoreboard, creating confusion for the public until it was realized that it was the first perfect performance in the Olympic history of this sport.
Fifty years later, Comăneci, now 64, says she still feels like “the girl from that perfect day.” She is in Bucharest, where she is inaugurating the Comăneci Arena, a new sports complex for gymnastics, built by the Țiriac Foundation with an investment of $6 million.
"Nobody expected me. I came from a small village in communist Romania, my father was a mechanic and my mother was a housewife. No one thought I would change the history of this sport," she recalls.
The Romanian legend says that today children talk to her about the stress and pressure they feel as early as the age of 11. Her advice is not to keep their worries to themselves, but to always talk to their parents and not be afraid to express their anxiety or frustrations.
Commenting on today's sports, Comăneci emphasizes that nothing is certain in the Olympics. As an example, she cites France's loss to Spain in the soccer World Cup and Argentina's journey to the final, underlining that every competition must be won on the field.
As for the decision to raise the minimum age for international gymnastics competitions to 16, she says she doesn't fully agree. Comăneci recalls that in Montreal she was not yet 15 and that no one expected any extraordinary results from her.
Today she lives in Oklahoma, USA, with her husband, former Olympic champion Bart Conner, where they run a gymnastics academy. According to her, the younger generations are no less talented, but they require more communication and explanations from coaches.
For Comăneci, the secret to perfection is not the absence of mistakes, but the ability to learn from them.
"Perfection is built on failures. It's the details that make you get an A," she says.
At the end of the interview, Comăneci reveals that her son, Dylan, did not choose the path of sports, but became a mechanic, following his grandfather's profession. She herself continues to exercise every day and advises women to walk, run and take care of their diet.
"Hold on to life. It's what has helped me fly for 50 years," concludes Nadia Comăneci.
