Nadia Comăneci

Romania’s Nadia Comăneci was the star of the Montréal Olympics in 1976 when she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10.0. ABC Television set her performance to music, using a theme from a popular American soap opera, and having the song eventually renamed “Nadia’s Theme”. Comăneci first achieved her perfect 10 on the uneven bars in 1976 and the judges awarded her the maximum mark seven times during the Games.

Comăneci first come to prominence at the 1975 European Championships, at which she won four gold medals. In the 1976 and 1980 Games she won a total of nine Olympic medals. At Moscow in 1980, she finished only second in the individual all-around, in a very controversial decision that was protested by the Romanian coaches. Following the 1980 Games, natural physical development began to inhibit her performance and after a victory at the 1981 World Student Games she retired.

Strangely, Comăneci won only one individual World Championship title, that on the balance beam in 1978. In 1989, she defected from Romania and settled in North America. She later married American Olympic gymnastic medalist Bart Conner and become an American citizen.