The Woman Who Inspired Champions

I am, of course, speaking about Nadia Comăneci. She was the very first gymnast to score a perfect 10. She did it in 1976 at the age of 14.


Left: © Jerry Cooke; Middle: © Steve Powell/Allsport; Right: © Tony Duffy/Allsport

When I was a very little girl, I remember watching Nadia perform and she inspired me to be a gymnast. Of course, I never became a gymnast. My family moved too often and didn't quite put a priority on me being active in sports. But I still remember loving this girl who poured her heart out when she performed.


Watching this routine today, I still am moved by how good she was. What a thing to remember when you're 5 years old... I really miss how they used to do that move where they would whack their legs on the bottom bar and bounce back up, and where they would do a cherry drop off the bottom bar. Now it's all about power when they perform.

When someone asked her about her 'perfect' routine, Nadia is quoted as saying, "During my routine and even after it, I did not think it was all that perfect. I thought it was pretty good, but athletes don’t think about history when making history. They think about what they’re doing, and that’s how it gets done." And that's pretty awesome. It's just about getting it done. That's a life lesson. It's just about getting it done.

Why did I think about this? A conversation about Mary Lou Retton, who was coached by the same coach, Béla Károlyi. I loved Mary Lou, too, after all she was the first American woman to win the women's all-around Olympic title. Just watching her perform, even today, she was good/beautiful.

Check out her floor exercise, the height on her jumps!


A friend of mine let me in on the fact that the floor has springs which allow greater bounce and cushion those jumps. Here's her gold medal winning vault (a perfect 10.00).



It was so exciting when she won. I remember her going on late night TV and doing her vault again. And doing it in the movie Scrooged as Tiny Tim. And one of my best memories from after those Olympics is my childhood favorite pair of tennis shoes. They were Pony high tops that Mary Lou had endorsed.


I just loved them. They were light-weight and springy. And I wore them out (I've only really done that to 2 pairs of shoes). I tried to buy a second pair (because I'm like that), but they were limited edition and I was too late. But I love those shoes. The picture on the right is what I remember them somewhat looking like, except that they were all leather and all white.


Picture of Károlyi. Caption information unavailable.

And I can't talk about Béla Károlyi without talking about Kerri Strug. Part of what is affectionately called the Magnificent Seven, Kerri clinched the US's first all-around team gold medal with an amazing vault that she performed injured. She ended up with a score of 9.712, but, in the process, Strug sprained her ankle and tore two ligaments.