Where were you when… Nadia Comaneci got the first ever perfect 10, 18 July 1976

Where were you when… Nadia Comaneci got the first ever perfect 10, 18 July 1976

By Nadia Comaneci

Published: 00:02 BST, 23 June 2019 | Updated: 00:02 BST, 23 June 2019

In her own words, the gymnast recalls her record-breaking Olympic achievement – and her life’s swift return to normality 

Nadia on the balance beam: she won three gold medals at the Montreal Olympics

I got into gymnastics because, like many kids, I had too much energy. I loved the gym – it was just like a playground. For my parents, it meant I wasn’t doing crazy things in our house in Romania, where I grew up.

I was only 14 years old when I went to Montreal to compete in the Olympics. I remember walking around the Olympic Village, among all these high-profile athletes I’d only ever seen before on television. When it came to the day of the competition, all I was hoping for was not to make any mistakes. I remember thinking, ‘I just have to do the same routines I do in training’. The only difference is there were a lot more people watching.

I was the last one competing on the uneven bars and, when I finished, I was more interested in getting to my next event than checking the scoreboard. I don’t usually look because I roughly know how many points I’ll get on the basis of how I performed – then, I thought I’d get a 9.9. I only looked because I heard all the noise in the arena. There was a lot of confusion at first because the board was showing a 1.0 – which wasn’t very good for the performance! My teammate was trying to tell me that there was something wrong with it, that it was supposed to be a 10, but the music started and I had to go to my next event – the beam.

I knew it was a big deal, but I hadn’t realised that no one had ever got a perfect 10 before me. I didn’t know I’d made history [Nadia received six more perfect 10s and won three gold medals]. It only sank in when I got back to Romania and there were 10,000 people at the airport. After that, my life went on as normal – going to the gym, to school. The only thing that changed was that people would point at me in the street and say, ‘This is the girl with a 10!’

Now I live in Oklahoma with my husband Bart [Conner, a former US Olympic gymnast], where we run a gymnastics academy. I still go back to Romania five or six times a year – I opened a gym for children there called GymNadia. 

Also that month… 

Elton John and Kiki Dee

• Fire destroyed the famous pier head at the end of the world’s longest pier in Southend, Essex.
• The UK heatwave peaked at 35.9C in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
• David Steel was elected as the new leader of the Liberal Party.
• Elton John and Kiki Dee (right) reached number one in the charts with ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’.

 

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