In Montreal in 1976, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci shocked the world when she became the first woman to score a perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics, something she had done at age 14 Got to this point. It was a defining moment for the sport, but Comeneci didn't get the chance to stay in it for long. "For the first second, I thought it was a mistake," the iconic gymnast tells Bustle, "and then my teammates said it was probably 10. I wasn't really thinking about it... The music started , I had to rush to the balance beam for my next workout.”
But, as we all know, Comeneci's teammates were right: She earned perfect scores in seven events that year as part of the second-place Romanian national team and won three gold medals, one silver and one bronze. How do they feel about setting high standards? This idiom feels especially apt when talking about Comeneci.
Following his historic performance at the 1976 Olympics, Komenich went on to compete in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Russia. There she again excelled, winning gold medals on the balance beam and floor exercise, as well as silver medals in the team event and individual all-around. Although Comeneci decided to retire in 1984, ending her storied career, her legendary perfect results have continued to raise high expectations for female athletes ever since.
Looking at the athletes competing in their first Olympics this year - including 19-year-old phenom Simone Biles - it's clear that gymnastics is a sport that attracts top athletes. The women competing in this year's Olympics have strength, endurance and confidence. "You could say it's feminist. It's been around for a long time, even though there weren't a lot of women's sports at the time, so it's always been a symbol of women in sports," Comeneci said of gymnastics' larger cultural significance And how, over time, things changed for young women.
Still, while gymnastics has grown tremendously and changed for the better in many ways, Komenech readily acknowledges that there have been other changes to the sport that she thinks may have a positive impact on today's gymnasts No benefit. For example, when asked what it would take to get a perfect 10 at this year's Rio 2016 Olympics, Comeneci exclaimed: "I don't think you can do it! You can only get a 10 in execution, and The maximum score is 10. "So far it's 9.5, so with the new rating, I don't think that's possible. ” (A new set of Olympic gymnastics scoring guidelines were introduced during the 2008 Beijing Olympics; under these new rules, many asserted that achieving a perfect 10 would be nearly impossible.)
And, well, Comenich will know. In addition to her own historic scoring achievements, the athlete also coached the Romanian team before defecting to the United States in 1989. After settling in the United States, she married in 1996 another famous gymnast, Bart Conner, who represented the country on Team USA at the 1984 Olympics. (Connor was both a member of the gold-medal men's gymnastics team and an individual gold medalist on parallel bars.). The couple moved to Oklahoma to begin their life together. In 1999, Comeneci won the World Sports Award of the Century.
Today, Komenech and Conor are basically the royal couple of gymnastics. They spend their time making appearances, doing commercial endorsements for major corporations, speaking engagements and philanthropic efforts – philanthropy to which Comenich is selflessly dedicated as vice chairman of the board of directors of Special Olympics International and vice president of Special Olympics International. Member of the Board of Directors of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Laureus Sports for Good Foundation. In addition to traveling the world "doing good" and raising gymnastics enthusiasts, the Olympic superstar couple is also busy raising their son, Dylan Paul Connor.
But now, at this very moment, Komenich has made time in her schedule for a very important occasion. “I was in Rio de Janeiro with my P&G and my Tide pods,” she said. “I love the support P&G provides to athletes and their families through Family House, which serves athletes and their families throughout the Olympics. I’m also partnering with Tide POD to celebrate ‘Strength Evolution’ in gymnastics. I love It shows a real evolution - 40 years since I made history, 20 years since Dominique Dawes made history and now everyone's eyes are on Simone Biles in Rio - Let’s see what history she made!”
Komenech's performance at the 1976 Olympics left an indelible mark on the sport of gymnastics, and she continues to do so by recognizing the future of the sport for athletes like Biles. "I hope every country is motivated to get kids into gymnastics because it's such an amazing foundational sport for everything," she tells Bustle. "This has been an amazing base for me, and everything I'm going through today is because of what happened in my gymnastics career." (If that's not a strong endorsement of something, I don't know what is.)
So what advice would Komenech give to young gymnasts or young athletes in general who have Olympic dreams? “Love what you do, be passionate about it, enjoy every day, learn from the journey, and congratulate yourself for playing sports because it’s important,” she said, emphasizing, “Sports are fun!”
You can follow Nadia Comăneci on Twitter.
Image: Getty Images
