One of the most famous Romanians of the 20th Century is known Worldwide by a single name ….. NADIA! – Famous Romanians on stamps Nadia Elena Comaneci.
Nadia Elena Comaneci was born in 1961 in Onesti, Romania. Her mother named her Nadia, after the Russian word Nadezhta, meaning “hope”. For a little girl, growing up in Communist Romania, the likelihood of her ever achieving any fame or notoriety was extremely unlikely.
While in kindergarten, she joined her school gymnastics team and began training in gymnastics. At the age of six, she was invited to attend Bela Karolyi’s gymnastics school, after he had seen her and a friend doing cartwheels in a schoolyard. She was a “natural” in the sport.
By the age of thirteen, she had become the Romanian national champion and the European champion in women’s gymnastics. In 1975, she was named United Press International’s “Female Athlete of the Year”. At the age of fourteen, she traveled with the Romanian Olympic team to the 1976 Summer Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada. What happened next is Olympic legend!
During the team compulsory portion of the competition, on July 18, 1976, her routine on the uneven bars was initially awarded a “1.00”. This confused and agitated both the crowd and the athletes. It was soon clarified that the score display only had three digits and that her score was actually a perfect “10.00”. This was the first time in modern Olympic gymnastics history that the score had ever been awarded.
During the course of the Olympics, Nadia would earn six additional perfect “10.00” scores in route to winning Gold Medals in the all around, uneven bars, and balance beam competitions. She also earned a Bronze Medal in the floor exercise, and the Romanian gymnastics team earned a Silver Medal in the team competition.
Nadia had now become the “darling” of the World and a national heroine in the People’s Republic of Romania. Back in Romania, she was awarded the Sickle and Hammer Gold Medal, and she was named a Hero of Socialist Labor, becoming the youngest Romanian to ever receive those honors.
