Most
10 scores at Olympics: world record set by Nadia Comaneci
[July
18] MONTREAL, Canada--With a total of seven perfect ten scores at
Montreal 1976 Games, Olympic legend Nadia Comaneci set a world record
for the most 10 scores at a single edition of the Olympic Games.
She captured the hearts of the world and became the first gymnast
in history to know what it's like to be perfect- setting also the world record for the first award of a score of perfect 10 at an Olympics Games gymnastic event.
World Record Academy will send to Nadia a special
Gold-Sealed World Record Certificate and her name will be listed
for ever in all our future Book of World Recordss. July
18 is also declared by the Records Academy as the World's Records
Day, a day to remember one of the most beautiful evolution in the
history of Olympics.
Before 1976, no male or female had ever received
a perfect score in any Olympic gymnastics event. And then came Nadia
Comaneci, all 4-foot-11, 86 pounds of her.
The 14-year-old Romanian dazzled the judges in
Montreal to the point where they couldn't help but give her a perfect
10.
And they didn't stop there, for not only did Comaneci
receive the first perfect score, she then proceeded to get six more!
ABC Television set her performance to music, using a theme from
a popular American soap opera, and the song was eventually renamed
"Nadia's Theme".
Times magazine posted huge photo of Nadia in front
cover page, "She's Perfect!" with a very small photo of the the
first photo of Mars... 14 years old Nadia Comaneci became the only
person shown in the cover page of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated
magainzes at the same time, not to mentioned millions of press and
magazines covers around the world.
The
record breaking moment came with Comaneci's performance on the uneven
bars. However, the judging equipment was not equipped to display
the four digits of a 10.00 score, so the scoreboard simply showed
1.00.
The crowd soon understood the meaning of the score
when the announcer declared, "Ladies and gentleman, for the first
time in Olympic history, Nadia Comaneci has received the score of
a perfect ten," reported Septima Green in Top 10 Women Gymnasts.The
perfect gymnast bitting the perfect machine!
Nadia
Comaneci earned a total of seven perfect ten scores at those Olympic
Games. She won three gold medals for the all-around competition,
uneven bars, and balance beam. She also won a silver medal for the
team competition and a bronze medal for the floor exercise.
Four of her seven perfect scores, including the
first one, came on the uneven bars, which as you might imagine,
was one of the three events Comaneci struck gold. But it was on
the balance beam that she truly showed off her skill. The beam is
considered one of the most difficult Olympic events, with gymnasts
performing pirouettes and backflips on a beam measuring just four
inches across. All Nadia did was record three more perfect scores
and her second gold medal.
Comaneci became the first Romanian to win the
all-around title and she was also the youngest all-around champion
at 14 years old.
Once
Comaneci broke the barrier, it became easier over the years. Then,
after the 1992 Olympics, those 10s disappeared. Not one has been
scored in major international competition since.
Bela Karolyi, maybe the most internationally famous
coach and booster of the sport, believes that maybe a perfect 10
is really more than just a number. "It gives the flavour and spice
to the sport that we need so much. Just the recognition of the performance,"
he said.
That
moment almost surely won't be repeated this year, or anytime soon.
The perfect 10 has slowly, perhaps sadly, filtered its way out of
gymnastics, a victim of increased difficulty in events, tougher
judging and, some critics say, maybe some hard-headedness and ignorance
among those who run it.
"Actually, I think they thought there were too
many 10 scores," said Karolyi who, along with her husband Bela,
coached Comaneci and Retton during their perfect-10 moments.
Where perfection used to be something that could be
sensed or felt, as well as seen, it is now something that must be
measured according to the rules of the very strict, very long, very
complex Code of Points to which each judge and gymnast must adhere.
In the past, gymnasts used to strive for a perfect
10; these days, they strive to develop a routine with a "start value"
of 10, meaning it could conceivably earn a perfect score if it were
done flawlessly.
U.S. champion Carly Patterson said no gymnast
she knows ever goes out there thinking about scoring a 10 these
days. "You'd have to be beyond perfect," she said.
In 1989, Nadia Comaneci defected from Romania
and settled in North America. She has since married American Olympic
gymnastic medallist Bart Conner.
Comaneci is active in many charities and international
organizations. In 1999, she became the first athlete to be invited
to speak at the United Nations to launch the Year 2000 International
Year of Volunteers. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Board
Of Directors of the International Special Olympics and Vice President
of the Board of Directors of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
In the world of gymnastics, Nadia Comaneci is
the Honorary President of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, the
Honorary President of Romanian Olympic Committee, Ambassador of
Sports of Romania and a member of the International Gymnastics Federation
Foundation.
In 2006, Thirty years after Romanian gymnast Nadia
Comaneci wowed Olympic judges at the Montreal Olympics, a tribute
to that "Perfect
10" performance, made by "ShanFan" (Heather Gibson)-a
US gymnastics fan, has been beamed toward the stars via the Deep
Space Communications Network.
Deep Space general manager Jim Lewis said
in the news release. "The way we see it, if there is someone out
there receiving radio waves from this planet, Earth is getting some
pretty bad press. Basically, they'd be seeing what we're seeing
on the evening news: war, famine, strife and struggle. Perhaps now
they will see there is also unmatched beauty and grace on our little
green ball as well."
Nadia's husband for Sports Illustrated: "Everyone
wants to remember her as this 14 -year-old, ponytailed little girl.
She's not that anymore."
...But for those who saw her in '76, she always will
be.
Chronology
1961
Born
on November 12 in Onesti, Romania
1967
Begins
training with Bela and Marta Karolyi
1969
Places
13th in first national competition
1970
Wins
Romanian National Junior Championships
1975
Wins
five gold medas at European Championships
1976
Scores first perfect ten at Olympic Games in Montreal,
Canada
1976
Wins
three gold, one silver, and one bronze medal at Olympic Games
in Montreal, Canada
1977
Wins
two gold medals at European Championships
1978
Wins
three gold and one bronze medal at European Championships
1980
Wins
two gold and two silver medals at Olympic Games in Moscow, U.S.S.R.
1981
Wins
five gold medals at World University Games
1984
Retires
from gymnastics
1989
Immigrates
to the United States
1996
Marries
American gymnast Bart Conner
2001
Becomes
a United States citizen
Awards and Accomplishment
1969
Thirteenth
place Romanian National Junior Championships
1970-71
First
place Romanian National Junior Championship
1971
First
place all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor
exercise, Cup of the Romanian Gymnastic Federation
1972
First
place team and all-around, Romanian National Junior Championship
1972
First
place team, Cup of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation
1973
First
place all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor
exercise, International Championships of Romania
1973
First
place team and all-around, Romanian Senior Championships
1974
First
place team and all-around, Romania-Poland-USA Junior TriMeet
1975
First
place all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor
exercise, European Championships
1975
First
place team, all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam, floor
exercise, Romanian Championships
1976
First
place all-around, uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise,
second place team, Olympic Games
1976
Named
Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year
1977
First
place all-around and uneven bars, European Championships
1977
First
place team and all-around, Balkan Championships
1977
First
place all-around, International Championship of Romania
1977
First
place all-around, Orleans International
1978
First
place bars, second place vault and team, World Championships
1979
First
place all-around, vault, and floor exercise, third place balance
beam, European Championships
1979
First
place all-around, International Championship of Romania
1979
First
place team, World Championships
1979
First
place vault and floor exercise, second place balance beam, World
Cup
1979
First
place team, all-around, vault, and uneven bars, second place
floor exercise, Balkan Championships
1980
First
place uneven bars, International Championship of Romania
1980
First
place bars and floor exercise, second place team and all-around,
Olympic Games
1981
First
place team, all-around, vault, uneven bars, and balance beam,
University Games
1984
Received
Olympic Order Award
1991
Inducted
into Sudafed International Women's Sports Hall of Fame
1993
Inducted
into International Gymnastics Hall of Fame
1996
Named
Honorary President of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation
1996
Honored
in Atlanta's Opening Ceremonies as an Unforgettable Olympian
1998
Received
Flo Hyman Award celebrating National Girls and Women in Sport
Day
2001
Named
Sportswoman of the Century, World Sports Awards