Review

Nadia Comaneci became a world icon, becoming in 1976 in Montreal the first gymnast to achieve the highest score at the Olympic Games: a 10, which was considered a perfect exercise. She became Olympic champion at just fourteen years of age. She went on to score seven more tens over the course of the competitions at the Olympics.

Activities

Spanish

• Carnet de habilidades gimnásticas
  • Spain > Physical education > 1st ESO > Problem solving in motor situations

Justifications

• She obtained the first 10 in the history of the Olympic Games in Artistic Gymnastics (Montreal, 1976), considered at that time as the highest score and as a perfect exercise. Anecdotally, the scoreboards only showed three digits. The maximum score they could show was 9.99, so the scoreboard showed 1.00, which made the feat more striking.
• Olympic champion at only fourteen years of age. She surprised the world with her youth. She marks a before and after in the way of doing gymnastics for her ease of execution and a technique never seen before.
• Icon and world reference of Artistic Gymnastics that made this sport visible all over the world.

Biography

Nadia Comaneci began practicing Artistic Gymnastics in childhood, and stood out at a very early age at the national level. In 1975, she won her first European title as European champion in Skien (Norway), where she surpassed the Soviet gymnasts, great dominators in this sport. That year she participated in the America's Cup, where she performed for the first time in the history of the sport a double backward somersault on the asymmetrical parallel apparatus. The American press named her best athlete of the year. The following year, in 1976, she was proclaimed Olympic champion in Montreal at only 14 years of age; she achieved the first 10 in the history of Olympic gymnastics and obtained 7 more during the days of competition. Later, in 1979, she won her third consecutive European champion title, being the first gymnast to do so (not even a man had ever done so). In the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, she won two gold medals and two silver medals. After these Olympic Games, and as a result of the social and economic crisis of the dictatorial state of Romania, led by Ceaucescu, Nadia Comanecci ends her career as a gymnast.  Subsequently, she left her country, crossing into Hungary, at the risk of being captured, to seek political asylum in the United States, where she formed a family with Bart Conner (a former American gymnast). In 1996, her wedding was celebrated in Bucharest (Romania), televised throughout the country and with a reception in the old presidential palace, with thousands of attendees gathered in the surrounding area. She currently works as a sports commentator and participates in numerous initiatives in sporting events, gymnastics and the media.

Works

Bibliography

Iríbar, Amaya (2010), “Era demasiado joven para darme cuenta de lo que había hecho”, El País <https://elpais.com/diario/2010/03/07/deportes/1267916409_850215.html> (12/1/2022)

BBC Mundo, Redacción (2016), “El 10 de Nadia Comaneci: el día que el deporte alcanzó la perfección”, BBC News <https://www.bbc.com/mundo/deportes-36825157> (12/1/2022)

Mesa, Eduardo (2021) “Nadia Comaneci, el hada cautiva”, La Vanguardia <https://www.lavanguardia.com/historiayvida/historia-contemporanea/20210717/7598135/nadia-comaneci-hada-cautiva.html> (12/1/2022)

Leyendas del Deporte (2021). “NADIA COMANECI. Biografía y datos sorprendentes | Leyendas del Deporte” <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko153ebXFNE> (12/1/2022)

Didactic approach

It can be worked in Physical Education in:

- "Games and Sports" content block: gymnastic skills/"problem solving in motor situations", 1st ESO.

- Block of contents of "Games and Sports": coordination and agility, 1st ESO.

Documents