This is a short biography of Olympian gold-medalist gymnast Nadia Comaneci. She won three gold medals during the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and two gold medals in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow.
This book is written in American English.
Young people are the main intended readers for this book, but adults who want a brief 14,400-word overview of Nadia’s life can also read it.
As always, it is a good idea to check the preview (Look Inside!) to see if this book is right for you.
Chapter 1: Perfect 10
At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Canada, Nadia Comaneci (pronounced NAD-ya koh-muh-NECH) was ab-solutely spectacular as she won five medals. On July 18, competing on the uneven bars, she became the first gymnast ever to score a perfect 10. In fact, the equipment that was set up to display the scores was not programmed to display a score that high. Therefore, the apparatus displayed a score of 1.00, which is a very low score.
Nadia’s coach, Bela Karolyi, was shocked by the low score, and he asked for an explanation. A Swedish judge held up 10 fingers to indicate a perfect score. Meanwhile, one of Nadia’s teammates told her, “I think it’s a 10, but they don’t know how to make a 10.” Nadia asked Bela, “Sir, is that really a 10?” He replied, “You bet it is, Nadia.”
Reflecting on her perfect score 25 years later, Nadia said, “Scoring the 10 was the biggest moment [of the Olympic Games] for me, but at the time I didn’t realize how big it was, and how everything was going to change after that.”
Everything did change for her. Nadia became an international celebrity, and her photograph appeared on the covers of Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and Time in the same week. This was the first time that a human being had appeared on the covers of these magazines in the same week. Previously, only a racehorse named Secretariat had achieved that honor. The Associated Press also named her 1976’s Female Athlete of the Year.
This is Nadia’s story.
