How did nadia comaneci die
Nadia Comăneci
Romanian gymnast (born )
Nadia Elena Comăneci Conner[a] (née&#;Comăneci; born November 12, ) is a Romanian retired gymnast. She is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, all in individual events. In , at the age of 14, Comăneci was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of at the Olympic Games.[5] At the same Games ( Summer Olympics in Montreal), she received six more perfect 10s for events en route to winning three gold medals.
At the Summer Olympics in Moscow, she won two more gold medals and achieved two more perfect 10s. During her career, she won nine Olympic medals and four World Artistic Gymnastics Championship medals.
One of the world's best-known gymnasts, Comăneci was praised for her artistry and grace,[6] which brought unprecedented global popularity to the sport in the mids.[6][7][8] Called "the most iconic gymnast of the 20th century" by El País,[9] Comăneci was named one of the Athletes of the 20th century by the Laureus World Sports Academy.[10]
Comăneci has lived in the United States since , when she defected from then-Communist Romania, before its revolution in December that year.
She later worked with and married American Olympic gold-medal gymnast Bart Conner — a wedding which was held in Bucharest after the fall of the Communist regime and televised live in Romania.
26:04YouTubeThe Story of Nadia Comaneci, Gymnastics Perfect 10 Icon Medal record. Children: Dylan Paul, born Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Comaneci developed an interest in gymnastics at a young age and enrolled in the Bela Karolyi Gymnastics School when she was six years old.Early life
Nadia Elena Comăneci was born on November 12, , in Onești, a small town in the Carpathian Mountains, in Bacău County, Romania, in the historical region of Western Moldavia.[11][12] She was born to Gheorghe (–) and Ștefania Comăneci, and has a younger brother.[13] Her parents separated in the s and her father later moved to Bucharest, the capital.[14] She and her brother, Adrian, were raised in the Romanian Orthodox Church.[15] In a interview, her mother said that she enrolled Comăneci into gymnastics classes because, as a child, she was so full of energy and active that she was difficult to manage.[16] After years of top-level athletic competition, Comăneci graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest with a degree in sports education, which qualified her to coach gymnastics.[17]
Gymnastics career
Early gymnastics career
Nadia began gymnastics in kindergarten with a local team called Flacără ("The Flame"), with coaches Duncan and Munteanu.[18][19] At age 6, she was chosen to attend Béla Károlyi's experimental gymnastics school, after Károlyi spotted her and a friend turning cartwheels in a schoolyard.[20][21] Károlyi was looking for gymnasts he could train from a young age.
When recess ended, the girls quickly went inside and Károlyi went around the classrooms trying to find them; he eventually spotted Comăneci. (The other girl, Viorica Dumitru, developed in a different direction and became one of Romania's top ballerinas.)[citation needed]
By , when she was seven, Comăneci started training with Károlyi.
She was one of the first students at the gymnastics school established in Onești by Károlyi and his wife, Márta. As a resident of the town, Comăneci was able to live at home for many years; most of the other students boarded at the school.[citation needed]
In , Comăneci began competing as a member of her home town team and, at age nine, became the youngest gymnast ever to win the Romanian Nationals.
In she participated in her first international competition, a dual junior meet between Romania and Yugoslavia, winning her first all-around title and contributing to the team gold. For the next few years, she competed as a junior in numerous national contests in Romania and dual meets with countries such as Hungary, Italy and Poland.[22] At the age of 11, in , she won the all-around gold, as well as the vault and uneven bars titles, at the Junior Friendship Tournament (Druzhba), an important international meet for junior gymnasts.[22][23]
Comăneci's first major international success came at the age of 13, when she nearly swept the board at the European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Skien, Norway.
She won the all-around and gold medals in every event but the floor exercise, in which she was placed second.
Videos Gervasio Deferr. Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci became the first woman to score a perfect 10 in an Olympic gymnastics event at the Olympic Games, at age Archived from the original on April 2, Personal life [ edit ].She continued to enjoy success that year, winning the all-around at the 'Champions All' competition and coming first in the all-around, vault, beam and bars at the Romanian National Championships. In the pre-Olympic test event in Montreal Comăneci won the all-around and the balance beam golds as well as silvers in the vault, floor and bars.
Accomplished Soviet gymnastNellie Kim won the golds in those events and was one of Comăneci's greatest rivals for the next five years.[22]
American Cup
In March , Comăneci competed in the inaugural edition of the American Cup at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. She received rare scores of 10, which signified a perfect routine without any deductions, for her vault in the preliminary stage and for her floor exercise routine in the final of the all-around competition, which she won.[24] During this competition, Comăneci met American gymnast Bart Conner for the first time.
While he remembered this meeting, Comăneci noted in her memoirs that she had to be reminded of it later in life. She was 14 and Conner was celebrating his 18th birthday.[25] They both won a silver cup and were photographed together. A few months later, they participated in the Summer Olympics that Comăneci dominated, while Conner was a marginal figure.
Conner later said, "Nobody knew me, and [Comăneci] certainly didn't pay attention to me."[26]
Summer Olympics
At Montreal [Comăneci] received four of her seven 10s on the uneven bars. The apparatus demands such a spectacular burst of energy in such a short time—only 23 seconds—that it attracts the most fanfare.
But it is on the beam that her work seems more representative of her considerable skill. She scored three of her seven 10s on the beam. Her hands speak there as much as her body. Her pace magnifies her balance. Her command and distance hush the crowd.
—&#;Sports Illustrated, [21]
On July 18, , Comăneci made history at the Montreal Olympics.
During the team compulsory portion of the competition, she was awarded the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics for her routine on the uneven bars.[27][28][29]Omega SA, the official Olympics scoreboard manufacturer, had been led to believe that competitors could not receive a perfect ten, and had not programmed the scoreboard to display this score.[30] Comăneci's perfect 10 thus appeared as "," the only means by which the judges could indicate that she had received a [29][31]
During the remainder of the Montreal Games, Comăneci earned six additional "10s".
She won gold medals for the individual all-around, the balance beam and uneven bars. She also won a bronze for the floor exercise and a silver as part of the team all-around.[32]Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim was her main rival during the Montreal Olympics; Kim became the second gymnast to receive a perfect ten, in her case for her performance on the vault.[33] Comăneci took over the media spotlight from gymnast Olga Korbut, who had been the darling of the Munich Games.[34]
Comăneci was the first Romanian gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title.
She also holds the record as the youngest ever Olympic gymnastics all-around champion at age The sport has since raised its age-eligibility requirements so that gymnasts must be at least 16 in the same calendar year of the Olympics in order to compete. When Comăneci competed in , gymnasts had only to be 14 by the first day of the competition.[35] Unless the age of eligibility is lowered, Comăneci's record cannot be broken.
Legends Live OnDec 26, 20179.1M Views: However, the audience quickly understood the significance of her score and greeted her with applause. June 30, Shortly thereafter she caught the attention of Bela and Marta Korolyi who became her coaches. Read Edit View history.
She was ranked as the BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year for [36] and the Associated Press' "Female Athlete of the Year".[37] Back home in Romania, Comăneci was awarded the Sickle and Hammer Gold Medal for her success,[38] and she was named a Hero of Socialist Labor.
She was the youngest Romanian to receive such recognition during the administration of Nicolae Ceaușescu.[18]
"Nadia's Theme"
"Nadia's Theme" refers to an instrumental piece that became linked to Comăneci shortly after the Olympics. It was part of the musical score of the film Bless the Beasts and Children and originally titled "Cotton's Dream".
It was also used as the title theme music for the American soap opera The Young and the Restless.
Robert Riger used it in association with slow-motion montages of Comăneci on the television program ABC's Wide World Of Sports. The song became a top single in the fall of , and composers Barry De Vorzon and Perry Botkin Jr. renamed it as "Nadia's Theme" in Comăneci's honor.[39] Comăneci never performed to "Nadia's Theme", however.
Her floor exercise music was a medley of the songs "Yes Sir, That's My Baby" and "Jump in the Line", arranged for piano.[21]
–
Comăneci successfully defended her European all-around title at the championship competition in When questions were raised at the competition about the scoring, Ceaușescu ordered the Romanian gymnasts to return home.
The team followed orders amid controversy and walked out of the competition during the event finals.[18][40]
Following the Europeans, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation removed Comăneci from her longtime coaches, the Károlyis, and sent her to Bucharest on August 23 to train at the sports complex.
She did not find this change positive and was struggling with bodily changes as she grew older. Her gymnastics skills suffered, and she was unhappy to the point of losing the desire to live.[18][41] After surviving a suicide attempt,[42] Comăneci competed in the World Championships in Strasbourg "seven inches taller and a stone and a half [21 pounds] heavier" than she was in the Olympics.[30] A fall from the uneven bars resulted in a fourth-place finish in the all-around behind Soviets Elena Mukhina, Nellie Kim, and Natalia Shaposhnikova.
Comăneci did win the world title on beam, and a silver on vault.[30]
After the "Worlds", Comăneci was permitted to return to Deva and the Károlyis' school.[43] In , Comăneci won her third consecutive European all-around title, becoming the first gymnast, male or female, to achieve this feat.
At the World Championships in Fort Worth that December, Comăneci led the field after the compulsory competition. She was hospitalized before the optional portion of the team competition for blood poisoning, which had resulted from a cut in her wrist from her metal grip buckle. Against doctors' orders, she left the hospital and competed on the beam, where she scored a Her performance helped give the Romanians their first team gold medal.
After her performance, Comăneci spent several days recovering in All Saints Hospital. She had to undergo a minor surgical procedure for the infected hand, which had developed an abscess.[44][45][46]
–
Summer Olympics
Comăneci was chosen to participate in the Summer Olympics in Moscow.
As a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, PresidentJimmy Carter declared that the United States would boycott the Olympics (several other countries also participated in the boycott, though their reasons varied). According to Comăneci, the Romanian government "touted the Olympic games as the first all-Communist Games." However, she also noted in her memoir, "in Moscow, we walked into the mouth of a lion's den; it was the Russians' home turf."[47] She won two gold medals, one for the balance beam and one for the floor exercise (in which she tied with Soviet gymnast Nellie Kim, against whom she had also competed in the Montreal Olympics and other events).
She also won two silver medals, one for the team all-around and one for individual all-around. Controversies arose concerning the scoring in the all-around and floor exercise competitions.[30] As of the Summer Games, she is the only gymnast to defend her Olympic gold medal in the balance beam apparatus.
Her coach, Bela Károlyi, protested that she was scored unfairly.
See full list on en.wikipedia.org Unlike Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut, modern gymnasts such as Simone Biles are rewarded for their athleticism more than their artistry Letters to a Young Gymnast. She was the featured speaker at the 50th annual Independence Day Naturalization Ceremony on July 4, , at Monticello , the first athlete invited to speak in the history of the ceremony. Archived from the original on August 22,His protests were captured on television. According to Comăneci's memoir, the Romanian government was upset about Károlyi's public behavior, feeling that he had humiliated them. Life became very difficult for Károlyi from that point on.[48]
"Nadia '81"
In , the Gymnastics Federation contacted Comăneci and informed her that she would be part of an official tour of the United States named "Nadia '81" and her coaches Béla and Márta Károlyi would lead the group.
During this tour, Comăneci's team shared a bus trip with American gymnasts; it was the third time she had encountered Bart Conner.
They had earlier met in She later remembered thinking, "Conner was cute. He bounced around the bus talking to everyone—he was incredibly friendly and fun."[49]
The Károlyis defected on the last day of the tour, along with the Romanian team choreographer Géza Pozsár. Prior to defecting, Károlyi hinted a few times to Comăneci that he might attempt to do so and indirectly asked if she wanted to join him.
At that time, she had no interest in defecting, and said she wanted to go home to Romania. After the defection of the Károlyis, life changed drastically for Comăneci in Romania, as she could not have predicted. Officials feared that she would also defect. Feeling she was a national asset, they strictly monitored her actions, refusing to allow her to travel outside the country.[50]
Summer Olympics
The government did allow Comăneci to participate in the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as part of the Romanian delegation.
Although a number of Communist nations boycotted the Summer Olympics in a tit-for-tat against the U.S.-led boycott of the Olympics in Moscow four years before, Romania chose to participate. Comăneci later wrote in her memoir that many believed Romania went to the Olympics because an agreement had been made with the United States not to accept defectors.
But Comăneci did not participate in the Games as a member of the Romanian team; she served as an observer. She was able to see Károlyi's new protégé, American gymnast Mary Lou Retton, who won five medals, including one gold. The Romanian delegation did not allow her to talk with Károlyi and closely watched her the entire time.[51]
Retirement
The Romanian government continued to restrict Comăneci from leaving Romania, aside from a few select trips to Moscow and Cuba.
Throughout her career, she had been subjected to round-the-clock surveillance at the hands of the Securitate secret police.[9] She had started thinking about retiring a few years earlier, but her official retirement ceremony took place in Bucharest in It was attended by the chairman of the International Olympic Committee.[31]
Comăneci later wrote in her memoir:
Life took on a new bleakness.
I was cut off from making the small amount of extra money that had really made a difference in my family's life. It was also insulting that a normal person in Romania had the chance to travel, whereas I could not when my gymnastics career was over, there was no longer any need to keep me happy. I was to do as I was instructed, just as I'd done my entire life….
If Béla hadn't defected, I would still have been watched, but his defection brought a spotlight on my life, and it was blinding. I started to feel like a prisoner.[50]
Personal life
On the night of November 27, , a few weeks before the Romanian revolution, Comăneci defected with a group of other Romanians, crossing the Hungary–Romania border around Cenad.
They were guided by Constantin Panait, a Romanian who later became an American citizen after defecting. Their journey was mostly on foot and at night. They traveled through Hungary and Austria and finally were able to take a plane to the United States.[18][32][52][53]
Comăneci moved to Oklahoma in to help her friend Bart Conner, another Olympic gold medalist, with his gymnastics school.
She lived with the family of Paul Ziert and eventually hired him as her manager.[54] Comăneci and Conner were together for four years before they became engaged, marrying in [55] She returned to Romania for their wedding, which was held in Bucharest. This was after the fall of the Communist regime and the establishment of a democratic Romania; the government welcomed her as a national hero.
The wedding was televised live in Romania, and the couple's reception was held in the former presidential palace.[32][56] Comăneci became a naturalized US citizen in while retaining her Romanian citizenship.[57] In , the couple's son Dylan was born.[58][59]
On May 18, , Comăneci and Conner guest-starred on the season 3 finale of Touched by an Angel, titled "A Delicate Balance," where they performed a brief floor exercise within a montage scene.[60]
Since , the Nadia Comăneci International Invitational has welcomed gymnasts ranging from USAG level 4 to level The competition also hosted international elite competition in the mids, with Rebeca Andrade being a notable attendee in among others.[61][62]
She was the featured speaker at the 50th annual Independence Day Naturalization Ceremony on July 4, , at Monticello, the first athlete invited to speak in the history of the ceremony.[63]
Leadership roles
Comăneci is a well-known figure in the world of gymnastics; she serves as the honorary president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, the honorary president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, the sports ambassador of Romania, and as a member of the International Gymnastics Federation Foundation.
She and Conner own the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy, the Perfect&#;10 Production Company, and several sports equipment shops, and are the editors of International Gymnast Magazine.[64][65]
She is also still involved with the Olympic Games. During the Summer Olympics in Athens, one of her perfect Montreal uneven bars routines was featured in a commercial for Adidas.[66] In addition, both Comăneci and her husband Bart Conner provided television commentary for the Summer Olympics in Beijing.[67] A few years later, on July 21, , Comăneci, along with former basketball star John Amaechi, carried the Olympic torch to the roof of the O2&#;Arena as part of the torch relay for the Summer Olympics in London.[68] Prior to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Comăneci appeared in a TIDE advertisement called "The Evolution of Power" with Simone Biles and three-time Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes.[69][70] She also offered daily analysis of the games (along with other Olympic champions such as Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis, and Conner), for the late-night show É Campeão, broadcast on Brazil's SporTV.[71] On July 26, , she participated in the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris, alongside past Olympians Carl Lewis, Serena Williams, and Rafael Nadal, carrying the Olympic flame in the final stages of the torch relay up the river Seine to the Louvre museum on its way to the lighting of the Olympic cauldron in the Tuileries Garden.[72]
In addition, Comăneci is highly involved in fundraising for a number of charities.
She personally funded the construction and operation of the Nadia Comăneci Children's Clinic in Bucharest that provides low-cost and free medical and social support to Romanian children.[31] In , the Romanian government appointed her as an honorary consul general of Romania to the United States to deal with bilateral relations between the two nations.[73] In addition, both Comăneci and Conner are involved with the Special Olympics.[74][75]
To raise money for charity, Comăneci participated in the celebrity version of Donald Trump's reality showThe Apprentice.
The biography of nadia comaneci Her performance at the Olympics redefined both her sport and audiences' expectations of female athletes. July 14, However, the audience quickly understood the significance of her score and greeted her with applause. Her hands speak there as much as her body.Comăneci was a member of "The Empresario" team (all women), which lost to "The Hydra" team (all men) in the second episode. Trump responded to this loss by firing Comăneci,[76] Comăneci later commented on her participation in the show, saying she "had great fun. I only did it because it was all for charity."[77]
Honors and awards
Skills
"With her trademark verve, graceful delivery and unflickering precision, the year-old from Romania set the bar to which future generations of gymnasts would aspire."
–Lost art: Powerhouse physiques winning out over spellbinding grace, The Herald, [6]
Comăneci was known for her clean technique, innovative and difficult original skills, and her stoic, cool demeanor in competition.[21][92][93] On the balance beam, she was the first gymnast to successfully perform an aerial cartwheel-back handspring series.
She is also credited as being the first gymnast to perform a double-twist dismount.[21][92] Her skills on the floor exercise included a tucked double back salto and a double twist.[92]
Comăneci has two eponymous uneven bars skills listed in the Code of Points, the Comăneci salto and the Comăneci dismount.[94]
| Apparatus | Name | Description | Difficulty[b] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uneven bars | Comăneci | Front support on high bar – cast with salto forward straddled to hang on high bar | E |
| Uneven bars | Comăneci | Underswing with ½ turn (°) to salto backward tucked or piked | C |