Nadia Comaneci

Born on November 12, 1961 in Onesti, Romania, Nadia Comaneci is the daughter of Gheorghe and Stefania Alexandria and has a younger brother named Adrian. Nadia Comaneci started her gymnastic career at age six. She trained 6 days a week and 4 hours each day under Coach B'©la K'¡rolyi. She started competing only after one year of training. She won first place in the National Junior Gymnastics Championship when she was only 8 years old. In 1971, as a member of the Romanian Gymnastics Team, she participated in her first international event, winning her first all-round gold title. Her fame escalated to international status when she won the all-around and gold medals on every single event except one at the European Championships in Skien. At age 14 she competed in the Summer Olympics in Montreal. She became the first in Olympic history to receive a perfect 10.0 score because of her uneven bar routine. She repeated the feat of perfect 10's six more times and went home with 3 gold medals, one silver and one bronze. She still holds the prestige of being the youngest Olympic all-around champion ever. She was awarded 'Hero of Socialist Labor', the highest honor in Romania, for her amazing performance at the Olympics. She returned to the Olympics in 1980 at Moscow where she won 2 gold and 2 silver medals. Nadia Comaneci retired in 1981, her last game being the University Games where she won gold medals. She started coaching the Romanian Gymnastics Team thereafter for a few years. She defected from Romania in 1989 and came to US where she eventually married Bart Conners another Olympic champion. Their humble abode is in Norman, Oklahoma where they run a gymnastics school.