July 18, 2008
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 |