Romania s Nadia Comaneci was the star of the Montreal Olympics in 1976 when she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10.0. 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". Comaneci first achieved her perfect 10 on the uneven1 parallel bars in 1976 and the judges awarded her the maximum mark seven times during the Games.
The 14-year-old Romanian dazzled2 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!
The media needed someone to step up and become the darling of the Montreal Olympics, much like Olga Korbut had four years earlier with three golds in Munich. Korbut was back in 1976 but was really only the third-best gymnast on the powerful Soviet3 squad4 behind teammates Nelli Kim and Ludmila Turishcheva. Comaneci was supposed to contend5 with the Russian juggernaut but no one, including coach Bela Karolyi could have imagined what was to come.
There are a total of six events in women s gymnastics, five individual and one all-around team event. Comaneci took home a total of five medals - three golds, one silver, and one bronze.
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.
