The world’s tiniest, youngest superstar

Press, 22 July 1976, Page 14

The world’s tiniest, youngest superstar

NZPA Montreal The diminutive Rumanian gymnast, Nadia Comaneci, is the world’s newest, youngest and tiniest superstar. At 14 years of age, she has already devoted more than half her lifetime to the sport that brought her to the Montreal Olympics to achieve the unbelievable—three perfect 10.0 scores. Ousted as the heroine of the bars and beam is the petite Russian, Olga Korbut, now 21, who created a worldwide wave of enthusiasm for gymnastics when she stunned the Munich crowds with her skills and elegance. The crowds still love Olga because of her brilliance and pixie appearance but they can’t resist Nadia. In Montreal, Olga is striving to retain her title as the world’s best gymnast and she

could lose it to the little Rumanian, who was plucked from a kindergarten at the age of six because she looked able to “explode with energy.” When she appears in the Montreal forum she constantly upstages the Russians and her own teammates.

On Tuesday Nadia gave the greatest performance in the history of the balance team to have the judges flash a historic 10.0 — a perfect score, her third in the Olympics.

At the other end of the hall Olga Korbut was competing on the bars. She glanced quickly over her shoulder then looked away. She knew what had happened but didn’t want the pressure of thinking about it. Later she crashed to the floor when attempting a double back flip in the floor exercises.

It is a tough, competitive world for such youngsters, but they handle it with the same ease they show in contorting their supple bodies into exercises that old gymnasts cannot emulate. Adulation from the crowd is something Nadia has known and calmly accepted all her life since the Rumanian gymnastics coach, Mr Bela Karoly discovered her when he visited the kindergarten she attended. Karoly looks for children able to “explode with energy.” “They must have strength and vigor. And even at that age they show the attributes of good gymnasts,” he said. At 14 years of age — 15 in November — Nadia stands just a touch under five feet and weighs only 83 pounds. Pony-tail bobbing, she smiles when the world press asks about her private life but admits that she does have friends “and some are boys.” But gymnastics is her joy after she finishes her daily studies in the ninth grade at school where she specialises in languages. Three or four hours a day she practices on the mats, the bars, the beam and vaulting horse. Her diet,- like that of al! the Rumanian gymnasts, is carefully controlled and is based on fruit, milk, cheese and protein. Sugar and bread are eliminated.

In action on the high bars, she looks light and fragile, and the crowds hush, willing her to succeed in some new daring. She flips effortlessly through an unending series of fluid movements then somersaults to the ground without a falter.

The crowd erupts, the judges vote and an Olympic first perfect score is recorded. The Montreal results computer had to be frantically adjusted to accommodate the 10.0, as officials had been assured it was impossible. Already high figures for Korbut and others made a perfect score almost a certainty for Comenaci when she performed even better. Nadia believes her toughtest competition will come from her friend, Teodora Ungureanu, 15, whom she has known for about five years. Teodora won the tournament of champions in London this year and generally in competition is only points away in second place to Nadia. The individual competitions start tomorrow morning and the Rumanians, led by Nadia and Teodora,

will be up against Russia’s Korbut, Nelli Kim, Ludmilla Turescheva and Maria Filatova.

A slip or a stumble can end an Olympic hope, but Nadia Comaneci has no qualms — "I think I will win the gold medal,” she says. She probably will.