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It was the era that little girls learnt to fly; the arena that Nadia Comaneci flew into and shocked the Russian ladies. For at that time gymnastics was a sport for older girls, the ones with fully developed breasts, hips and bones with only limited flexibility.
The ladies could only swing around the bars, while the kids could perform tricks between them. While classical ballet styled routines ruled the floor exercise, they kids flipped them into tumbling displays linked with dynamic dance. It was no wonder the younger generation stole the show. How did this dramatic pirouette in gymnastics come about, and was Nadia Comaneci the catalyst or the by product of this flip in the sport?
The story begins with her young and enthusiastic coaches, Martha and Bela Karolyi who wanted to provide exercise programs for the kids of remote mining towns in Romania. These towns produced tough kids and they needed an outlet for their energy. At first it was track and field races, but then the Karolyi’s decided to provide gymnastics classes for the younger girls and this is where, Martha, as a former gymnast, and Bela, as well seasoned athlete, discovered an untapped source as rich as the mining veins around them.
These ‘bugs’ as the coaches fondly referred to them just wanted to push hard and fly. They were not concerned about body image or boyfriends but more about fun, and the Karolyis, while pushing the kids to their limits, loved to have fun.
Soon the kids, Nadia, included, who they found in a school kindergarten, were competing at the same events as the top Romanian gymnasts. The Federation of Gymnastics in Romania found their top breed of girls threatened by a very unlikely source and applied pressure to the Karolyi’s team to prevent them from competing or winning.
The federation succeeded in neither and the girls continued their medal blitz across the country, the continent and the world with the 1976 Olympic Games marking the historical turning point in gymnastics. It was the first time a gymnast had ever scored a perfect 10.0, and the one who performed perfection was Nadia Comaneci.
With this perfection came the end of an era in gymnastics, and it was the end of the era for the Karolyi’s existence in Romania as tension between them and the Romanian Federation escalated. Within a few years they were forced immigrate to America where they eventually founded another gymnasium with more ‘bugs’ to train for the Olympics, and thus began another era in a very dramatic and intense sport.
For further information on this highly abridged story, read Mary Lou – Creating an Olympic Champion by Mary Lou Retton, Bela Karolyi and John Powers.
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