Little Nadia vaults to Olympic history
Broadcast Date: July 19, 1976
It is a world first. Standing four feet 11 1/2 inches tall, weighing 86 pounds, a 14-year-old Romanian vaults into the history books on July 18, 1976.
It's just before noon at the Olympic Games in Montreal when Nadia Elena Comaneci becomes the first gymnast ever to score a perfect 10. It happens on the uneven parallel bars. And 'little Nadia' would go on to score six more perfect 10s before the end of the Olympics.
She becomes an immediate media darling. In this clip, CBC's Peter Gzowski, recounts watching the shy, ponytailed teenager make history at the Montreal Forum. Comaneci receives a total of seven perfect 10s; three gold medals (uneven bars, balance beam, all-around), one silver (team) and one bronze (floor exercise) at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Her accomplishments would inspire a generation of youngsters to sign up for gymnastics.
Little Nadia vaults to Olympic history
• Nadia Comaneci was born in 1961 in Onesti, Romania.• Comaneci was hand-picked by renowned Romanian gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi.
• She competed in the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, winning two gold medals (beam and floor) and a silver (vault).
• Comaneci defected to the United States in 1989.
• Comaneci lives in Norman, Okla., where she runs a gymnastics academy with her husband Bart Conner, who is also a former Olympic gymnast.
• The music for the popular soap opera The Young and the Restless was renamed Nadia's Theme after she used it for her floor exercise.
Also on July 18:
• 1926: Author Margaret Laurence is born in Neepawa, Man. She would write books of short stories and two important novels to Canadian literature: "The Diviners" and "The Stone Angel."
• 1993: Scarborough's Paul Tracy becomes the first Canadian to win the Toronto Indy-car race. He wins it again in 2003.
• 1997:DNA tests clear David Milgaard of the 1969 sexual assault and fatal stabbing of Saskatoon nursing aide Gail Miller. Milgaard served 23 years in prison for the crime.
Little Nadia vaults to Olympic history
Medium: Radio
Program: Olympic Magazine
Broadcast Date: July 19, 1976
Host: Peter Gzowski
Duration: 7:14
Photo: Paul Vathis/Associated Press
Last updated:
July 8, 2008
Little Nadia vaults to Olympic history.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: July 8, 2008.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]