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This page is about Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton!! I wrote the story about Nadia but it is not finished so enjoy!!
Nadia Comaneci. To some she was just a gymnast, to others she was a hero. She made the difficult look easy. She changed history and made a dent in gymnastics records.
Her parents Gheorghe and Ştefania-Alexandrina Comaneci were watching a Russian film, the heroine of the movies name was Nadya shortened from Nadyezhda (which literally means hope). That was when her mother decided that was the name.
Born in Romania on November 12, 1961 she had a younger brother named Adrain. When Nadia was only 6 years old she began training with Bela Karolyi, already aiming for Olympic gold.
In 1970 she participated in her first ever international competition, she won the all round title and the prized gold medal. The years flew by and she competed all over in places like Hungary, Italy and Poland. When she was only 13, she competed in the European Championships in Skien, Norway, winning the all round medal, and placing a gold medal in every event except floor, which she placed second. Again in 1975 she competed in the "Champions All" competition and placed gold in vault, beam, bars and all round. At the Pre- Olympics she won all round, balance beam, silver on floor, vault and instead of her usual gold on bars she lost the gold to accomplished Soviet gymnast, Nellie Kim. Nellie began Nadia’s greatest rival for the next 5 years, but Nadia overcame Nellie for a moment in 1975 when she was awarded “athlete of the year”.
At age 14 in the 1976 Montreal Olympics she became a hero. She became her bar routine, adding her own release move a kip to front salto, this move was later named after her. Now only a small handful of international gymnasts can successfully perform the Comaneci. She amazed and everyone in only 26 seconds, winning the first ever perfect ten in Olympic history!
Inspired by watching Nadia Comăneci on television, Retton took up gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia. In 1982, she moved to Houston, Texas, to train under the Romanians Béla and Marta Károlyi, who had coached Nadia Comaneci before their defection to the United States. Under the Karolyis, Retton soon began to make a name for herself in the United States, winning the American Cup in 1983 and placing second to Dianne Durham (another Karolyi student) in the US Nationals in the same year. Retton, however, missed the World Championships in 1983 due to a wrist injury. Nevertheless, Retton managed to win the American Classic in 1983 and 1984, as well as Japan's prestigious Chunichi Cup in 1983.
After winning her second American Cup and the US Nationals and US Olympic Trials in 1984, Retton suffered a knee injury that forced her to undergo an operation. However, she recovered just in time for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In the competition - which was boycotted by most of the Soviet bloc nations except for Romania - Retton engaged in a close battle with Ecaterina Szabó of Romania for the all-around title, to the delight of the patriotic audience. Trailing Szabó (after bars and beam) with two events to go, Retton scored perfect 10s on floor exercise and vault to win the all-around title by just 0.050.
At the same Olympics, Retton won four additional medals: a silver in the team competition and the horse vault, and bronze in the floor exercise and uneven bars. For her performance, she was named Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportswoman of the Year" (shared with fellow American Edwin Moses). She is perhaps the most famous face to have appeared on a Wheaties box, and also the first woman to have done so. Her small stature led a wag at Sport magazine to comment that "Her life-size picture now appears on the Wheaties box."
