The living Legend of Modern Gymnastics,NADIA COMANECI
                       
The world's first perfect gymnast
By BRUCE LOWITT
© St. Petersburg Times,
published November 10, 1999

The silence was broken only by the sounds of clicking -- hundreds of cameras capturing the moment. What they caught was perfection.

Nadia Comaneci, the 14-year-old Romanian, arched in midair for an instant on her dismount from the uneven parallel bars, then the feet supporting her 4-foot-11, 86-pound body landed softly on the mat. The silence was shattered by an explosion of cheering and applause that, after a few seconds, turned to consternation. Flashing on the electronic scoreboard was 1.00. It took a moment for the 18,000 spectators at the Forum to realize that Comaneci had, in effect, outperformed modern technology (full story, click here) (excerpts re-printed with special permission of St.Petersburg Times)

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Photo credit, top left :Nadia-first 10 in gym history, Montreal 1976,©A.P.photo;Andreea Raducan, the star between 2000-2004 Olympics, ©photo courtesy Nils Bohl--nbpress.de ;....;Romania Team, Silver Medal at 2003 World Gymnastics Championships,©EPA