July 18, 1976, Montreal Olympic Games, women's gymnastics team final.
Nadia Komaneć finished the game on high and low bars, and the scoreboard showed her score of 1.00.
"When I landed, I thought it was okay to get a 9.9." Komanech recalls, "I was already thinking about my next project, the balance beam, when I suddenly heard a noise and saw the number 1 flashing. I glanced at my teammate and shrugged, 'What's going on?' She laughed, 'I think you got 10 points.' ’”
Since 1932, Omega has been providing technical services for the timing and scoring of the Olympic Games. Before the Montreal Olympics, they contacted the IOC to ask if they needed to upgrade the scoreboard from three digits to four digits, which would show a score of 10.00. The reply was that there was no need because no one could get a perfect score. The IOC apparently didn't do its homework, and in the inaugural American Cup, held just before the Olympics, Comanech scored two perfect points in vault preliminaries and individual all-around free gymnastics.

The soviet coach protested, arguing that Komanech was not standing when he landed. Komaneć was bored: "I know this set is flawless, it has been done 15 times before. ”
Komaneć quickly proved that it was no accident that she won the first perfect score in Olympic history, and in the following competitions she scored three 10 points each on uneven bars and balance beams, winning three golds, one silver and one bronze.
The Guardian commented: "She doesn't look like a person at all. ”
When the mother sent Comanech to the gymnastics room, she had no idea that her daughter would become an Olympic champion. From the age of 6, Komanec trained with the Bella-Carlos. As a former junior boxing champion and chainball national, Carlo's training style is controversial, with many calling his boarding school a devil's concentration camp, but Komanech quickly came out on top.
"Because I was so energetic, my mother found me a crazy place to play in the gym." "Since I was about 9 years old, I flew all over the world to compete," Komaneć said. A lot of kids in Romania haven't even crossed the other side of the river, and I've learned English, French, and made a lot of friends. I was full of longing and never thought I would do anything else. ”
At the age of 9, Komaneć became the youngest national champion in Romania and began competing in the senior group at the age of 13. The Guardian was quick to notice the little girl with unlimited potential: "13-year-old Nadia Komaneć is still too young, not psychologically mature enough to be a perfect gymnast, but give her a year or two, this Romanian girl has a bright future." ”
At the Montreal Olympics, Comaneć was a god in one battle. "Everyone was amazed that a 14-year-old girl could reach such a level, but I didn't realize that I had achieved such an extraordinary achievement at this age."
The return of honor and greeting Komaneć was a grand welcome ceremony. "I was supposed to walk down the escalator with the whole team," Komaneć recalls, "and there were probably more than 10,000 people at the airport at the time, far exceeding my expectations." I was frightened and hurried into the cabin. ”
Komanec went to the altar to become a goddess of the people, and was even more regarded as romania's national hero, and President Ceausescu awarded her the Gold Medal for The Hero of Socialist Labor, and the price of fame was that she could no longer train as usual, constantly attending state banquets, visiting dignitaries, and exhausted.
In 1977, Comanec defended her title at the European Championships, but her score was questioned. An enraged Ceausescu ordered the Romanian team to retire and send his own private jet to take the gymnastics team back to Bucharest, a decision in which Komanec's mentor Carloy expressed dissatisfaction with the decision and left the team.
Back in Bucharest, The quality of Komaneć's training was not guaranteed, her weight soared, and coupled with the blow of her parents' divorce, she once wanted to give up gymnastics. There were reports that Komanech had committed suicide by taking bleach, and years later she debunked rumors that she had just taken shampoo by mistake and that she was happy that she didn't have to train during the two days of hospitalization.
Comanec seems to never return to the summer of her 14th birthday, where she grew 7 inches taller and weighed 21 pounds (about 9.5 kilograms) compared to the Montreal Olympics, and at the 1978 Strasbourg Championships, she won gold medals in the balance beam and silver medals in vaulting, but in the individual all-around competition, she fell off the high and low bars and finished fourth. For gymnastics, the disheartened Comanec intended to retire directly by 1980.
Seeing that Komanec was about to become a meteor, the Romanian government invited Carloi to come back to fight the fire. When She appeared in Tokyo in 1979, Komanech lost 10 pounds, the media described her as terriblely thin, and after getting a perfect score in free gymnastics, she gave up the idea of retiring and rekindled hope for the Olympics.
As a result of the U.S. leading the boycott, Romania declared the Moscow Olympics to be the first Olympics to belong entirely to a communist country, but Komaneć did not want to get involved in any political whirlpool, and she soberly realized that in the Soviet territory, competition was inevitable and even more brutal.
Four years ago in Montreal, there was a problem with the scoreboard, and four years later in Moscow, the referee who scored the score was controversial again.
When the individual all-around was on the final balance beam, Komaneć needed to score 9.95 points to defend her title, and her set of moves was not perfect, with two shakes.
After the match, the six referees engaged in heated discussions, which could not be agreed for 28 minutes, until the chairman of the International Gymnastics Technical Committee, East German Alan Berg, announced that Komanech's score was 9.85 points. As a result, host Alina Davedova won the championship, and Komanec tied for second place with another East German player.
Some argue that delaying Komaneć's scoring is to ensure that Davedova wins the title, while opponents insist that Before Komaneć began the balance beam match, Davedova's high and low bar scores had been released, the so-called conspiracy theory did not exist, and the score was delayed because the Romanian referee Mili Smolescu refused to rate Komaneć.
"A lot of people say, 'You didn't do well in 1980, what the hell is going on?' "Well, in fact, I took two gold medals and two silver medals, which I don't think was bad." ”
However, this controversial penalty overturned the dominoes that affected Komaneć's life, and the mentor Carloi was targeted everywhere after returning to China because of his public protest against the referee, which angered the Romanian authorities.
In 1981, the Carloys took advantage of the opportunity to tour the United States and sneaked away. During the American race, Carloi repeatedly hinted at Komanech, hoping to take her with him to defect, but was refused. Komanec said he didn't want to go anywhere but Romania.
After that, Komanec's life changed drastically, because the Romanian government secretly monitored her and restricted her from going abroad for fear of her following her mentor.
After the 1981 Universiade, Komaneć never appeared in international competitions. In early 1984, Komaneć officially announced his retirement, and IOC President Samaranch attended the ceremony and awarded her the Olympic Medal.
Comanec competed as an observer at the Los Angeles Olympics, when Carlo has become the coach of the U.S. Gymnastics team, with Mary Lou Layton, coached by him, the new king. Under close surveillance by the Romanian authorities, Komanec could only look at Carloi from a distance without saying a word.
In his autobiography, Comanech wrote: "Life has taken on a new bleak picture, and even the channels for extra money have been cut off, which has deeply affected my life." In Romania, ordinary people have the right to travel, but I do not, which is a great shame. After my gymnastics career, nothing made me happy. Following the instructions, this is my whole life. Even though Bella didn't defect, I was monitored, but his defection brought my life into focus, overwhelmed, and I felt like a prisoner. ”
In November 1989, Komaneć trekked for 6 hours through the muddy woods, fleeing from the border to Hungary and then into Austria, where, after contacting the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, she was granted status as a political refugee and boarded a flight to New York.
Soon after, Ceausescu's regime was overthrown, and Komanec still did not flee the tiger's mouth, and as soon as she arrived in the United States, she was imprisoned by Constantine Panat, who helped her escape, and later struggled to escape with the help of a Romanian couple. After several twists and turns, bart-Connor, an old acquaintance, contacted Komanech.
The first time the two met was in the 1976 American Cup, and on the podium, at the instigation of the photographer, Connor kissed Comanech on the cheek, leaving a warm group photo. On a trip to the United States in 1981, When Carloy defected, Comanech met Connor again. "He's cute, jumping around on the bus, chatting with everyone, he looks friendly and funny."
With Connor's help, Komanech opened a gymnastics school, and the two went from being friends to lovers. In 1996, Komanec and Connor returned to Bucharest for a grand wedding at the Presidential Palace built in Ceausescu. "It became a day off, and no one in the whole country went to work." Komanech said.
Every year, Comanech and Connor host a three-day free experience for kids at their home in Oklahoma, with posters full of her photos from the 1976 Olympics.
Once in the elevator, a mother gently touched her daughter with her elbow: "Look, this is the real Nadia." The little girl stared at Komanech, then at her mother, with a look of shock on her face: "She is still alive." ”
Komanech had long been accustomed to his life being framed in that magical summer.
"One day I got a phone call and learned that the small town where I was born, Onesti, declared July 18 a public holiday because I scored my first 10 points at the Olympics that day. From now on, even if I die, that day will always remember the story of a little girl who kept flipping and eventually becoming the best gymnast in the world. For me, this is a great honor. ”