Romania legend's homecoming inspires hope

In the small Romanian town of Onesti on May 31, people chanted Nadia Comaneci's name as the gymnast, who received the first perfect 10 in Olympic history, returned home 50 years after the feat.

Dozens of people congregated at the apartment building where she used to live for a chance to take a photo of the 64-year-old, some of them calling her "our neighbor".

The former athlete recounted her life as a kid who had to wake up early and train hard to become a champion.

"It's an important year for everyone to push a restart button for movement, sport, health, independence, to learn how to navigate through life and to discover your limits," Comaneci told some 150 kids earlier in the day at a gymnastics competition, which she attended.

Comaneci — who received seven perfect scores at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal to become a hero in Romania — showed them how to do some stretches and encouraged the adults present to move as well.

In stark contrast to its glory days, Romania has sent a vastly reduced number of gymnasts to recent Olympics.

The results have reflected this, as the country went 12 years without an Olympic medal — its athletes returned home with three from London in 2012 and garnered a bronze in Paris in 2024.

Hopes for a revival of the sport in Onesti have been rekindled with celebrations of the 50-year anniversary of the first perfect 10 and Comaneci's visit.

In May, the central government approved an investment of 23 million euros ($26.7m) into the town's gymnastics club, where Comaneci started her career.

The project includes new accommodation for the gymnasts, fresh and salt water pools and a gymnastics museum.

Dreaming of another Comaneci

The town of 34,000 inhabitants used to have a very successful club, which was founded during Comaneci's time and delivered winning results up until the 2000s.

Then there was a decline, as funding decreased and coaches emigrated to western Europe, the United States or Australia.

Gymnastics stars such as Comaneci have brought Romania 73 Olympic medals.

The last of its three team gold medals dates back to 2004.

"We need to improve our coaches, we need to support our athletes, and we need better training facilities," the club's director, Ingrid Istrate, told reporters.

"And, through the renovation of the club's complex, we will be able to provide all these conditions."

It could take some years — in one of the European Union's poorest countries where sporting facilities have long been underfunded and with a population of just 19 million people — but it might even lead to the discovery of a new Comaneci, she added.

"We're all dreaming of this."

The former gymnast has maintained strong ties with her home country.

After leaving Romania for the United States in 1989, she married American gymnast Bart Conner, with whom she works to promote gymnastics.

Istrate said Comaneci didn't just offer the club financial support, "she always opened a door, made a phone call and supported Onesti".

Conner accompanied her on the visit to her hometown.

Outside her old apartment building, Comaneci signed an autograph on a bench, adding a heart and the words: "I love you all".

"Onesti has a lot to offer, and we promise we'll be back," Comaneci later told a crowd of hundreds from a stage where she was feted with songs and dancing.

Festivities welcoming her return on May 31 included reuniting with her Montreal team and inaugurating a 15-minute trail called "The Path to Perfection", retracing the steps Comaneci took as a child from her apartment to the gym.

'World's best gymnast'

The gym, now called "Nadia Comaneci", which has a huge mosaic mural with nearly 500,000 pieces of marble depicting the athlete, is also to be modernized under the project to renovate the club.

It's there that young gymnasts like 14-year-old Adelina Badic train.

"To me, Nadia Comaneci is the best gymnast in the world, and I would love to be like her," she said.

A bit disappointed that she could not compete in front of her idol because of a hand injury, Badic said she started doing gymnastics at the age of four after her mother noticed she needed a place to expend her energy.

It's the same motivation Comaneci had when she started at six.

Badic, who says she learned from Comaneci that "you can't get anywhere without hard work", trains six hours a day and dreams of competing in the next Olympics.

A younger colleague of hers, nine-year-old Natalia Ungurasu, was beaming after finishing third in the uneven bars competition.

It was her first podium and it happened in front of Comaneci.

"I have learned (from her) that anything we desire can be achieved through hard work," she said.

AFP