Nadia Elena Comaneci

Nadia Comaneci (www.google.ro )

When I think of a hero, I think of someone who has made a significant change, someone who fights to make a dream come true. Her strength and the fact that she worked hard to achieve her goals, made me choose Nadia Comaneci as my heroine. Nadia Elena Comaneci was a Romanian gymnast. She won three Olympic gold medals at the 1976 the Summer Olympics in Montreal, and two gold medals at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. Laureus World Sports Academy named her as one of the athletes of the century in 2000.

Nadia was the first female gymnast in modern Olympic gymnastics history who was awarded with a ten. When Olympics scoreboard showed 10.00 the crowd were at first confused, but soon understood and applauded her. Nadia Comaneci was born on November 12th, 1961 in a small town in Romania. From an early age, she showed passion, ability and talent for gymnastics. Starting at the age of 6, Nadia practiced very hard at a gymnastics school, commuting back and forth to see her parents. She was discovered by Bela Karolyi, who later became the Romanian gymnastics coach. Karolyi believed in Nadia's abilities and when she first competed in the national junior championships in 1969, coming on the 13th place, he knew that she could do better, and so she did, winning at the next year competition the 1st prize.

I appreciate Nadia for her courage, grace, hard work, accurate technique, innovative and difficult original exercises, ambition, and her strong, cool attitude in competitions. She had strength, speed, agility, but also intelligence and the power to concentrate. I like the fact that she never gave up, even when the results were under her expectations, on the contrary, she became more ambitious and continued the fight to get what she wanted. Nadia practiced gymnastics six days a week, four hours each day. That was a lot of practice for a six-year-old girl, considering that other girls of her age played with dolls at that time.

Nadia's life as a teenager was not easy, she worked hard every day together with her colleagues and lived far from home in a boarding school, in the other side of the country, where the school of gymnastics was located. While other teenagers were enjoying the charm of their age, she had to go to trainings and to go beyond the limits of an ordinary person. Later, she ran away from Romania and she didn't return before the communist regime had abolished. She continued her life in the USA and met there her future husband, Bart Conners, an Olympic gymnast as well. They have a little boy and are a very beautiful and happy family. Nadia continued her work as a coach, she and her husband running a gymnastics school, and also she has been involved in many charity and volunteering actions. As a professional gymnast, Nadia is the Honorary president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, Sports Ambassador of Romania, a member of the International Gymnastics Federation Foundation, and together with Bart own The Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy and the Perfect 10 Production Company.

To conclude, Nadia Comaneci is my heroine because of her devotion, persistence and strength, and because she made me realize that perfection can be achieved sometimes, but you really must work hard for it.