Nadia Comaneci Research Paper

Nadia Comaneci was a gymnast who competed in the 1976 Montreal olympics. She changed the world of gymnastics along with how women were viewed. Without Nadia, gymnastics might still be an unknown sport to most. She is revolutionary because she brought popularity to the sport, refined the standards of gymnastics, and she gave women everywhere the courage to do what they want. Nadia Comaneci made gymnastics more well known because she scored a perfect 10 in the Olympic Games, she joined a sport mainly for boys, and she inspired many to join gymnastics. The first night of the Olympics, she scored a perfect 10 on bars along with a 9.9 on beam (Nordheim). On the following night, Nadia received a 10 on both bars and beam (Nordheim). When the Olympics were over, she had gotten a total of 7 perfect scores (“Nadia Comaneci”). This made more people watch the olympics because

The new techniques introduced by Nadia were grace, confidence, and strength (Mattern). Grace gave each movement in a routine a certain fluidity that it didn’t have before. Confidence helped to show proudness in a gymnast’s routine. Strength made the skills faster and more powerful. These 3 techniques are what gymnastics is judged on today. Her new ways of doing things are still around to this day. In addition, she introduced new skills such as the salto Comaneci and a 3 backhandspring beam series (“Nadia Comaneci”). Those skills made for more difficult competition and allowed gymnasts to get to a higher level than previously accomplishable. Nadia changed how gymnasts were viewed (Atkin). Gymnasts today are compared to her. After the ‘76 olympics in Montreal, Canada was filled with “little Nadias” (Cayouette). Cayouette was saying that Canada was springing with new gymnasts inspired by Nadia. The standards of gymnastics were changed for the better due to Nadia