A biography for Nadia Comanecihasn’t been written yet.
“We used to exchange leotards with gymnasts from other countries. I don't remember who I got my most prized leotard from, but it was one with a lot of stars on it.”
“When I was 14, I had no pressure. I was a kid, and I didn't understand all the attention.”
“I have had a few turning points, the first day I entered a gymnastics school at age 6.”
“It was good to be a kid because I did not realise all the things that came with the success. Going to the Games, I was asked what I expected to do.”
“I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.”
“I like Oklahoma. It's a quiet place. You can work, and nobody disturbs you.”
“When you go out of your country and meet people, you get a wider perspective.”
“What can you know about life at 14? I have learned a lot since, but you learn slowly. You get hit by many things and try to make sense of it.”
“My marriage to my husband, Bart Conner in 1996 is my proudest personal moment.”
“In the '80 Olympics... people expected me to win. I was good enough to win, and I made a mistake and ended up second, which is pretty good, too.”
“When I got married in Bucharest, there were 10,000 people on the street. People didn't go to work that day. It was emotional to see how people care about you. I didn't expect that.”
“I couldn't do everything in the first or second day; it took me years to be able to get to the achievement that I've had. I wasn't perfect from the beginning.”
“Ceausescu thought I had only a few medals, but I have a room full of them in Bucharest, between 150-200 in all. They needed suitcases to haul them out.”
“It was my mother who got me involved in gymnastics, sending me to classes when I was six just to stop me doing back flips on the couch and destroying the furniture.”
“What makes me happy is the appreciation of people around me.”
“I always say I don't want to change anything in my life.”
“I did not even look at the scoreboard when my routine was done in 1976.”
“I hoped to win a medal and hoped it would be gold. I knew I was good but didn't know I would be the one to score something that had never been done before.”