letters to a young gymnast nadia comăneci

More discussions about the sport and less defensiveness about mostly forgotten gossip would have strengthened this mentoring guide.Ĭopyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. According to newspaper reports at the time, Panait, married with four children, controlled her life and finances and was responsible for TV bookings where the gymnast appeared overweight and inappropriately dressed. Although Comaneci's descriptions of her harsh life in Romania (although far easier than most) under dictator Ceausescu are compelling, and her decision to defect in 1989 completely understandable, she does not acknowledge that the man who facilitated her escape, Constantin Panait, was anything other than a personal manager. She refutes the oft-repeated accusation that Karolyi abusively overworked his young gymnasts and further denies that she drank bleach when the Romanian government assigned her to another coach. Comaneci, however, devotes far too much space to discussing the controversies that dogged her career. When the author recounts her early years with legendary coach Bela Karolyi and details how his intensive training requirements plus her own determination led to her success, the text is engrossing. At the event she garnered several more medals. Romanian-born Comaneci took the sports world by storm when, at the age of 14, she was the first person in Olympic history to earn a perfect score in gymnastics.

From Publishers Weekly:Īlthough part of a mentoring series (Letters to a Young Lawyer Letters to a Young Chef etc.), this memoir is less about motivating aspiring gymnasts than justifying the author's life choices. She lives in Norman, Oklahoma, with her husband, American gymnast Bart Conner. Since defecting to the United States in 1989, she is an international spokesman for her sport as well as numerous charities.

Born in 1961 in Onesti, Romania, Nadia Comaneci made sports history during the 1976 Olympic Games by scoring the first perfect 10.00” in a gymnastics competition.

Letters to a young gymnast nadia comăneci