Most 10 scores at Olympics: world record set by Nadia Comaneci
    July 18, 2008
  Most                10 scores at Olympics: world record set by Nadia Comaneci
[July                18] MONTREAL, Canada--With a total of seven perfect ten scores at                Montreal 1976 Games, Olympic legend Nadia Comaneci set a world record                for the most 10 scores at a single edition of the Olympic Games.                She captured the hearts of the world and became the first gymnast                in history to know what it's like to be perfect- setting also the world record for the first award of a score of perfect 10 at an Olympics Games gymnastic event.
   World Record Academy will send to Nadia a special                Gold-Sealed World Record Certificate and her name will be listed                for ever in all our future Book of World Recordss.    July                18 is also declared by the Records Academy as the World's Records                Day, a day to remember one of the most beautiful evolution in the                history of Olympics.
    Before 1976, no male or female had ever received                a perfect score in any Olympic gymnastics event. And then came Nadia                Comaneci, all 4-foot-11, 86 pounds of her.
    The 14-year-old Romanian dazzled the judges in                Montreal to the point where they couldn't help but give her a perfect                10.
   And they didn't stop there, for not only did Comaneci                receive the first perfect score, she then proceeded to get six more!                ABC Television set her performance to music, using a theme from                a popular American soap opera, and the song was eventually renamed                "Nadia's Theme".
   Times magazine posted huge photo of Nadia in front                cover page, "She's Perfect!" with a very small photo of the the                first photo of Mars... 14 years old Nadia Comaneci became the only                person shown in the cover page of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated                magainzes at the same time, not to mentioned millions of press and                magazines covers around the world.
   The                record breaking moment came with Comaneci's performance on the uneven                bars. However, the judging equipment was not equipped to display                the four digits of a 10.00 score, so the scoreboard simply showed                1.00.
   The crowd soon understood the meaning of the score                when the announcer declared, "Ladies and gentleman, for the first                time in Olympic history, Nadia Comaneci has received the score of                a perfect ten," reported Septima Green in Top 10 Women Gymnasts.The                perfect gymnast bitting the perfect machine!
   Nadia                Comaneci earned a total of seven perfect ten scores at those Olympic                Games. She won three gold medals for the all-around competition,                uneven bars, and balance beam. She also won a silver medal for the                team competition and a bronze medal for the floor exercise.
    Four of her seven perfect scores, including the                first one, came on the uneven bars, which as you might imagine,                was one of the three events Comaneci struck gold. But it was on                the balance beam that she truly showed off her skill. The beam is                considered one of the most difficult Olympic events, with gymnasts                performing pirouettes and backflips on a beam measuring just four                inches across. All Nadia did was record three more perfect scores                and her second gold medal.
    Comaneci became the first Romanian to win the                all-around title and she was also the youngest all-around champion                at 14 years old.
   Once                Comaneci broke the barrier, it became easier over the years. Then,                after the 1992 Olympics, those 10s disappeared. Not one has been                scored in major international competition since.
   Bela Karolyi, maybe the most internationally famous                coach and booster of the sport, believes that maybe a perfect 10                is really more than just a number. "It gives the flavour and spice                to the sport that we need so much. Just the recognition of the performance,"                he said.
    That                moment almost surely won't be repeated this year, or anytime soon.                The perfect 10 has slowly, perhaps sadly, filtered its way out of                gymnastics, a victim of increased difficulty in events, tougher                judging and, some critics say, maybe some hard-headedness and ignorance                among those who run it.
    "Actually, I think they thought there were too                many 10 scores," said Karolyi who, along with her husband Bela,                coached Comaneci and Retton during their perfect-10 moments.
   Where perfection used to be something that could be                sensed or felt, as well as seen, it is now something that must be                measured according to the rules of the very strict, very long, very                complex Code of Points to which each judge and gymnast must adhere.
    In the past, gymnasts used to strive for a perfect                10; these days, they strive to develop a routine with a "start value"                of 10, meaning it could conceivably earn a perfect score if it were                done flawlessly.
    U.S. champion Carly Patterson said no gymnast                she knows ever goes out there thinking about scoring a 10 these                days. "You'd have to be beyond perfect," she said.
    
   In 1989, Nadia Comaneci defected from Romania                and settled in North America. She has since married American Olympic                gymnastic medallist Bart Conner.
   Comaneci is active in many charities and international                organizations. In 1999, she became the first athlete to be invited                to speak at the United Nations to launch the Year 2000 International                Year of Volunteers. She is currently the Vice-Chair of the Board                Of Directors of the International Special Olympics and Vice President                of the Board of Directors of the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
    In the world of gymnastics, Nadia Comaneci is the Honorary President of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, the                Honorary President of Romanian Olympic Committee, Ambassador of                Sports of Romania and a member of the International Gymnastics Federation                Foundation.
   In 2006, Thirty years after Romanian gymnast Nadia                Comaneci wowed Olympic judges at the Montreal Olympics, a tribute                to that "Perfect                10" performance, made by "ShanFan" (Heather Gibson)-a                US gymnastics fan, has been beamed toward the stars via the Deep                Space Communications Network.
    Deep Space general manager Jim Lewis said                in the news release. "The way we see it, if there is someone out                there receiving radio waves from this planet, Earth is getting some                pretty bad press. Basically, they'd be seeing what we're seeing                on the evening news: war, famine, strife and struggle. Perhaps now                they will see there is also unmatched beauty and grace on our little                green ball as well."
    Nadia's husband for Sports Illustrated: "Everyone                wants to remember her as this 14 -year-old, ponytailed little girl.                She's not that anymore."
   ...But for those who saw her in '76, she always will                be.