In 1976, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, history was made. Nadia Comăneci, a Romanian gymnast with only an age of 14, scored a perfect 10 on the uneven parallel bars during the team part of the competition. This was the first time the score of 10 had been awarded. However, she would get another 6 perfect tens until the end of the Games, taking the gold medals for individual all-around, balance beams and uneven bars.
She holds the record for the youngest Olympic gymnastics all-around champion, a record poised to stay forever as the minimum age for gymnastics was later changed to 16.
Here is a video of her first perfect 10, followed by another perfect uneven bars performance at the same 1976 Montreal Olympics.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:10 am
[...] her life’s dream. She left home and family to be coached by Bela Karolyi (who also coached Nadia Comăneci some years before). With only an age of 18, at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, the first team [...]