The Perfect Gymnast

Nadia Comaneci,the  one name for perfection in Olympics gymnastic was our teenage icon.She wrote poetry with her body in the 1976Montreal Olympic games.The Romanian Gymnast really  conquered the sports  world with her enduring perfection.She was perfection matched with  dedication that made wonders in gymnastic history.The fourteen year gymnastic wonder,just made the whole world to stand attention to her perfect 10′. The uneven bar performance was something I could not comprehend at the age of fourteen.Same age as hers I wondered whether I could control my body as she tuned hers to get a perfect ten.We were from a small town in India and television was not so popular,the only way to know more about her was to scourge the sports magazine,and sports page of the newspaper.The radio elaborated on her unequalled performance but for visual description,the sport pages magazines and newspapers were the only source.We talked about her magical performance in school and among friends for almost weeks after the perfect score.We tried to imitate her somersaults and was met with serious reprimands from  our grandparents.According to the local lore,improper body exercise will only cause more damage than good.The perfect body Rhythm of Comaneci really fascinated us and we just adorned her picture,by pasting them on our note books.Comaneci at that time was a wonder girl for us teenagers,who could do magic with her supple physique.The uneven bar performance on July 18th1976 lasted in our memory as a gymnastic excellence of a fourteen year old teenage wonder from Romania.Later television made an entry in to our little state,and for gymnastic performance,the Romanian stars excellence was always showcased as the icon for enduring perfection of human excellence.Thus Nadia became an icon for unexpected perfection in gymnastic sporting history.The legendary scoreboard rating of one was a story that all newspapers carried on their front page.The ethereal looking teenager next  to it stated that anything can be achieved in sports if you have the dedication to match your talent.We who were situated in an Asian country shared her hopes and aspiration to excel like her in sports and win gold medals for our country.Some may find our teenage aspiration as a passing fancy but she by her brilliant performance  enticed a group of us to excel in our school sports.So Nadia  you were our teenage icon in a world where  media never exerted so much power as it does now.Hope such perfect excellence will happen once again in our Olympics.

Cover of Perfect Body