{"id":"2979","title":"Olympic lookback: Perfection and persistence in Montreal, 1976","summary":"The revolution in Women\u2019s Gymnastics, started by a 17-year-old in 1972, was concluded by a 14-year-old in 1976.","category":"sport","content":"<p><strong>The revolution in Women&rsquo;s Gymnastics, started by a 17-year-old in 1972, was concluded by a 14-year-old in 1976.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"video-container\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.olympicchannel.com\/video\/syndicated\/detail\/olympic-gymnastics-lookback-montreal-1976?partner_name=www.gymnastics.sport&amp;partnerdomain=www.gymnastics.sport\" width=\"950\" height=\"679\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><br \/>Highlights from the Montreal 1976 Olympic Games<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On July 17, the day when the Olympic Games in which she would sweep away all the old standards for excellence in her sport began, <strong>Nadia Comaneci<\/strong> (ROU) was 14 and a half years old. And if the wider world was shocked by her domination of the Women&rsquo;s Gymnastics competition at the Games, the Gymnastics world was not: Comaneci had appeared on their radars the year before, winning four gold medals - everything except Floor Exercise, where she took silver - at the European Championships in Skien (NOR) in the kind of rout that showed what she was capable of.<\/p>\n<p>Skien was not the only foreshadowing Comaneci did before the Games. At the &ldquo;International Competitions Montreal 1975,&rdquo; a pre-Olympic test event in the Olympic city later that year, the new European champion took the title. At the inaugural American Cup in Madison Square Garden four months before the Games, she stunned commentators by earning a perfect 10 on Floor Exercise, where she became one of the first female gymnasts ever to throw a double back tuck salto.<\/p>\n<p>Not only was the young Romanian at the forefront of the difficulty that had been blossoming since Soviet&nbsp;<strong>Olga Korbut<\/strong>&rsquo;s daredevil antics in Munich in 1972, the purity of her technique astounded even the judges, a panel of experts used to finding fault.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><img src=\"https:\/\/administration.gymnastics.sport\/news\/20201016100720637.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Women's individual All-Around medal Ceremony. <\/em><br \/><em>Nellie Kim (URS) 2nd, Nadia Comaneci (ROM) 1st and Lyudmila Turischeva (URS) 3rd.<\/em><br \/><em>&copy; 1976 International Olympic Committee<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>The score seen around the world<\/h3>\n<p>Nevertheless, the first perfect 10 in modern Olympic history caught everyone off guard, because it came on a compulsory exercise. On the first day of competition in Montreal, Comaneci anchored the Romanian effort on the Uneven Bars, following&nbsp;<strong>Teodora Ungureanu<\/strong>, whose excellent routine had earned a 9.9. Comaneci was even better, and though not technically perfect - a small shuffle forward on the landing of her dismount is visible - the judges, needing a way to differentiate her superiority to the routine that came prior, gave her a 10.<\/p>\n<p>Or as the scoreboard, only capable of single-digit scores, was forced to flash it, a 1.00. Not even the timekeepers were prepared for the possibility of perfection. Despite the evidence that something extraordinary had been brewing in Gymnastics, nobody was prepared for Nadia Comaneci, except Nadia Comaneci herself.<\/p>\n<p>As the crowd inside the Montreal Forum erupted in shock and awe, Comaneci accepted her score with graceful nonchalance. Applauded even by her competitors on the competition floor, she returned to the Uneven Bars podium for a brief bow, waved to the crowd, went back down the steps and marched off to conquer the Balance Beam.<\/p>\n<p>And that was only the beginning. Over the course of the next seven days, 1.00 would flash on the scoreboard another six times for Comaneci, whose five medals, including golds in the All-Around and on Uneven Bars and Balance Beam, made her the undisputed star of the Games.<\/p>\n<p>In Munich four years earlier, Korbut had astonished the world with her daring new skills. Comaneci took things even further, introducing never-before-seen combinations of flips on the balance beam (Korbut had done one), and a simple but courageous salto release on the Uneven Bars, flightier and even flashier than Korbut&rsquo;s.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Her exploits even eclipsed the collective greatness of the Soviet women&rsquo;s team, which captured its seventh consecutive team gold on the efforts of six remarkable gymnasts, including Korbut, 1972 All-Around gold medalist <strong>Lyudmila Tourischeva<\/strong>, and Olympic debutant <strong>Nellie Kim<\/strong>, whose own pair of perfect 10s translated to golds on Vault and Floor Exercise, plus silver in the All-Around.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The &ldquo;Nadia effect&rdquo; on Gymnastics<\/h3>\n<p>With its effusive, glowing review of Comaneci&rsquo;s performances, the normally staid Official Olympic Report illustrates how far Comaneci&rsquo;s charm penetrated. &ldquo;Crowned queen of women&rsquo;s gymnastics, she conquered the world with her brilliant performances,&rdquo; it reads. &ldquo;Nadia&rsquo;s name was on everyone&rsquo;s lips, on radio, and on television. This short first name captivated the world and even became a street name in some cities following the Games. The enthusiasm persisted well after Nadia&rsquo;s return to Romania, and many Canadian mothers, seeing their daughters as future Nadias, began storming the gymnastic clubs.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>And not just the Canadian mothers. From the second the scoreboard emitted the first 1.00, everything Nadia Comaneci was - youthful, and light - became the new standard for all that was good in Gymnastics. She did not start the trend of younger, lighter gymnasts, but more than anyone else she showed the results that it could yield. The &ldquo;Nadia effect&rdquo; would shape the sport for the next 40 years.<\/p>\n<h3>Fading dynasty for Japan, a new dawn for the USSR<\/h3>\n<p>&ldquo;The excitement aroused by women&rsquo;s gymnastics somewhat overshadowed the men&rsquo;s competition,&rdquo; the Olympic Report noted somewhat drily, but there is no doubt which was the more suspenseful of the two.<\/p>\n<p>For four consecutive Olympiads, the Japanese men had reigned supreme in the team competition, and the Soviets had settled for second place. Now, with Soviet team leader <strong>Nikolai Andrianov<\/strong> at the height of his powers, the tide was finally turning, but the Japanese were still determined to make it a fight. Trailing the Soviets by half a point after the compulsory round, they pulled out all the stops to capture the gold during the optional portion.<\/p>\n<p>The competition has been boiled down to a single performance, indicative of both the Japanese team&rsquo;s courage and desperation. <strong>Shun Fujimoto<\/strong> broke his kneecap at the end of his Floor Exercise routine at the beginning of the optional part of the meet.<\/p>\n<p>In extreme pain, Fujimoto soldiered on without revealing the extent of his injury to his teammates, whom he did not want to distract. He contributed a 9.5 score on Pommel Horse and a much-needed 9.7 on Rings, where he dismounted from eight feet up onto the broken knee, tearing the ligaments in his leg further as he landed. Only then did it become clear to all how injured he really was. &ldquo;The pain went through me like a knife,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff;\">Japan finished by edging the Soviet Union for gold by a mere 0.4. Asked years later whether he would do it again, Fujimoto, who still limps today, responded with a single sentence: &ldquo;No, I would not.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center;\"><img src=\"https:\/\/administration.gymnastics.sport\/news\/20201016101183550.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100%\" \/><\/h3>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Men's team competition medal Ceremony.<br \/>Shunji Fujimoto, Hisato Igarashi, Hiroshi Kajiyama, Sawao Kato, Eizo Kenmotsu, Mitsuo Tsukahara.<br \/>&copy; 1976 International Olympic Committee<br \/><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>The way of the future<\/h3>\n<p>If he could not engineer team gold, Andrianov did prove himself the best individual competitor in Montreal, taking the All-Around title back from the Japanese for the first time since 1960. As usual, the top of the leaderboard was awash in Japanese and Soviet flags. <strong>Sawao Kato<\/strong>, the reigning Olympic champion from 1968 and 1972, settled for silver, but it was not close; Kato finished a point behind the powerful Andrianov.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mitsuo Tsukahara<\/strong>, whose daring on Vault had already made him famous, achieved a personal best in the Olympic All-Around with bronze and added another gold on the Horizontal Bar. Andrianov avenged the Soviet team by winning another three golds in apparatus finals, leaving only Pommel Horse, won by <strong>Zoltan Magya<\/strong>r (HUN) and Parallel Bars, which provided Kato with a final gold, up for grabs.<\/p>\n<p>In fourth place was another far lesser known Soviet: <strong>Alexandr Dityatin<\/strong>, who distinguished himself with an individual silver on Rings. Schooled in Montreal by the old lions of Men&rsquo;s Gymnastics, 18-year-old Dityatin watched and learned. Moscow, not Montreal, would be where he showed his greatness.<\/p>","publication":"2020-10-16 10:38:00","press_release":"0","url":"2979390","events":[{"hasresults":false,"id":15742,"startevent":"1976-07-17","endevent":"1976-08-01","status":"approved","title":"Games of the XXI Olympiad","city":{"name":"MONTREAL","country":{"code":"CAN"}},"disciplines":[{"id":2,"idOfficialDiscipline":2,"code":"MAG"},{"id":3,"idOfficialDiscipline":3,"code":"WAG"}]},{"hasresults":false,"id":15743,"startevent":"1972-08-26","endevent":"1972-09-11","status":"approved","title":" Games of the XX Olympiad","city":{"name":"MUNICH","country":{"code":"GER"}},"disciplines":[{"id":2,"idOfficialDiscipline":2,"code":"MAG"},{"id":3,"idOfficialDiscipline":3,"code":"WAG"}]}],"relateddisciplines":[{"id":"2","code":"MAG","name":"Men's Artistic Gymnastics"},{"id":"3","code":"WAG","name":"Women's Artistic Gymnastics"}],"keywords":[{"id":"40","value":"Women's Artistic Gymnastics"},{"id":"49","value":"Men's Artistic Gymnastics"},{"id":"695","value":"Montreal"},{"id":"1640","value":"Olympic Lookback"},{"id":"1726","value":"MAG History"},{"id":"1730","value":"WAG History"}],"read":6}