Nadia Gains Freedom--and Its Uncertainty

While Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci was on a tour of the United States in 1981, the two men who had the most impact on her career, her coach, Bela Karolyi, and her choreographer, Geza Pozsar, defected.

They said this week that they had considered asking Comaneci, who was 19 at the time, to join them, but decided against it--not because they feared that she would reject them, but because they feared that she would accept.

“We were about to face a very different future,” Karolyi said Friday by telephone from Stuttgart, West Germany, where he is coaching a team of U.S. women gymnasts in competition. “We had no assignments, no opportunities and no promises.

“We knew that we could not guarantee that she would be taken care of better than her family could take care of her in Romania. History proved that I was right. I didn’t have a regular job for six months. I took night jobs, cleaning restaurants and making pennies to carry me from one day to another.

“She had to go back and finish her career as a gymnast and her education. We knew that a few years later she would be mature enough to make a decision on her own.”

Only a few days past her 28th birthday, Comaneci made that decision this week. She crossed the Romanian border into Hungary Tuesday night and went to the U.S. Embassy in Vienna, where her request for political asylum was granted. Her freedom flight landed Friday in New York.

“I was always hoping that one of these days she was going to make this difficult step,” Karolyi said.

Now that she has made it, the question becomes what she will do next.

Karolyi speculated that when the State Department finishes its processing of her, she will become the responsibility of the U.S. Gymnastics Federation (USGF) in Indianapolis.

“I think they’re going to fly her down there for the interviews, press conferences, public appearances on ‘Good Morning, America,’ and all that stuff,” Karolyi said.

Then she can consider whether to accept Karolyi’s invitation to join him and his wife, Marta, in Houston, where they run one of the most prestigious gymnastics schools in the United States. Graduates include Mary Lou Retton and Phoebe Mills.

“My home and my gym are always open to her,” he said.

USGF officials said that they also are hoping for a visit from Comaneci. But despite Karolyi’s speculation, they said Friday that they had heard neither from her nor the State Department about her immediate plans.

“Like most of the rest of the world, we’re just bystanders,” said Patti Auer, a USGF spokesperson.

At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Comaneci gained fame by becoming the first gymnast to receive a perfect 10 from judges at a major international competition. By the time she finished that week, she had seven of them. She also had won three gold medals. Four years later at the Summer Olympics in Moscow, she won two gold medals.

She is considered a national treasure in Romania, where she became the youngest person ever designated as a Hero of Socialist Labor. Until recently, when her travel privileges were withdrawn, she was treated as a princess. In a country that has the lowest standard of living in the Eastern Bloc, she had a well-furnished apartment and a car.

But since her retirement from competition in 1984, she has not been merely a professional celebrity. Besides earning certification as an international judge, she also has been coaching at the junior level in Romania.

“I think she’s a very good teacher and could make a very good international coach,” said Agnes Mura, the envoy at the 1984 Summer Olympics from the L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee to the Romanian delegation, which included Comaneci. “She makes phenomenal observations about her sport. There’s a real talent there.”

If she decides to remain in coaching in the United States, Karolyi said that she should travel from school to school, conducting clinics to share her expertise with as many young gymnasts as possible.

“She should belong to everyone,” he said.

Auer said that the USGF is open to all possibilities. But regardless of how active a role Comaneci chooses to play, Auer said that she believes that the sport in the United States will benefit from her mere presence.

“There are no gymnasts out there who don’t know who Nadia is,” Auer said. “She’s like Olga and Mary Lou. All you have to say is her first name. Everyone knows who you’re talking about. She can have a tremendous impact just by being here.

“But it’s obviously her call. She came to the United States for freedom. So let’s let her use it.”

Pozsar probably knows more about Comaneci than anyone else in the United States. Besides serving as her choreographer at the height of her competitive career, his wife, Maria, is her second cousin.

Speaking from the gymnastics school that he operates in Sacramento, he said that he will be surprised if she spends a great deal of time in gyms. Perhaps it is time, he said, that she became a professional celebrity.

“I think she’ll write a book,” he said. “Everybody has written books about her. Now she has a chance to tell her story. They made a movie about her that ended with 1979. There can be a follow-up that would start with the 1980 Olympics and end with her defection. It would be fantastic. Then she could make an exercise video for kids, just like Mary Lou Retton.

“I just hope she gets some good advice. She needs a good agent and a good lawyer. She’s going to have so many offers. She will need some protection.”

Then again, there might not be so many offers.

“It could be lackluster or blockbuster,” said Nova Lanktree of Chicago’s Burns Sports Celebrity Service, which matches athletes with sponsors. “Everybody knows her name. Defecting for freedom can create some momentum. But I’d have to see it to believe it that anyone is ready to commit sizable dollars.

“The important ingredients for an athlete are credibility, recognizability, the distinction of being a winner, and sincerity. She has most of those qualities. The thing she lacks is credibility as a user of American products.”

There also are some within the gymnastics community who doubt whether she will have much impact on the sport in the United States. Pozsar said that his gym has been flooded with calls from parents who want to place their children in classes since the news of Comaneci’s defection broke. But Don Peters, who coached the 1984 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team, said that it has not created a ripple at his SCATS gym in Huntington Beach.

“It’s not like an Olympics, where you get prime-time exposure for the sport,” he said. “This is just a one-day thing. I think that it’s good. I’m glad she got out of Romania. If you took a poll, I think she’d be the best-known gymnast in the world. But I don’t see it making much difference here.”

If Comaneci is not a success here, it probably will not be for lack of determination. Mura knew her for only a few days in 1984, but detected a personality so strong that it might need to be turned down a little.

“She’s got a lot of adjusting to do, like any immigrant,” said Mura, who came to the United States from Romania in 1969. “But she’s a hard worker. So I suspect she’ll be prepared to make all the effort necessary.

“She’s a very decisive person, resolute, determined. She’ll put up a good fight about anything she believes in. She’s a feisty person. You can tell that by the way she articulates with people, the tone of her voice and her whole body language. She has a very headstrong attitude.

“Of course, when I knew her she was only 23. Now she’s 28. I hope she’s learned some pliability.”

Mura’s description of Comaneci also would fit Karolyi. If the pupil is like the teacher, pliability never will be her strong suit. But if it had been, she might still be in Romania.