Compatriot’s Courage Inspires Romanian

Like all Romanians who have left their countries, I’ve been reading and watching the news with particular fervor this autumn. Poland, Hungary, the Berlin Wall, Czechoslovakia . . .

Nothing about Romania. At least nothing new about Romania.

Until Nadia Comaneci, the most famous Romanian athlete ever, the national heroine, the girl every Romanian parent wanted his or her girl to be like, decided that enough was enough and crossed the border to, of all places, Hungary.

It was big news. Shocking, actually. Nothing could have had a greater impact on a Romanian soul than Nadia Comaneci leaving Romania. Nothing.

Why now?

Why not 13 years ago, after the Montreal Olympics, when the whole world was at her feet?

Why not 10 years ago, after the gymnastics World Championships in Ft. Worth, when she was still the sport’s greatest star?

Why not eight years ago, when Prof. Higgins himself, a.k.a. Bela Karolyi--the genial coach who, through Nadia, transformed gymnastics from a lethargic waltz into a tumultuous rock--decided to leave everything behind and start a new life among strangers?

Why not five years ago, when she was the honorary guest of the organizing committee of the Los Angeles Olympics, and the real film about her life could have brought her millions?

Why not in all those years when she could have cashed in on her glory and lived a life that no Romanian could dream of in his country?

Nadia has her own answers to all these questions, but I’ll try to answer for her.

Nadia had to grow up. She had to mature.

She probably also had to lose any hope that things would change for the better in her country. Nadia knows, as I know, as everybody who has done it knows, that leaving your country is an extreme decision. There’s no way back.

Nadia was only 14 when the world discovered her at the Montreal Olympics. It took almost another 14 years for Nadia to discover the world. But it’s never too late.

Former tennis star Ilie Nastase and Comaneci are Romania’s greatest sports heroes. Because of the nature of his sport, though, Nastase became a citizen of the world, living mostly abroad--in the U.S. and France--and going back to Romania for rare and short visits, usually occasioned by Davis Cup matches.

To a certain point, Nastase’s status was comparable to Ivan Lendl’s, but, unlike the Czech Lendl, who is seeking U.S. citizenship, Nastase never made a political statement.

Comaneci, instead, made a political statement with tremendous impact.

Although Nastase is only a “part-time Romanian” and a full-time capitalist, Comaneci was there. She was presented by the Communist regime as a symbol of the talented, happy, successful Romanian youth. No other teen-ager has ever received the country’s Hero of Socialist Labor decoration. Probably no other ever will.

Romania was the only country from the Eastern Bloc that sent athletes to the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984. Much of the free world thought that Romania was the most democratic country of the communist world.

“It ain’t so,” said the symbol of the talented but not-so-happy Romanian youth with her defection, leaving the country--merely a coincidence?--only a few days after the Communist Party Congress had “unanimously” decided that “Times Are A-Changin’ ” is not a tune for Romania.

Nadia has never talked much. Few people really knew her. Nobody can guess what’s hidden behind her dark, piercing eyes.

A midnight walk toward the West, over a border that had been closed--Eastbound--two weeks before, is her most eloquent discourse ever. The stone-faced queen of gymnastics is human after all.

Olga Korbut, Nadia’s predecessor in the popularization of women’s gymnastics, and Mary Lou Retton, Nadia’s successor, recently completed an exhibition tour of the United States. Now that she is in this country, don’t be surprised if Nadia joins Olga and Mary Lou for a tour that would eclipse the Rolling Stones.

At the moment, Nadia has just started her own journey, scoring a perfect 10 as spectacular as the one that confused the computer 13 years ago.

Welcome, Nadia, and good luck. I hope that my 5-year-old daughter will be like you.

BACKGROUND

Vladimir Moraru was a sportswriter in Bucharest for Romania’s national sports daily, Sportul, when he was invited to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics as a guest of sports editor Barry Lorge of the San Diego Union. They had met at a Davis Cup competition. Moraru had a wife and a new-born daughter in Romania but had long considered defecting and decided during the Games that he might never have a better chance. When the Olympics were over, he asked for, and received, political asylum. Two years later, his wife, Dana, and daughter, Alexandra, were allowed to leave Romania to join him here. Moraru, 43, spent two years as a sports publicist for the Los Angeles school system, and since July, 1986, has been sports editor of Northeast Newspapers. He and his family live in Glendale and, with five years’ residence, he has earned the right to apply for U.S. citizenship.