For Nadia, the Story Is Romance and a Movie

Gymnast Nadia Comaneci said today that she plans to move in with a married boyfriend who helped her escape from Romania last week and to make a film of her life story.

The star of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 28, arrived in Miami on Monday and was whisked away to a hotel by State Department officials.

She spent the night with her boyfriend, Constantin Panait, 34, a Romanian exile who lives in Hallandale, just north of Miami, and has a wife and four children.

Comaneci escaped from Romania through Hungary a week ago with six other defectors after a six-hour trek across rough terrain. At a news conference at Hollywood City Hall, she said that Panait was waiting for her on the Hungarian side of the border.

She said she met Panait at a party two years ago. When asked at the news conference if he had told her he was married, Comaneci replied, “Yes, so what?”

The couple said they planned to spend Christmas together and settle somewhere in south Florida. First, Panait said, they planned to visit his wife. “She has been hurt,” he said, “but (this romance) was the right thing to do.”

Comaneci and Panait posed arm in arm for photographers.

Comaneci, who was 14 years old when she made Olympic history with seven perfect 10 scores in the 1976 Montreal Games, said she had been approached in New York about making a film about her life and had agreed.

“I intend to make a movie about my story,” she said, adding that she plans to star in the film.

Gymnastics did not figure in her plans. Nor did any contact with her former coach, Bela Karolyi, who now trains U.S. Olympic athletes.

“I want to do other things,” said Comaneci, who has been granted refugee status by the U.S. government.