Nadia Elena Comaneci was born on November 12, 1976, in Onesti, Romania. When Nadia was a young child, she loved to be outside climbing trees and swinging from branches. Bela Karolyi discovered her gymnastics ability when she was six years old and invited her to his gym. Nadia's life changed when she stepped into the gym for the first time.
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Bela and his wife, Marta, were going from school to school looking for young girls that they could invite to their gymnastics academy. Bela knew that Nadia would be amazing the first time he saw her do a cartwheel on the playground.
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Nadia trained two to three hours a day. In 1969 she entered her first official competition, the Romanian National Junior Championship. She finished in thirteenth place. Even though she did not do well, she did not get discouraged. The next year, she tried again and won. When she turned 12, she went to live and train with Karolyi eight hours a day, six days a week. Nadia worked hard for what she wanted.
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"I dreamed of learning new skills. I never saw the bigger picture of international success and fame. I dreamed of running and twisting and double somersaults and that nothing could tether me to the ground because I was born to fly." |