Later
"One of the most difficult times in my life was when I escaped from Romania in November of 1989." |
After the 1980 Olympics, life in Romania got hard for Nadia under the rule of Nicolae Ceausescu, the country's brutal dictator. After Bela Karolyi defected in 1981, Nadia was not allowed to travel out of the country. She began to get very irritated under the many restrictions placed on her. In 1989, Nadia and a small group walked to Hungary in the dark. The next day the group was driven to the Austrian border. After presenting herself at the American Embassy and requesting asylum, she was put on a flight to the United States within hours. In Letters to a Young Gymnast, she said, "I'd trudged through freezing water and across icy fields and climbed over barbed-wire fences, all the while expecting to be shot. After all that, I stepped into a room packed with journalists shouting questions and flashing cameras. Suffice it to say that I was shell-shocked."
"Everything I do today is because of what I did when I was 14." |
Nadia made lots of tough decisions when she was younger that changed her life.
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Nadia married gymnast, Bart Conner in 1996. On June 3, 2006, they had their first child Dylan Paul Conner.
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Nadia and Bart participate in many non-profit organizations including the Special Olympics, the Laureus Academy, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame, Creative Oklahoma, Inc, and the Nadia Comaneci Foundation. They also own and run The Bart & Nadia Sports Experience, The International GYMNAST magazine, Grips, etc., the Nadia Comaneci International Invitational, GymDivas, Inc., and the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy. Together they help many people in need.
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Nadia is still an inspiration to young gymnasts today.
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"I like to tell young people to work hard for your goals and live in the moment." - Nadia Comaneci |