Description
Book Synopsis2024 Independent Publisher Book Awards Winner Silver Medal, World HistoryNadia Comaneci is the Romanian child prodigy and global gymnastics star who ultimately fled her homeland and the brutal oppression of a communist regime. At the age of just 14, Nadia became the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games and went on to collect three gold medals in performances which influenced the sport for generations to come, cementing Nadia's place as a sporting legend. However, as the communist authorities in Romania sought an iron grip over its highest-profile athletes, Nadia and her trainers were subjected to surveillance from the Securitate, the Romanian secret police. Drawing on 25,000 secret police archive pages, countless secret service intelligence documents, and numerous wiretap recordings, this book tells the compelling story of Nadia's life and career using unique insights from the communist dictatorship which monitored her.
Nadia
Trade Review
As an insight into the tensions between Comaneci, her coaches and the Communist regime, as well as tensions between Romanian and Soviet gymnastics … Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police is captivating. -- Diana Georgescu * Times Literary Supplement *
Stejarel Olaru illustrates the extent to which the Ceaucescu regime would go to secure Olympic success: it created a massive system of surveillance and an extensive network of informers and agents to control a group of young gymnasts and their ambitious, irascible coaching couple, Bela and Marta Karolyi. Olaru provides important insight into the machinations of Romania’s Securitate and how national prestige triumphed over protecting teenage protégés from physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. * Victoria Harms, Assistant Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University, USA *
A compelling examination of the public and private personae of Nadia that assesses the price of fame under a dictatorship. At the same time, Olaru's study exposes the intrusion of the state into the lives of citizens in Ceausescu's Romania. * Dennis Deletant, Emeritus Professor of Romanian Studies, The School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College, London *
Starting from the extraordinary story of Nadia Comaneci, the book analyzes the unseen side of the sports performances of female artistic gymnastics and the relationship between sports and politics during the communist regime in Romania. Coaches, athletes, officials, and political decision-makers were caught in a network of complicated relationships that are revealed by the author through the secret police archive. * Simona Petracovschi, Professor at Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, West University of Timisoara, Romania *
Thoroughly researched. * OUTinPerth *
Table of Contents
List of illustrations List of abbreviations Explanatory note from the author Acknowledgements 1. Salto in the dark 2. The great dance 3. Reflected in the mirror of power: From Béla, Géza and Nadia to ‘Katona’, ‘Nelu’ and ‘Corina’ 4. ‘Tu sei migliora di tutte’ 5. The rocky road to supremacy 6. The nineteen-eighties 7. A movie ending Notes Index
