Nadia Comăneci and the Secret Police
by Stejărel Olaru
Bloomsbury
It was late November in 1989 when the world’s most famous gymnast fled her own country in secret. At night, like a criminal, the twenty-eight year old walked away from her life in Romania where she felt like a prisoner. Escaping to Hungary, she managed to make her way to New York via Austria.
Nadia Comăneci had revolutionised the sport of gymnastics when she invented moves never attempted before and scored seven perfect tens as a 14 year-old (who weighed 40kgs) in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Years later, she was still under constant surveillance and, although invited to take part in judging and committees overseas, she had been refused a passport. In 1989, she received 12 invitations to take part in international championships and meetings but the national asset was denied permission to leave the country.
This denied her the ability to earn money. Nadia had a house and a car but was not financially well off, as most of her original prize money was taken by the people who were meant to be looking after her. She often had to sell items to make ends meet and her life was complicated by restrictions.
Rumanian historian and researcher Stejărel Olaruhas gained access to secret service intelligence documents, secret police archives and wiretap recordings to give insights into Nadia Comăneci’s life as a child prodigy and legendary sports person from the communist dictatorship that monitored her.
Even though surveillance was continual, the verbal and physical abuse by the trainers went unreported. Olaruhas quotes from an anonymous letter (it had to be anonymous because if anyone complained they were dropped from the squad) from the gymnastic team that was meant to go to the president but was intercepted that the trainer threatened to kill Nadia if she didn’t win at a competition.
Isolated from the rest of the world, nobody knew about the girls being overworked, having to practice with injuries against the advice from doctors and starved – with their weight being checked several times a day. The details revealed in the book are truly shocking.
This is a thoroughly researched testament to what the young Romanian gymnasts were put through to secure Olympic success for the Ceaușescu regime, what was behind Nadia Comăneci’s phenomenal performances and the struggles she had to overcome.
Lezly Herbert
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