Nadia Comaneci

A hero is a person that you admire. My hero is Nadia Comaneci because she started so little and she was separated from her parents to be a professional gymnast. She dedicate much time to practice and practice her routine to be perfect. Her discipline and perseverance is why she received the “Female Athlete of the Year" for 1975.

Hi! My name is Melissa. I'm a student at Colegio Columbia in 8th grade. I am 13 years old.

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Nadia Comaneci was born in Onesti, Romania. Her parents are Gheorge and Stefania. Nadia began practicing gymnastics in kindergarten. She demostrated talent in her childhood. At the age of 6, she was chosen to atttend “Bela Karolyi`s Experimental Gymnastic” school. Karolyis was an excellent gymnastic in his time, too.

Nadia at 7 years old was training at Karolyi`s school in 1969. She placed 13th in her first Romanian National Championship. In 1970, she was the youngest gymnast to win the Romanian Nationals. In 1971, she participated in her first internatinal Competition. In 1976 she won all-around gold. In 1976 she also competed in the Montreal Olympics and scored 10, a perfect score. In 1975 she was named the "Female Athlete of the Year"

Nadia is my hero because I admire her talent. By committing to a rigorous training schedule, she lost many things like being with her friends, going on vacations, eating candy like the girls of her age. But she havs also benefitted because she participated in Nationals, International and Olympic cometitions and she won with perfect score. She taught me that if you have a vocation, and you persevere and you love the things that you do, you can excel! You lose something, but you wil also have a benefit.