What is Nadia Comaneci's Net Worth?
Nadia Comaneci, a retired Romanian gymnast, boasts a net worth of $10 million. With five Olympic gold medals to her name, she became the first gymnast to achieve a perfect 10.0 score at the 1976 Olympic Games.
Early Life
Born on November 12, 1961, in Onesti, Romania, Nadia Comaneci's parents were Gheorghe and Stefania Comaneci. She has a younger brother named Adrian. The family practiced Romanian Orthodoxy. Given her high energy levels, her mother enrolled her in gymnastics classes when she was in kindergarten.
Career
At age 6, Nadia was chosen to attend an experimental gymnastics school run by Bela Karolyi after he noticed her doing cartwheels outside school. She officially started training with Bela and his wife, Marta, at age 7, living at home while many other students boarded.
By 9, she became the youngest gymnast to win the Romanian Nationals and joined the hometown team, quickly rising in the gymnastics world. At 13, she won the all-around and gold medals at the 1975 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Norway, except for the floor exercise where she placed second. Her historic milestone came in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, earning seven perfect 10 scores — four on the uneven bars and three on the beam. She collected gold medals for individual all-around, balance beam, and uneven bars, becoming the first Romanian gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title. To this day, she holds the record as the youngest-ever Olympic all-around champion at 14.
Despite the challenges in 1978, including her change of coaches and a growth spurt, she regained her form, and in 1979, secured her third consecutive European all-around title.
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In the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, Comaneci won gold in beam and floor, becoming the only gymnast to defend an Olympic gold on the beam. Political complications arose when coach Bela Karolyi protested her scoring, leading to increased scrutiny by the Romanian government. Coach Karolyi and his wife defected to the United States in 1981. Though Nadia was invited to join, she initially chose to stay but defected to the U.S. in 1989, right before the Romanian Revolution.
Upon arriving in the U.S., she moved to Oklahoma to live with her friend, Bart Conner, at his gymnastics school. Though she no longer competes, she remains deeply involved in gymnastics, serving as the honorary president of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation and sports ambassador for Romania. She's also participated in Olympic coverage and commentary, carried the torch for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and engaged in various charitable activities.
Personal Life
Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner, both Olympians, dated for four years before getting engaged. They wed in 1996 in Bucharest, with their ceremony televised throughout Romania. After retiring from gymnastics, Nadia graduated from Politehnica University of Bucharest with a degree in sports education, enabling her to coach gymnastics.
In 2001, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen while retaining her Romanian citizenship. The couple welcomed their son, Dylan, in 2006.
