Nadia Comăneci: "Sport gave me a voice when I was 14 and didn't know about gender equality"
Former Romanian gymnastics champion Nadia Comăneci, a five-time Olympic champion and the first gymnast to receive a perfect score of 10 in the history of gymnastics, stated that sport gave her a voice when she was only 14 and had not heard of gender equality.
"48 years ago, I hadn't heard of gender equality, and I just went and did what I had to do. Now, I'm happy because no one, no one, achieved that 10. Sport gave me a voice when I was only 14, and I feel proud that that girl opened the door for other women", stated, on April 21, Nadia Comăneci, one of the greatest athletes of all time, who was in Madrid to attend the Laureus Awards Gala at the Cibeles Palace on the evening of April 22.
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Nadia Comăneci, who is among the members of the Laureus Academy, said she was very young when she won the Olympics, but the memories are fresh.
"It's every child's dream. Everyone wants to be unique. When I was an athlete, boys didn't have as many opportunities to practice sports, let alone girls", she added.
"Gymnastics is a sport where you fall a lot, get up and then fall again. It's a fantastic lesson about what life is", added Nadia, who also mentioned that after the Montreal Olympic Games she received "about 250 letters a day", to which she replied gradually. "Those were my social networks", she added.
Nadia Comăneci, aged 62, also stated that Simone Biles, the American gymnastics star, "is a unique athlete", one of the few who can "rest for a year and then win again".
