Nadia · v1 · Chinese / Romanian / English · sports history, not an investigation
Nadia: From the First 10 to Seven
Montreal 1976, Nadia at 14: seven 10s, 4 on bars, 3 on beam, dated 18–22 July; three golds, a silver, a bronze. Then four decades: 1984 best with five golds (the gold record), 2016 shut out at the test event with no team, 2024 one bronze. The 13-Games table matches Olympedia cell for cell.
Built from official Olympedia results (6 event pages ＋ 13 Romania pages, captured 18.09.2026) ＋ Olympics.com ＋ IGHOF ＋ Britannica ＋ FIG documents. Photo: Montreal 1976, public domain (Agerpres archive).
Three sentences: the first 10 lands on 18 July on bars, in compulsories, and the board shows 1.00; the women's week runs 18–22 July (the 20th rests); the table counts women's artistic only, no rhythmic.
This page tells only what checks against official results: each of the seven 10s carries a date, an apparatus and a source; the 13-Games table matches Olympedia cell for cell; the 2006 change and the 14.70 example come from FIG documents. What's missing (the Deva centre, the age rule, scandals) is missing from the captured sources, not from importance.
The week: 18–22 July
Team compulsories on the 18th, optionals on the 19th, rest on the 20th (no women's sessions on Olympedia's dates), the all-around final on the 21st at 15:00, apparatus finals on the 22nd at 19:30. Pick a day for scores and medals; it reads fine untouched: all five day cards sit below.
18 July — Team compulsories
Vault 9.70 · bars 10.00 (the first ever) · beam 9.90 · floor 9.75
The bars 10 did not fit the scoreboard — it showed 1.00 (the IOC's and Olympedia's wording).
Nobody had ever scored a 10 at the Games — the imagined ceiling was 9.95.
19 July — Team optionals
Vault 9.85 · bars 10.00 · beam 10.00 · floor 9.85
Team silver for Romania (387.15, behind the USSR). Nadia adds two more 10s.
After qualifying, she enters the individual finals ranked first.
20 July — Rest (no women's sessions)
No women's sessions on Olympedia's dates for the 20th.
No-medal day.
A scheduled gap: the men's day, the women rest.
21 July — All-around final (15:00)
Floor 9.90 · vault 9.85 · bars 10.00 · beam 10.00; final 39.75 ＋ qualifying half 39.525 ＝ 79.275
All-around gold, 0.60 ahead of Nelli Kim — a huge margin.
Two 10s across four apparatus in the final: gold without drama.
22 July — Apparatus finals (19:30)
Bars 10.00 (20.000 total) · beam 10.00 (19.950) · floor 9.95 (19.750) · vault 9.85 (19.625, 4th)
Bars gold, beam gold, floor bronze; vault 4th — the only medal-less event.
The seven 10s close out: 4 on bars, 3 on beam; vault and floor none.
The seven 10s: each with its source
Bars 4 (compulsories 18th, optionals 19th, all-around final 21st, apparatus final 22nd), beam 3 (optionals 19th, all-around final 21st, apparatus final 22nd). Vault and floor none — floor's 9.95 takes bronze, vault's 9.85 fourth. Every row checks against the Olympedia event pages.
| No. | Date | Phase | Apparatus | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 18 July | Team compulsories | Uneven bars | The first 10 ever; the board showed 1.00. |
| 2 | 19 July | Team optionals | Uneven bars | Qualifying bars 20.00 (10＋10). |
| 3 | 19 July | Team optionals | Balance beam | Qualifying beam 19.90 (9.90＋10.00), ranked first. |
| 4 | 21 July | All-around final | Uneven bars | One of four final routines; 79.275 total, gold. |
| 5 | 21 July | All-around final | Balance beam | Second 10 of the final; 0.60 margin. |
| 6 | 22 July | Bars final | Uneven bars | Gold with 20.000; the USSR medalless here. |
| 7 | 22 July | Beam final | Balance beam | Gold with 19.950, margin over 0.2. |
The system: Onești and after
Spotted at six in Onești, coached by the Károlyis, the coaches defect in 1981 — and the dynasty list sits in the medal table (Szabo, Silivaș, Miloșovici, Amânar, Ponor, Izbasa). This section writes only what the captured sources hold: no Deva centre, so a visible gap.
Born in Onești in 1961, spotted at six by Béla Károlyi (Britannica); the Károlyis coached her (USAG Hall of Fame) and defected to the US on tour in 1981 (USAG's wording). The medal table below is the dynasty: Szabo, Silivaș, Miloșovici, Amânar, Ponor, Izbasa — every name sits in the table. The Deva centre is not covered here (no captured source).
Rise and fall: the 13-Games table
Women's artistic Olympic medals, 1976–2024, gold/silver/bronze stacked. Four annotations of citable facts only (the coaches' 1981 defection, her 1989 defection, the 2006 change, the 2016 shut-out), no commentary. Chart and table agree cell for cell; readable without the chart.
[1] 1981: the Károlyis defect to the US on an exhibition tour (USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame).
[2] 1989: Comăneci defects to the US (Britannica), citizen 2001; the revolution lives on the site's December page.
[3] 2006: FIG switches to open-ended scoring, the 10 cap goes (today's D＋E in FIG documents proves the system).
[4] 2016: out at the test event, no team (FIG's 'shut out'); a single individual in Rio.
| Games | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 3 | 2 | 2 | AA Comăneci gold; team silver; floor Comăneci bronze; bars Comăneci gold ＋ Ungureanu silver; beam Comăneci gold ＋ Ungureanu bronze. |
| 1980 | 2 | 3 | 2 | AA Comăneci silver; team silver; floor Comăneci gold (tied with Nelli Kim); vault Ruhn bronze; bars Eberle silver ＋ Ruhn bronze; beam Comăneci gold (defended). |
| 1984 | 5 | 1 | 2 | AA Szabo silver ＋ Păucă bronze; team gold; floor Szabo gold; vault Szabo gold ＋ Agache bronze; beam Szabo gold ＋ Păucă gold (tie). The best Games. |
| 1988 | 3 | 3 | 2 | AA Silivaș silver; team silver; floor Silivaș gold; vault Potorac silver ＋ Silivaș bronze; bars Silivaș gold; beam Silivaș gold ＋ Potorac bronze. |
| 1992 | 2 | 1 | 2 | AA Miloșovici bronze; team silver; floor Miloșovici gold ＋ Bontaș bronze; vault Miloșovici gold. |
| 1996 | 1 | 2 | 5 | AA Gogean silver ＋ Amânar bronze ＋ Miloșovici bronze (tie); team bronze; floor Amânar silver; vault Amânar gold ＋ Gogean bronze; beam Gogean bronze. |
| 2000 | 2 | 2 | 1 | AA Amânar gold ＋ Olaru silver; team gold; floor Amânar bronze; vault Răducan silver. |
| 2004 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Team gold; floor Ponor gold ＋ Șofronie silver; vault Roșu gold; beam Ponor gold ＋ Eremia bronze. No AA medal. |
| 2008 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Team bronze; floor Izbașa gold. |
| 2012 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Team bronze (the last team medal); floor Ponor silver; vault Izbașa gold. |
| 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No team qualification (out at the test event, FIG's wording); Ponor as an individual: beam 7th, floor 14th. |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | No medals (Olympedia's Romania page). |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Floor Bărbosu bronze — the first women's medal in twelve years. |
What a 10 was: the old and new systems
Old ceiling 10.00: compulsories＋optionals, finals carrying half the qualifying score. New (current FIG rules): uncapped difficulty ＋ execution down from 10.00. Both examples check by hand: beam 19.950 from 1976, FIG's own 14.70.
Old: 10.00 ceiling
The old system: 10.00 maximum per apparatus. Compulsories first (until Sydney 2000, everyone the same routine — the IOC's wording), then optionals; the all-around final carried half the qualifying score ＋ the final, apparatus finals half the apparatus qualifying ＋ the final (Olympedia format rows). Before Montreal the imagined ceiling was 9.95. Check it: the beam gold 19.950 ＝ 9.95 (half of 19.90) ＋ 10.00.
New: D＋E, uncapped
The new system (FIG appendix 2025–2028, 6.2): Final Score ＝ D (difficulty, uncapped: top 8 elements ＋ connection value) ＋ E (execution, down from 10.00: execution ＋ artistry deductions summed and subtracted) − penalties. Check it (the document's own example): D 5.70 (3.10＋2.00＋0.60) ＋ E 9.00 (10.00−0.70−0.30) ＝ 14.70. E is still out of 10, but the total no longer knows a 10.
Aftermath: one section, no branches
Moscow, the judging, the order, the defection, the Hall of Fame — every sentence sourced, every fact undisputed. December 1989 is project 23; here a single plain-text pointer.
Moscow 1980 in one line: beam gold (defended) ＋ floor gold (tied with Nelli Kim), all-around silver, team silver. She attended Los Angeles 1984 as a judge (IOC); that year the Olympic Order (IGHOF). In 1989 she defected to the US, citizen 2001 (Britannica). In 1993 the second Hall of Fame inductee (after Korbut, Britannica).
Site siblings. The December 1989 timeline lives on the December page (project 23, in preparation — a plain-text pointer, no link). Here 1989 means one line: Comăneci's defection.
Method
- Scores and dates: the 6 Olympedia Montreal pages (70431/70442/70447/70449/70451/70453, captured 18.09.2026, 200). Each 10 checked row by row; 'shown as 1.00' carries dual citation (IOC ＋ Olympedia).
- The table: the 13 Olympedia Romania pages (1976–2024), the six women's artistic events only; official ties counted (1980 floor, 1984 beam, 1992 vault, 1996 all-around). The SVG chart and the table generate from the same data, agreeing cell for cell.
- The biography thread: Olympics.com (5G/3S/1B, age 14, the 1989 defection), IGHOF (the record, the 1984 Olympic Order, the 1993 induction), Britannica (Onești 1961, spotted at six, 2001 citizenship), USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame (the 1981 Károlyi defection). The 2016 shut-out from FIG's 17 April 2016 report.
- The change: the FIG 2025–2028 appendix (Final ＝ D＋E−penalties, E down from 10.00, the 14.70 example); the 2006 switch from the rules' history. What's missing (the Deva centre, the age rule, scandals) is missing from the captured sources.
- Calendar erratum: the brief said 18–24 July; Olympedia's dates show women's events 18–22 July — the page runs 18–22, with the 20th a blank rest day.
Source notes
Olympedia Montreal 6 events · Olympedia Romania 13 editions · Olympics.com athlete page and 50-year interview · IGHOF · Britannica · USAG Károlyi · FIG appendix · FIG 2016 report. Full list on the method page.