Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Gymnastics should be popular everywhere; you just need the right person to start the right programme.
My message to the ladies would be, you can do all of the things, but not all of them at the same time.
We are not coaching on a daily basis because we often travel with our charity and commercial interests.
Of course, most people remember that I received the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics competition.
People ask me what the definition of perfection, I said it's none: there is no definition of perfection.
I was turning actually 15 at the Olympics in '76... I don't think that one year makes a huge difference.
In Montreal, I kept thinking, 'Pay attention: this is the Olympics! It only happens once every four years!'
Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don't lose the passion and the love for what you do.
I believe that you should gravitate to people who are doing productive and positive things with their lives.
Romania doesn't have a big tradition of gymnastics as a fun activity. We were a little behind in this aspect.
I never thought I would be standing here, married to an All-American guy, living in Oklahoma. What a country.
I tell people, 'Have you ever been to Oklahoma? There are a lot of nice people there that do wonderful things.'
That's what everybody remembers. They don't remember how many medals I won in my career. They remember the 10s.
I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.
I think gymnastics was associated with the 10. I thought that belonged to the sport, and somehow we gave it way.
The - I don't want to say older, but the more experienced I get, I treasure and I honor what I've done much more.
I always say, 'When the Olympics are happening, you shouldn't be in any other place in the planet - you should be here.'
I made the cover of 'Sports Illustrated,' 'Newsweek' and 'Time' all in one week, and I didn't even know what that meant.
Nellie Kim, an Olympic champion from the former Soviet Union, got a 10 right after me in '76, but nobody talks about that.
Every generation comes with a unique athlete, I don't think anybody wants to be the next Nadia; they want to be themselves.
I wasn't allowed to leave Romania. That made me mad. You just want your freedom. You want your space. You want opportunity.
If I was 14 or 15 again, I would do the same thing. I've done everything. I think I've accomplished more than I had in mind.
Now, I have a kid, I have businesses to take care of, I have to travel. I have to sit down... and find a little time for me.
Two days after returning from Montreal, I was training again, and I went on to win two more golds at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
It's like someone important is missing from a party because you can't imagine an Olympic gymnastics competition without Romania.
Yes, gymnasts aim for perfection, but I never thought about the score. If that's what's in your mind, it will probably mess you up.
At 14, you think you compete, you retire and you get a job. I didn't think gymnastics was a career that was going to change my life.
I thought celebrity meant Hollywood, that's it. I began to see that does include Olympians. People have so much respect for Olympians.
I know how to smile, I know how to laugh, I know how to play. But I know how to do these things only after I have fulfilled my mission.
People assume a lot of things about gymnasts - that the girls work too hard, it's way too much for them, they are too young to work so hard.
What can you know about life at 14? I have learned a lot since, but you learn slowly. You get hit by many things and try to make sense of it.
In the '80 Olympics... people expected me to win. I was good enough to win, and I made a mistake and ended up second, which is pretty good, too.
Of course, I grew up in Communist Romania, but I am happy to say that now our country is democratic, and prospering, since the revolution in 1989.
It was good to be a kid because I did not realise all the things that came with the success. Going to the Games, I was asked what I expected to do.
I don't run away from a challenge because I am afraid. Instead, I run toward it because the only way to escape fear is to trample it beneath your feet.
Ceausescu thought I had only a few medals, but I have a room full of them in Bucharest, between 150-200 in all. They needed suitcases to haul them out.
Of course I used to smile and laugh in 1976, but not when I was competing. Please show me somebody who laughs when they are concentrating; I always smiled.
I hoped to win a medal and hoped it would be gold. I knew I was good but didn't know I would be the one to score something that had never been done before.
Life is not easy for anyone. You have to have ups and downs. You can make mistakes. You learn and try not to make them again. That's pretty much my principle.
I couldn't do everything in the first or second day; it took me years to be able to get to the achievement that I've had. I wasn't perfect from the beginning.
We used to exchange leotards with gymnasts from other countries. I don't remember who I got my most prized leotard from, but it was one with a lot of stars on it.
I think that when you are on a four-inch balance beam, you don't care about laughing or smiling or waving to the crowd because you're going to be down in a second.
It was my mother who got me involved in gymnastics, sending me to classes when I was six just to stop me doing back flips on the couch and destroying the furniture.
Romanians have a saying, 'Not every dog has a bagel on its tail.' It means that not all streets are paved with gold. When I began my career, I just wanted to do cartwheels.
Scoring the first 10 in history was a big deal, but the fact that even an electronic scoreboard could not figure out how to put out a score, it made the story more historic.
I didn't know I wanted to be a gymnast; I was just introduced to the gym. I loved the place because it looked like a hi-tech playground with mats and a lot of things I can hang from.
See, when I went to the Olympics in '76, the gymnastics people knew that I was good, but everybody else, after I won, everybody was like, 'Where's she coming from? Who is she? What is Romania?'
When I look back, I am happy that my mum took me to the gymnastics club. I didn't join gymnastics to become a famous athlete or celebrity; it just happened - I did more than I expected, of course.
I think a lot of people don't actually know me. They think, 'She's like this,' or, 'She's like that.' They say I have no emotions - I do, but you couldn't see them then. I had to keep them inside.
I had a lot of energy, and my mom decided to look for a place where I can spend the energy, because I was jumping on the couch and furniture, and I was jumping on the top of the things in the house.