The Perfect Meeting
When Nadia was a child, she grew up in the small Romanian town of Onesti. One day she was playing with her friends in the playground, and just like any other day for her, she was perfecting her cartwheels. It was just by chance that the infamous gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi chose that moment to show up. It was a meeting that would change Nadia’s life forever.
Nadia Comaneci and Bela Karolyi 1970. Photo by Mediapunch/Shutterstock
On that life-changing day, Bela happened to be in the town of Onesti as he had just opened a new gymnastics school there. Although he liked to drive around and scope out the young talent, it was fate that he happened to be driving past that school playground, at the time when Nadia was practicing her perfect cartwheels.