What happens to Olympic medallists when they retire from competition? Well some of them get married with other gold medallists and become parents. At least this is the case for Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner. Comaneci gave birth to their first child, a boy, named Dylan Paul, on June 3, 2006. It sounds as a perfect story of family happiness, but life was not always good for the legendary gymnast Nadia Comaneci.
She was born in the factory town Onesti, Romania in 1961 and was given the non-Romanian name Nadia by her mother after the heroine of a Russian film. Nadia is the shortened version of the Russian name Nadyezhda, which means literally "Hope." At the age of 14, Nadia became the star of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal winning three gold medals, a silver medal and a bronze. Comaneci became also the first gymnast at the Olympics to receive the perfect score of ten.
After her triumph in Montreal young Nadia became a national hero in Romania. She kept on participating in games having to confront apart from her strong components the highly politicized environment of sports during the Cold War. After her coach's defection to the US her life changed drastically she was under constant surveillance, she was no longer allowed to travel outside Romania. Although she denies the rumors that she had tried to kill herself by drinking bleach and to have been sexually harassed by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's son Nicu or to have been her lover she had become a prisoner in her own country. Finally in December 1989, shortly before the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu, she defected to the United States risking her life and walking for six hours at night through half-frozen lakes and impenetrable forests, to cross the Hungarian border.
With her arrival in the States Comaneci was surrounded again by controversy. Some American media suggested that she became the lover of the man who helped her escaping from Romania Constantin Panait, who was married and father of four children. In fact Panait held her captive for free months till she moved to Montreal to live with Alexandru Stefu, a Romanian rugby coach, and his family. In 1991 Nadia was again in the news when Stefu died in a scuba-diving accident.
It was then, when Comaneci was invited to Norman, Oklahoma by another legendary gymnast, Bart Conner to work with him in a gymnastics academy. A new life begun for her and she got back into gymnastics. In 1994 she returned to Romania for the first time since she fled and in 1996 she returned again to get married with Conner in Bucharest. Since then they live together in Oklahoma working with young gymnasts and promoting the sport worldwide.
For all the fans of gymnastics worldwide, Nadia Comaneci will remain the young sweet girl of 1976 Olympics, who changed the history of the sport, but Nadia is not a little girl any more. She is a woman, who opened a new chapter in her adventurous life, called motherhood. As she stated to The Associated Pres, "We've been through a lot of high moments in our life in sports through what we accomplished but this is just something that is totally unique."
A short trip to a mobile store and you will feel as if you have been through Wonderland. Quite naturally too, because mobile phones are no less wonders than the ones Alice had come across. Today, mobile phones come in all shapes and sizes to flaunt some of the most amazing feature based qualities. These wonder gadgets have gone through a transitional phase to evolve as objects of desire in this highly tech-induced world. However, the rapid outbreak of mobile phones in the market carries along one major disadvantage for users. Technological progress fuses with a huge influx in mobile phones to offer some great options as well as some disappointing ones too. Finding the phone that provides you with complete satisfaction is the biggest challenge.
Samsung is one name in the mobile phone industry that draws a lot of credibility and fanfare. This versatile manufacturer from South Korea has given us enough reasons to recognise its technological intelligence and swear by its name. With a school of highly successful mobile phones, the manufacturer enjoys a quaint reputation of belting some of the most stylish and sophisticated products in the market today. The recently released Samsung D900 was, therefore no exception as it embellishes the best in physical aesthetics and technological prowess. This ultra slim slider phone plays host to a 3.15 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus, and an impressive music player that supports MP3, AAC and ACC+ formats. Moreover, several other trendy features like document viewer, TV output, 3D speaker and Internet browsers also figure in this stylish phone. The biggest drawback, however seems to be a comparatively weaker battery backup and a TFT screen that apparently cracks up due to pressure when you least expect it.
Too much of a price for style, and one that cannot be compensated in any way. The phone makes its best efforts to bowl you over, otherwise leaving the scorecard with you to check its performance.
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