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NADIA COMANECI--(Sports Star) by S. H. Burchard

NADIA COMANECI--(Sports Star)

By

Pub Date: Sept. 8th, 1977
Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

This begins reasonably enough with a travelogue introduction to Romania (""The famous Count Dracula lived in one of these castles"")--where old peasant houses were torn down to make room for the modern city (with its large, outstanding sports buildings) where Nadia Comaneci was born in 1961. Because of all her early running and jumping, ""In three years the Comaneci family had to buy four couches."" Soon after she began training at six, Nadia's life was filled with long practice sessions and punctuated with ""one championship after another""; this culminates with her piling up of perfect 10's in Montreal where ""The crowd held its breath. Never had they seen such daring performed with such perfection."" With gym and classroom photos of the ""serious little champion"" who still collects dolls and plays ball with the boys, a personable portrait.