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Olympics, necessity for me meant only listening to Bela and Marta Karolyi.
    The Romanian government used to pour money into its Olympic programs because our leaders believed that athletes represented the power of the government and validated our way of life. As a result, the infighting for individual athletes’ rights to comprise their respective Olympic teams was fierce. Gymnastics was no exception,
and because successful athletes generated privileges for each gymnast, their families, and especially the coaches, the pressure was unbelievable. Although our Onesti school’s gymnasts had proven their worth, taking the top six places at the Romanian National Championships, Bela recalls that the federation still chose four gymnasts from Club Dinamo and only three from our school to be on the Olympic team.
    â€œWe have the right to compete as a team!” Bela told the government officials. “Nadia Comaneci is the European champion; the rest of the team has beaten every other gymnast in our country,” he declared. “We won the Nationals!” In the end, it was decided that there would be a final competition in Bucharest—Onesti versus Dinamo. Bela moved our team to Bucharest. The summer was incredibly hot, but we practiced day in, day out, regardless of the heat. Club Dinamo’s coaches took the weather into account and on particularly hot days allowed their gymnasts to go to the beach. I remember how jealous I was that Dinamo’s gymnasts were given vacation days. I could taste that jealousy like the salty sweat that covered my skin and never dried.
    One particularly sweltering afternoon, the general in charge of sports in Romania surprised us at the gym with a visit. As we dragged ourselves through our full routines, Bela and the man chatted, until the general asked where Dinamo’s girls were. Bela replied, “At the beach.” The general was furious that Dinamo’s gymnasts weren’t practicing and called for a meeting of both teams the following morning. When Dinamo’s head coach couldn’t make him understand that his gymnasts had needed some time to cool off, the general made Bela the head coach for the Nationals and the Olympic team. He now
had the power to choose all the gymnasts. After watching both teams practice for another week, Bela made his decision. He took six gymnasts from our school and two alternates from Dinamo to the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada. It was actually a fair decision on his part—our gymnasts were leaps above Dinamo’s.
    Friend, I need to put things into perspective for you because you are under the illusion that the Romanian team, myself included, thought that the Olympics were the biggest event in our lives. That was not the case. Until 1976, I believed that the European Championships were the most important gymnastics competition in the world. Everything I knew came from what I was told by my coach and my government. I’d never watched the Olympics on television, let alone televised gymnastics competitions from around the world.
    So when I arrived in Montreal for the 1976 Games, I was flabbergasted. The Olympic Village blew my mind—its size and the number of security officials, coaches, and, above all else, athletes in more sports than I’d ever heard of. What I remember most was that every thing— everything —was free. You were given a badge, and with it, you could see movies in the village’s theater; you could get a soft drink; and you were given matching clothing, bags, hats, and pins. To me, it was so high-tech, so strange and exciting and absolutely wonderful. That first day, I was afraid to close my eyes because I didn’t want to miss anything. Little did I know then that missing everything was part of the Karolyis plan to protect their gymnasts.
    The men’s and women’s residences were separate, so Bela couldn’t monitor us at night, but Marta was more than effective. We were