Nadia

TV Movie
1984
Not Rated
1h 40m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Story about gymnast Nadia Comaneci from her childhood beginning as a gymnast and how she was discovered by Belya Karolyi. Nadia received 7 perfect 10's in the Montreal Olympics.Story about gymnast Nadia Comaneci from her childhood beginning as a gymnast and how she was discovered by Belya Karolyi. Nadia received 7 perfect 10's in the Montreal Olympics.Story about gymnast Nadia Comaneci from her childhood beginning as a gymnast and how she was discovered by Belya Karolyi. Nadia received 7 perfect 10's in the Montreal Olympics.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.2/10

704

YOUR RATING

8User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
When aired in Rumania, the audience rates were so high that people asked for two more airings in the same week.

Goofs
The establishing shot of Montreal's Olympic Park, just before the Games begin, is from substantially before the Olympics. The Olympic Tower is not yet complete, and the retractable roof has not yet been installed on the stadium.

Quotes
[Nadia fell from the balance beam twice at her first gymnastics competition, to the disgust of her trainers. She is sitting at the back of the bus on the way home. Bela goes and sits beside her]
Bela Karolyi: Don't cry about today.
Young Nadia Comaneci: I'm not crying. I never cry.
Bela Karolyi: You should. So that I could tell you not to. Nadia, the tragedy isn't that you fell. It's that you were the best, and you didn't live up to it! You completely lost your concentration!
Young Nadia Comaneci: It will never happen again. Never!
Bela Karolyi: You're not serious about gymnastics.
Young Nadia Comaneci: Yes I am.
Bela Karolyi: No you're not, you're just playing. You should quit.
Young Nadia Comaneci: No!
Bela Karolyi: Did you ever see *anyone* as bad as you were today?
Young Nadia Comaneci: No.
Bela Karolyi: Neither did I. Quit!
Young Nadia Comaneci: No!
Bela Karolyi: Go back to the schoolyard and do cartwheels if you just want to play!
Young Nadia Comaneci: No! I want to be a champion!
[He hugs her as she starts to cry]
Bela Karolyi: I'll confess something to you. I've been playing too. When I first found you, I only knew four sports. I wasn't even a real gymnastics coach. So I'll make a pact with you so we can both stop playing, hmm? Instead of teaching you what I don't know, I want to teach you what I do know. I will teach you how to have a runner's strength, the cunning of a handball player, and how, like a boxer, to be fearless of pain. You interested?
[Nadia nods]
Bela Karolyi: I'm talking about a lot of work. Total commitment. Total concentration. Don't take up my time and then quit!
Young Nadia Comaneci: I'll never quit.
Bela Karolyi: No one has ever worked as hard as I'm going to work you.
Young Nadia Comaneci: I shall work.
Bela Karolyi: You do, and you will be the best in the world.

Connections
Referenced in Points of View: Episode #19.19 (1986)

Soundtracks
If I Found the Flower
(uncredited)
Traditional

User reviews8

Review

Featured review

8/10

Talent can be born anywhere

I was 10 years old when I saw this movie for the first time. That was back in those days before cable TV, so the norm was to show each film only once. A reprise might come next year or so. But this little movie broke a record in my country: It was first aired on a Monday evening, and everybody was talking about it at school the next morning. Then we heard that due to viewers' positive phone calls to our local TV channel, they will be airing it again on Wednesday. So everybody saw it again two days later. You have to understand what was going on in the head of us children, addicted to sports as we were at that young age, thinking in the possibility of achieving world sport stardom even if you come from some obscure town somewhere in a little known country. Then, by the end of that week, that I remember as one of my major memories from fifth grade, there was once again a TV spot, almost a minute long, this time just showing a Nadia Comaneci's routine in slow motion, she literally flying, with a triumphant music theme in the background, and the announcer went like this: "This Sunday afternoon, for the first time in the history of Paraguayan TV, and due to overwhelming viewers' request, a movie will be aired for the third time in the same week". Still to these days, 24 years later, no other movie was ever aired again three times in the same week on a free air TV channel. That says it all!