Letters to a Young Gymnast

If you’re interested in Nadia Comeneci’s biography, “Letters to a Young Gymnast” is what you need. This book is written by Nadia and references all the major public events in her life. She even addresses the rumours around the incident with her drinking bleach and her relationship with Nicu Ceausescu, the son of Romania’s dictator.

Nadia’s biography reads like a personal confession. She doesn’t emphasise exact dates for events. She doesn’t go deep into details about very personal things. She manages something interesting by giving a lot of details and yet not enough.

I read her story and I still feel she is distant and mysterious, like royalty. In a way, that is exactly what she is. The “goddess of Montreal” is a queen for Romanians and she managed to stay that way, even though she defected and continued her life in the U.S. after the fall of Communism.

Nadia Comaneci’s Mindset for Success

However, more than a biography, what is really impressive about “Letters to a Young Gymnast” is the way she talks about determination. I can’t think of any self-help book that is better for teaching you the real mindset for success!

I was in awe of her confidence and a powerful belief in achieving anything with a work ethic and, most of all, I am in awe of her training routine:

“Did you know that we had team psychologists who trained us to do routines over and over again in our heads? I could perform every movement, leap, twist, and somersault and almost feel each apparatus beneath my hands just by closing my eyes and summoning up the events. Those same psychologists also taught us to see our capacity to solve problems by working on actual puzzles, brainteasers with pieces we needed to unlock, and cubes with colors that had to be manipulated in patterns. They tested how quickly we became frustrated by those puzzles and helped us to work on managing our frustration levels. We did a lot of that type of training.

Bela used to bring people from the street into our training sessions to make noise and try to break our focus by yelling and whistling. Sometimes we even practiced doing our routines without warming up just in case such a situation ever arose. If they’d awakened me at 3:00 A.M., I could have done a perfect beam routine. We were prepared for everything, and a little booing couldn’t hurt us.”

Letters to a Young Gymnast
Nadia Comaneci

With that kind of training, you’d expect anything is possible. And it actually was: Nadia became the World Champion. She won gold medals. She won awards. She was on top of the world. However, life in a Communist country is not easy for anyone, not even for a World Champion.

When her freedom was restricted, Nadia risked it all and she got out of Romania. And when I say all, I say she crawled through icy water in the middle of November, risking getting shot in the back or ending up in prison. She felt there was no alternative and she just did what she had to do. It takes a lot of courage to defect, to leave everyone you know and go to a new country, where you barely speak the language.

Nadia Comaneci’s 10 Rules for Living

Nadia came to the U.S. and stayed. She even got her American citizenship in 2001. She now has multiple businesses there with her husband, Bart Conner.

In 1999, Nadia Comaneci was named one of the “100 Most Important Women of the 20th Century”. These are her life lessons:

I have ten rules for living. They are the product of my past and present and my hopes for the future:

1. Master the basics

2. Focus on the details

3. Expect to struggle—it is not easy to succeed

4. Acknowledge your mistakes and learn from them

5. Define success in your own terms

6. Enjoy the process because preparation is everything

7. Do more than what is asked of you

8. Be original—make your own impact

9. Be willing to sacrifice—it makes success even sweeter

10. Maintain your love and passion for what you do”

Letters to a Young Gymnast
Nadia Comaneci

If you’re interested in a more journalistic approach to Nadia’s life, try “Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police”, by Stejarel Olaru. I wrote about it here.

Conclusion

If you want to be inspired by one of the most successful women of the 20th century, read “Letters to a Young Gymnast”. You will not be disappointed.

You can find the book here: