1976年7月18日之前，没有运动员在奥运会体操项目中获得过满分。但这一天，14岁的罗马尼亚女子体操运动员纳迪亚·科马内奇用自己完美的表现征服了场上的所有裁判，赢得了10分的满分。但这还远远没有结束，高低杠、平衡木以及个人全能比赛中，她连获了7个满分。在世界体育界引起了轰动，成为国际体操史上令人难以置信的奇迹。

Romania's Nadia Comaneci was the star of the Montreal Olympics in 1976 when she became the first gymnast in Olympic history to be awarded the perfect score of 10.0. ABC Television set her performance to music, using a theme from a popular American soap opera, and the song was eventually renamed "Nadia's Theme". Comaneci first achieved her perfect 10 on the uneven parallel bars in 1976 and the judges awarded her the maximum mark seven times during the Games.

The 14-year-old Romanian dazzled the judges in Montreal to the point where they couldn't help but give her a perfect 10. And they didn't stop there, for not only did Comaneci receive the first perfect score, she then proceeded to get six more!

The media needed someone to step up and become the darling of the Montreal Olympics, much like Olga Korbut had four years earlier with three golds in Munich. Korbut was back in 1976 but was really only the third-best gymnast on the powerful Soviet squad behind teammates Nelli Kim and Ludmila Turishcheva. Comaneci was supposed to contend with the Russian juggernaut but no one, including coach Bela Karolyi (who later coached Mary Lou Retton in 1984 and the Kerri Strug-led American women's team in 1996) could have imagined what was to come.

There are a total of six events in women's gymnastics, five individual (balance beam, floor, uneven bars, vault and the all-around) and one all-around team event. Comaneci took home a total of five medals - three golds, one silver, and one bronze.

Four of her seven perfect scores, including the first one, came on the uneven bars, which as you might imagine, was one of the three events Comaneci struck gold. But it was on the balance beam that she truly showed off her skill. The beam is considered one of the most difficult Olympic events, with gymnasts performing pirouettes and backflips on a beam measuring just four inches across. All Nadia did was record three more perfect scores and her second gold medal.