Comaneci calls for more opportunities for women

Olympic gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci has called for more opportunities for women and more media visibility for the sports in which they excel.

Addressing the Sportel sports business gathering in Monaco on Wednesday, Comaneci, who won the Olympic gold in 1976 in Montreal and was the first woman to obtain a perfect ten score, told reporters “there must be more opportunities for women” to shine and be noticed.

While acknowledging that her own achievements had enabled her to develop a global profile and a platform to help women be better recognised, Comaneci said that “women must continue to break the ice” as “a sport becomes popular if there is a star – be it a man or a woman”.

“Today, gymnastics is dominated by women but 34 years ago that was not the case,” she said.

“Women are capable of hard work and they want to decide what they do – you just have to give them the opportunity. There has to be visibility all the time – not just every four years when the (Olympic) Games come along.”

Comaneci also dismissed the idea that young gymnasts were pushed too hard in her day if they were seen as talented at a very early age.

“In those days people thought gymnastics was too tough for little girls and that they would do better to stay sat playing with their dolls. That wasn’t fair as you’d never have said that to a little boy.

“In my day there were precious few opportunities for girls to express themselves through sport and gymnastics was one. When I started, aged six, my parents thought it was fine because I was a bundle of energy and it prevented me from keeping on breaking furniture at home.”

Since Comaneci’s era, the minimum age for participation at the Olympics has been raised from 15 to 16 but she indicated that “it doesn’t make much difference”.

“For me it was okay to be 15 and participate at the Games as that allowed me to envisage a second participation four years later.

“Whereas if an athlete has to wait until 17 for a first Games there’s a fair chance that by 21 she will have gone on to something else.”