The most celebrated gymnast of our time, Nadia Elena Comaneci, was born on November 12, 1961 in OneÅŸti, Romania and began gymnastics at the tender age of six. A year later, she started training with world-renowned Romanian gymnastics coach Béla Károlyi. She then became one of the first students at the gymnastics school established by Károlyi and his wife, Marta in Onesti, Romania.

In 1969, Comaneci participated in her first Romanian National Championships, where she placed 13th. Shortly after her victory, she began competing with her hometown team, becoming the youngest gymnast to ever win the Romanian Nationals. In 1971, she made it to her first international competition, a dual junior meet between Romania and Yugoslavia, where she won her first all-around title and contributed to the team gold. She continued competing internationally against nearby countries until the age of 13, when she won almost all gold medals in the 1975 European Championships in Skien, Norway.

Her biggest achievement came when Comaneci was just 14 years old, when she joined the 1976 Olympic Games in Montréal. There, she became the first Romanian gymnast to win the all-around title and the youngest Olympic gymnastics all-around champion. She was also the first gymnast who received a perfect 10 at the Olympics, and went on to score six additional 10's. Because of her massive success in the Olympics, she garnered a lot of media attention, and was named the 1976 BBC Sports Personality of the Year in the overseas athletes category. She was also named by the Associated Press as 1976's Female Athlete of the Year. Over all, she garnered five golds, three silvers and one bronze in the Olympics.

In 1996, Comaneci married U.S. gymnast Bart Conner, and later gave birth to their son, Dylan Paul in 2006. In 2003, she wrote her autobiography, Letters to a Young Gymnast, which answers questions sent in by her millions of fans worldwide. She is currently actively participating in various charities and international organizations to promote wellness and sports. In 2005, FOX.com named her as one of the Greatest Athletes in 150 years of Sports History.

In 2007, Comaneci participated in the American version of the game show 1 vs. 100, wherein she made it into the last 20 mob members. Moreover, she will be the new face of L’Oreal cosmetics. She was also cast for the seventh season of NBC and Donald Trump's The Apprentice: Celebrity Edition, where she is to compete against 13 other individuals to win the prize of $250,000 for the charity of her choice.

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(Photo courtesy of NBC)