Remembering the Joy and the perfect 10

7/25/2006

For as far back as I can remember, I have loved the Olympic Games.

There is nothing quite like the Olympics, where the finest athletes on this amazing globe battle it out for the right to be called the world champion.

There is nothing quite like being the world champion. Since I have always known I stand as much chance of being a world champion as being conked on the head by one of Jupiter’s moons, I have watched, and loved, the Olympic Games.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of Canada’s first Summer Games, when Montreal hosted the event back in 1976.

I wasn’t long out of diapers at the time, but I do remember watching Canadian high jumper Greg Joy win the silver medal. I can still see him clearing that bar in the pouring rain, arms raised and pumping in triumph and joy, like it was yesterday.

I also remember watching a 14-year-old gymnast from Transylvania, named Nadia Comeneci.

Nadia was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 in Olympic competition. She managed six more 10s, and three gold medals, and I fell in love with her. I told everyone I was going to marry her, until one of Jupiter’s moons nearly hit me on the head, and I realized the odds, again, were stacked against me.

Over 6,000 athletes competed that year, in nearly 200 events, and Canada left with only five silver and six bronze medals. It was the first time in Olympic history that the host country of the Summer Games won no gold medals. Maybe, it was all the rain.

In fact, a rainstorm actually doused the Olympic flame a few days after the Games opened, and an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.

Princess Anne, a member of the United Kingdom equestrian team, was the only female competitor not to have to submit to a sex test. Maybe, she was afraid she might fail. I can’t really remember.

Boris Onischenko, of the USSR’s modern pentathlon team, was disqualified for cheating. This so enraged other Soviet team members that, for example, the volleyball players threatened to throw him out the hotel window if they met him. Maybe, they did. I can’t really remember that either.

Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto performed on a broken right knee, and still helped his country to the team gold medal. Fujimoto broke his leg on the floor exercise, and was able to complete the event on the rings, where he performed a perfect triple somersault dismount, maintaining perfect posture.

His 9.7 score secured the gold for Japan. Years later, when asked if he would do it again, he stated bluntly "No, I would not." It seems, I’m not the only one who has lasting memories of the 1976 Games.