Nadia Comăneci wasn’t completely alone when she moved to the United States. In fact, there were several Romanians who had also defected to the US and befriended her. This included none other than her former gymnastics coach, Bela Karolyi.
Karolyi had attempted to reach out to Nadia multiple times after she touched down in the United States, but it turns out that Constantin Panait filtered out Nadia’s calls. Comăneci was completely unaware that people were trying to contact her.
Runaway Gymnast
With five other Romanian defectors, Nadia made the dangerous walk in the ice-cold conditions and harsh weather, until they would reach the Hungarian border.
Nadia was reportedly stopped at the border by the Hungarian police who at once recognized the famous gymnast. However, out of pity, they let the gymnast through. They continued on to the Austrian border, where Panait met her before they went together to the US embassy and got a flight to New York City.
Bad-Girl Reputation
When Nadia finally reached America, her arrival generated some negative press and not everyone was in her favor. She was no longer the gymnast darling of the world. She was now a woman who was towering on high heels, with a heavy face of makeup, and a defector. Rumors of her relationship with the Romanian dictator’s son and that she’d left her home country were circulating.
The world certainly didn’t forget her. But, Nadia didn’t receive the warm welcome that she would have hoped for.
Concerned Friend
There were several other people who wanted to get in touch with Comăneci as well, including the American boy she once received a kiss from, Bart Conner. He was very surprised to see that Comăneci was expected to appear on the Pat Sajak Show.
Conner knew Sajack’s producer and asked to be a surprise guest on the show. He also told the producer that Comăneci wasn’t in touch with any of her friends in the United States, and he believed something shady was going on. He was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Lost In Translation
It didn’t help Nadia that people thought she was in a relationship with the married Panait. The pair were known to stay in motels and hotels around the country together, and when interviewers asked Nadia about their relationship, Nadia stuck out her tongue and claimed, “It’s a secret.” Nadia later explains her answer as a language miscommunication. The world had no idea that Panait was actually holding the gymnast hostage. She confided in a close friend that Panait held her captive for 3 months.
She wrote in her memoir “Constantin had offered to help me defect, and I'd accepted. I assumed that his wife knew that he was going to help a handful of Romanians get out of the country and that I was one of them. But what people took from my answer was that I was a home-wrecker. Nothing could have been further from the truth. In hindsight, I understand that I'd made a very poor choice of words. Constantin had plans to become my personal manager upon our arrival in the United States. I didn't know that, but he promised to help me get settled, and I guess I just accepted his involvement in my future career as fair payment for the risks he'd taken. People died every day trying to defect.”