Nadia: The Movie (Commission)

GymCastic: The Gymnastics Podcast

THE NADIA MOVIE

Lies, lies, and more lies! For today's commissioned episode, we watched the 1984 made-for-TV movie Nadia, a Very Highly Extremely Unauthorized biography of Nadia Comaneci, and we seriously just can't with it. We discuss:

• Things that definitely 100% happened and aren't lies at all, like Bela Karolyi creepily discovering Nadia at recess
• The villain of this tale: Communism
• The very important *IMMEDIATE CHOREOGRAPHED FRIENDSHIP DANCE* between Nadia and Teodora
• Interrupting the judges in the middle of Tourischeva's floor routine (!)
• Anachronistic hair: A deep discussion
• Marcia Frederick's stunts are the only watchable part
• This movie did Teodora Ungureanu dirty
• Is this the only gymnastics movie where the stunt work is harder than the real routines they're portraying?
• Wait...did they turn Nellie Kim white?
• Creating the future: Did Bela reenact some of these scenes later in his career?
• Some very sensitive and thoughtful treatment of weight and suicide. Healthy and helpful. Good good.
• The moral of the story might be anorexia

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