Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian gymnast whose unprecedented perfect scores at the 1976 Olympics made sports history, has fled to Hungary and asked for asylum, the state-run MTI news agency reported Wednesday.
The terse report said Comaneci, who retired from gymnastics in 1984, applied for political asylum after fleeing across the Romanian-Hungarian border early Tuesday.She reportedly told Hungarian border guards that her escape had been organized," the news agency said. The report said she had left behind a "neatly furnished flat, a car and financial security for the sake of freedom."
Comaneci was quoted as saying she had been denied permission to work abroad as a coach or even travel, in spite of numerous offers and invitations. She has been planning a coaching and refereeing career.
An employee of the local radio station in the southern Hungary town of Szeged, about 15 miles from the Romanian border, said Comaneci checked into the Royal Hotel there, spent the night and left Wednesday morning.
An estimated 25,000 Romanians, most of them ethnic Hungarians complaining of discrimination, have fled to Hungary in the past two years seeking refuge from hardships under the regime of President Nicolae Ceausescu.
Comaneci, 27, an ethnic Romanian, astounded the world as a petite, solemn 14-year-old, turning in a series of perfect 10 scores and winning three gold medals at the Montreal games.
Her former coach, Bela Karoly, defected with his wife in March 1981 while on a tour of 15 American cities with the Romanian gymnastics team. He became a U.S. citizen last spring and coaches American gymnasts.
"I'm happy finally she made the step which would lead to a free life," Karoly told The Associated Press Wednesday in a telephone interview from Clarens, Switzerland. He said he would urge her to go to the United States. "It is still the country with the greatest respect for Nadia and the country with the greatest opportunity," he said.
Comaneci is listed by the Guinness Book of World Rec-ords as the first gymnast to receive a perfect score in a major international tourney. During her career, she collected 21 gold medals in Olympic and world competition.