Nadia Comaneci, the first athlete to achieve perfect scores in the Olympics, said she's giving up gymnastics for the movies and coyly revealed a close relationship with a married man who has four children.
"I want to make a movie about my story," she told reporters Tuesday.Comaneci, 28, arrived in Miami on Monday with Romanian emigre Constantin Panait, who helped arrange her nighttime escape from Romania.
Once in Hungary, Comaneci met Panait at a police station.
"It takes a lot of guts," Panait said. "She would have been in a lot of trouble if she was caught, because she is so well known."
The other defectors are in Austria. The gymnast who thrilled the world as a 14-year-old superstar left behind her 21 Olympic medals, a large house, a car and a life of relative luxury in Romania. She also left behind her mother, father and brother.
Comaneci said she fears Romanian authorities might take retribution for her defection on family members and she hopes to call her parents this week.
"I want just a quiet life," she said with a smile, "but I don't think I'll have a chance."
She said a movie offer already has been made. She declined to give details.
For now, Comaneci and the 34-year-old Panait said they plan to "settle down together." Panait has worked as a self-employed roofer in south Florida since his arrival in the United States in the early 1980s.
They also plan to concentrate on such details as work permits and U.S. citizenship for Comaneci.
In addition, they will have to deal with the fact that Panait is married.
Comaneci said she knew Panait was married when she met him at a party two years ago in Bucharest.
"It didn't matter," she said.
The couple said they intend to visit Panait's wife, Maria, at her home in Hallandale, near Miami.