The gymnastics of the '70s and '80s was so beautiful, graceful, and captivating. I don't think we'll ever see that level of artistry, elegance, and charm in gymnastics ever again. The beam routines were slower, more deliberate, and fluid. The floor exercises were more balletic with better choreography. Today, gymnasts perform at a much higher technical level, but their moves are faster and more robotic. Frankly, most of the routines look the same from one gymnast to another now.

She moved so beautifully! She was so refined-that was how we were coached in the 70’s-80’s-from the fingertips to the tips of our toes, it must be perfect. We had to take ballet daily-a ballet teacher trained us 1 hour/day. We moved with rhythm and grace, always present in the moment. I miss this era. ❤️

Nadia taking responsibility for her 80 loss "I opened the door by a mistake" tells you everything you need to know about her character. The newer gymnasts are sacrificing true perfection and elegance for harder.

Nadia What a beautiful human being at 14 years old The self confidence determination the eagerness to work harder than expected You have made a mark in my heart and I can’t wait to teach my future children about you 💕💕💕

Nadia is the best😭❤️...So professional and classy and everything besides her top notch talent

WOW - Olga broke the rules, Nadia exponentially raised them

Nadia says that she sometimes had to make corrections in the air, which I think is not only very smart, but quite risky. No wonder she achieved so many flawless performances.

22:10 Words of true champion. She makes no excuses, blame nobody but herself.

I have a lot of respect for Nadia for saying that she opened the door because she made a mistake. That's being honest, although she didn't win, she is still the greatest gymnast.

I was holding my breath watching some of those performances. So beautiful

2 diametrically opposed styles, Simone is pure power, speed, perfection and no emotion nor feminism at all on the other hand Nadia is pure grace, artistry and poetry in motion!.Simone pose, walk and running is very masculine like and mechanical while Nadia's walk is feminine, sensual and delicate like a rose!.I might not know much about gymnastics but I know artistry and grace when I see it, that's what I see when I watch Nadia perform!!!!

*Nadia Comaneci, you made perfect this "tricky"!😅 NADIA COMANECI takes SEVEN 😳 TIMES 😳 A "PERFECT 10" at the Olympics 1976 in Montreal ! That's more than INCREDIBLE ! THAT'S PHENOMENAL! NOBODY WILL BE LIKE SHE! NEVER! YOU ARE THE OLYMPICCS QUEEN !🏆🤗 😍*

Artistic gymnasts are so graceful back then.

I still worship Olga Korbut - what a wonderful person!

Wow! Olga’s balance beam routine was amazing/beautiful.

There will never be another Nadia 💜 she’s the greatest gymnast ever

Nadia Comaneci and olga korbut the greatest gymnasts of all time!!

So sad if you think about that Elena Mukhina should have been at the olympics 1980 in Moscow. But two weeks before the games that tragedy happened. The show must go on, with or without you

Nadia said it all! "If I had not made a mistake they could not have touch me"! She left the door open for Russian judges at the Moscow Olympics to rule her out!

"Triple twist! Thank you very much!" Man, I love the British commentators

Ugh, all I can think about when I hear about the 1980 Olympics is still the tragic story of Elena Mukhina... You should've won here... ;_;

Whenever I watch Nadia and Olga perform their routines, I am touched deep within my soul by their splendid display of grace and elegance.. It moves me to be able to witness such an angelic execution. Both of these girls are avatars of ardent perfection, without a doubt. And to reach such brilliance at such a young age... absolutely otherworldy.

The Olga Korbut performance on the beam gives me chills. I wish the beam were so beautiful in today's gymnastics

nadia that is how you handle not being 1st that is a true champion

Doris Fuchs at the 1966 world championship was robbed by judges on uneven bars because they never seen such acrobatic moves. This was a revolution in gymnastics. Olga and Nadia were not the first to change gymnastics.

I can't believe they didn't show Olga fantastic uneven bars routine... one of a kind.. still the best bar routine EVER, after all these years !

I LOVE Nadia...got the first 10 and followed with 5 10's in Montreal. Simply the BEST!

Can everyone just chill and watch this documentary!!!?

ВЫ НАШ БРИЛЛИАНТ, Г-ЖА ОЛЬГА！ ХОРОШАЯ, ОПТИМИСТИЧНАЯ, ДОБРАЯ , ПОЗИТИВНАЯ, ОЧЕНЬ-ОЧЕНЬ-ОЧЕНЬ СИМПАТИЧНАЯ, НЕСМОТРЯ НА ГОДЫ, ЧТО ПРОШЛИ！ КАК ПРИЯТНО ВИДЕТЬ ВАС В ЭТОМ ФИЛЬМЕ！

Bela is so expressive when he speaks xD

Toute les lumières de la gymnastique ont illuminées Nadia C. (excellente) alors que ses routines sont très inspirées de celle d'Olga (magnifique, incroyable, novatrice).. J'adore les gymnastes d'Europe de l'est même si je sais que ce niveau est atteint au prix de beaucoup de sacrifices et de douleurs.. ❤

Wow I did not know Nadia was so close to winning the all around in 1980. Wow what a great gymnast. Everyone made it seem like she did so bad in 1980, but if she wouldnt have made the mistake on bars she would have won! Learn something new everyday!

After Olga Korbut and Nadia Comaneci i had to wait until Katlyn Ohashi showed up before i got hypnotized again. Those three are the three best of all times. :)

I don't know why but Nadia in the '80s gave me so much of Princess Diana's vibe. Pretty doll, super talented, and quite shy young lady. The funny thing is if you take out her last 3 alphabets of her name (Dia) and put it upfront then you got Diana.

Wow, I remember doing those chest rolls in my first gymnastic class!

*Elena Muhina* .. was an amazing girl.

This is so graceful and artistic....What a joy to watch! 😁

6:13 My goodness, she looks like she aged 20 years. They worked her so hard.

Olga Kiorbut in uneven bars U.S. absolutly amazing . She was the first perfect 10

Nadia & Bart - a rather cool couple.

olga was gymastics first t.v star in the eary 70s

Mi a dmiracion para Nadia C. Su gimnasia es Hermosa, grandiosa, unica, bella. Han pasado tantos años sigue suendo la mejor pir su don artistico y tecnica perfecta. En 2024 ninguna como ella

I love to watch Olympic gymnastics and had always this preference for Nadia. Where she was my eyes were there. She was the best, so great and started so young. Loved her and she really was the first was the gymnast to get a perfect 10.00. I admired her so much. She was a perfectionist and knew what to do.

Nadia is so lovely, what a gorgeous gymnast and person. She was my idol when I was a kid. ❤

Aaah! So just a temporary misunderstanding! I remember the fracas with the judging so well - even though its almost 3 decades ago! I loved Nadia! She was my inspiration when growing up - and still is now I've been grown up a long time!! The modern gymnasts just don't cut it like she did, despite the greater complexity of their routines! It does make you wonder how the sport will develop over the coming years; will they be doing doubles on the beam??!

Nadia had it all, skill, grace, competence class. Nadia tge best ever.

So they skipped a whole two decades...??? So many new moves and stars during those years.

Ольга, великолепна! Легкая , гибкая, музыкальная!

this is a great doc! thanks for uploading

That was my dismount for three years. Thinking about doing it today is terrifying. IDK how I did it.

Valeri Liukin did it first at the 1987 Worlds but Li Xiaoshuang was the first to do it in Olympic competition.

This is before " bouncy" floors were used. Those dismounts must have been hell when landing. The flooor exercises must have been horrendous landing on those hard floors (they use bouncy floors now btw).

something about the arena in Munich makes gymnastics captivating to watch. like the whole world is watching with you

Watching this in 2024, knowing how much abuse happened because of Béla Károlyi's horrific gym & practices, now knowing the painfulvstories hiding behind those smiling women's faces, gave this fascinating doc a twisted feel.

Davydova has such pretty clear blue eyes! 19:45 I love this video it contains rare footage that I've never seen before! :D

Too bad people don't lknow this is by far the most difficult sport there is!

When Olga cried I cried 😭😢💔

Nadia Comăneci is the Queen of Perfect 10.

You are cert correct, most female gymnasts dont technically 'dance' anymore, its tumbling, too many spins,too many leaps and bugger all else ! of course you can only blame the FIG or whoever states the 'requirements' . I do however, understand why the rules were changed in 2006 too reward gymnasts for taking more risks than others, they just need to lay off the requirements for leaps and spins...thats all I see in todays gymnastics..........

Korbut and Nadia❤️❤️😍😍👏👏👏🥇🥇🥇🥇

Most gymnasts jump, but this lady was able to fly during her exercises. (I don' t have other/better word for it). No one can match her, there was not only 1 like her.. so elegant and strong at the same time. She is still so very beautifull!!!

Nadia is beautiful!

Olga a woman noted for courage and daring action.There she is, a picture still fresh in the memory more than 25 years later, an indelible icon of the Seventies. Olga Korbutt standing on the beam, leg outstretched, her tiny frame poised in perfect amplitude, the little girl's face set in an expression of devout concentration. From the scrawny bunches tied, & the winning, irregular smile, Olga was the perfect sporting product retailed to the West. ,,She obliged paparazzi with a grin the middle-aged commentators liked to call "cheeky". However the coaches determined what the girls ate and when they were given drugs to suppress the outward signs of puberty. As for the revelations that the regime of control extended to sex, the only surprise is that anyone is surprised. It was an inevitable consequence of a system that handed over sole charge of prepubescent girls to obsessive male trainers.Shame on the! ...In 1978, she married Leonid Bortkevich and soon had a son, Richard. Fleeing the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, in 1991, the family settled in the United States and has gone on to become a gymnastics coach and commentator,,A real Heroine

Wait a minute!!! At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, Vladimir Gogoladze of the Soviet Union landed a triple back on the Floor Exercise during the Team Optionals. He was the first to perform that skill.

Still no mention of Doris Fuchs Brause.......she broke the rules and took them to another level at the same time. She was Olga and Nadia all in one!

ludmilla tourischeva is still my favorite of all time

Oh, when women's gymnastics was beautiful to watch, such a joy, Nowadays it's all rush, rush, rush and no joy at all. Thank goodness I was able to witness the magic when it happened.

So true, gymnast look so different these days, don’t look the same. Lean strong Elegance not like today, a lot muscular

Personally, I think Olga deserved 10's as well. However, Nadia did deserve her 10's.

Max Richter's piano is always welcome!

Entre sientos de gimnastas a lo largo de la historia del deporte, nadia simpre sera la reina no solo por la ferfeccion de sus rutinas, sino también por el carisma que erradiaba, contagio al mundo, por esos es una legenda Comaneci the queen 👸👑👑👑

It does not get better than Nadia. She is still the tops.

Sad fact, indeed: "The gyms in the eastern block closed as the money dried up and the coaches went to work abroad." Had that not happened the eastern block would've dominated the gymnastics to this day. True, the most talented female gymnasts were from USSR and Romania. They had good training and they were daring. But nothing good lasts.

I saw that back flip on tv & we all went crazy!!

I have her olgas leo and many medals she won. I Won from heritage auctions. Pretty cool stuff!

Bravo Nadia! La actitud de una verdadera campeona, si no hubiera abierto la puerta, no hubieran podido tocarme! Me encanta!

80s gymnastics were passionate, gracious and acrobatics. I absolutely love this era of gymnastics vs the heavy acrobatics now a days. Prefer to watch Comanici and Corbut over Simon

I take that back Sanne Weaver and Lauren Hernandez's not to forget Simone's performances and the rest are catching up lolx 😀❤😀

Does anyone else think that Comaneci was underscored

Amazing how the predicted the future by having Kohei in this documentary.

Poor kid. There is no way I could've handled that level of pressure at that age or any age.

Gymnastics today is the same as it was before the 70's. All technical. Gymnastics from the 70-90s was daring and bold, artistic yet a bit dangerous. That's why we will never see the likes of the Gymnastics of the 70s and 80's. There were too many devastating injuries.

Toda la gente quedamos impactados con Nadia con sus ejercicios, como olvidarla fué la primera en ser perfecta

well, at the 1972 olympics, she was 17 years old. So in the 1976 olympics, she was 21 years old.

This is Olga Korbut

Such beauty and eloquence the world has never known before. And something modern day gymnastics has lost. Lolx 😀❤😀

I agree. And I think that the only gymnast nowadays that shows the beautiful artistry with amazing skills is Aliya Mustafina. That's why I love her so much.

She won the bronze on the floor exercise in 1976.

The modern day, gymnasts have a limited amount of flexibility due to their age and body type. They wouldn't be able to perform these routines. This is definitely a thing of the past, and so fascinating to watch.

Can t decide who was better Olga K,Elena M or Nadia C.Two in wich the elemnt was named after her Olga and Elena.Three different routines that stun the crowd🤔

What an adorable ice breaker in the midst of the Cold War.

Olga K ♥️

12:15 A special gift.

Men have so much more strength, power and dynamic "explosive" muscle mass in their body than women. The physical advantage of men in gymnastics is huge. Men can run faster, accelerate faster, jump higher, rotate quicker, etc., it's fascinating.

such a nice film clip. just wonderful

amazing. God bless

I do appreciate all gymnasts. I don't knock on their dance and artistry for fun like you. It would be like people knocking on the way you dress and walk but that's your own style. It bothers me that people want to see the US lose because they hate us. Of course no one can admit it so they will safely say they like the Russians more. Don't be naive. And every country is biased with their own competitions. Romania won over Russia recently in their country.

Brilliant video. Is it at all possible to upload the 100 metres episode? It would really help with my school project. Thanks.

A salute!! But then came Comaneci

Fantastic!