Former American gymnast Michelle Dusserre Farrell will never forget the moment her idol Nadia Comăneci scored the Olympics’ first perfect 10.0 in 1976.
Dusserre Farrell, who later competed in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, said watching Comăneci’s achievement inspired her to dream big, even knowing the Romanian gymnast's milestone was nearly unattainable.
"It’s one of those moments where I remember exactly where I was, exactly what the room looked like and what we were doing as a family when Nadia was competing and scored her first perfect 10," Dusserre Farrell said.
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Comăneci went on to earn six more perfect 10s in her events to win three gold medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
“It was a monumental moment for me even as a young child,” Dusserre Farrell added. “It was almost being given a license to dream because she just did something that everyone thought to be impossible.”
Dusserre Farrell, the youngest member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team at the 1984 Olympics, sustained a career-ending elbow injury in 1985. After navigating through different career avenues, she now works for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
