Nadia Comaneci: the perfect girl's feat turns 40 years old.

With 1.62 meters tall and less than 50 kilos, little Nadia Comaneci could have passed for any other girl. Her hair tied in a perpetual ponytail and a finely cut fringe to barely show her unalterable eyes made her go unnoticed among her rivals. However, the afternoon of July 18, 1976 was the day that changed her life, the history of sports, and turned her into a legend for the Olympic Games.

Her age didn't matter. Nadia Comaneci was only 14 years old, a teenager, but she was one of the most representative gymnasts of the then-powerful Romania. It was the first day of competition in Montreal 1976 and it was the rotation of the uneven bars exercise, one of the most technical stops of the competition.

With an impressive strength for her little arms, enviable technique, and impressive posture, Nadia finished the exercise. For her, it was nothing different, it was the same routine she had been practicing every day after school.

But it wasn't as simple as she thought. The scoreboard showed a score of 1.00. The gymnast thought it was a mistake, that she hadn't done so bad to receive that number. Not even her teammates understood. And what they were witnessing was historic: Nadia had achieved the best score ever seen in the history of the Olympic Games.

The 18 thousand souls in the coliseum exploded with emotion, but Nadia remained calm. Perhaps because of her character, but mostly because of her ignorance. "It wasn't my goal. It didn't surprise me much either. Honestly, I didn't understand its importance very well back then. I was very young. I didn't follow my sport much," says the former Olympic champion at 54 years old.

Beyond the feat, her achievement was proof that the human body never ceases to amaze the world. Months before the Montreal Games, Daniel Baumat, responsible for managing and programming Omega's electronic scoreboards, met with the International Gymnastics Federation to fine-tune the last details. One of the questions he asked was if he should change it to four digits (at that time only three digits were used for scoring), but the answer is now prophetic. "Leave it as it is, it's impossible for someone to get a '10' in a hundred years," they said.

That scoring error made that routine go down in history, so much that the Federation was forced to change the scoreboard for the following competitions. The Russian Nelli Kim was one of those who benefited from it as she also achieved the coveted '10' in the same Olympic party, but she remained in the shadow of the Romanian star.

The cold city of Onesti, in Romania, was Nadia's home. She was a normal girl who jumped through bushes and ran through the garden until she met Béla Károlyi at six years old. The renowned coach of the national team saw a prodigy in her and took her under his wing. Although she was very young, the man believed he saw potential in her, and years later he would prove it true.

Her career took off when she was only 13 years old, a year before making history. At the 1975 European Championships in Skien, she won four gold medals (all-around, vault, uneven bars, and balance beam) and one silver medal (floor exercise). Months later, she competed in the American Cup (United States) and the Chunichi Cup (Japan), and in both tournaments, she achieved the coveted 10. They thought the streak would end there, but Montreal proved them wrong.

Four decades have passed since that perfect score, but Nadia still celebrates. And as the years go by, it seems that the feat becomes even more grandiose, but this anniversary is more important than the rest. This time she can celebrate with her son Dylan in Montreal, where her name was known by the whole world.

At 54 years old, Nadia Comaneci is still very involved in the world of sports. She has a gym in Oklahoma, where she encourages the practice of sports in young promises. "It's an art, it's taking your body to the extreme," she says excitedly. At 54, she still does it, and she doesn't plan on stopping.

This is Nadia Comaneci's record at the Olympic Games: