Nadia Comaneci

Former gymnast Nadia Comaneci and the married roofer who arranged her defection from Romania revealed their romance Tuesday, but they repeatedly shunned questions about their immediate personal plans. Comaneci made it clear, however, that she has no desire to become involved with gymnastics in the United States. Appearing bewildered by the more than 100 journalists at a news conference in Hollywood, Fla.

The recent defection of Romania's Nadia Comaneci calls to mind her sudden rise as the world's premier female gymnast in the 1976 Olympic Games at Montreal, and how it caught many journalists off guard. Or at least ill-informed. One reporter recalls wandering through the Olympic press center one afternoon and being attracted to a gathering of U.S. sportswriters receiving a lecture from another sportswriter, the late columnist Dick Young of the New York Daily News.

Former Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, beaming and declaring that she "wanted to have a free life," arrived in New York on Friday to begin that life after being guaranteed political asylum in this country. Comaneci, who as a pint-sized 14-year-old had electrified the world with her unprecedented perfect scores in the 1976 Montreal Olympics, was greeted at John F. Kennedy Airport by a horde of government officials and security personnel, as well as well-wishers who presented her with bouquets.

Like all Romanians who have left their countries, I've been reading and watching the news with particular fervor this autumn. Poland, Hungary, the Berlin Wall, Czechoslovakia . . . Nothing about Romania. At least nothing new about Romania. Until Nadia Comaneci, the most famous Romanian athlete ever, the national heroine, the girl every Romanian parent wanted his or her girl to be like, decided that enough was enough and crossed the border to, of all places, Hungary. It was big news.

Nadia Comaneci will need her most nimble footwork since her perfect score on the balance beam to salvage her marketing potential, now that her relationship with a married father of four children has been made public. "I think there are some problems. No one is going to touch her right now," said Jay Ogden, senior vice president of International Management Group, which handles endorsements for U.S. gymnast Bart Conner. "She's an intriguing sports figure.

Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian gymnast who won America's heart 14 years ago with perfect Olympic performances, has returned to the warm spotlight and old friends after spending recent weeks out in the cold. Thursday night, the 28-year-old who defected four months ago made a triumphant return to gymnastics by performing for a near-capacity crowd in the 1,800-seat Ziegfeld Theater inside Bally's Reno hotel-casino. It was her first U.S.

Gymnastics--the Peter Pan of sports--asks a lot of its participants, not the least of which is that they never grow old. The sport's mega-popularity in America began with a 17-year-old Soviet named Olga Korbut at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Four years later, during the 1976 Montreal Olympics, a Romanian named Nadia Comaneci solidified the sport's widespread appeal with seven perfect scores and three gold medals.

Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian athlete who in 1976 earned the world's first perfect scores in Olympic gymnastics, has fled her native country, the Hungarian government announced. Relatives in this country said they expect her to eventually settle in the United States.

Once she was a perfect 10. Small and lithe, at 14 Nadia Comaneci had the dark-eyed look of a pixie and a way of flipping her hand at the end of a floor routine that charmed the judges at the Montreal Olympics and fans the world over. That year, 1976, the diminutive Romanian became the first gymnast ever to receive a perfect score in Olympic competition. She won three gold medals and millions of American hearts.

Sam Wyche, coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, likened rowdy fans at Riverfront Stadium last Sunday to crowds at Cleveland Brown games when he took the public-address microphone to stop a snowball barrage. During the Bengals' 24-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Wyche urged fans to point out those who threw snowballs so that they could be ejected. He shouted, "You don't live in Cleveland. You live in Cincinnati!"