History Book: Nadia Comăneci’s perfect Olympic score

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, July 15th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Up next, the WORLD History Book. Today, a young gymnast earns what was once thought an impossible score at the Olympics.

And, President Jimmy Carter makes a rhetorical error that would define his presidency.

EICHER: But first, 75 years ago Israel arranges a cease-fire with Syria. Here’s WORLD’s Kristen Flavin.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: On July 20th, 1949, Israel and Syria reach the final stages of a peace agreement. The 1948 Arab-Israeli war has left both countries war-torn and weary, with an Israeli victory resulting in thousands of casualties. Audio here from C-SPAN’s interview with historian Benny Morris.

AUDIO: The Arab leadership in Palestine, headed by Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the Mufti of Jerusalem, was expulsionist in its policy. It wanted to get rid of the Jewish community in Palestine. It saw it as a cancer; it saw it as a danger, as a threat.

The 1947 United Nations General Assembly partitioned Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Bands of guerilla militants began fighting to regain control of cities that had been handed over to Israel. In 1948 Israel asserted their independence as a nation and gained a powerful ally. Audio here from the 50 Years War documentary.

AUDIO: The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel.

Other Middle Eastern countries—Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon—joined the battle to push Israel back. But their disorganized militias and separate goals proved weak against organized Israeli forces.

Within a year Israel reconquered all of the land they had been promised, and then some. In 1949, the nation brokered agreements to establish a demilitarized zone and ensure peace in Palestine. But while Egypt and Jordan eventually reached stable relations with Israel, Syria waged a perpetual war in the decades since.

Next, on July 18th, Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci gets ready to mount the uneven bars at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Comăneci has already been the favorite of junior championships and one international competition. And at 14 years-old, she’s one of the youngest athletes at the Games.

With a determined look on her face, Comăneci approaches the bars. She puts her hands up and out, showing the judges she’s about to start. This first exercise on the uneven bars is “compulsory,” meaning all athletes must perform this specific routine. The crowd watches with bated breath. And she performs, well, perfectly. Audio here from a newscast of the event.

ANNOUNCER: Faultless! Absolutely faultless. Nadia Comăneci … and what are the judges going to say about that?

After a few seconds, the scoreboard flashes a number: 1.0. Comăneci has earned a perfect 10, which is so rare the board wasn’t even designed to display it.

In traditional gymnastics, judges begin with a score of 10 and then deduct points based on the amount of mistakes a gymnast made. The errors range from mistakenly changing the routine, down to tiny details such as bad foot positioning. Comăneci’s performance is flawless, the first perfect score ever awarded at the Olympic Games.

AUDIO: And ten has gone on the board! That’s perfection, and that is Olympic history for Nadia Comăneci!

Comăneci scores 6 more perfect tens in successive rounds of uneven bars, balance beam, and the individual all-around. And she finishes the Games with three gold medals in those categories and a bronze for her floor exercise. Years later, the Olympic Committee raises the age minimum to 16, so Comăneci will remain the youngest athlete ever to win gold in the individual all-around.

AUDIO: Absolutely superb! Got this audience spellbound … confidence, the aplomb, remarkable gymnastics.

Finally, on July 15th, 1979, President Jimmy Carter emerges from a 10-day period of soul searching with a speech intended to rouse the American people. Audio here from C-SPAN.

AUDIO: These ten days confirmed my belief in the decency and the strength and the wisdom of the American people, but it also bore out some of my longstanding concerns about our nation’s underlying problems.

The American economy struggled during the 1970s. High inflation, unemployment, and gasoline shortages were hallmarks of everyday life. Americans experienced the effects of two oil embargos, one in 1973 and another in ‘79.

Audio here from Eyewitness News.

AUDIO: Higher costs for transportation will in turn have a ripple effect throughout the economy, driving prices up in general.

Carter inherited the energy crisis from predecessors Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon, and his domestic policies attempted to ease the strain. He installed solar panels on the White House and asked Americans to turn down their thermostats. But as the crisis lingered—and polls showed public doubt in the government—Carter decided to deliver a speech called, “A Crisis of Confidence.”

AUDIO: The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.

Instead of encouragement, Carter criticizes the American way of life. He asks Americans to reevaluate their consumerism and urges them to be optimistic about the future.

At first, many Americans seem to approve as phone calls and letters pour into the White House. But the positivity is short-lived. One year later, the economy is even worse off. And Americans mock Carter’s address as the “malaise” speech, carrying empty promises of change.

The speech haunts Carter throughout the rest of his presidency, and he loses in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in 1980. Audio here from historian Kevin Mattson on NPR.

AUDIO: It’s from then on that I think Carter had a really difficult time at bouncing back and being seen on the part of the American people as a strong and significant leader, especially a leader that could take America through solving the energy crisis.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Kristen Flavin.

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