FRIDAY SURPRISE: You think you know someone...

If you're over 40, you know the woman in this picture. Not in the sense of personally knowing her, of course, but you know who she is.



Don't recognize her? I'll give you a hint: 1976.

Montreal.

Romanian.

Perfect 10's.

Famous theme named after her.

If you haven't already guessed, that's little Nadia Comaneci - now 46 years old, and married with children.

Her rise to dominate Olympic gymnastics was stunning. I remember watching the broadcast (back then it was on ABC) and being amazed that this little girl could seemingly come from nowhere and beat our own American athletes. With perfect scores, no less!

The whole event was darned near unbelievable. It seemed that her life was charmed; that she was on top of the world.

How little we knew. Romania in the late '70s was far from a paradise; Nicolas Ceaucescu ruled the country with an iron fist, and that included Nadia and her career. I won't give away the rest of the story, but it's a tale I knew nothing about until I read this article in London's Daily Mail.

-=[ Grant ]=-