50 stunning Olympic moments: Nadia Comaneci's perfect 10s – in pictures

Aged only 14, Nadia Comaneci was a slender gymnast who stood barely 5ft tall and weighed little more than six stone. Born in a small town in eastern Romania and trained locally by the famed Bela Karolyi, she arrived at the Montreal Olympics with expectations high for success. Her rival, Olga Korbut, the star of the 1972 Games, was nursing an injury and the stage was set for Comaneci to display her talents Photograph: Rex Features/Rex Features

On her first day of competition, Comaneci produced a stunning performance on the parallel bars. With unrivalled grace and ingenuity, she completed a flawless routine and was awarded the perfect score by the judges: 10.00 Photograph: Paul Vathis/AP

Such a score had never before been achieved at the Olympics. The scoreboard was not designed for double figures and the organisers instead had to display her score as 1.00 Photograph: AFP

Comaneci's sylphlike genius was not confined to the parallel bars, as this multiple exposure of her routine on the balance beam shows. She went on to achieve a further six perfect 10 scores at the Games, earning individual gold medals in the parallel bars, the balance beam and the all-round competitions
Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Comaneci also won an individual bronze medal for her floor routine, as well as a silver medal in the team competition (to which she contributed three perfect 10 routines) Photograph: Bettmann/Corbis

Comaneci's achievements made her a world-wide star and two of the pioneering dismounts she performed were subsequently named after her Photograph: Rex Features/Sipa

Taller and more muscular, she went on to win two further gold medals at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow – one of them a successful defence of her balance beam Olympic title – before retiring the following year Photograph: Tony Duffy/Getty Images Europe

Yet life turned bleak in the decade that followed in communist Romania as her movements were strictly controlled. She eventually fled to the US in 1989 and married the former American gymnast Bart Conner in 1996. This image shows Comaneci in Amsterdam in 2004 Photograph: Mark Van Der Zouw