Nadia Comaneci

At the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, a 14-year-old Romanian dynamo captured the hearts and minds of the world with her daring and perfection. We came to know her simply as "Nadia”. By the time the 1976 Olympics ended, Comaneci had earned seven perfect tens, three gold medals, one bronze, one silver and countless fans. She appeared on the covers of TIME, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated -- all in the same week -- and returned home to Romania to a heroine's welcome. Four years later at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Comaneci earned two more gold medals and two silver to bring her Olympic total to nine medals -- five gold, three silver and one bronze. In 1996, Comaneci was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame.