National Pride
Upon Nadia Comăneci’s return to her home country, she was treated like a national hero. It’s easy to see why as no one else had ever achieved the feat she managed to pull off. Then President Nicolae Ceaușescu presented her with the “Sickle and Hammer Gold Medal” and announced her to be a hero of “Socialist Labor”. The rumor mill even started saying how the government gave the family a car and an entire month off from work.
Dedications To Nadia Comăneci
As a celebration of Nadia’s success, the cinematographer Robert Riger created a video montage of the young gymnast’s performance in the Olympic Games. The footage was paired with the hit song “Cotton’s Dream”, a 1971 composition by Barry De Vorzon Perry Botkin, Jr. It did not take long before the song was synonymous with her record-breaking performance. The song even climbed to the top spot of the charts and it was eventually re-titled “Nadia’s Theme”.