In most Olympic sports, it is clear who has won.
Who threw the furthest, who jumped the highest,
who crossed the finishing line first.
Artistic gymnastics is not one of those sports.
It is won or lost on the opinion of the judges,
whose job is to assess technique, control, execution,
plus that hard-to-define element - artistry.
The gymnasts themselves are in pursuit of an ideal.
An immaculate, error-free performance
complemented by artistic interpretation,
even if that ideal is, effectively, unattainable.
Because one thing the judges
have always agreed on - nobody's perfect.
Montreal 1976, the Games of the 21st Olympiad.
For decades, the gymnastics competition had been dominated
by the Soviet Union, and they brought a dream team to Canada.
Ludmilla Tourischeva,
Olga Korbut
and the new star, Nellie Kim.
But the Soviets were worried about their rivals
and one gymnast in particular.
Up until 1976, Romanian gymnastics had
a modest Olympic record,
only one bronze medal.
Compare that with the Soviet Union over the same period.
This new girl from Romania, however,
had been a sensation
at the 1975 European Championships,
where she entered five events and won four of them.
Her name was Nadia Comaneci and she was 14 years old.
So young, yet so self-assured.
She just didn't make mistakes.
Comaneci grew up in the town of Onesti,
where coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi had set up
a training programme.
They had a keen eye for talent,
and spotted Comaneci turning cartwheels
in the school playground
when she was six years old.
Comaneci trained six hours a day, five days a week.
She swiftly became the star of the Karolyi Academy.
She finished 13th in
the senior Romanian Nationals Championships
when she was only eight years old.
The next year, aged nine,
she won the competition outright.
She was the talk of the gymnastics world.
But her first appearance at the Olympic Games,
competing in the team event,
would make her an international star.
Now, imagine you are the judge,
and you have to assess this performance.
Keep a close eye out for any mistakes.
See anything?
Pay attention, Jan.
Hmm? What? Oh!
The dismount was faultless.
How do you judge that?
When the results were posted,
the scoreboard showed 1.0 out of 10.
Comaneci had outdone the technology of the day.
The judges' verdict was actually 10.00,
a perfect ten.
Amazing. That's what I gave her.
- Not me. I gave her 11. - Hm.
It was a moment that turned Comaneci into a star.
She was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect ten
at the Olympic Games.
Much as it is for astronauts,
landing is everything in gymnastics.
This was where the judges could reliably find fault.
And yet this girl's landing was, in a word, faultless.
Another perfect ten.
Despite Comaneci's performance,
the Soviet Union won gold in the team event in Montreal.
Comaneci and her Romanian team-mates took silver.
Soviet strength in depth won out.
But looking at the results,
there is little doubt which numbers stand out.
Her rivals will have seen Comaneci's scores and known
there was only one favourite for the overall competition.
And so it proved.
Comaneci won the overall individual gold medal,
the most prestigious award in female gymnastics.
She scored another five perfect tens in the process,
also adding individual gold medals in both the uneven bars
and the balance beam.
Comaneci changed the style of gymnastics forever,
setting a new standard for those who came after her.
And the records she set can never now be beaten.
It is no longer possible to compete at the Olympics aged 14
and, in 2006, the scoring system
was radically overhauled.
There is no longer any such thing as a perfect ten.
Comaneci stands alone.