Nadia "Raw Garlic" Comaneci

You can do it! Chalk up your hands and skip lunch—we're taking it to the mat with Romanian gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci, and her weirdly tense memoir "Letters to a Young Gymnast." The first person to ever receive a perfect 10 at the Olympics (Montreal, 1976), the blonde bombshell ever so slightly opens up about getting groomed by infamous coaching couple the Karolyis (who went on to invent Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug, and Simone Biles). From eating disorders to escaping communism, why the balance beam is for weird girls, jealous parental sex, will gymnastics ever see a trans girl champion?, Times Square shopping sprees and why lesbians aren't gymansts—this one's a perfect 10. Hear this episode with ad-free at patreon.com/cbcthepodSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/cbcthepodSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.