Word: gymnasted
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Catalina Ponor wants to be the next Nadia Comaneci. At the Montreal Olympics in 1976, the 14-year-old Romanian gymnast revolutionized her sport by scoring the first-ever perfect 10.00 on the uneven bars, capturing hearts all over the world and launching an era of child gymnastics stars. Ponor, at 16, has superb balance and a rare clarity of artistic expression that recalls Comaneci. Whether she has Comaneci's effortless grace under pressure won't become clear until she competes in Athens, but Comaneci herself says Ponor has "everything it takes to be a champion." And Ponor leaves...
...state." Indeed, more often than not, the mainland's most popular athletes are now picked by the free market. Liu Xuan, a pert gold medalist at the Games in Sydney, works as a model and starred as a plucky migrant worker in a movie called Far from Home. Fellow gymnast Li Xiaoshuang has recorded an album of pop ditties. Fu Mingxia, the legendary diver who first struck gold as a teddy-bear-carrying 13-year-old in Barcelona, has appeared on Sprite cans. "Sports is an industry now," says Guo, declining like a seasoned pro to discuss the details...
...round against Wickenheiser, how far could she have gone in this bracket? Surely Ruggiero’s countrymen and women would have rallied to support her and send her into the semi-finals. Once there, she would likely face Mia Hamm, who is currently going head-to-head against gymnast Carly Patterson. Talk about a bout of Olympic heavyweights...
...year-old gymnast became queen of the Montreal Games by making history as the first to rate a perfect score in the Olympics--on the uneven bars, punctuated by a backwards half-twist dismount. She followed with a perfect score on the balance beam. The Forum, normally filled with raucous French Canadian hockey fans, was instead roaring with appreciation for a 4-ft. 11-in., 86-lb. Romanian who would finish the Games with seven perfect 10s, three gold medals, one silver and one bronze. Comaneci launched a thousand gymnastics clubs that night...
...Western concepts. There's a real-life police show reenacting grisly mainland murders (Wanted! In China), China's first televised male beauty contest (Women in Control), a talk show with a wisecracking host ? la David Letterman (Late Night Talk), and soon there will be Sang Lan, the gymnast who won hearts after a paralyzing fall at the Goodwill Games in 1999, who will host a sports-interview show...