By Mark Staniforth, PA Sport

Nadia Comaneci, the child queen of Montreal, was simply perfect.

The tiny 14-year-old changed the course of gymnastics forever when she performed so boldly and precisely on the asymmetric bars that for the first time in Olympic competition she merited the judges' perfect mark of 10.

The waif-like Comaneci was perfect six more times in those 1976 Olympics as she picked up three gold medals - by which time she had stolen the show at the greatest show on earth.

The Montreal Forum was where it was at; where touts were selling tickets for hundreds of dollars to sports fans flocking to see a 4ft 11ins Romanian girl who was intent on rewriting the history books.

In all, Comaneci would win nine Olympic medals - five gold, three silver and one bronze.

"Hard work has made it easy," she said. "That is my secret. That is why I win."

Comaneci, born in the Moldavian town of Onesti in November 1961, started training as a gymnast at the age of six.

She was considered only a slight favourite for Montreal as she faced a strong Soviet contingent led by Olga Korbut, the legendary darling of the 1972 Games in Munich.

But Korbut was pushed into fifth place overall and silver on the beam behind the all-conquering Romanian girl, who breezed to the all-round championship.

Four years later and already, in the brutal world of top-flight gymnastics, past her peak at the age of 18, Comaneci managed to twist her growing body into two more golden shapes for the last time and finished second in the overall competition.

She bowed out in 1981 after victory in the World Student Games and in 1989 defected to the United States to reacquaint herself with those fans who, through the boycott of the Moscow Games, had missed her international swansong.

Quiet and shy, Comaneci's age of innocence belied a steely resolve and a firm expectation of the success which awaited her.

"Yes, I expected it," she giggled in television interviews. "I want to keep improving," she insisted after her swathe of 'perfect' 10s.

Comaneci had immediately improved the standard of her contemporaries. Soviet Nelli Kim also scored two perfect 10s in Montreal.

Others would follow Comaneci's example in future Games, but none with quite the same panache as the ballerina on the bars who briefly stole the hearts of the world.