Nadia was frightened that her mother would have a heart attack when she told her the news of what she was planning to do. At first, she confided in her younger brother who she refers to as her best friend. He told her “You go and find a life.” Nadia confesses that she was so scared she would never see her family again.
On the night that she was planning to escape, Nadia’s brother and sister-in-law came with her as near to the Hungarian border as was possible.
Prisoner Of Her Home Country
Romanian officials became concerned that Nadia would take off after her coach and also defect to the US. Because she was a valuable model as a communist athlete, they banned her from traveling to any Western country. The Western press had no access to her, and the Romanian government read her mail and tapped her phones. She was watched wherever she went and her activities were monitored. She was a prisoner of her home country, with no escape.
She later wrote in her memoir “Life took on a new bleakness. I was cut off from making the small amount of extra money that had really made a difference in my family's life. It was also insulting that a normal person in Romania had the chance to travel, whereas I could not... when my gymnastics career was over, there was no longer any need to keep me happy. I was to do as I was instructed, just as I'd done my entire life ... If Bela hadn't defected, I would still have been watched, but his defection brought a spotlight on my life, and it was blinding. I started to feel like a prisoner.”
Escape Plan
She thought that there was no way out, until 1987. Nadia met Constantin Panait who had escaped Romania some time ago – supposedly by swimming the Danube river. He made it to the U.S. and settled down in Florida where he became a roofer. He offered to help Nadia escape if she wanted.
Despite not really knowing Panait, she was desperate to escape the country. It was potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity to flee Romania for good and turn over a new leaf in the United States. Or so, she imagined in her dreams.
Runaway Gymnast
With five other Romanian defectors, Nadia made the dangerous walk in the ice-cold conditions and harsh weather, until they would reach the Hungarian border.
Nadia was reportedly stopped at the border by the Hungarian police who at once recognized the famous gymnast. However, out of pity, they let the gymnast through. They continued on to the Austrian border, where Panait met her before they went together to the US embassy and got a flight to New York City.
Bad-Girl Reputation
When Nadia finally reached America, her arrival generated some negative press and not everyone was in her favor. She was no longer the gymnast darling of the world. She was now a woman who was towering on high heels, with a heavy face of makeup, and a defector. Rumors of her relationship with the Romanian dictator’s son and that she’d left her home country were circulating.
The world certainly didn’t forget her. But, Nadia didn’t receive the warm welcome that she would have hoped for.