On this day in history, July 18th in 1976, Nadia Comaneci scored the first score of 10 in Olympic history. 

Comaneci, just fourteen years-old at the time, from Romania received her perfect score on the compulsory round of the gymnastic uneven bar competition in the 1976 Montreal Olympics. (Video here.) Her combination of athletic, technical and artistic skills were unmatched. 

Jim McKay, the American ABC sports commentator, exclaimed, “You are looking at the first perfect 10 in Olympic history!” (Since the ten-point scale was introduced for the 1976 Olympics, McKay’s statement was accurate).  

At first Comaneci did not believe she received a “perfect 10”: 

“So, I didn’t care to watch the scoreboard because I thought I was going to get a 9.9 or something like that, which was good as a start. I was already thinking of the balance beam because once the score comes, the music comes on and then we had to march [to the next apparatus]. So I was putting that routine away and not paying attention to the scoreboard, until I heard the noise in the arena” [1].

The noise was a reaction to her “perfect 10” score but the scoreboard posted “1.0.” Since the scoreboard did not have space for two digits before the dot so her perfect 10 looked to be a dismal 1.0. Comaneci said, “I didn’t understand it . . .one of my team-mates said, ‘I think it is a 10 or there is something wrong with the scoreboard’. I knew at least I was going to get a 9.9 – because a 1.0 was way too low.” [2]. She quickly realized the technical error and received the well deserved applause for her achievement. 

Decades later, Comaneci remarked in a philosophical way on reaching perfection: “It’s a ladder that you climb in life, and I got there first. . . . you have to have a lot of passion for what you do, to be able to work hard and to have a lot of motivation because you’re going to go to places that you’re never going to believe” [3]. 

Perfection: motivating to some, daunting to others, impossible for nearly everyone (but not for Comaneci). 

For the vast majority of us who feel daunted by seeking perfection or disappointed by not being able to achieve perfection, what is our hope? 

It is not climbing the ladder and getting there first; it is in Jesus who Himself became the ladder. When speaking to Nathaniel and Phillip under the fig tree Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man’” (John 1:51). This was a direct reference to Jacob’s dream in which a ladder reached from earth to heaven “and angels of earth were ascending and descending on it!” (Gen. 28:12). Through this reference, Jesus was saying that He is the ladder that connects heaven to earth. 

This is our hope. The good news for the Christian is that we do not have to work our way up to perfection because Jesus came down to bring us up with Him. 

In His incarnation, Jesus came down to earth and experienced every aspect of humanity unto death. In His resurrection, “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom. 6:4). And those who believe are granted by God “newness of life” (Rom. 6:4) here on earth. Through faith, God forgives our sins, adopts us as sons, and fills with the Holy Spirit that we might follow Him. Jesus, the holy ladder, connected us as sinful men to a holy God. 

Therefore perfection does not come through human achievement to get there first. Rather it is only attained by believing in the only Perfect One, the first-born Son of God (Rom. 8:29), who not only got there first but became the ladder so we may follow Him.

I wonder what Jim McKay would exclaim about that. 

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[1] “Snapped: Reflections and Revelations on Comaneci’s Perfect 10,” Olympics.com, accessed 15 July 2024, https://olympics.com/en/news/snapped-reflections-and-revelations-on- comaneci -s-perfect-10.

[2] Ibid.

[3] “Nadia Comaneci: The gymnast who scored a perfect 10,” CNN, April 3, 2012, https://www.cnn.com/2012/04/03/sport/olympics-nadia-comaneci/index.html.