ChronoFive
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Setting the scene
Olympic gymnastics scoring had never awarded a perfect 10.00 in competition, and the Montreal Games introduced a Romanian teenager whose routines looked impossibly clean on the uneven bars.
What happened
On July 18, 1976, fourteen-year-old Nadia Comăneci scored the first Olympic perfect 10 at Montreal's Forum; the scoreboard, built for three digits, briefly flashed 1.00 instead of 10.00.
Why it still matters
Comăneci's perfection redefined what fans expected from elite gymnastics and made her an instant Cold War-era icon. Memorable detail: she went on to earn six more perfect tens at those same Games.
Background
The scoreboard could not display 10.00 properly.