The Big Debate: Who is the greater Olympian, Nadia Comăneci or Simone Biles?

Nadia Comăneci vs Simone Biles is a matchup we will never see on the beam but this makes for a perfect Olympian battle before the world.

One has indubitable dominance, the other a precision that no one could fathom attempting. Both have spent their Olympic careers racing more against time and themselves than the competition.

It might be folly to compare gymnasts from different eras, particularly eras as different as those of Comăneci in the '70s and Biles in the present. Let us look at what the two Olympians have accomplished as a whole and base them on what they did in relation to their time of competition.

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The first perfect 10

Nadia Comăneci awarded a perfect 10 at the Montreal Olympics.

If you are a casual gymnastics fanatic, you have probably lamented the loss of the perfect 10 in the sport. I have, more than once. The perfect 10 was what introduced me to the sport and what fetched it a new identity at the Olympics.

Exactly about 30 years ago, Comăneci scored the first 10 in the history of Olympic gymnastics. To the crowd's delight, the 14-year-old performed nearly the same routine on the uneven bar that every other gymnast did. But she did her routine with more elegance and precision than any other.

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The scoreboard, unprepared to show the highest possible score in the discipline, flashed up only '1.00'. It was a perfect 10, something the technicians in charge of the scoreboard had not thought possible, and it therefore showed the figure '1.00'.

Perfection did not end there. Over the next five days, she produced six more perfect routines, three on uneven bars and another three on the beam. And thus, she cemented her position as the first female gymnast to be awarded a 10 at the Olympics.

But how much more perfect could Comăneci get after this? None. None more perfect.

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The Olympic scoring format is vastly different today. Gymnasts are now awarded the maximum number of points depending on the difficulty of their routines, and any mistakes the judges find in their performances will incur a deduction. Simply put, the degree of difficulty in gymnastics today far exceeds anything that most people could even think of in 1976.

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More than just a gymnast: Simone Biles

Simone Biles in action during the World Championships.

Of course, no one symbolizes this era more gracefully than three-time world champion Simone Biles. She is in every way a new sort of gymnast: faster, stronger, and higher.

Had she been competing in 1976 with Comăneci, Biles would have been very different, but she would undoubtedly have managed to get hold of the perfect 10.

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Also Read: Rio 2016: Dipa Karmakar and Simone Biles - The Story of Parallels

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Somehow it is more than just winning that makes her so great. Her success reflects more upon her performance, as she adds more skills to her boundless repertoire. Such were her skills at the Rio Olympics that the gap between three-time Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman and Biles in the all-round event was more than two points.

“I’m not the next Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps. I’m the first Simone Biles," said Biles.

Biles has been so imperious at the Olympics that four gymnastic skills have been named in her honor. She remains the only gymnast to have ever attempted these skills - floor exercise routine, balance beam dismount and twist on the vault. Another move, a 'triple-double' with three twists and two flips, was also later named the Biles II.

She has plans to pull off another new move, a triple-twisting double tuck, which the 19-time World Champion is yet to try in competition. With the Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, her four eponymic skills are likely to become five.

As the greatest of all time debate promises to wage on, many more gymnasts will stake a claim. But, as the next breed of athletes begin to emerge, there will only ever be one Nadia Comăneci and one Simone Biles.

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