You Have to Make Miracles Happen

Often, Carol Stabisevschi reflects on his experience as a gymnastic music composer who helped train Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comăneci. Stabisevschi attributes luck with bringing him to a team of coaches who worked with the Romanian National Olympic Team during the 1976 summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada — a team of gymnasts that included then 14-year-old Nadia Comăneci, who made history when she nabbed a perfect 10.00 score in the gymnastic event and brought home three gold medals from those games. "It was by accident, of course. The most important things in life happen by accident," he said of his start in 1974 with the Romanian National Olympic Team. "I happened to know how to play piano." The now 74-year-old was part of a group of coaches led by head coaches Bella Karoly and his wife Marta. Stabisevschi composed the floor music the team set their routines to, as well as coached. Stabisevschi was in his mid-30s and an assistant professor in the physical education department at the University of Bucharest when he was asked by the dean of the university to take a position as a piano player for the institution's gymnastic team, of which many of the Romanian National Olympic Team members were also a part. After at first reluctantly agreeing to take the job — "I had my work to do there at the gym department," he said, "but the dean called me and said, 'I'll give you 24 hours to say yes,'" — Stabisevschi worked with the college team for a few years before being approached by the national team, asking him to take the part of floor music composer. With a wife and a child on the way and his responsibilities with the university's gymnastics team, plus those of his career as an assistant professor, Stabisevschi said he declined the position with the national team, at first. By 1974, he'd agreed to take the job after Bella Karoly and his wife themselves personally asked him to take the position. That year Comăneci joined the national team and in 1975 the team traveled to Skien, Norway, where they participated in the European Championships in what was Comăneci's first real taste of official competition, according to Stabisevschi. "That was her first official appearance in the world of gymnastics and it was a big surprise to everybody," he said. "For us and for the whole world, it was a surprise." When the Romanian team showed up in Montreal the next year in 1976 for the Olympic Games, Stabisevschi experienced a moment he'll never forget. "When we walked in the arena for our exhibition, the whole 30,000 people stood up," he said. "As I was looking at the crowd I had to swallow back tears, seeing how much appreciation and love was shown by these people. When Nadia got that perfect score of 10, it was amazing, because before that, people didn't know there was such a thing as perfection in that sport." The Romanian National Olympic Team, as a whole, effortlessly captured the attention of audiences worldwide. "[The Olympics] got us known on the American continent," he said. "That put us on the map." The following year, the team traveled to Prague, Czech Republic to compete in the European Championships. Stabisevschi recalled how other teams reacted, realizing the competitive threat the talented Romanian team posed. "Before the Olympics, people looked at us like, 'Oh, they are such cute people. They're so nice.' But after we got those medals and the high scores, they were not nice anymore. They were very jealous of the combination [of athletes] we had." The team roughed out what Stabisevschi described as a competition in the European Championships that did not favor the Romanian team, and later in 1977, the team toured the eastern United States. Disgusted by the "no-fair play" attitude other teams had toward the Romanians and his disagreement with various policies set forth by the Romanian government, Stabisevschi said he felt it was time for him to end his coaching tenure with the team. "Minutes before we were supposed to get on the plane to go home to Romania, I defected; I left," he said. Stabisevschi made the life-changing decision to room in Arlington, Texas with an American contact he'd made and for eight years worked with the American National Olympic Team composing floor music at the Arlington Gymnastics Club. "It was a difficult time," he said. "Remember, I left behind a wife and a child in Romania." Eventually, his wife Gabriela and his daughter, Julia, joined him in the United States, and he continued to work with the American National Olympic Team through the 1988 Olympics in South Korea. The family then moved from Texas to Valencia, Calif., where Stabisevschi operated a successful gymnastics club. In 2002, the family sold their home and business and moved to Big Bear City, where Stabisevschi and his wife now live, retired. "I consider myself the luckiest person in the world," Stabisevschi said. "Looking back, I probably should have been [anxious] about what life was for me; not many people have had the success I've had. I was an easygoing guy and I just happened to have that piano. Nadia appeared in the gymnastics world and I was asked to give my talents to her talents and the rest of the national team, all great kids who were a lot of inspiration for other children. Everything was because I was lucky, and that's something I've instilled to my daughter: don't expect miracles to happen in the world. You have to make those miracles happen."