Nadia rocks.....what a hero to all of us who witnessed '76 Olympic performance. So glad she chose to live in the USA, proud to have her a part of our country.
Panait was controlling and mistreating Nadia to make money. He had Nadia terrified that, if she didn't do what he told her, she would be sent back to Romania. If she had only known, she could have walked away and asked the police, any church, organization, or most anyone for help. There are not many people in the USA or Canada that wouldn't have been willing, in fact thrilled, to help with money if she needed it and/or help her contact someone she knew such as Bela Karolyi. He was very well known in the USA by that time. Of course she had less knowledge of the USA and Canada than people in the USA had of Romania. Under the strict control of the Romanian dictator at that time, information about the USA or Canada was not available to most Romanians. Therefore, she didn't think she had any choice except to trust and depend on Panait. Fortunately, by this time Nadia's life was pretty good, and because she now understand English and the USA so much better, appearances like here on the Joan Rivers Show helps people people understand that the impressions they got from the media when she first arrived in the USA is not the real Nadia. It is very difficult for most Americans to understand how she could be a prisoner when, in fact, she was free to tell Panait "goodbye" and walk away. However, all her life, all she knew was to obey and, under those conditions, the concept of really being truly being free was not apparent to her.
