The AGERPRES exhibition 'Nadia. Perfection Has a Story' opened on Friday at the Vaslui County Cultural Centre, marking the start of the Excellence in Education Gala.

The mayor of Vaslui said he had been particularly keen to bring the exhibition to local audiences to celebrate the achievement of multiple gymnastics champion Nadia Comaneci 50 years ago, when she earned the first perfect 10 in the history of gymnastics.

'From the moment we enter this cultural centre and here, in the first-floor foyer, we can all see and be amazed by a piece of history. A history stretching back decades, to the first perfect 10, achieved by a Romanian Olympian, a little girl from Onesti. And here we are today, appreciating that achievement. We are not just celebrating the score, but the entire life of this athlete, because here we can follow her whole journey, from a young child and budding gymnast to the present day, as these images show. I can only be delighted that we have with us the partners who responded to this initiative, the AGERPRES National News Agency and the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee. This year has been declared the 'Year of Nadia Comaneci', and the exhibition has now reached Vaslui. I can sincerely tell you that it does not travel to very many places, but only to those where we seek to celebrate excellence, quality and everything that is finest about us Romanians,' Vaslui Mayor Lucian Braniste said.

AGERPRES Director General Claudia Nicolae welcomed the local authorities' initiative to organise the exhibition dedicated to Nadia Comaneci in Vaslui. She also highlighted the news agency's extensive photographic archive, saying that AGERPRES would bring more valuable images to public attention in the coming period.

'First of all, I congratulate the organisers. Why? Because they have brought together the Excellence in Education Gala and Nadia's outstanding achievement. This exhibition was created especially for Nadia. It is a travelling exhibition which, after Vaslui, will go to Vienna. We wanted to show the public something different from what they saw back then. Young people can see what we grew up with: a perfect 10, that podium, those uneven bars and those movements that truly earned the perfect score and embodied perfection. (...) These are qualities that we can certainly find in children today, qualities that lie behind such achievements. And in these photographs we see the family who stood by her, the school that supported her and her coaches, including her first coaches. It was not only the coaches who were with her when she won her Olympic medal. There were school coaches and coaches from local sports clubs. (...) This is just a fraction of what AGERPRES can offer. It is just one name and one chapter. Next year, we will have another chapter, Ilie Nastase. AGERPRES has an archive of four and a half million physical photographs, not counting the digital ones. This entire archive, dating back to 1927, represents Romania, and we are proud of it and want to show it to everyone,' Claudia Nicolae said.

Carmen Trocan, director of the Legal Department at the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee, spoke about Nadia Comaneci, describing her as an exceptional person beyond her sporting achievements.

'We had the opportunity to organise the Nadia Comaneci Gala, with this year having been declared the Year of Nadia. It was an exceptional occasion because we managed to bring together her rival, her teammates and her coach, Marta Karolyi. And we discovered a wonderful world, a happy world, a world with its problems, but one that put Romania on everyone's lips. Being here, I am convinced that you will feel a little prouder after seeing and realising that Nadia is one of our own and that excellence attracts excellence,' Carmen Trocan said.

The exhibition features archive photographs from the period when Nadia Comaneci trained in Bacau, images of her with her family, and iconic moments from her sporting career.

The exhibition will remain open to visitors until Sunday, November 8. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Loredana Ciobanu; EN - writing by: Simona Iacob)