Bart Conner

Barthold Wayne Conner (born March 28, 1958) is an American retired Olympic gymnast. He was a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team and won two gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics. He owns and operates the Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy in Norman, Oklahoma, along with his wife, Romanian Olympic gold medalist Nadia Comăneci. In addition, Conner is a long-time gymnastics commentator, and both Comăneci and Conner are highly involved with the Special Olympics.

Early life and education Conner was born on March 28, 1958, the son of Harold Conner (1931-2024) and Jacqueline May ( Hulsey, later Wolthausen; 1931-2000), and is of Irish descent and grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois. He has two siblings, Michael and Bruce. He first became involved in gymnastics at school and at his local YMCA. He was later on the gymnastics team at Niles West High School, where he graduated in 1976.

He later attended the University of Oklahoma to work with coach Paul Ziert on the gymnastics team. He eventually graduated from OU in 1984, where he was an All-American and won the 1981 Nissen Award as America's best gymnast.

Although he qualified for the 1980 Summer Olympics, he was unable to participate due to the U.S. boycott against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. Four years later, in the 1984 Summer Olympics, he won two gold medals for the team all-around and for the men's parallel bars. He demonstrated an original move called the "Conner spin" during the 1984 Olympics.

Awards and honors Conner is a highly decorated gymnast who has won "medals at every level of national and international competition." Some of his honors include "induction into the USOC Olympic Hall of Fame (1991), the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame (1996), Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame (1997), and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (1997)."

Personal life On November 27, 1989, Nadia Comăneci, the famous Romanian gymnast Conner had met at the 1976 Montreal games, defected from Romania with a group of other Romanians. In January 1990, when Conner read in the newspaper that she was scheduled to be interviewed on The Pat Sajak Show, he contacted the producer and arranged to make a guest appearance on the show. Conner liked the idea of surprising Comăneci: "I'm thinking if she's going to be on Sajak, I might as well go out there and say, 'Hey, Nads,' "

Later in 1990, Conner interviewed her for ABC. A few months later, Conner was invited to her 29th birthday party, after which they developed a long-distance friendship. When a mutual friend died in an accident in 1991, Conner invited Comăneci to come to Oklahoma to help him run a gymnastics school. They were together for four years before they became engaged. On April 27, 1996, Conner and Comăneci were married in a ceremony in Bucharest that was televised live throughout Romania. Their wedding reception was held in the former presidential palace. Conner and Comăneci have one child, a son named Dylan Paul Conner who was born on June 3, 2006, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Eponymous skills Conner had one named element on the parallel bars, originally named in 1993, but removed from the code of points in 2000. +Gymnastics elements named after Bart Conner Apparatus Name Description Difficulty Added to Code of Points Parallel bars Conner "Straddle L-sit on one rail with 180° or 360° turn"Removed from CoP on December 31, 2000.1993

Acting He appeared as Bart Taylor in the 1986 film Rad and in 1984 as Richie Halberstrom in Season 1 Episode 7 (“One Fresh Batch of Lemonade: Part 2”) on the TV show “Highway to Heaven.”

Books Conner, Bart with Paul Ziert. Winning the Gold. Warner Books, 1985.