For the first session, 4 teams low in the world rankings - including the United States - attempted to advance.
Then the Forum was emptied and we turned around and went back in with the second ticket.
There was an audible gasp from the audience as the next four teams marched in:
USSR, East Germany, Romania, and Hungary.
The powerhouses of the gymnastics world.
Sitting next to me was a woman who was as interested in gymnastics as I am in track. When Comaneci performed her historic uneven parallel bar routine, my seatmate was thrilled, and we eagerly awaited the posting of the score.
And waited.
And waited.
I turned to her and said, "Perhaps the computer can't handle a 10.0?"
The audience erupted when the first perfect score in Olympic history was posted... or was it?
Actually, the score of 1.0 went up, not 10.0. During preparations the previous winter, tech experts had consulted gymnastics experts about the scoring devices - how should they be programmed? What should the maximum score be?
9.95, the gymnastics savants said. A perfect 10.0 could never happen.
Word on the gymnastics street was that the tech team was up all night reprogramming the computer to accomodate perfect scores. Good thing, too, as many followed.
Personal note: this collection has lived in different parts of my life, my house, and as I came to be aware of its value, broadly defined, in many safe deposit boxes. I had kept my Montreal tickets to all events as meaningful souvenirs of that experience. With each ticket is a memory.
However, several years ago, I went to that stack of Olympics tickets to look for the July 18 gymnastics ticket and it was nowhere to be found. I searched and searched and came to lament its loss. How could I possibly have misplaced it? Did I give it away?
Three days ago - from 10/12/21 - I picked up the acid-free folder with the '76 Olympic gymnastics program in it. For the first time in decades, I paused to open the program.
There were the tickets, united with the program all this time, together a telling testament to one of the most iconic performances in Olympic history.