For Nall, It Was Perfect Beginning

BARCELONA — Anita Nall had a birthday Tuesday. She turned 16.

It’s her birth day, though, she still gets asked about.

“Not that old story again,” Nall sometimes says, laughing.

Olympic swimmer Nall, of Towson, Md., is the daughter of Marilyn Nall, who went into labor as Nadia Comaneci was scoring perfect 10s at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.

Hoping for a perfect child, Marilyn and her husband, John, christened her Nadia Anita Louise Nall.

That same day, July 21, 1976, the Olympic gold-medal and world record in the 200-meter breaststroke went to Marina Koshevaia of the Soviet Union. At the recent U.S. Olympic trials, a world record of 2:25.35 was set in the same event . . . by Anita Nall.