1970s in sports time the Olympic games were held in Canada. Mindful of the tragedy during the 1972 games, security was high during the Montreal games. Due to its policy on apartheid, South Africa was banned from the games. Even so, twenty-two other African countries sat out to protest. The 1976 Summer Olympics were highlighted by the legendary performance of 14-year-old Romanian female gymnast Nadia Comăneci, who scored seven perfect 10s and won 3 gold medals, including the prestigious All Around in women's gymnastics. The performance by Comăneci also marked the rise of legendary women's gymnastics coach Béla Károlyi, who went on to
Timeline of women's sports and was the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10 in an Olympic gymnastic event. 1976 – Women's rowing was added to the Olympic Games programme at a distance of 1000 metres. 1977 – The American Janet Guthrie was the first woman to compete in the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, and the first woman to lead a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event. 1977 – The American Shirley Muldowney was the first woman to win a (in the first of three) NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series, in the Top Fuel category. 1979