Nadia Comaneci and Caitlyn Jenner (then Bruce) were both gold medal winners at he 1976 Olympics but they never met in Montreal. It took the HFPA to align the planets or at least the (Olympic) stars.

Since January of 2013 the HFPA has invited some of the world’s greatest Olympians to share the Golden Globes red carpet with many of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Julia Roberts, Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Swift and Reese Witherspoon are among the many who were star struck with admiration when they met gold medal winners like Greg Louganis, Missy Franklin, Gabby Douglas and Jackie Joyner Kersee.

Now as the world prepares to send its best athletes to the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, the HFPA has gotten an early jump on the celebrating interviewing two icons of the 1976 Montreal Games who are both celebrating the 40^th anniversary of their world record breaking Gold Medal performances – Nadia Comaneci and Caitlyn Jenner. Comaneci was the first competitor to ever score a perfect 10 in gymnastics and Jenner’s (Bruce at the time) decathlon win earned him the title of “world’s greatest athlete.”

Ironically, the two legends did not know the other was participating in recent HFPA press conference on the same day (Jenner for her reality show I Am Cait and Comaneci for her book and documentary). We made sure they met each other afterwards to reminisce about their historic Olympic accomplishments and take a historic photo (better late than never!). What was humorously revealed was that the two never crossed paths in Montreal – as gymnastics start the games, Comaneci had to leave with her Romanian teammates after their events were over,  while Jenner’s gold came on the second to last day of the Games. But forty years later, the timing was perfect.