Bela Karolyi, the gymnastics coach who came under fire during the Nassar scandal, has died at the age of 82

Bela Karolyi, the charismatic but polarizing gymnastics coach who transformed young women into champions and the United States into an international power in sports, has died. He was 82 years old.

USA Gymnastics said Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was stated.

Karolyi and his wife, Martha, have trained numerous Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the United States and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.

“A big impact and impact on my life,” said Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi led him to the gold medal for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Posted on Instagram.

But Karolyi’s heavy-handed methods sometimes came under fire, especially during the height of the Larry Nassar scandal.

When the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was sentenced to effectively life in prison after admitting to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment, more than a dozen former gymnasts came forward to say the Karolyis were part of a system. It created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to go unchecked for years.

While the Karolyis denied responsibility (they told CNN in 2018 that they were unaware of Nassar’s actions), the revelations caused them to step away from the spotlight. USA Gymnastics eventually pulled out of a deal to continue training at the Karolyi Ranch north of Houston, but only after American star Simone Biles tasked the organization with training in an area where many people had been subjected to sexual abuse.

The Karolyis rose to prominence after spending more than 30 years as a guiding force in American gymnastics, often enjoying success but facing just as much controversy.

The Karolyis fled Romania to the United States in 1981. Three years later, Bela helped Retton (all 16) to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. At the 1996 Games in Atlanta, he helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor after Strug’s jump earned the Americans the gold medal.

Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for the USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999, incorporating a semi-centralized system that eventually transformed the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It didn’t come without a price. He was dismissed after the 2000 Olympics when it became clear that his leadership style would not work, but Martha remained in the sport after succeeding her husband in 2001.

While the Karolyis’ approach has helped the United States become a superpower—each of the last six Olympic titles has been won by an American woman, and U.S. women won team gold at the 2012 and 2016 Games under Martha Karolyi’s leadership—her methods have come under fire.

Dominique Moceanu, who was part of the gold medal-winning “Magnificent 7” team in Atlanta, spoke extensively about his fraught relationship with the Karolyis after his retirement. Moceanu wrote in his 2012 memoirs that Bela Karolyi verbally abused him in front of his teammates on multiple occasions.

“His harsh words and critical attitude often weighed heavily on me,” Moceanu said. Published on X Saturday. “Although our relationship has been full of challenges, some of these moments of difficulty have helped me create and define my own path.”

Some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating the famous scene from the 1996 Olympics; Strug carried him to the medal podium after he jumped onto his badly sprained ankle.

It was never Karolyi’s intention to become a piper in gymnastics. He was born on September 13, 1942 in Clug, Hungary (now Romania). He wanted to be a teacher and started coaching in college just so he could spend more time with Martha.

After graduation, the couple moved to a small coal mining town in Transylvania. Looking for a way to keep his students warm and entertained during the long, harsh winters, Karolyi dug up some old mats and, along with his wife, taught the children gymnastics.

The students demonstrated their skills to their parents, and the exhibitions soon attracted the attention of the Romanian government; this government hired the Karolyis to coach the women’s national team at a time when the sport was played almost exclusively by adult women, not teenage girls.

But Karolyi changed all that by bringing a team with only one gymnast over the age of 14 to the Montreal Olympics.

Of course, it was in Montreal that the world first truly saw Karolyi. When a prim, dark-haired pixie named Nadia Comaneci wowed the world with the first perfect 10 in Olympic history, she would repeat the feat six times, Karolyi was there to envelop her in one of his trademark bear hugs.

Romania, which had won only three bronze medals in Olympic gymnastics before 1976, left Montreal with seven medals; these included Comaneci’s gold in the all-around, balance beam and uneven bars, and team silver. Comaneci became an international sensation by becoming the first person to appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Time and Newsweek magazines in the same week.

But four years later Karolyi was in disgrace.

He was angered by the jury at the Moscow Olympics, which he thought had cost Comaneci a second gold overall, and the Romanian government was appalled that he had embarrassed the host Soviet countries.

“Suddenly, I went from a position where we were praised and considered the leading athletes in the country to being stigmatized,” he once said. “I thought they might imprison me for political misconduct.”

When he and Martha took the Romanian team to New York for an exhibition in March 1981, they were informed that they would be punished when they returned. Even though they spoke no English and were still in Romania with their then 6-year-old daughter Andrea, they decided to seek asylum.

Martha Karolyi once said: “We knew what risks we were taking because no one guaranteed us anything.” “We started with a suitcase and a small motel room. “From there it slowly gets better.”

The couple went to California, where they learned English by watching television and Bela worked odd jobs. A chance encounter with Olympic gold medalist Bart Conner (who would later marry Comaneci) at a Los Angeles airport a few months later led to Karolyis’ first coaching job in the United States.

Within a year, their daughter came to the United States and the Karolyis had their own gym in Houston. It quickly became the center of American gymnastics, producing eight national champions in 13 years.

Three years after the Karolyis left Romania, Retton became the first American to win the Olympic all-around title, scoring a perfect 10 in the vault to capture the gold medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Retton also achieved the highest score in the team competition as the Americans won the silver medal, their first team medal since 1948.

Four years later, another Karolyi gymnast, Phoebe Mills, won a bronze medal on the balance beam. This was the first individual medal won by an American woman at a non-boycotted Games. And in 1991, Kim Zmeskal — “little Kimbo,” as Bela Karolyi called him — became the first American to win a world championship.

Karolyi once said: “My greatest contribution was to give children the belief that they can be the best among the best.” “I knew that if Americans could understand that they were not inferior, they could be trained to be international, highly visible athletes.”

But as Karolyi’s resume grew, so did the criticism.

Other coaches were annoyed by his brash personality and ability to always be the center of attention. When Retton won gold, Karolyi broke a barrier – he had an equipment manager’s license, not a trainer’s – so he could embrace Retton in front of television cameras, of course.

She can be a harsh taskmaster, calling her gymnasts names, teasing them about their weight, and pushing them to their limits.

Even those warm embraces weren’t always what they seemed.

“Most of those big bear hugs came with a whisper in our ears, ‘Not so good,'” Retton wrote.

Still, Retton and Comaneci remained close with Karolyi, appearing with her at gymnastics events or sitting with her at competitions. Zmeskal’s wedding was held at the Karolyi farm.

Karolyi retired briefly after the 1992 Games in Barcelona, where he led the Americans to a bronze medal, the first team medal in a non-boycotted Olympics in 44 years. But he kept up the gym and summer camps and began coaching elite-level gymnasts again in 1994 after Zmeskal asked for his help in an attempt to qualify for the Atlanta Games.

Zmeskal did not make the Atlanta roster. But Karolyi’s other two gymnasts, Strug and Moceanu, did just that, and it was Strug who provided one of the signature moments of the Olympics.

The Americans entered their final match in the team finals on vault, trying to hold off Russia for the title for the first time at an Olympics or world championships. Although Strug injured her left ankle when she fell on her first vault attempt, she continued on her second attempt, incorrectly believing that the Americans needed her score to clinch the gold.

Karolyi “You can do it!” Strug raced down the track, towering over the vault and landing on both feet to make a clean vault, then lifted his left leg up. After greeting the judges, he fell to his knees and had to be carried from the podium. Tests would later show that he had torn two ligaments in his ankle.

While the rest of the Americans gathered on the podium to receive their gold medals, Karolyi embraced Strug in her arms and carried him back into the arena.

But even this has led to criticism. Many said that Karolyi should never have encouraged Strug to jump on her injured ankle in the first place, then should have stayed out of the spotlight rather than carrying her to the podium.

“Bela is a very tough coach and that’s why he gets criticized,” Strug said at the time. “But that’s what it takes to be a champion. I don’t think it’s right for everyone to try to find Bela’s flaws. You have to work really hard to be successful at anything in life.”

The Karolyis retired again after the Atlanta Olympics. But after the U.S. women finished last in the medal round at the 1997 world championships, USA Gymnastics asked Bela Karolyi to return.

He accepted on the condition that he could implement a semi-centralized education system. Karolyi would oversee the entire U.S. program, rather than a patchwork of individual coaches with their own philosophies. Gymnasts could still train with their own coaches, but regular national team camps would be held to ensure they met established training and performance standards.

Although the idea was sound, Karolyi was not the right person to be in charge. The coaches who were his equals were annoyed by his incompetence and disturbed by his grandiosity. The gymnasts were angered by her fuss and demands.

When the Americans left the Sydney Olympics, the one thing everyone agreed on was that Karolyi should walk away.

He stepped aside and was replaced by his wife. Martha Karolyi’s standards were as high (if not higher) than her husband’s, but she was seemingly more willing to listen to other ideas.

“He is more diplomatic. Absolutely,” Bela Karolyi said ahead of the 2012 Olympics. “I am wild. Quite the opposite.”

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