Bela Karolyi, the charismatic yet controversial gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power in the sport, died last year. He was 82 years old. The American Gymnastics Federation announced this today, although without confirming the cause of death.
Karolyi and his wife Martha trained several Olympic gold medalists and cworld champions in the US and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
“It had a great impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci posted on Instagram. who was just 14 years old when Karolyi coached her to win gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Los Karolyi They came to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30 years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, although not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton (all 16) to the all-around Olympic title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the court at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after her jump Strug will secure team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics’ elite women’s program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that ultimately made the Americans the gold standard of the sport. But soon after he fell from grace. He was expelled after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
“An oppressive culture”
It wouldn’t be the last time Karolyi was accused of bragging and of putting too much pressure on their athletes physically and mentally. During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s, when the former USA Gymnastics team doctor was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under under the pretext of receiving medical treatment, more than a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying that the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowedthat Nassar’s behavior would run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous pupils were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her to the medal podium after she jumped with a badly sprained ankle.
