Bela Karolyi, Coach of Olympic Champion Gymnasts Who Was Criticized After Nassar Scandal, Dies at 82

Bela Karolyi, the charismatic but polarizing gymnastics coach who turned younger girls into champions and the USA into a world energy within the sport, has died. He was 82.

USA Gymnastics mentioned Karolyi died Friday. No trigger of loss of life was given.

Karolyi and spouse Martha skilled a number of Olympic gold medalists and world champions within the U.S. and Romania, together with Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.

“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was simply 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.

But Karolyi’s strident strategies generally got here beneath fireplace, most pointedly throughout the peak of the Larry Nassar scandal.

When the disgraced former USA Gymnastics crew physician was successfully given a life sentence after pleading responsible to sexually assaulting gymnasts and different athletes along with his palms beneath the guise of medical remedy, over a dozen former gymnasts got here ahead saying the Karolyis have been half of a system that created an oppressive tradition that allowed Nassar’s conduct to run unchecked for years.

Whereas the Karolyis denied accountability — telling CNN in 2018 they have been unaware of Nassar’s conduct — the revelations led to them receding from the highlight. USA Gymnastics finally exited an settlement to proceed to coach at the Karolyi Ranch north of Houston, although solely after American star Simone Biles took the group to activity for having them practice at a website the place many skilled sexual abuse.

The Karolyis light from prominence within the aftermath after spending 30-plus years as a guiding drive in American gymnastics, typically basking in success whereas brushing with controversy in equal measure.

The Karolyis defected from Romania to the USA in 1981. Three years later Bela helped information Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Video games in Los Angeles. On the 1996 Video games in Atlanta, he memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the ground after Strug’s vault secured the crew gold for the Individuals.

Karolyi briefly turned the nationwide crew coordinator for USA Gymnastics girls’s elite program in 1999 and integrated a semi-centralized system that finally turned the Individuals into the game’s gold commonplace. It didn’t come with out a value. He was faraway from the place after the 2000 Olympics when it turned obvious his management type merely wouldn’t work, although he remained across the sport after Martha took over for her husband in 2001.

Whereas the Karolyis method helped the U.S. turn out to be a superpower — an American girl has received every of the final six Olympic titles and the U.S. girls earned the crew gold at the 2012 and 2016 Video games beneath Martha Karolyi’s management — their strategies got here beneath fireplace.

Dominique Moceanu, half of the “Magnificent 7” crew that received gold in Atlanta, talked extensively about her corrosive relationship with the Karolyis following her retirement. In her 2012 memoir, Moceanu wrote Bela Karolyi verbally abused her in entrance of her teammates on a number of events.

“His harsh words and critical demeanor often weighed heavily on me,” Moceanu posted on X Saturday. “While our relationship was fraught with difficulty, some of these moments of hardship helped me forge and define my own path.”

Some of Karolyi’s most well-known college students have been all the time amongst his staunchest defenders. When Strug obtained married, she and Karolyi took a photograph recreating their well-known scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.

Being a gymnastics pied-piper was by no means Karolyi’s intent. Born in Clug, Hungary (now Romania) on Sept. 13, 1942, he wished to be a trainer, entering into teaching in faculty in order that he might spend extra time with Martha.

After graduating, the couple moved to a small coal-mining city in Transylvania. In search of a approach to preserve their college students heat and entertained throughout the lengthy, harsh winters, Karolyi dragged out some outdated mats and he and his spouse taught the youngsters gymnastics.

The scholars confirmed off their expertise to their dad and mom, and the exhibitions quickly caught the attention of the Romanian authorities, which employed the Karolyis to teach the ladies’s nationwide crew at a time when the game was accomplished nearly solely by grownup girls, not younger women.

Karolyi modified all that, although, bringing a crew to the Montreal Olympics with just one gymnast older than 14.

It was in Montreal, of course, the place the world obtained its first actual glimpse of Karolyi. When a solemn, dark-haired sprite named Nadia Comaneci enchanted the world with the primary excellent 10 in Olympic historical past, a feat she would duplicate six instances, Karolyi was there to wrap her in a single of his trademark bear hugs.

Romania, which had received solely three bronzes in Olympic gymnastics earlier than 1976, left Montreal with seven medals, together with Comaneci’s golds within the all-around, stability beam and uneven bars, and the crew silver. Comaneci turned a world sensation, the primary particular person to look on the covers of Sports activities Illustrated, Time and Newsweek in the identical week.

4 years later, nonetheless, Karolyi was in shame.

He was incensed by the judging at the Moscow Olympics, which he thought value Comaneci a second all-around gold, and the Romanian authorities was horrified that he had embarrassed the Soviet hosts.

“Suddenly, from a position where we’ve been praised and considered the foremost athletes in the country, I was stigmatized,” he as soon as mentioned. “I thought they could put me away for political misconduct.”

When he and Martha took the Romanian crew to New York for an exhibition in March 1981, they have been tipped off that they have been going to be punished upon their return. Regardless of not talking any English and with their then-6-year-old daughter, Andrea, nonetheless in Romania, they determined to defect.

“We knew what kind of risks we were taking, because nobody was guaranteeing us anything,” Martha Karolyi as soon as mentioned. “We started out with a suitcase and a little motel room. From there, it’s gradually improved.”

The couple made their approach to California, the place they realized English by watching tv and Bela did odd jobs. An opportunity encounter with Olympic gold medalist Bart Conner — who would later marry Comaneci — at the Los Angeles airport just a few months later led to the Karolyis’ first teaching job in the USA.

Inside a 12 months, their daughter had arrived within the U.S. and the Karolyis had their very own fitness center in Houston. It quickly turned the middle of American gymnastics, turning out eight nationwide champions in 13 years.

Three years after the Karolyis left Romania, Retton turned the primary American to win the Olympic all-around title, scoring an ideal 10 on vault to assert gold at the 1984 Video games in Los Angeles. Retton additionally posted the very best rating within the crew competitors because the Individuals received the silver, their first crew medal since 1948.

4 years later, Phoebe Mills, one other Karolyi gymnast, received a bronze on stability beam. It was the primary particular person medal for an American girl at a non-boycotted Video games. And in 1991, Kim Zmeskal — “the little Kimbo,” as Bela Karolyi known as her — turned the primary American to win the world all-around title.

“My biggest contribution was giving the kids the faith that they can be the best among the best,” Karolyi as soon as mentioned. “I knew that if the Americans could understand they were not inferior … then they can be groomed like international, highly visible athletes.”

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

Different coaches have been irritated by his brash character and skill to all the time discover his approach into the highlight. When Retton received gold, Karolyi leaped a barrier — he had an tools supervisor’s credential, not a coach’s — so he might scoop Retton up in a hug — proper in entrance of the TV cameras, of course.

He may very well be a harsh taskmaster, calling his gymnasts names, taunting them for his or her weight and pushing them to their limits.

Even these heat embraces weren’t all the time fairly what they appeared.

“A lot of those big bear hugs came with the whisper of `Not so good,’ in our ears,” Retton wrote.

But Retton and Comaneci remained shut with Karolyi, making appearances with him at gymnastics occasions or sitting with him at competitions. Zmeskal had her marriage ceremony at the Karolyi ranch.

Karolyi briefly retired after the 1992 Video games in Barcelona, the place he led the Individuals to their first crew medal, a bronze, at a non-boycotted Olympics in 44 years. However he stored his fitness center and summer season camps, and by 1994 was once more teaching elite-level gymnasts after Zmeskal requested him to assist in her try to make the Atlanta Video games.

Zmeskal didn’t make the Atlanta squad. However two of Karolyi’s different gymnasts, Strug and Moceanu, did, and it was Strug who offered one of the signature moments of the Olympics.

The Individuals went into their last occasion in crew finals, vault, attempting to carry off Russia for his or her first-ever title at an Olympics or world championships. Regardless of injuring her left ankle when she fell on her first vault try, Strug went forward together with her second try, believing — wrongly — the Individuals wanted her rating to clinch the gold.

With Karolyi shouting, “You can do it!” Strug sprinted down the runway, soared excessive above the vault and landed on each ft — guaranteeing it was a clear vault — earlier than pulling her left leg up. After saluting the judges, she fell to her knees and needed to be carried off the rostrum. Exams would later present she had two torn ligaments in her ankle.

As the remainder of the Individuals gathered on the rostrum to obtain their gold medals, Karolyi carried Strug again into the sector, cradling her in his arms.

However even that drew criticism. Many mentioned Karolyi by no means ought to have inspired Strug to vault on her injured ankle within the first place, after which ought to have stayed out of the highlight quite than carrying her to the rostrum.

“Bela is a very tough coach and he gets criticism for that,” Strug mentioned at the time. “But that’s what it takes to become a champion. I don’t think it’s really right that everyone tries to find the faults of Bela. Anything in life, to be successful, you’ve got to work really hard.”

The Karolyis retired once more after the Atlanta Olympics. However after the U.S. girls completed final within the medal spherical at the 1997 world championships, USA Gymnastics requested Bela Karolyi to come back again.

He agreed — however provided that he might implement a semi-centralized coaching system. Relatively than a patchwork system of particular person coaches who had their very own philosophies, Karolyi would oversee your complete U.S. program. Gymnasts might nonetheless practice with their very own coaches, however there can be common nationwide crew camps to make sure they have been assembly established coaching and efficiency requirements.

Although the thought was sound, Karolyi was not the fitting particular person to be in cost. Coaches who had been his equal chafed at his heavy-handedness, and have been irritated by his grandstanding. Gymnasts resented his bluster and calls for.

By the point the Individuals left the Sydney Olympics, about the one factor everybody agreed on was that Karolyi wanted to step away.

He stepped apart and was changed by his spouse. Martha Karolyi’s requirements have been simply as excessive — if not increased — than her husband’s, however on the floor, she was extra prepared to take heed to different opinions.

“She’s more diplomatic. Absolutely,” Bela Karolyi mentioned earlier than the 2012 Olympics. “I’m wild. The opposite.”