Bela Karolyi, the charismatic but controversial gymnastics coach who transformed many young girls into champions and the United States into an international power in the sport, has died. He was 82 years old.
The US Gymnastics Federation announced that Karolyi died on Friday. The cause of death was not disclosed.
Karolyi and his wife Martha trained multiple Olympic and world championship gold medalists in the United States and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
“A great impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was only 14 years old when Karolyi coached her to win gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
However, Karolyi’s forceful methods were sometimes criticized, especially during the height of the Larry Nassar scandal.
When the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to groping and sexually assaulting athletes under the guise of medical treatment, more than a dozen former gymnasts testified that the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture, which allowed Nassar’s behavior to continue unchecked for years.
While the Karolyis denied responsibility, telling CNN in 2018 that they were unaware of Nassar’s behavior, the revelations led to their retreat from the public spotlight. The US Gymnastics Federation finally rescinded an agreement that called for them to continue training at the Karolyi Estate north of Houston, although only after national star Simone Biles criticized the organization for making them train at a site where many suffered sexual abuse.
The Karolyis stepped away from public activity after spending more than 30 years as a guiding force in this country’s gymnastics, enjoying success but also facing controversy.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981. Three years later, Bela helped lead Retton, just 16, to the individual Olympic title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. In Atlanta 1996, the way she helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor after her jump secured team gold for the Americans remains a memory.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for the elite U.S. women’s program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually made the Americans the sport’s gold standard. But this came at a cost. He was sidelined after the 2000 Sydney Olympics after several athletes questioned his tactics.
The Karolyis’ approach helped the United States become a superpower, an American has won each of the last six Olympic titles, and American women won team gold in the 2012 and 2016 games under the leadership of Martha Karoly.
But his methods were criticized.
Dominique Moceanu, part of the “Magnificent 7” team that won gold in Atlanta, spoke at length about his corrosive relationship with the Karolyis after his retirement. In her 2012 memoir, Moceanu wrote that Bela Karolyi verbally abused her in front of her teammates on multiple occasions.
“His harsh words and critical attitude often weighed heavily on me,” Moceanu posted on X on Saturday. “Although our relationship was full of difficulties, some of these moments of adversity helped me forge and define my own path.”
Some of Karolyi’s most famous disciples were always among his staunchest supporters. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her to the podium after she had performed a horse vault with a severely sprained ankle.
Being a Pied Piper of gymnastics was never Karolyi’s intention. Born in Clug, Hungary (now Romania) on September 13, 1942, he wanted to be a teacher. He entered college training simply to spend more time with Martha.
After graduating, 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 pulled out some old mattresses and he and his wife taught gymnastics to the children.
The students showed off their skills to their parents, and the displays soon caught the attention of the Romanian government, which hired the Karolyis to coach the women’s national team at a time when the sport was performed almost exclusively by adult women, not teenagers.
Karolyi changed all that. He took a team to the Montreal Olympics with only one gymnast over the age of 14.
It was in Montreal, of course, that the world got its first real glimpse of Karolyi. When Comaneci, a solemn, dark-haired young woman, delighted the world with the first perfect 10 in Olympic history, a feat she would duplicate six times, Karolyi was there to wrap her in one of his trademark bear hugs.
Romania, which had won only three bronzes in Olympic gymnastics before 1976, left Montreal with seven medals, including Comaneci’s golds on the all-around, balance beam and uneven bars, and team silver. Comaneci became an international sensation, the first person to appear on the covers of Sports Illustrated, Time and Newsweek in the same week.
Four years later, however, Karolyi was in disgrace.
He was outraged by the work of the judges at the Moscow Olympics, which he believed cost Comaneci a second gold in the all-around competition. The Romanian government was horrified that Karolyi had embarrassed the Soviet hosts.
“Suddenly, from having a position where we had been praised and considered the most outstanding athletes in the country, I was stigmatized,” he once said. “I thought they might lock me up for political misconduct.”
In March 1981, when he and Martha took the Romanian team to New York for an exhibition, they were warned that they would be punished upon their return. Despite not speaking English and the fact that their then 6-year-old daughter Andrea remained in Romania, they decided to defect.
“We knew what kind of risks we were taking, because no one guaranteed us anything,” Martha Karolyi once said. “We started with a suitcase and a small motel room. From there, it gradually got better.”
The couple headed to California, where the two learned English by watching television and Bela worked odd jobs. A few months later, a chance meeting with Olympic champion Bart Conner—who would later marry Comaneci—at the Los Angeles airport led to the Karolyis’ first coaching job in the United States.
Within a year, their daughter had arrived in the United States and the Karolyis had their own gym in Houston. It soon became the center of American gymnastics, producing eight national champions in 13 years.
This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool, reviewed by Telemundo Digital.
