Bela Karolyi, who led Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton to Olympic gymnastics gold, dies

Posted by Admin November 17, 2024 Sports

Bela Karolyi disappeared from public view after the abuse scandal that rocked USA Gymnastics. Karolyi coached Nadia Comaneci to the first Olympics perfect 10 and Mary Lou Retton to all-around gold.

Bela Karolyi, who led Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton to Olympic gold and revolutionized the sport of gymnastics, only to see his legacy destroyed by allegations of abusive coaching, has died. He was 82.

Comaneci confirmed the news with a post on her Instagram, showing a carousel of photos including a black and white photo of her with the coach on a walk in the woods. The caption read: “A big impact and influence in my life. RIP Bela Karolyi.”

“Almost 50 years ago he guided me to the historic performance of the First Perfect 10 in the Olympics … and that changed my life for ever,” Comaneci told USA TODAY Sports of Karolyi, who died Friday.

A cause of death has not been revealed.

Karolyi had been in poor health in recent years, and he and wife Martha largely disappeared from public view following the abuse scandal that rocked USA Gymnastics. Former team physician Larry Nassar sexually abused hundreds of girls and young women, with some of the abuse occurring during training camps at the Karolyi ranch. The Karolyis denied any knowledge of Nassar’s abuse, but the scandal brought new attention to complaints that they’d been physically and emotionally abusive as coaches. In 2017, USA Gymnastics backed out of a deal to buy the Karolyi ranch and use it as a national team training center, effectively cutting ties with the couple.

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Karolyi rose to prominence in his native Romania. He and Martha were elementary school teachers in Transylvania when they began teaching their students gymnastics as a way to stay warm. Within a few years, they’d been put in charge of the national team.

Karolyi shook up the sport in 1976, when he arrived at the Montreal Olympics with a team of kids. Most elite female gymnasts in the 1970s were in their late teens or early 20s, but Karolyi’s team had just one gymnast older than 14. Romania won the silver medal, cementing for the next four decades the idea that gymnastics was a sport reserved for the young.

It was also in Montreal that the world was introduced to Comaneci, a dark-eyed, dark-haired sprite who scored the first perfect 10 at the Olympics. Comaneci would repeat that feat six times on her way to winning three gold medals, with Karolyi there to wrap her in a bear hug after each routine.

Though Karolyi was initially celebrated in Romania for the team’s success, he fell out of favor with the government four years later after criticizing the judging at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Karolyi was incensed, believing Comaneci had been robbed of a second gold medal, but Romanian officials were horrified that he’d embarrassed the Soviet hosts.

Karolyi knew he was going to be punished, it was just a question of when. When he brought Comaneci and the Romanian team to the United States in March 1981, he and Martha decided to defect despite neither of them speaking English and their young daughter still in Romania.

Karolyi spent the first few months in America doing menial jobs before reuniting with Americans he knew in the gymnastics community. Soon, he and Martha were coaching again – including a bubbly teenager from West Virginia named Mary Lou.

In 1984, Retton became the first U.S. woman to win the Olympic all-around title.

For the next eight years, the Karolyis were the most prominent gymnastics coaches in the United States. A Karolyi gymnast won every U.S. all-around title from 1987 to 1992, and Kim Zmeskal in 1991 became the first U.S. woman to win the world championships.

The Karolyis retired after the 1992 Olympics but returned ahead of the Atlanta Games to coach Dominique Moceanu and Kerri Strug. It was Strug who sealed the team gold, the first for the U.S. women, with a vault on a badly injured ankle. Karolyi, ever the showman, carried her onto the medals podium.

The Karolyis retired again after Atlanta. But in 1999, USA Gymnastics convinced Karolyi to return and oversee an overhaul of the U.S. training system. Rather than gymnasts training on their own and only coming together at events, the national team would have monthly training camps. This semi-centralized system allowed gymnasts to stay at home, rather than concentrating in one or two powerhouse gyms, but was supposed to foster better camaraderie and communication. Though Karolyi only served in the role of national team coordinator for a year, Martha succeeded him and turned the U.S. women into a powerhouse.

Follow Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour

This article was updated to include video.