Bela Karolyi, the polarizing and charismatic gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and turned the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82 years old.
USA Gymnastics announced that Karolyi passed away on Friday. The cause of death has not been disclosed.
Karolyi and his wife Martha coached multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the United States and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
“Big influence and impact on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 years old when he was coached by Karollui, who led Romania to a gold medal at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyi family emigrated to the United States in 1981 and became a guiding force in American gymnastics for more than three decades, but not without controversy. Berra led Retton (all 16 of them) to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and at the 1996 Atlanta Games, after Strug’s vault helped the U.S. team win the team gold medal, Berra helped lead Retton to an injured Kelly. Memorably saving Strug from falling off the floor.
Karolyi briefly served as national team coordinator for the USA Gymnastics Women’s Elite Program in 1999, implementing a semi-intensive system that would eventually turn the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It didn’t come without a price. After the 2000 Olympics, he was ousted after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
This won’t be the last time Karolyi will be accused of physically and mentally straining his players in the grandstands.
A disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to manually sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes under the guise of medical treatment at the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s. More than a dozen former gymnasts came forward to claim that Nassar’s actions were part of a system that created a repressive culture that went unchecked for years.
Still, some of Caroli’s most famous students have always been among his staunchest defenders. When Ms. Strug married, she and Mr. Karolyi posed for a photo reenacting the famous scene in which he carried her to the medal podium on the vault with a severely sprained ankle at the 1996 Olympics.
