Bela Karolyi, the charismatic polarizing gymnastics coach who championed young women and made the United States an international power, has died. He was 82 years old.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died on Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karoly and wife Martha trained several Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the US and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
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“A huge influence and influence on my life,” said Comaneci, who was only 14 when Károlyi led her to the gold medal for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Posted On Instagram.
Karolyi moved to the United States in 1981 and became a guiding force in American gymnastics over the next 30-plus years, although not without controversyBella helped Rayton – all 16 – capture the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped the injured Kerry Strug at the Atlanta Games in 1996, when Strug's vault brought team gold for the Americans. Achieved.
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Karoly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women's elite program briefly in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport's gold standard. This did not come without cost. He was ousted after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
This would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of bullying and pushing his athletes too far, both physically and mentally.
during the height of Larry Nassar scandal Late 2010 – when Disgraced former USA gymnastics team doctor Effectively sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes under the guise of medical treatment – more than a dozen former gymnasts have come forward saying Carolis were part of a system This created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar's behavior to go unchecked for years.
The couple ran a USA Gymnastics training facility in Huntsville, Texas, known as the Karoly Ranch. usa gymnastics terminated its agreement with Karoly Ranch in January 2018 and it has since closed.
one in May 2018 Interview With CBS News, former U.S. national team gymnasts Jamie Dantzscher and Janet Antolin said Nassar sexually abused them for years, often while training at the farm.
“They should have known. They knew everything about what we were doing,” Dantzscher said at the time.
“If they didn't know we were being abused, they still knew that an adult man was coming into a child's room alone at night,” said Janet Antolin.
Nevertheless, some of Károlyi's most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karoly took a photo reenacting their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when Strug carried her to the medal podium after suffering a severe ankle sprain.