Bela Karolyi, who coached gymnasts with his wife, Martha, for 30-plus years, including Olympic all-around gold medalists Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, and whose training methods some pupils said went too far, died Friday at age 82, according to USA Gymnastics.
Comaneci and other gymnasts who trained under Karolyi posted about his death on social media.
“A big impact and influence in my life,” Comaneci wrote. “RIP Bela Karolyi.”
“Dear Bela, i had the opportunity to train with you, i had the privilege to be around you, your athletes and your family,” wrote Svetlana Boginskaya, a Belarus native who won Olympic gold in 1988 and 1992 before being coached by Karolyi. “I took away positive experience in every possible way. We laughed, we cried, we talked ( and oh boy you are the talker ) and you made the best and strongest Margarita’s🍹 You will be missed by so many of us… Rest in peace.”
“Bela Karolyi was a man whose influence on my life and the sport of elite gymnastics is undeniably significant,” wrote Dominique Moceanu, a member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic champion team. “He was a complex individual, embodying a mix of strengths and flaws that left a lasting impact on those around him. Anyone who has followed my story knows that my journey under Bela’s guidance as my coach came with immense challenges. His harsh words and critical demeanor often weighed heavily on me. While our relationship was fraught with difficulty, some of these moments of hardship helped me forge and define my own path. As we bid farewell to Bela, I choose to send loving thoughts to his family and loved ones, and honor our relationship by embracing lessons learned and striving to help create a world where compassion and encouragement guide our actions. May he rest in peace.”
The Karolyis began coaching gymnasts together in the 1960s in their native Romania and then in the U.S. after defecting in 1981.
Comaneci, a Romanian, first met the Karolyis while in kindergarten. At age 14 at the 1976 Olympics, she earned three gold medals and seven perfect-10 scores.
“Bela and I did not always see eye to eye, and as I grew up, we needed time and distance to help us both deal with the changes that came,” Comaneci wrote in her 2003 memoir, “Letters to a Young Gymnast.” “But he was never cruel to me. Fierce, yes; a tough disciplinarian, yes; and fair -- always.”
The Karolyis’ relationship with Romania’s communist government became strained after the 1980 Moscow Games, where Bela accused officials of rigged scoring to benefit Soviet gymnasts.
In March 1981, the Karolyis defected while on a Romanian gymnastics tour in New York City. They ended up in the Houston area, opening Karolyi’s World Gymnastics.
Their early students included Retton, whom they coached to the first U.S. Olympic women’s all-around title at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Kerri Strug, another Karolyi pupil, tore left ankle ligaments on the first of her two vaults as the last U.S. gymnast to go in the team final.
With the severity of her injury unknown, Bela Karolyi repeated to Strug before her second vault, “You can do it.” Strug then took her second vault, landed it and helped the U.S. women win their first Olympic team title.
The Karolyis’ training methods were called strict by many and abusive by some of their gymnasts, including multiple Romanians.
“Verbally, definitely not abusive,” Martha Karolyi said in a 2018 “Dateline” interview when asked specifically about their time coaching in the U.S. “Emotionally, it depends on the person. You have to be a strong person to be able to handle the pressure.”
The Karolyis said they never hit an athlete when coaching American gymnasts.
“Probably over 50 years ago in Romania when even slapping or spanking, that was a common procedure, yes,” Bela Karolyi said in 2018.
Bela Karolyi coached U.S. gymnasts at the Olympics in 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1996, then was the national women’s team coordinator from 1999-2001. He was succeeded by his wife, who was national women’s team coordinator from 2001-16.
From 2000-17, training camps for U.S. national team gymnasts were held at the Karolyis’ ranch outside of Houston. Gymnasts said that Larry Nassar, a USA Gymnastics team doctor from 1996-2015, sexually abused them at the ranch and other places under the guise of medical treatment.
The Karolyis denied knowledge of Nassar’s abuse.
In June 2018, Texas law officials said they found no corroborated evidence of criminal conduct by the Karolyis after an investigation into the Nassar crimes, which included interviewing the Karolyis.
