Bela Karolyi, a longtime gymnastics coach who transformed USA Gymnastics into a global contender at the Olympic level, died Friday at the age of 82. Karolyi’s passing was announced by USA Gymnastics.
After initially coaching in his native Romania, with pupils including Nadia Comaneci, the first Olympic gymnast to ever be awarded a perfect score, Karolyi and his wife Marta fled to the United States in 1981 after clashing with government officials in the Romanian Federation. Settling in Houston, Texas, he would become a member of five U.S. Olympic Team staffs as well as the personal coach of some of the most successful American gymnasts ever.
Gymnasts coached by Karolyi throughout the 1980s and 1990s included a host of USA Gymnastics Hall of Famers such as Dianne Durham, Julianna McNamara, Phoebe Mills, Dominique Moceanu, Betty Okino, Kristie Phillips, Kerri Strug, Mary Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal. He would later become the U.S. Women’s National Team Coordinator from 1999 to 2001, and remained involved in the sport after his wife succeeded him in that position.
Although his results spoke for themselves, Karolyi’s methods as an especially demanding coach were not always looked kindly upon. Late in his life, Karolyi and his wife were criticized for their role in the Larry Nassar scandal, with former gymnasts claiming they had fostered a toxic environment — including verbal and emotional abuse as well as athletes being forced to train while injured — that allowed Nassar, a disgraced USA Gymnastics team doctor, to sexually abuse young girls under the guise of medical treatment.
Following his passing, however, Karolyi was availed some fairness by even his critics, including former pupil Dominique Moceanu.
“His harsh words and critical demeanor often weighed heavily on me,” Moceanu wrote Saturday. “While our relationship was fraught with difficulty, some of these moments of hardship helped me forge and define my own path.”
Karolyi was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997, and in 2000 would be inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame alongside his wife Marta.
