Bela Karolyi dead: Gymnastics coach of Olympic gold medalists Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton who caused controversy, dies at 82

Bela Karolyi, the charismatic but polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and turned the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.

USA Gymnastics said Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.

Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the US and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.

“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.

The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and became a leading force in American gymnastics over the next thirty years, but not without controversy. Bela helped Retton (all 16) to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Atlanta Games after Strug’s jump secured the team gold for the Americans.

Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics’ elite women’s program in 1999, integrating a semi-centralized system that eventually made the Americans the gold standard of the sport. It didn’t happen without costs. He was kicked out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.

It wouldn’t be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.

During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s – when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment – ​​more than a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to go unchecked for years.

Yet some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her to the medal podium after she jumped on a badly sprained ankle.