Bela Karolyi, gymnastics coach who mentored Nadia Comaneci, dies aged 82 | Gymnastics
Bela Karolyi, gymnastics coach who mentored Nadia Comaneci, dies aged 82 | Gymnastics
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Bu içerikte, genç kadınları şampiyonlara ve ABD’yi uluslararası bir güce dönüştüren karizmatik ancak tartışmalı jimnastik antrenörü Bela Karolyi’nin 82 yaşında hayatını kaybettiği belirtiliyor. Karolyi ve eşi Martha, ABD ve Romanya’da birçok Olimpiyat altın madalyalı ve dünya şampiyonu sporcu yetiştirdi. Ancak, Karolyi’nin taktikleri hakkında bazı sporcuların açıklamaları sonucunda 2000 Olimpiyatları’ndan sonra ABD Jimnastik Kadınlar Elit Programı için ulusal takım koordinatörü olarak görevden alındığı ifade ediliyor. Ayrıca, Larry Nassar skandalının ortasında, Nassar’ın yıllarca kontrolsüz bir şekilde davranmasına izin veren baskıcı bir kültür yarattığı iddia edilen bir sistem içinde yer aldığı belirtiliyor. Karolyi’nin bazı ünlü öğrencileri ise onun en sadık savunucuları oldu. Örneğin, Kerri Strug’un evlendiği zaman, 1996 Olimpiyatları’ndan bir sahneyi tekrar oluşturdukları bir fotoğraf paylaştıkları belirtiliyor. Karolyi’nin jimnastik dünyasındaki etkisi ve mirası, tartışmalara rağmen hala önemli bir yer tutmaktadır.
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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the US 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 along with a black-and-white image of them together.
The Karolyis defected to the US in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton – all of 16 – to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
US gymnast Kerri Strug is carried by her coach, Bela Karolyi, on her way to receiving her gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics. Strug had two torn ligaments and a sprained ankle from the vault competition. Photograph: Susan Ragan/AP
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not 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 – over 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 run unchecked for years.
Still, 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 on to the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Bela Karolyi, gymnastics coach who mentored Nadia Comaneci, dies aged 82 | Gymnastics
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