Bela Karolyi is dead
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Anonymous
He squandered multiple generations of talent for the sake of his own selfish ego, and he conned and coerced parents into his scheme, and anyone who believes otherwise doesn’t know much about gymnastics. |
Anonymous
Did he reject you from his program or something? This sounds personal. |
Anonymous
DP- You sounds like you might have dependency issues in your own life. A tad too apologetic for a man you don't know. |
Anonymous
Maybe you’re an abuser too |
Anonymous
Squandered talent? Have you watched the last few olympics and all the gold medals? With all due respect, I know people who trained at the Karolyi ranch so I do know. And people absolutely knew they were tough, knew what they were getting, but sent their kids anyway. |
Anonymous
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Gymnasts were young women in their 20's until Karolyi sent 14 yo Nadia Comenici to Montreal in 1976. (I guess you could argue Olga Korbut was the first young one at 17.) He helped create that culture.
Of course, the results-at-all-costs mentality let him do it. |
Anonymous
| His gymnasts were the best - may he RIP. I honestly don't care for the style or look of today's gymnasts - he delivered beautiful artistry and grace in addition to the athleticism. |
Anonymous
I’m not and have never been a gymnast, but am closely involved in the sport as an adult with a career in sports journalism. As a former athlete in another sport and a woman, yes, it’s personal when an abusive man destroys a girls’ and women’s sport- and their lives- for the sake of his own ego and pocketbook. |
Anonymous
RIP your misguided and ignorant opinion about sports and athletes. |
Anonymous
Do you understand the depth of US talent that disappeared on an annual basis because of his abusive practices? Do you know how much deeper of a bench of 25-35 year olds we might have had in the last few Olympic cycles had he not broken them when they were just 10, 11 or 12 years old? How clueless are you about gymnastics behind the 5 women you see on tv every 4 years? |
Anonymous
And you are not the only person who “knows” people who were at the goddamn ranch- some of us were even there. You can’t throw a rock anywhere near any gym in America without hitting someone that has been at the ranch. That’s not special. And that’s why he was such an awful person and influence on gymnastics culture. |
Anonymous
What about their parents? The man was just literally doing his job. He didn’t kidnap these girls and bring them to his training facility- their parents sent them there. And the man was amazingly successful at his job, which was training gymnasts to be champions. Some of you sound like you simply can’t handle the idea of having to work hard to achieve something and the process not being sunshine and rainbows and kittens. If the training was too much, these girls could have left (which brings us back around to *parental responsibility*). |
Anonymous
+1. But this also came from Geza Poszar, who insisted on intense ballet training and artistry in his choreography. It is such an ugly sport now. |
Anonymous
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Here is the opinion of a Romanian immigrant (not a gymnast, with no close family involved in high-level gymnastics). I watched proudly as Nadia got the perfect 10 in Montreal. The whole country was extremely proud and the two of them were national heroes. He trained countless other Romanian gymnasts who did really well. We all knew that it was hard work - the type that not everyone could or was willing to do. We were heartbroken when he left Romania to train the US athletes - he is the reason why your gymnasts became competitive.
When you find the perfect coach who delivers results for every type of athlete build him or her a statue. Different athletes respond differently to different coaching styles. His coaching style may have turned some gymnasts away from gymnastics. Go ahead and demonize him for everything that went wrong with the US gymnastics team. But blaming him for the Nassar sexual abuse is off-the-rail nuts. You would need to come up with evidence that he was even aware what was going on (and you probably can't). Back in Romania Nadia was harassed by the dictator's son - are you going to blame that on Karolyi as well? How can a coach protect their athletes from everything? Did Nassar sexually abuse the athletes at Karolyi's ranch? Where is the correlation between Karolyi's coaching and Nassar's abuse? Karolyi proved himself at least twice: with the Romanian gymnast team and with the US gymnast team. How about you do it once using the approach that you know to be working better? |
Anonymous
Like molesting girls and creating a culture of fear. He certainly left a big legacy and made a very big impact on the sport. |