Bela Karolyi, the controversial gymnastics coach who is perhaps best remembered for having trained Nadia Comaneci , the first person to score a perfect 10 at the Olympics, has died at the age of 82. USA Gymnastics said Karolyi died on November 16. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and his wife, Martha, trained several Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the United States and Romania, including 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 X. Karolyi was a polarizing and controversial figure, largely due to his strident training methods that came under scrutiny during the height of the Larry Nassar scandal.
The disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes. More than a dozen former gymnasts said the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years. The Karolyis denied responsibility, telling CNN in 2018 that they were unaware of Nassar's behavior.
But the revelations led to them receding from the spotlight. The Karolyis defected from Romania to the United States in 1981, five years after his first big, and arguably, greatest success in 1976 at the Summer Olympics in Montreal. It was there that Comaneci mesmerized the world, scoring a perfect 1.