sabong.bet Bela Karolyi, 82, Dies; Gymnastics Coach Was Revered, Then Repudiated

Bela Karolyi, a charismatic taskmaster of a gymnastics coach who with his wife, Martha, developed generations of the sport’s leading athletessabong.bet, but whose reputation was tainted by accusations of an abusive style and blindness to the sexual crimes of Dr. Larry Nassar, died on Friday. He was 82.

His death was announced by U.S.A. Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport. The statement did not provide further details.

Karolyi helped usher in an exciting and more challenging era of women’s gymnastics as the Romanian coach who turned Nadia Comaneci into an Olympic champion in 1976. Under his tutelage, Comaneci, then 14, scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic competition.

In 1981, Karolyi and his wife defected from Romania and tried to make a name for themselves in the United States. He took on a young gymnast named Mary Lou Retton as a pupil. In 1984, she became the first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics.

Girls everywhere aspired to be the next Comaneci or Retton, and Karolyi became a star of the sport in his own right, leaning into the spotlight. He had a twitching gunslinger’s mustache, a habit of bear-hugging his gymnasts and a Transylvanian accent that charmed American journalists. Television broadcasters outfitted him with a microphone so that viewers at home could hear his every word.

As early as the 1980s, some said that Karolyi’s insatiable drive to win fostered a culture of abuse. Yet accusations about unhealthy diets, unsafe treatment of injuries and even physical attacks did not halt his rise. When, amid fighting with fellow coaches, he stepped down as national coordinator of the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, he was replaced by his wife, who ran the program for another 15 years. At the same time, the couple owned a Texas ranch that served as the team’s training headquarters.

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