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7 unusual facts about Béla Károlyi


Amy Chow

She was also named by Béla Károlyi as one of three leaders in the 2000 team, the other two being Elise Ray and Jamie Dantzscher.

Béla Károlyi

Károlyi required that all national team members attend frequent grueling camps at his New Waverly, Texas gymnastics ranch, north of Houston, and selection procedures for international meets became more arbitrary.

Among the gymnasts Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained are Nadia Comăneci, Svetlana Boginskaya, Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Teodora Ungureanu, Kim Zmeskal, Kristie Phillips, Dominique Moceanu, and Kerri Strug, whom he is famous for carrying to the podium after she injured her ankle on the gold medal-winning vault in the team competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

He and Márta still have a ranch and gymnastics camp in New Waverly, Texas.

Some of his former athletes, including Kristie Phillips, Dominique Moceanu, and Erica Stokes, have stated publicly that Károlyi was verbally and psychologically abusive during workouts.

Béla Károlyi was in the episode "At the Edge of the Worlds", in the ABC Family show Make It or Break It.

Jamie Dantzscher

Dantzscher was one of the most visible members of the US Olympic team in the media, due to her outspoken opposition of then-National Team Coordinator Béla Károlyi's policies.



see also