Bela Karolyi, controversial American gymnastics coach, dies at 82

Bela Karolyi, the charismatic but polarizing gymnastics coach who transformed young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82 years old.

A USA Gymnastics spokesperson confirmed via email to CBS News that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.

Karolyi and his wife Martha have coached several Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the United States and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.

Legendary gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi speaks during a press conference to announce that AT&T Stadium will host the 2015 AT&T American Cup on February 26, 2014, in Arlington, Texas. Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to win gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.

The Karolyi defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30 years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, not without controversy. Bela helped Retton – all 16 – win the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Los Angeles Games and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the ground at the 1996 Atlanta Games after the Strug's vault secured the team gold medal for the Americans.

USA gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi carries injured Kerri Strug to the medal ceremony after the American team won gold at the 1996 Olympics. Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Karolyi briefly became national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics' elite women's program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that ultimately made the Americans the gold standard in the sport. This was not without cost. He was kicked out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.

This wouldn't be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.

At the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s – when the disgraced former US gymnastics team doctor was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes under covered in medical treatment — more than a dozen former gymnasts have come forward saying the Karolyi were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar's behavior to continue unchecked for years.

The couple ran an American gymnastics training center in Huntsville, Texas, known as Karolyi Ranch. USA Gymnastics ended its agreement with Karolyi Ranch in January 2018 and it has since been closed.

In a May 2018 interview with CBS News, former U.S. national team gymnasts Jamie Dantzscher and Jeanette Antolin said they were sexually assaulted by Nassar for years, often while training at the ranch.

“They had to know. They knew everything about everything we did,” Dantzscher said at the time. “If they didn't know that we were being abused, they did know that an adult man was entering a child's room alone at night,” added Jeanette Antolin.

Yet some of Karolyi's most famous students have always been among his staunchest supporters. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her to the medal podium after she jumped on a badly sprained ankle.

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