Béla Károlyi

Béla Károlyi (ˈbeːlɒ ˈkaːroji; born September 13, 1942) is a Romanian gymnastics coach of Hungarian descent. He and his wife Márta are ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania, and early in his coaching career he developed the Romanian centralised training system for gymnastics. One of his earliest protégés was Nadia Comăneci, the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score. Living under the dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, Károlyi frequently clashed with Romanian officials and the Károlyis subsequently defected to the United States in 1981.Since their arrival in the United States, Béla and Márta Károlyi have been credited with transforming the coaching of gymnastics in the US and bringing major international success. They have both been head coach of the United States womens national gymnastics team, as well as national team coordinator for United States gymnastics at the Olympic Games.Károlyi has coached many notable national, European, World and Olympic gymnasts, including Nadia Comăneci, Ecaterina Szabo, Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Teodora Ungureanu, Kim Zmeskal, Kristie Phillips, Dominique Moceanu, Phoebe Mills, and Kerri Strug. In total, Károlyi has coached nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and six U.S. national champions. Béla Károlyi was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997. Béla and Márta Károlyi as a coaching team were inducted into the US Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2000.

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