Márta Károlyi

Márta Károlyi
Born	August 29, 1942 (1942-08-29) (age 69) Romania

Márta Károlyi (born 1942), is an American gymnastics coach and the National Team Coordinator for USA Gymnastics. Károlyi is originally from Romania, she and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians, and trained athletes there as well, but defected to the United States in 1981. Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and many U.S. national champions, including Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Teodora Ungureanu, Nadia Comăneci,^[1] Kim Zmeskal and Dominique Moceanu.^[2]

Romania

The Károlyis pioneered the Romanian centralized gymnastics training system in Romania in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They established a boarding school in Oneşti, training young girls specially chosen for their athletic potential. One of the first students at the Károlyis' school was six year old Nadia Comăneci, who lived near Oneşti and commuted from home.^[3]

While Béla became a highly visible figure in Romanian gymnastics, accompanying the team to major competitions and, often, clashing with officials in the sport, Marta remained in the background, coaching and choreographing routines for some of the team's gymnasts.

In November 2008, Emilia Eberle—a former Romanian national team member during the Karolyi coaching era—gave an interview to KCRA-TV claiming that while she was a Romanian national team gymnast, both Bela and Marta regularly beat her and her teammates for mistakes they made in practice or competition. "In one word, I can say it was brutal," she told KCRA.^[4]

In 1981, the Károlyis, along with Romanian team choreographer Géza Pozsár, defected during a gymnastics tour in the United States. They were granted asylum and settled in Oklahoma.

1980s and 1990s

After their defection in 1981, the Károlyis established a gym in Houston, Texas. Béla's status as "Nadia's coach" quickly attracted gymnasts to the club, and by the late 1980s, the Károlyi gym had become the preeminent training facility in the United States. By 1990, Károlyi gymnasts were so predominant at national United States meets that journalists dubbed the top cluster of athletes the "Károlyi six-pack." At the 1991 World Championships, for example, every single gymnast on the American squad was either a Károlyi athlete or trained by a former Károlyi club coach.

Károlyi has avoided most of the controversy and accusations of abusive coaching that have trailed her husband, opting for a quieter, less abrasive approach. In the Károlyi coaching team, Béla was often known as the "motivator," while Márta was the "technician," applying her gymnastics savvy to helping her athletes learn and perfect their technique, mechanics and form. Béla accompanied the gymnasts to meets and was a highly visible presence to both the gymnastics community and the media; Márta remained in the background.

In 1996, Márta was chosen as the head coach of the U.S. women's team for the 1996 Olympics.

U.S. National Team Coordinator

Following the 1996 Olympics, the Károlyis retired from coaching. However, three years later, Béla returned to the public eye when he was named the National Team Coordinator for the U.S. women's gymnastics team. His approach was protested and resisted by both the national team gymnasts and their coaches, who, by the 2000 Olympics, were so frustrated and unhappy that they spoke about the situation publicly.

In 2001, on the recommendation of the U.S. national team coaches, the position was handed over to Márta.^[5] While she maintained some aspects of Béla's original program, her approach has been different, and generally more acceptable, to the gymnasts and their coaches. It has also yielded impressive competitive results: between 2001 and 2008, American women have won a combined total of Forty-four medals in World Championship and Olympic competition.^[6]. They have also consistently been overtrained, poorly peaked, and arrived at major competitions carrying numerous injuries.

As coordinator, Márta oversees all aspects of the women's national team. Among her duties are selecting athletes for competitions, determining apparatus lineups at the meets, and making recommendations about skills and routine compositions. The Károlyis' daughter Andrea is the nutritionist for the team.

Bibliography

• Ryan, Joan. Little Girls in Pretty Boxes. Doubleday, New York, 1995. ISBN 0385477902.
• Comaneci, Nadia. Letters To A Young Gymnast. Basic Books, New York, 2003. ISBN 0465012760.

References

1. ^ "Nadia Comăneci: Bela Karolyi". lycos.com. http://www.lycos.com/info/nadia-comaneci--bela-karolyi.html. Retrieved 3 February 2010. 
2. ^ "Mary Lou and Bela reunited on "Sidewalks" and in new "webisodes" on-line at AT&T". Sidewalks TV. http://sidewalkstv.com/webclips/r/marylouretton.html. Retrieved 3 February 2010. 
3. ^ "Nadia Comăneci Bio". nadiacomaneci.com. http://www.nadiacomaneci.com/index_files/bio.htm. Retrieved 3 February 2010. 
4. ^ "Gymnast Says trainer Karolyi beat her up". [UPI]. 2008-11-19. http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2008/11/19/Gymnast_says_trainer_Karolyi_beat_her/UPI-97981227117007/. Retrieved 2008-11-20. 
5. ^ Sandomir, Richard (2008-08-20). "Karolyi Puts the Color in Color Commentary". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/21/sports/olympics/21sandomir.html?_r=1&ref=sports. Retrieved 3 February 2010. 
6. ^ "Bela and Martha Karolyi named Houston International Executives of the Year". USA Gymnastic. 2008-11-13. http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/post.php?PostID=2480&prog=h. Retrieved 3 February 2010. 

External links

• "Strong and silent, the other Karolyi works on". Times of India
• "Back in good graces" Article from the Arizona Republic, July 14, 2004

Persondata
Name	Karolyi, Marta
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	29 August 1942
Place of birth	Romania
Date of death
Place of death