Facts About Bela Karolyi and Marta Karolyi. Bela and Martha pictured at their ranch training camp in 2. Getty Images. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below. Martha and Bela Karolyi have been turning out greats . The Romanians have been training Team USA for dozens of years now, though it's officially Martha's show these days (Bela retired from coaching in the 1. Team USA's national coordinator in 2. However, the Rio Olympics might be the most important games of their careers as it's reportedly Martha's last as the team's coordinator also. Post- Rio, the Karolyis are retiring to their Texas ranch but not before going out with a bang . Here's everything you need to know about the ~notoriously driven~ coaches before their final batch of proteges do their gym thing (and win big). They're originally from Romania. They were both born in 1. A look at Martha and Bela Karolyi's remarkable story that traces generations of gymnastics' most memorable tales, moments and champions.Romania where Bela coached Nadia Comaneci to the first perfect 1. Olympics history at the 1. Montreal games (breath- taking video below). Bela has competed in the Olympics himself. At the 1. 95. 6 Games, he partook in the hammer throw competition for Romania. However, the duo defected from the then- Communist regime in 1. U. S. Which brings me to my next point: They have a training ranch. The Karolyis 4. 0- acre ranch is in Sam Houston National Forest, just 4. Houston. The ranch is not only where the Karolyis live, it's also where they run their famed women's gymnastics training camp, which was named the official women's national team training center in 2.
U. S. Olympic Training Site in 2. Which is pretty impressive, considering they're in the middle of nowhere. But the remote location doesn't matter; most gymnasts would do pretty much anything to train there. Their ranch is also home to many animals. Also not really Olympics related, but Bela cares for camels, peacocks, chickens, horses, and guinea fowl on his ranch. He also breeds red deer. Marta Karolyi and her husband Bela Karolyi are one of the greatest gymnastics coaches in the world, under their wing gymnast such as Mary Lou Retton. All about gymnastics coach and national team coordinator Martha Karolyi -- the coach of Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, Dominique Moceanu and Kerri Strug. They're responsible for coaching many of the U. S.'s biggest gymnastic stars. Their laundry list of greats is ridiculous: Mary Lou Retton, Kim Zmeskal, Dominique Moceanu, Kerri Strug, and, most recently, Simone Biles are just a few of the giants who have trained with the Karolyis. And they've molded so many winners. As of 2. 01. 5, the two had trained and worked with 2. Olympians (nine of whom were champions), 1. European champions, and six U. S. To put it in other terms: the U. S. One of them has been the head coach of Team USA since 1. Bela was the head coach of the U. S. Olympic Team in 1. Martha was head coach in 1. Magnificent Seven to total domination at the games. One of them has been Team USA National Coordinator since 1. Bela originally took the job in 1. Team USA was struggling but bowed out after about a year because, as he puts it, ? Martha, who describes herself as . And their daughter Andrea is the team's nutritionist. Keeping Up With the Karolyis, please? They have changed the culture, and reputation, of American women's gymnastics, period. As Dvora Myers points out in her book, The End of the Perfect 1. United States is know as Before Karolyi (BK) and After Karolyi (AK). Their gymnasts didn't work hard, they weren't fit, and that's why they didn't win any medals. According to this amazing profile of Simone Biles in the New Yorker, Martha has sent back leotards because they didn't have enough crystals. But they have a reputation for being harsh. Dominique Moceanu, the retired Romanian gymnast who was a member of the gold- medal- winning United States women's gymnastics team at the 1. Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and who trained with the Karolyis, wrote in the Huffington Post in 2. And get their fair share of criticism. Trudi Eberle Kollar, who competed for Romania at the 1. Olympics, told the Associated Press that the Karolyis slapped and kicked her. However, some gymnasts have defended them, calling their methods firm but fair. In the Los Angeles Times, Moceanu's teammates . In 2. 00. 6, the International Federation of Gymnastics did away with the perfect 1. Bela was not pleased. They're very picky about who they train. Bela once said he wouldn't train a gymnast until she emerged from . There's a lot of debate about who should replace Martha when she retires. The 7. 3- year- old Karolyi's successor hasn't been named, though the front- runner is believed to be Valeri Liukin. Which makes sense, as Valeri coached his daughter Nastia to the 2. Olympic title. Not a bad pedigree to replace two of the most influential figures in gymnastics history. However, the Karolyis are famous for saying they're going to retire and then they don't. So nobody's quite sure if it'll actually happen. One thing's for sure, neither Karolyi is out of the sport for good . Follow Laura on Twitter.
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