Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Bela Karolyi, the embattled yet successful gymnastics coach who helped young women vault to the highest levels of the sport in the Olympics, has died at the age of 82, USA Gymnastics has announced.
Karolyi died on Friday, USA Gymnastics said in a statement. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and his wife Martha, who defected to the U.S. from Romania in 1981, trained dozens of gymnasts who would become stars, including Romanian Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton, an American.
Just three years after defecting, Karolyi coached the 16-year-old Retton to a gold medal in the individual all-around competition, as well as two silvers and two bronze at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
She quickly became a national sensation, appearing on the cover of a Wheaties cereal box and gaining international acclaim for her performance and her wide, beaming smile.
In 1996, Karolyi coached Dominique Moceanu, a member of the U.S. team that became known as the "Magnificent 7" along with Kerri Strug.
Karolyi famously carried Strug off the mat after tearing two ligaments in her left ankle landing a vault during a performance as part of the U.S. team that won the gold.
Strug believed the U.S. needed her performance to win, which was not the case but Karolyi was criticized for encouraging her to vault on the injured ankle. Strug, who would reenact the scene with Karolyi at her wedding, defended the coach at the time.
"Bela is a very tough coach and he gets criticism for that," Strug said after the 1996 Games. "But that's what it takes to become a champion. I don't think it's really right that everyone tries to find the faults of Bela. Anything in life, to be successful, you've got to work really hard."
Comaneci, a Romanian, was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold at the 1976 Montreal Games. She was among the oldest members of the team the Karolyi's brought to Montreal that year. It was those Games that put the coach in the international gymnastics spotlight.
"A big impact and influence on my life," Comaneci, a five-time Olympic gold medalist, posted on Instagram. "RIP Bela Karolyi."
But the Karolyi's became criticized for their harsh training tactics which bordered on abuse, many of his former students said.
They said he called them names and made negative comments about their weight, pushing them to, and often beyond, their mental and physical limits, even when he would embrace them following their routines.
"A lot of those big bear hugs came with the whisper of 'Not so good,' in our ears," Retton wrote. Retton appeared at gymnastics events with Karolyi long after she retired.
The Karolyis came under increasing scrutiny when former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nasser pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of providing medical treatment, effectively landing him in jail for life.
More than a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar's behavior to continue unchecked for years.
USA Gymnastics eventually exited an agreement to continue training at the famous Karolyi Ranch north of Houston after the world's most decorated gymnast, Simone Biles, criticized the organization for using it to train athletes who said they had experienced sexual abuse.
Karolyi was unapologetic to the end and always stood by his training tactics that brought the U.S. women's gymnastics team unprecedented success after years of failure before his arrival.
"My attitude ... is never to be satisfied," he once told Texas Monthly magazine. "Never enough, never."
