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U.S. Gymnastics Coach To Quit

ATLANTA-- Bela Karolyi doesn't mind that he'll be remembered as a gruff, tough coach. To him, that's a compliment.

The gymnastics coach has no problem with critics who say he pushes too hard. But he dismisses as nonsense the idea that he cares more for his personal success than for the athletes who help him attain it.

And if his way of doing things is so bad, why has it become the standard in American gymnastics?

``I think I've managed to pass down the line in the United States that high-quality results can be obtained only through a hard preparation, an intensive preparation,'' Karolyi said Friday. ``I was very pleased over the years to see people picking up and following in my footsteps.''

Karolyi plans to retire after the Olympics, staying in elite gymnastics only to coach Dominique Moceanu and his other current proteges.

He says that when he finishes his career he'll remember his successes, not the criticisms.

``I would not regret one second that I spent in gymnastics,'' he said. ``All the fight and all the frustration and all the low moments, it was worth it. Every and any moment.''

The latest criticism started almost as soon as Kerri Strug collapsed in pain after her vault to clinch the U.S. women's gymnastics team's first gold medal.

Critics questioned how Karolyi could have encouraged her to ``shake off'' a sprained ankle. Even Vice President Al Gore got into the fray, saying he would have urged his own daughter not to vault.

Karolyi, who said he had no idea how badly Strug was injured, sees it differently.

``Seeing the athlete who was carrying all our hopes falter on the first vault, narrowing our chances almost to the minimum, then ... putting us back in possession of the gold,'' he said, ``that was something that exceeded all my expectations, all my moments in my previous sports life.''

And there have been plenty of great moments. Karolyi gained worldwide fame 20 years ago as the coach of a somber Romanian teen-ager named Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics, then repeated the feat six times.

He and his wife, Martha, defected in January 1981, and he was coaching world champions again three years later. Mary Lou Retton, who in 1984 became the only American to win an all-around Olympic gold, trained with Karolyi. So did Kim Zmeskal, the first American to win the world championship, in 1991.

And of the six national champions between 1987 and 1992, only one trained with someone other than Karolyi.

``My biggest contribution was giving the kids the faith that they can be the best among the best,'' he said. ``I knew that if the Americans could understand they were not inferior ... then they can be groomed like international, highly visible athletes.''

But at what price?

Karolyi has been accused of pushing his athletes too far, calling them names and taunting them about what he says is being fat. He supposedly had two classes of athletes at his Houston gym: the stars and the lower-tiered gymnasts who were around only to spur on the elite.

``Bela knows only one speed and that's full-blast forward,'' said Bart Conner, who won an Olympic gold medal as part of the 1984 men's squad and is now married to Comaneci. ``He goes full-blast until they crash. It's hard for him to back off and nurture a kid.''

Karolyi's own pupils agree he's tough, but they're also among his loudest defenders. Strug bristles at the mere suggestion Karolyi pressured her into making the second vault.

``Bela is a very tough coach and he gets criticism for that,'' she said. ``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,'' she added. ``Anything in life, to be successful, you've got to work really hard.''