![]() What we remember is her husband carrying Strug, casted leg and all, to the medal podium. Then came 1996, when the Magnificent Seven pulled off one of the great upsets in Olympic history, thanks to Kerri Strug’s one-footed final vault, and the U.S. Shannon Miller, who was coached by Karolyi disciple-turned-rival Steve Nunno, took home two silvers and two bronzes. failed to medal in 1988 (they picked up one individual bronze), and stumbled to a disappointing bronze in 1992. With the Soviets back in competition in Seoul, the U.S. Bela’s temper and harsh training methods were legendary – some of his former gymnasts would even describe them as abusive – but it was Marta’s even hand as a technician that steadied the ship. Bela was named head coach of Team USA in 1988.īut it was Marta who quietly did the detail work behind the scenes, particularly with choreography. The best headed for the Karolyi ranch to train to be like Mary Lou. Aspiring gymnasts in America saw Retton and wanted to do the same. Birth of a MonsterĪnd so the cycle started. With the Soviets returning the boycott of 1980 in kind, the Karolyis’ 1984 team took silver (ironically behind Romania), but also took hold of the national consciousness thanks to Mary Lou Retton, who became the first American woman to win the individual all-around gold. ’84, the United States had never placed higher than fourth in the Olympic team competition. Within three years, they had positioned U.S. With Bela as the public face and Marta in the background as the choreographer and technical coach, Comaneci became the first gymnast to ever score a perfect 10 in Olympic competition, and the Romanians took home seven medals from Montreal.Īfter the boycotted Olympics of 1980, where Bela ruffled more than a few feathers by constantly and vehemently protesting the judging, the pair defected to the United States in 1981, and bought a ranch north of Houston, Texas to set up their gymnastics powerhouse. The gymnastics chapter of the story of Bela and Marta Karolyi began in 1974, when they started work with a young Romanian prodigy named Nadia Comaneci. This week was the culmination of more than four decades of hard work by Marta and Bela over two countries, two hemispheres and eleven Olympiads. The “Final Five” moniker was in honor of both her and the fact that teams will only consist of four gymnasts in the next Olympics in 2020. National Head Coach and frequent parody subject Bela Karolyi, is retiring after Rio. The week was an ass-kicking of Olympic proportions, and a fitting send-off for Marta Karolyi, the United States’ Senior Team head coach. It probably would’ve been an American medal sweep, but Gabby Douglas, the reigning individual all-around gold medalist, who posted the third-highest individual score of everyone in qualifying, couldn’t compete in the individual all-around because the rules say you can only have two competitors from each country. Then Biles and teammate Aly Raisman went gold-silver in the individual all-around competition on Thursday. She needed to score a little less than an 8.0 to clinch the gold, but she probably could have bashed her face into the floor for a minute straight and still nailed it down with points to spare. ![]() finished on floor exercise, with Simone Biles providing the coup-de-grace. Team USA finished with a final score of 184.897, more than eight points better than Russia, who claimed the silver. Women’s Gymnastics Team – the self-entitled “Final Five” – lapped the rest of the field en route to the gold medal in the team final in Rio. The only thing in sports we Americans love more than drama is utter domination.
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