Youngest Olympian Goes Back to Former Coaches

Chelle Stack, the youngest Olympian to compete in the Seoul Summer Games last year, announced today that she is leaving her training program under Bela Karolyi and moving to Philadelphia.

Chelle was 15 when she joined two other Karolyi gymnasts, Brandy Johnson and Phoebe Mills, on the U.S. Olympic team. Johnson left Karolyi earlier this year to return to Coach Kevin Brown in Florida.

Karolyi, who was sworn in Monday as a U.S. citizen with his wife, Marta, and daughter, Andrea, said he was not surprised at Chelle’s decision to return to her former coaches, Leo and Anna Belder of Philadelphia.

Belder, a former Soviet national coach, coached Chelle when she was 8 years old.

“I just think I need a change in my workouts,” Chelle said. “I just didn’t feel like I was getting enough attention that I needed to make me feel like I could go out and do what I needed to do. Bela thought this was a good idea. I needed this change, and he was very nice and very supportive of it.”

Chelle has been a student at Karolyi’s gym for 4 1/2 years. She has been competing since 1978 and finished fourth all-around in the Grand Prix International Invitational of France. She was third in her specialty, the uneven bars.

“(Chelle’s) attitude wasn’t the most positive lately,” Karolyi said. “I personally suggested to her to make up her mind.”