BACK TO THE GYM

There is always some project or task to be done on Bela Karolyi’s 1,200-acre ranch.

Elvira, one of his three camels, is pregnant and a month overdue. He just got done building a roof over the picnic area at the lake he helped make with his bulldozer. There is his herd of African cattle to tend to, and his menagerie of llamas, camels, ostriches, emus, turkeys, swans and deer to feed.

And then there are the wild mallards. They keep invading the pool outside the front door of the log house he built on the ranch, about an hour north of Houston.

So, when USA Gymnastics asked him in 1998 to come back and help the faltering women’s team, he said thank you, but no.

After 30 years of coaching Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug and dozens of other world-class gymnasts in a career that was often as controversial as successful, Karolyi was happily retired. He had his ranch, hunting trips and summer camps with the beloved “little kiddos.”

“Since I stepped out, I considered it over,” he said. “It was over to me. It’s all out. Halfway type of thing, I’m not that type.”

But when the U.S. women finished sixth--dead last in the medals round--at last year’s world championships, he knew it was time to go back to work.

“I was frustrated,” said Karolyi, the coordinator of the national team, which is preparing for the Sydney Olympics. “Twenty years of my life, I was working so hard and I enjoyed it so much to be growing the sport of gymnastics in this country.

“Then suddenly, from the highest position in the world, a team all-around Olympic champion, to drop in the most spectaculous drop in the history of the sport from first to sixth place, I said that’s unreal. That’s crazy.

“And it’s stupid at the same time. You cannot accept that.”

Failure has never been a word in Karolyi’s vocabulary, Romanian or English.

His career began when he took an elementary school gymnastics class in a small, Romanian coal-mining town and turned it into a national powerhouse. He won international fame when Comaneci scored the first perfect 10--a feat she repeated six more times--and became the darling of the Montreal Olympics.

He fell into disgrace with the Romanian government for criticizing the judging at the 1980 Moscow Olympics -- it cost Comaneci a second all-around gold -- and faced the possibility of jail.

So, he and his wife, Martha, defected in March 1981, despite not knowing any English. Their daughter, Andrea, had to stay in Romania for a year but later joined them.

“That first year and a half was the most frustrating of my life,” Karolyi said. “You always play on why? ‘Why am I here? I don’t know anyone here. It’s not my life. It’s not my country.’ It just eats you up.”

The Karolyis moved to California where he did menial jobs for a few months. He was working on a painting crew when he spotted Bart Conner at the Los Angeles airport. Conner put him in touch with his coach, Paul Ziert, who helped Karolyi get his first coaching job in the United States.

Three years later, Retton became the first--and, so far, only--American to win the Olympic all-around.

“If he wouldn’t be a gymnastics coach, he’d be successful at whatever he did,” Comaneci said. “He just makes people stand up from their chairs. He believes in everything he does.”

But Karolyi’s career has not been without controversy. He’s been accused of pushing his athletes too far, calling them names and taunting them about being fat. When Strug vaulted on a badly sprained ankle at the Atlanta Games, people questioned how Karolyi could have let her do it.

“There were definitely times when I didn’t care for him at all,” said Strug, who retired from competitive gymnastics after the 1996 Olympics.

“A lot of girls have a love-hate relationship. The main reason we were there was because he was the best coach. The best coach isn’t your best friend to get the best results. He doesn’t care how you feel about him, he just wants to get the job done. He wants to get you where you’re supposed to be.”

Karolyi tangled with other coaches, too. There was the rivalry with Steve Nunno, Shannon Miller’s coach and a former protege. Don Peters, the coach of the 1984 Olympic team, resigned as the 1988 coach five weeks before the Seoul Games because of a dispute with Karolyi.

Yet when the Americans finished sixth at the 1997 world championships, it was Peters who urged USA Gymnastics to lure Karolyi back. No matter what he’s done or said in the past, there’s no arguing with his resume.

“Bela’s a really aggressive competitor. When he competes, he competes to win,” Peters said.

Already, after just four months, the gymnasts and coaches said they can see progress. While Karolyi doesn’t coach any individual gymnast, he’s created a training program for the entire team. Increased skills and conditioning are emphasized, as are the discipline and mental toughness that were always trademarks of Karolyi’s athletes.

Karolyi admits there’s a lot of ground for the Americans to make up and not much time before the Olympics. But he doesn’t intend to fail after postponing hunting trips and disrupting life on his ranch.

“We are determined to have again and to be again that powerful team and that type of international position where we deserve to be,” he said. “And that’s around the Olympic medals.”