Wife of Karolyi Gets Her Chance

Bela Karolyi has always seemed larger than life, the bearlike man whose golden touch turned Romanian and American tumblers into Olympic champions. He molded Nadia Comaneci, cheered Mary Lou Retton and carried Kerri Strug after that last, painful vault at Atlanta, cementing his reputation as the guru of gymnastics.

But although some gymnasts consider him a genius, others consider him overbearing and egotistical.

Hired as coordinator of the U.S. women’s national team in November 1999, he became the focus of bickering among coaches and athletes at the Sydney Olympics. Gymnasts’ personal coaches accused him of trying to coach instead of coordinate, and he was criticized for his choices of which gymnasts would compete on which apparatuses in the team competition. The U.S. men and women left the Games without a medal for the first time since 1972, and Karolyi stepped down when his contract expired in December.

With that memory so fresh, it might have been surprising when USA Gymnastics announced the hiring of Karolyi’s wife and fellow coach, Martha, as the new national team coordinator last week. But she has earned respect in her own right--she was the head coach of the 1996 women’s team, which won the team gold medal at Atlanta-- and her organizational abilities will be put to good use.

“Her attention to detail is second to no one’s, and that’s why she has enjoyed great success,” said Bob Colarossi, president of USA Gymnastics, the sport’s governing body. “She’s focused, and a great motivator.”

Martha--not Bela--was entrusted with establishing training programs for the women’s national team through the 2004 Athens Games, although she acknowledged she will consult him.

“I’m sure that we will use Bela’s experience,” she said during a conference call last week. “On important issues, we will have discussions that will then be considered.”

That’s fine with Colarossi.

“Martha is the national team coordinator, and she’s going to take the lead position,” Colarossi said from Orlando, Fla., site of the Visa American Cup, the first major post-Sydney competition.

“She’s been coaching 35 years and has a wealth of experience. I think Bela is very supportive of this. He has been all along. I think this is going to be a great step for all of us.”

The U.S. women’s fourth-place finish in the Sydney team event was seen as a failure, suffering by contrast to the gold medal won in Atlanta by the “Magnificent Seven.” However, Colarossi said it was unrealistic to expect a repeat.

“Going in we didn’t expect to defend our medal,” he said. “We finished sixth at the last two world championships and we knew it was going to be tough. But in the women’s all-around final, we hit 20 of 20 routines and finished fourth, which was great. I thought in the last year we had a lot of progress.

“Part of it was we had a large turnover [after Atlanta]. And the age limit to compete in the Olympic Games was raised to 16, so some of our younger kids didn’t have international experience.

“We didn’t miss a routine. There were some distractions, and I think, all in all, they did what they could do. Could they have done better? Maybe a little, but it’s easy to look back now and say that.”

Martha plans to hold fewer camps at the Karolyis’ Texas ranch than the monthly gatherings preceding Sydney, although camps are planned for April and May. Helping athletes adapt to the new Code of Points--the rules and requirements that took effect

Jan. 1 and will run through 2004-- is a priority. So is developing a better relationship with the individual coaches than her husband had.

“Our very important goal is to bring back the U.S. team to the place where it belongs and from where in the last year it [had] a little slip back,” she said. “You really have to function as a unit, and that was a little bit missing in 2000. . . . Considering all the talent that is out there, if they have direction, if they have training plans, I think we definitely will go to a much better situation in 2004.”

Colarossi agrees that there’s ample talent in the pipeline. “We think we can be medal contenders in ’03 and ‘04,” he said. “The world championships in ’03 will be in Indianapolis [USA Gymnastics’ headquarters] and we intend to go there and do very well.”

DAEHLIE NEWS

Norway’s Bjorn Daehlie, who has won eight Olympic cross-country skiing gold medals and an unmatched 12 medals in three Olympics, said he will decide by May whether a back injury will keep him from competing at Salt Lake City in 2002.

“It hurts when I go 100% in training, although I’ve gone through various treatments,” said Daehlie, who hasn’t raced in nearly two years. “If I want to be competitive in Salt Lake City I must be able to train at 100% from May until February [2002]. I know I can be in the top if I get healthy.”

Daehlie hopes to return before the season ends, possibly at the Norwegian championships in March. “I’m still dreaming about winning races,” he said.

LOOPS, LUTZES AND MORE

Ye Bin Mok of Burbank, 10th among senior women at the U.S. figure skating championships, is part of the U.S. delegation to the world juniors beginning Monday at Sofia, Bulgaria.

Mok’s U.S. teammates in the women’s event will be Ann Patrice McDonough and Sara Wheat. Johnny Weir, Evan Lysacek and Benjamin Miller will compete in the men’s event. Two pairs--Deborah Blinder and Jeremy Allen and Kristen Roth and Michael McPherson--will go, as will the dance teams of Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto, Lydia Manon and Michael Klus and Kendra Goodwin and Chris Obzansky.

Ice dancers Jessica Valentine and Matthew Kossack, fifth at the U.S. senior nationals and 12th at last year’s world juniors, have split because Kossack wants to go to school full time.

Three-time world figure skating champion Elvis Stojko of Canada, who has missed most of this season because of injuries, will compete in the world championships next month at Vancouver, Canada.

Amber Corwin of Hermosa Beach and two-time U.S. champion Michael Weiss will represent the U.S. at the Top Jump competition Saturday in Lyon, France. Eight men and eight women will perform jumps of varying difficulty for a prize of $20,000.

IT’S NOT THE GLAMOUR

Sometimes, it really is about the competition and not about winning.

Nina Kemppel of Anchorage, Alaska, finished 22nd in the women’s pursuit and 23rd in the 10k Classic event at the world nordic ski championships at Lahti, Finland. And that’s worth celebrating. Americans traditionally don’t do well in the sport, and Kemppel’s 14th-place finish at a recent World Cup meet was the best result by a U.S. woman in international competition since 1984.

Kemppel, who has won a record 15 U.S. nordic titles, was 39th in the sprint. She will also compete in the 30K freestyle event today. “When it’s freezing outside, sometimes I wonder why I didn’t become a beach volleyball player,” she said.

HERE AND THERE

Inspectors visiting Beijing last week were told that the city will spend $20 billion to improve highways and public transportation and build venues for the 2008 Summer Games. A bid committee press release said the work “is one of the greatest building projects undertaken in China since the construction of the Great Wall.” Political dissidents tried to use the visit to publicize their fight against human rights violations in China, but bid committee spokesman Jiang Xiaoyu said the two are separate. “Sports should not be mingled with politics,” he said. A nice thought, but naive and far removed from the Olympic world. Beijing is favored to beat Paris; Toronto; Osaka, Japan; and Istanbul, Turkey, for the Games. A decision will be made in July.

The Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, which was rebuilt because of problems with the concrete foundation, will be ready for the world single distance championships March 9-11. The long track event involves sprinters and allrounders in Olympic-style competition. At 4,675 feet above sea level, the oval is the world’s highest, and many records are expected to be set because the thinner air has less friction to slow skaters.

The top goaltending candidates for the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey were hurt last week. Mike Richter of the New York Rangers tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Mike Dunham of the Nashville Predators suffered a neck strain. Richter is expected to recover in six months, but his age and multiple knee injuries have limited his mobility. Philadelphia’s Brian Boucher, who had a brilliant rookie season but has lost his job to Roman Cechmanek, might also be in the mix to play for Coach Herb Brooks’ team.

Only 348 days until the Salt Lake City Winter Games.