Bela Karolyi

Bela Karolyi has used tough talk and bear hugs to coach nine gymnasts to Olympic gold medals. After victories with the Romanian team in the 1976 and 1980 games, he defected to the United States. But because he spoke no English and had limited funds, he had to clean restaurants before working his way back up to coaching in international competitions. With his wife, Martha, he now runs the official U.S. Gymnastics training facility. Interviewed by Alison Beard HBR: Why do you think you’re such a successful coach? Karolyi: Love for the sport, competitive drive, and discipline. Success depends on how much you are willing to sacrifice, how much you are willing to alter your everyday life for a particular goal. If I demand that the kids be 100% dedicated, I have to be just as dedicated. Do you believe that in 36 years I’ve never had one vacation with my wife? Our vacations were around athletic events and venues. But that gave us as much satisfaction as other people get from a cruise. It’s also important to have personal experience in sports and competing, which I did at a young age. I was never too successful, I think because I didn’t have many coaches in my life. So I realized that was what I would like to give: to elevate my students, to stand behind them and give them that boost to reach what I never reached. How do you identify athletes with high potential? First, you do very basic physical testing: Who is the quickest? The strongest? Who has the most agility? The most flexibility? Another part, though, which is just as important—sometimes more important—is the mental approach: The intelligence. The toughness. The acceptance of a disciplined life. And also competitiveness, which you can see in the heart of even the little guys. I have two grandchildren, who are so different. One is a little tiger; the other one totally mellowed out. I don’t want to say you have it or you don’t. I won’t say it’s not improvable. It is. But those who already have it in their general nature have a great advantage. I know you can be a very enthusiastic person and you can be a very tough person. How do you decide which motivation tactics to use when? Criticism and encouragement have to be alternated and used at the right time and in the right situation. If there is ignorance or laziness or lack of interest, then make the critical remarks. If criticism isn’t working, you have a much more concrete discussion about the reason we’re competing. If that fails, we say good-bye to each other. But that’s happened very few times. Usually, it’s a new life. Again you put the smile on her face so the clouds are going away, the sun is still shining, and both of us together will make it. Do you change your style to fit the person you’re coaching? Very much. Over the years there were very few instances when I had kids with the same character, the same drive, the same personality. Even the ones who get to the top of the pyramid—they’re so different. So you have to take them individually, find out what part of their mind is clicking, what part of their character is responding to you, and what’s the one thing you have to avoid. Nadia Comaneci was like steel. I never had to say, “Don’t be chicken,” because she was never chicken. She was like a racehorse waiting to run. In a competition I would say, “Look at me. You’re next. You OK?” “Yes.” “Tell me one more time.” “Yes.” “OK, good, go.” Now, Kerri Strug—she was the most timid little girl of my life, so she needed gradual reinforcement of self-confidence. In a competition I had to take away the stress, the paralyzing thoughts. So it was: “I haven’t seen this leotard. It looks good on you. Where did you buy it?” Then, in a casual way: “OK, by the way, it’s your turn. You’re ready? OK, go ahead.” Each time, you have a totally different approach. How do you respond to recent allegations from Dominique Moceanu that your and your wife’s coaching practices are overly harsh? We’ve known Dominique since she was a young gymnast, and we worked with her to help her achieve her dreams. We’re disappointed that her memories are negative. We wish her success in her life and joy with her family. As a national team coach, you had to manage not only the athletes but also their coaches. How did you handle that? Well, you have to deal with two personalities and the coach’s ego. I wasn’t very good at it. There were things at which I would take offense, like an unprepared gymnast, and I was pretty straight to tell them, “That’s not the way. You haven’t fulfilled your coaching obligation. She’s not prepared. It’s my way or the highway.” My wife—she was better, more diplomatic, always smoothing it out. She would say, “I feel that she’s missing a little bit. Did you slow down? Did you have a vacation? Are you having problems? Do you think you can manage to pick it up?” So that was a positive way of bringing them around. Gymnastics is both an individual and a team sport. How do you help your athletes balance the two? From the very beginning, I wanted to have a team. Even if I had only one competitive athlete, I always gathered a team around her. The team helps with the positive attitude, the social life, the pride. And the everyday competitiveness is unbelievably productive. There are big-time inside rivalries. Let’s talk about your career. You had great success in Romania. Then you decided to defect to the U.S., and you couldn’t get a gymnastics job at first, so you ended up cleaning restaurants. How difficult was that for you? Very difficult. I had to work so hard to get out of it. And I did. I managed to move out from the ghetto to a community with more gymnastic places and to get a casual job as a coach. Eventually, I got in a position to have a little gymnasium, a couple of beams, and a few mats. And I worked so well with those kids, the parents fell in love and they did the advertising for me. And more and more people came. And then I managed to have enough money to rent another little adjacent facility. In less than a year and a half I had about 60 kids. We made a team. Soon we had a national champion, then an international champion, and three and a half years later we had an Olympic champion. The most important thing was the drive to get back to my professional life, to doing what I love. I wanted so desperately to show that what had happened was nothing the Romanian government created. It was my dedication and work. The business side has never been my strength. But we managed to build a bigger empire in the sport of gymnastics than anybody ever had. How do you pick other coaches? When they apply for a job, most of the time I give them an opportunity. I give them very clear criteria, and I watch them like a hawk. There is a system and a syllabus that they have to follow. If they don’t, that’s their last day. Many coaches came to me at a very primitive beginner status, and today more than 52 of them are gym owners. Are you ever going to retire? Right now I’m too excited about how the coaches in this country are supporting the national team. This was my dream. For many, many years, I was working like a lonely soldier, almost single-handedly putting up the team. The athletes showed up maybe a day or two before the major competitions, sometimes totally injured or completely out of shape or just ready for a touristic trip. And I was facing the blame and the shame of going off with half of the team unusable. So I was always fighting for a centralized training program. I came up with this in Romania, and it’s the most efficient way of creating high-quality athletes. Bring me a six-year-old, and I’ll send them home when they’re 21. In this country there is no way to do that. But there is another way. Make it a semicentralized national teaching program. That way I can bring the best kids from all over the country together for three or four days, a week, or a month; teach them the system; and send them away with homework. Well, the first time I tried it the rejection from the other coaches was prompt and violent: “What—send my kids to you?” But in ‘99 our team was in a disastrous condition, so the president of the federation, Colarossi, asked me to help, and he finally gave us the green light for the semicentralized program. And when we had that blessing, the clubs were interested in being part of it. Then when they saw the structure of the workouts, the intensity, the duration, the testing, the technical and physical improvements, they said, “Wow. Thank you very much.” And ever since, the national teams have been better and better. But this was possible only when I was no longer gym-affiliated, because the other coaches trusted that I was ready to help, to make them better and their gyms better. No conflict of interest. That was the key ingredient. So will the U.S. win gold in the Olympics this year? We will, we will.

Bela Karolyi

Partner Center