Securitate officer Ioan Popescu, an official member of Romania's national gymnastics delegation, filed a report in 1977 when the team was in Spain. He added that Marta Karolyi "was severe in and out of the gym," an opinion that Gorgoi shares. Olaru told RFE/RL that Bela Karolyi was "brutal in the gym, but out of the gym he played with the young gymnasts" and was a bon viveur. Of the difficult handling, Gorgoi said: "The end justifies the means," explaining that it was necessary to keep the girls' weight under control to meet the demands of the sport. "He had no heart and was very greedy, but was a very good coach and very tough preparing the girls for competition," he said. Gorgoi told RFE/RL that Karolyi was "very energetic and perseverant, and didn't accept compromises." He called Karolyi "sadistic" and said he would had even put steak in front of the famished gymnasts, whose diet was always restricted.
Such measures helped control the young girls.Ĭhoreographer Pozsar - aka agent Nelu - wrote of Bela Karolyi: "Generally speaking, he's indifferent to human suffering." Medical treatment was sometimes denied to sick or injured gymnasts and even water was rationed, the files reveal. The book reveals that beatings, name-calling, and a lack of food to keep the gymnasts' extra slim were common. He knew about some of the agents, such as the team doctor, and team choreographer Geza Pozsar, as he had friends in the Securitate. George Gorgoi, who coached Nadia from 1978 until the 1980 Summer Olympic Games in Moscow, told RFR/RL that he wasn't surprised by any of the security service actions described in the book. The surveillance continued until she fled Romania. The Securitate began spying on Nadia when she was 13, shortly after she won medals at the 1975 European gymnastics championships in Skien, Norway. But Comaneci insisted that they all receive the same treatment. When they reached Hungary, officials there planned to send some of the group back to Romania. Years later, she claimed Panait held her captive after she had immigrated to the United States and took money from her. "Nadia considered meeting him was like a window suddenly opening and a fresh breeze entering" in promising a different future for her. "He exploited her unstable nature," Olaru said. "I drank two mugs of wine so that if they caught me, at least I had the excuse that I was drunk."Ĭomaneci's escape was planned in mid-November after a chance meeting with Romanian émigré Constantin Panait at a party in Bucharest. I was "surprised and intimidated," he says in the book. Talpos only found out that night that Comaneci was part of the group.
#Bela and marta karolyi special full
On a pitch-black night with a full moon, local guide and shepherd Ghita Talpos led six people on a six-hour journey past Romanian border guards into Hungary. The book, which draws mainly on declassified files of the infamous communist secret police, opens with Comaneci's risky escape in late November 1989.
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