NADIA'S COACH COMES DOWN FROM HILLS, LANDS IN HOUSTON
Author: Lesley Visser
Date: Sunday, June 3, 1984
Page: ?????
Section: SPORTS

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Ion Tiriac with a trim.

Holding a drink in one hand and a piece of fruit in the other, he sounded like a nobleman from a 15th-century castle.

And looked like former tennis player Ion Tiriac, another mysterious man from the unknown hills of Transylvania.

"I miss the mountains," said Bela Karolyi, who defected from Romania in 1981. "There's nothing like the Carpathian Mountains surrounding you on a clear morning. I think it is one of the most beautiful places in the world."

But not beautiful enough for him to withstand the oppression of the Romanian government.

"They interfered with everything," said Karolyi, who coached Nadia Comaneci to seven perfect 10s and three gold medals in the 1976 Olympics, and who now promises to make Mary Lou Retton this country's first Olympic gymnastics medal winner. "I did not have a successful club in Transylvania because of the political process' or the system of government,' I had it because I worked very hard and I had vision. I couldn't listen to them anymore."

When continuous efforts to steal Karolyi's credit became too much, he made plans to defect. One day in New York in 1981, he and his wife jumped in a cab and went to the office of US Immigration and Naturalization. There, they begged for political asylum.

"It was a very big loss for Romania, a great loss of face," said Karolyi, who now lives in Houston. "It is touchy for them to discuss me even now."

He chose Houston, in his words, for three reasons:

"I knew a very helpful Congressman from Texas; I'd been to Fort Worth for the World Championships; and, like every young boy, I'd seen movies of John Wayne," he said. "I used to think to myself, If I could just get there and wear a holster like a real cowboy.' Of course, it's nothing like that, but I do wear blue jeans and cowboy boots."

Friendly and unsuspecting, with an elaborate weave of accent and mystery in his voice, Karolyi has managed (in less than three years) to round up much of the outstanding talent in this country. In addition to Retton (a gold-medal contender on the vault), Karolyi coaches Julianne McNamara, who scored two 10s on the uneven bars in New York this year, and Dianne Durham, who won the national seniors' title last year at age 14.

"You know, I work so hard and for so many hours that my life is not that much different from when I lived in Romania," said Karolyi. "But this is freedom, and that is very different. Freedom to do my work, freedom to help the girls, freedom to be a coach in the sport I love."

Too tall to be a gymnast himself, Karolyi was a team handball player and member of the national track and field team. He discovered gymnastics when he saw his future wife, Marta, practicing in a gym.

Together, they began coaching very young athletes, sometimes no more than 6 or 7, teaching them to be "strong and aggressive," said Karolyi, "an unknown technique."

By 1979, when Karolyi was named national coach in Romania, his teams were the best in the world. But the individualist wanted to stay in the hilly Transylvania town of Onesti and not turn his program over to established authorities.

"They did everything wrong," said Karolyi of the government interference. "But I've learned some things since coming here. It doesn't matter where you grow up; if you are a world-class athlete, your aspirations are the same. Girls here work just as hard as in Romania."

When asked if he were surprised that Romania resisted Russian pressure to boycott the Games in Los Angeles, Karolyi turned sullen for a moment.

"I'm not surprised that they are coming," he said, "it is a very strange government. But I do not think this will be a good thing for Romania in the eyes of the Russian government. Not a good thing at all."