Those days appear to be over for good now, and since then, the Karolyi training camp has been widely maligned by gymnasts and their attorneys. Communication with the outside world for the girls, some of them pre-teens, is now a highlighted problem at the Karolyi Ranch. But at a young age, she noted the stress it caused her to be isolated from her family while training at the facility. While the ranch may be history, the horror many of the young athletes experienced at the ranch is not.
This includes civil lawsuits naming the Karolyis. The bankruptcy filing by USA Gymnastics has further complicated the matter. Penny faces a tampering charge, after being accused of ordering the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch. Martha required athletes and their coaches to arrive at every practice, twice a day, looking competition-ready — full makeup, hair done, leotards and warm-ups pristine — and extended those exacting demands to the after-hours social scene at her home.
Her system took a physical toll on athletes, but the U. Are we happy? Should we be happy? Should we show it? Under Bela, the Olympic selection process had become more subjective. After a national championship and the Olympic trials, he — and a three-person committee he oversaw — chose the team. In , Martha added yet another step: a weeklong camp and competition at the Ranch. Temperatures reached 92 degrees, and the gym was not air-conditioned.
The Karolyis invited local coaches and club gymnasts to watch, causing traffic jams on the dirt road leading to the facility. Afterward, Olympic hopefuls and their coaches waited two hours for the committee, headed by Martha, to announce the team. Martha later told journalists it took her only 10 minutes to choose, but she had to wait for the live TV window to open. As the gymnasts and coaches sat shoulder to shoulder, squeezed onto metal bleachers, Martha read out the names of the chosen.
The TV cameras, however, focused on the faces of the girls who were not called. Carol Ulrich Dain , former Karolyi elite, U. We had a good time. The Ranch looked different from the rustic place that lived in many of their memories. Being back reminded some of the tough conditions they had endured as kids. I do think she genuinely wanted to see the gymnasts be rewarded. If Martha said she wanted to do something, very few people were going to tell her no.
In spring , Martha, then 72, confirmed rumors that the Rio Olympics would be her last. The months leading up to Rio became something of a victory lap for her, as she sat for exit interviews and invited TV crews into her home. In Rio, Martha oversaw the greatest team in U. The Final Five, as they called themselves, won the team gold. But at what cost? Allegations surfaced from former athletes who were coached by the pair, accusing them of withholding food and water, making comments about their weight, and hitting and scratching the gymnasts, per USA Today.
There were also allegations that Nassar had abused gymnasts on the ranch. The Karolyis' ranch in Texas became the place for Olympic hopefuls to train, and some say that the isolation of the camp helped foster a silent culture of abuse, which the Karolyis have adamantly denied on all accounts.
Nassar until they learned of his dismissal from USA Gymnastics during the summer of ," their lawyer said in a statement to People in The Karolyis deny the existence of a 'toxic' environment. Though Bela retired as a coach in , the year-old's wife Martha acted as the team coordinator for USA gymnastics with plans to step away from the sport following the successful Olympic run.
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