Talk:Béla Károlyi

Carly Janiga

I took Carly Janiga out of the list of athletes trained by the Karolyis. I have never been able to find anything to verify this and it doesn't seem possible: Janiga was born in 1988 and would have only been eight when Karolyi stopped coaching. She would have been far too young to train with Bela and Marta.Mademoiselle Sabina 17:59, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Noticed that Janiga's name was added to the list of Karolyi athletes. There seems to be a belief that she trained with him, however, once again, these points:

• 1. Janiga was only eight when Karolyi stopped coaching and closed his gym. The ages wouldn't match up. Karolyi's last elite was Dominique Moceanu.
• 2. There's absolutely nothing about it on her website, USAG, any of the articles, etc.
• 3. She attended training camps at the Karolyi ranch; as did every single other member of the US national team. If she were a former Karolyi athlete, there would have been some comment about it from Marta.
• 4. She's a national team member, but never a Worlds or Olympics medalist--ie, not notable enough to be a "top Karolyi gymnast" in the list anyway.

If there's proof to the contrary, please feel free to share it here, Mademoiselle Sabina 11:43, 29 May 2006 (UTC)

Boarding school

The article says: "He established a boarding school in Onesti..." Well, anybody who lived in those days in Romania can tell you that no individual established anything in Communist Romania in those days. (Maybe it is difficult for Westerners to believe it, but think of North Korea today. How many individuals can establish anything therenow ? It was the same in those days in Romania). The training center was established by the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, and he was hired as one of the coaches there. Eventually he became head coach. He didn't establish the center.Mycomp 02:12, 11 August 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mycomp (talk • contribs)

Later Career Section Doesn't Present Full Story

I am concerned about Karolyi's "Later career" section as it is an incomplete portrayal.

Here is a yahoo sports article by AP sports writer Barry Wilner at http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/gymnastics/news?slug=ap-gym-karolyi-ages&prov=ap&type=lgns

The article describes what has already been put into the wikipedia article, but then continues with what Bela thinks the solution should be:

"The solution, he said, is to not have any age limit. He believes if a gymnast is good enough to earn a spot at the Olympics or world championships, that athlete deserves to go. He said some juniors today are just as proficient as the age-eligble competitors. Nastia Liukin, for example, would certainly have made the squad for the Athens Games four years ago had she not been 14."

So, Bela strongly believes the Chinese are using younger girls than they say they are, but he also believes the age requirement should be abolished, as long as their gymnastics are at a proven level.

Can someone modify the article to improve this aspect?