Seriously, I love Bela Karolyi and given the nature of NBC to only broadcast the efforts of the American athletes, I’m finding the Olympics a lot less exciting this go around, especially when it comes to gymnastics. I remember being a kid and sitting tight for the night and watching all the gymnasts perform and getting to see the different scores each judge from each country gave. Not so these days. And even worse, when we don’t win, we don’t get to see the winner take the podium. If I have watched an entire event, I want to see the winner, regardless of where they’re from, listen to their national anthem with a gold medal around their neck.
But I digress, Bela is the reason for this post. His gymnastics discussions with Bob Costas are pretty great. Not only is he one of the only talking heads that genuinely seems to be excited, he also says it like it is. For an example, watch this classic Bela clip from Olympics past below:
Also, who doesn’t remember that awesome Nadia Comaneci made for TV movie that aired back in the day! My friends and I taped it and watched it over and over. I somehow like the look of those Olympics a lot better (these ones are too flashy) - check out this classic clip
It still makes me a tad emotional…
Also, be sure to takepart and learn about Karolyi’s Camp - an affordable gymnastics camps for girls that Bela and his wife run.
Read on
- Chinese Grab Gold in Gymnastics; U.S. Is Second
- Teeny-Tiny Matter of Age for China’s Gymnasts
- Olympics: Canada comes to defence of tiny, too-perfect gymnasts
CATEGORIES: Culture, Ethics
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My sentiments exactly! While I appreciate the performance of our U.S. athletes, it seems like the Olympics are supposed to be about celebrating the accomplishments of all the athletes. This is difficult when we can’t see their performances and/or awards during the prime viewing time. I’m sure there are some incredible non-U.S. stories out there. After all, learning about the other athletes and sharing in their accomplishments cuts through differences and builds good will.
What did he do to get tossed off the gym floor?
Is Bela Karolyi still married to his wife who is also a gymnastics coach?
Bela is definitely very excited watching the games, but that does NOT give him the right to make derogatory and offensive comments against other countries. These comments are all purely speculative and unsubstantiated, and NBC, as a credible journal resource, should not be airing his blatantly unobjective opinions. I’m surprised, given his career background, that he has such poor sportsmanship.
I haven’t been watching him every time he’s on - but I haven’t heard Bela make on derogatory or offensive comments. He’s speculated about judges but I think that has very little to do with where they’re from and more to do with the score they are giving. As far as I can tell he has praised all of gymnasts regardless of where they’re from - although he clearly loves America and Romania.
Do you have any specific examples of awful things he has said?
I agree that Bela Karolyi is an annoying old man who is much older than his age (i.e. almost 10 years under aged than he looks). For the first time he was totally ok with the score when the Romanian won a gold medal. He is biased. NBC should let Bela out of the studio so we can watch how he’ll make a bigger fool of himself.
We all have our bias toward our country, his comment shows he has no respect for the sport, the judges, the athlete, and most importantly, the spirit of sport in general….too bad if kids learn from this kind of sportmanship.
Calling the Chinese athletes “Half People” was totally out of line.
Although I obviously can’t know for certain - I don’t think Bela meant anything offensive with his half people comment. He was simply referring to the fact that the women Chinese gymnasts are likely underage. My guess is that “half people” came out wrong because Bela is not a native English speaker and if you have been watching him it is obvious he still struggles with phrases and words. He was simply trying to say that the ladies aren’t the full proper age.
Bela is quite the dispicable guy. You need to read “pretty girls in in little boxes” by Joan Ryan you’ll see who he really is.