A KCRA Sacramento interview hit the blogs yesterday.
The C Score linked to the original article where famed Romanian gymnast Emilia Eberle (now Trudi Kollar) speaks damning charges against her former coaches.
It’s on the Romanian newspaper site Cotidianul.
In the article, Trudi talks about wanting twice to commit suicide due to the intense training program. About physical beatings. And — mostly — about the “starvation” imposed on the girls while training under the Karolyis.
Dominique Moceanu convinced her it was time to “break the silence”.
I was surprised to see that Bela had already responded to these allegations. In Romanian.
… From Google Translate:
Some of the girls who have trained at the end of 70 years you blame the harsh treatments. Emilia Eberle still has nightmares …
Bela – Indeed, for many girls of yore, the memories are twisted. I can not comment on what each believes. Eventually, the memories are personal. Some of the girls have negative memories, others may consider that the time was the most beautiful of their lives.
…
Girls talk about starvation, food restrictions …Bela – Gymnastics is a sport where the diet is important. I believe the girls were part of a balanced menu, I did so to secure their calories required for work performance. To see that the food was good and useful. Sure, some may have been frustrating that they had access to chocolate.
How would you describe your attitude towards them?
Bela – We had a paternalism, I tried to be a father before coach, to guide the steps in life. In those days, coach-athlete relationship was much closer than today. I am sorry to know that these girls see things this way, I think he would deserve to have a better opinion about that period. I personally I do not find any fault, but even they did not consider that the guilty feelings.You chat with Emilia ever after withdrawing them?
Bela – We saw only once in the United States, but time does not permit us to be sitting talking. I try to talk to Trudi, maybe I will improve those memories.
Coach trenchant avoid responding to allegations of his former students.
Here’s the original article in Romanian translated to English: The story gymnast Emilia Eberle: Glory torture
The C Score:
The big question is whether the American media will pick this up. Karolyi is a darling of the American media.
It took months for the Chinese Olympic gymnastics age falsification scandal to make it from blogs to the New York Times.
Will this story make it to the mainstream media?
I believe it will.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 