Marta Karolyi Biography

Márta Károlyi (pronounced [ˈkaːroji ˈmaːrtɒ], née Erőss; born August 29, 1942) is a Romanian-American gymnastics coach of Hungarian descent and the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics. She and her husband, Béla, are ethnic Hungarians from Transylvania, Romania, and trained athletes in Romania, but defected to the United States in 1981. Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and many U.S. national champions, including Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Kerri Strug, Teodora Ungureanu, Phoebe Mills, Nadia Comăneci, Kim Zmeskal, and Dominique Moceanu.