Karolyi Quotes

#1. Training with Bela and Marta Karolyi took the joy out of the Olympics for me. I look back and feel there was a lot of verbal and physical abuse. For years, I felt it was my problem.

Dominique Moceanu

#2. We usually spend one hour per week on ballet but Marta Karolyi has us do a lot of compulsory floor in the morning practice.

Kristie Phillips

#3. The time leading up to the 1996 Olympics was the most demanding and stressful of my career. The sport I had loved so much was slowly becoming a nightmare as I trained with Bela and Marta Karolyi the summer before the Olympics.

Dominique Moceanu

#4. I believe in playing with your heart, with every fiber in your body-fairly, squarely, by the rules-to win. And I believe that any man's finest moment, the greatest fulfillment of all he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out and lies exhausted on the floor of battle-victorious.

Bela Karolyi

#5. Success depends on how much you are willing to sacrifice, how much you are willing to alter your everyday life for a particular goal.

Bela Karolyi

#6. Genetics is all about showcasing human beauty along with high-quality performance.

Bela Karolyi

#7. I am very familiar with Hungary, because I grew up in Romania, which borders it.

Bela Karolyi

#8. The last hour from midnight had lost half its quarters, and the stars went lifting up the great minutes ...

Clemence Housman

#9. I would love very much to win a medal at the Olympics for myself, by my own performance. But that will never happen.

Bela Karolyi

#10. I work on a TV show I love, I have the opportunity to do movies with actors I respect, and I'm in love with the man I want to spend the rest of my life with, who pushes me and excites me.

Ali Larter

#11. In gymnastics, smaller will always be better in many ways. The stress in the head, that will be the same for all. But the stress on the body and the concussions it must endure, that will always be easier for the little ones.

Bela Karolyi

#12. It's nice to have a medal, but we were hoping for a gold.

Marta Karolyi

#13. Just like an animal, when you want to survive, you don't think anymore.

Bela Karolyi

#14. The next thing is by gentle degrees to accustom children to those things they are too much afraid of. But here great caution is to be used, that you do not make too much haste, nor attempt this cure too early, for fear lest you increase the mischief instead of remedying it.

John Locke

#15. The ideal gymnast would be between 4 feet 7 and 5-2. I wouldn't be able to pinpoint an ideal height, however. It would be foolish to say that a gymnast above 5-2 could not be great.

Bela Karolyi

#16. She took a deep breath, "Last chance. Are you in need of rescuing?"
His expression turned very strange, almost as if she'd struck him, "Yes," he said finally.

Holly Black

#17. I know gymnastics. It's always been a subjective appreciation.

Bela Karolyi

#18. I'm tired of being hunted all over. I can't go anywhere without criticism.

Bela Karolyi

#19. The Olympics shows the community what gymnastics is all about.

Bela Karolyi

#20. You have to have competent people evaluating the athlete, not the housewives!

Bela Karolyi

#21. What makes the vault so spectacular is because it's a very athletic type of event, where it needs a lot of speed, a lot of explosive action and, of course, great coordination.

Bela Karolyi

#22. We've been gifted with the power of choice ... in our actions, our thoughts, and our words. The quality of our lives gets better or worse depending on which direction we go with our choices.

Shawn Anderson

#23. Whatever the nature of dance, it needs no onlooker, not even a single witness.

Curt Sachs

#24. To be on a journey of the spirit and follow the path of any god requires either a rigidly inflexible adherence to dogma or a tremendous sense of humor;

Robert J. Crane

#25. Fight to escape from your own cleverness. If you do, then you will find salvation and uprightness through Jesus Christ our Lord.

John Climacus

#26. Right to privacy is really important. You pull that brick out and another and pretty soon the house falls.

Tim Cook

#27. The crowd sometimes plays a tremendous role to give you wings and carry you to victory.

Bela Karolyi

#28. This team just wasn't good enough today, but they had the unity I always wanted. To have an American team like this has always been a dream of mine.

Bela Karolyi

#29. I still love to find and develop the young athletes in traditional ways. I like to watch the physical and mental growth. That has always been very exciting.

Bela Karolyi

#30. The rest of the world laughed at American gymnastics before I came.

Bela Karolyi

#31. I consider myself very lucky that I could live my life through all the ups and downs.

Bela Karolyi

#32. What is a better way to prove that your methods work than by winning? I have proved that my methods work.

Bela Karolyi

#33. As you see the political problems are closely connected with the economical problems. With the help of politics, we will open the way for the economy and this is why all these problems are included in the program of the newly elected government.

Ibrahim Rugova

#34. ...is not your hero. He's your god.

Jennifer Lynn Barnes

#35. My gymnasts are always the best-prepared in the world. And they win. In the end, that's what matters.

Bela Karolyi

#36. The game doesn't change.

Pedro Martinez

#37. What is the cruelest thing you can do to someone who is trying to concentrate? Call their name.

Bela Karolyi

#38. A good 80 percent of the vault is still physical and another percentage of it, 20, 25 percent is mental. Mental is always the mental strength, the confidence building up to that contest or repetition, practice, practice, and practice.

Bela Karolyi