Béla Károlyi (born September 13, 1942) is a Romanian gymnastics coach of Hungarian ethnicity. He was born in Kolozsvár, Hungary (now Cluj-Napoca, Romania). Károlyi and his wife, Márta, also of Hungarian origin, immigrated to the United States in 1981, and both have dual citizenship in Romania and the United States. The Károlyis have coached both Romanian and United States Olympic teams to medal-winning success.

 Among the gymnasts Béla and Márta Károlyi have trained are Nadia Comăneci, Ecaterina Szabo,Mary Lou Retton, Betty Okino, Teodora Ungureanu, Kim Zmeskal, Kristie Phillips, Dominique Moceanu, Phoebe Mills, and Kerri Strug, whom Béla famously carried to the podium after she injured her ankle on the gold-medal-winning vault in the team competition at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. In total, Károlyi has coached nine Olympic champions, fifteen world champions, sixteen European medalists and six U.S. national champions.

This sculpture is one of an ever-growing series of bronze busts located outside The School of Gymnastics in Deva, Romania. Each bust depicts an athlete who represented Romania since the 1978 Olympic Games in Montreal. The series serves as an homage to the strength and success of female artistic gymnasts and athletes around the world. The School of Gymnasts was picked up by the legendary gymnast Nadia Comaneci and is coached by Marta and Bela Karoly. Since 2003 the school was renamed as The Cetate Deva National Sports college and focuses on female athletics.

This object is part of "Scan The World". Scan the World is a non-profit initiative introduced by MyMiniFactory, through which we are creating a digital archive of fully 3D printable sculptures, artworks and landmarks from across the globe for the public to access for free. Scan the World is an open source, community effort, if you have interesting items around you and would like to contribute, email stw@myminifactory.com to find out how you can help.

Scanned : Photogrammetry (Processed using Agisoft PhotoScan)