Known for his successes with Nadia Comenechi, Mary Lou Retton, Julie Ann McNamara 
and Kim Szemeskal, Bella Karoli brushes off the press release praise, referring to his 
so-called "mystique"- and how champions seem to follow wherever he goes. 

KAROLI: Well, it's not a mystique and it's not an accident and I don't believe it's 
fortune. It's based on serious and hard work, and probbaly the passion for the sport. And
also the interest and the competitiveness which has got to be in your heart in order to 
implant in the heart of your gymnast.
 
    Koroli first gained national attention in 1976 at the Olympic games in Montreal as 
coach of the Romanian team. Nadia Comenchi opened the world's eyes to the sport, gaining 
perfect ten's in the balance beam and uneven bars events. 

KAROLI: Because that was a change of tradition for gymnastics, into a spectacular, more 
attractive type of sport, becoming the most popular feminine sport in the world. Ever 
since, gymnastics is going straight forward. I believe today we have even more excitement 
around gymnastics. The sport itself became even more spectacular. And I believe 1996 it 
is the most spectacular sport in the Olympic program. 

    Koroli went on to become the individual coach of Mary Lou Retton and Julie McNamara, 
both all-around gold medalists at the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles. He retired as 
the United States gymnastics coach after the '92 games but couldn't stay away from the 
sport. His shining star today is 14-year old Dominique Moceanu, who at age 10 was the 
youngest athlete ever to make the junior national team. Last year, she became the youngest
US national champion in history. 

MOCEANU: I've been in it for 11 and a half years now. I started when I was three and a 
half. I always wanted to fulfill my goal and my dream ever since I saw Bella and Kim.. 
and I always wanted to go to the Olympics and make a name for myself, have people remember
me. You're up there with everybody and you have to have that drive in you that keeps you 
going.. think about the Olympics, think about my positive outcome. Everybody's supporting
me so I just want to do the best that I can. 

    Practice makes perfect for Moceanu, about seven hours a day, sandwiched around school 
lessons and physical therapy. She'll run through a balance beam routine 36 times a week. 
And works daily with the team's correographer to perfect her floor exercise. Those in 
gymnastics get over their fear of.. flying. 

MOCEANU: You don't think about anything when you're flying in the air. You just think of 
what you have to do, and you've done it so many times, you just go really hard for it. 
The first time, you're like "whoa, where am I?"..if you do something new, a new skill. 
Then you're like "please let me land on my legs, not my head you know." You have to try 
new things. That's why we have safety equipment in the gym. After the first time, you 
start feeling it and then eventually you get it perfection-wise that you can do it and 
it's easy for you. 

    Koroli says the discovery of Comenche was no accident. He screened around a thousand 
athletes before finding Nadia. And with Dominique Moceanu, Koroli has hit the jackpot 
again. 

KOROLI: The youthful excitement which already is in her eyes and her words and her 
physical expression- it is unique. It's very, very unique. I think it's supporting the 
whole idea of what the sport is. She expresses what the sport is supposed to be: joy, fun 
and hard athletic attitude. And with that combination, I think she's gonna be a great 
role model for thousands and thousands young children. It's very, very nice to see how 
she's developing. 

FLYNN: Is she one in a thousand? 

KOROLI: Well, she's probably one in a million.
 
    The United States gymnastics team- going for gold in Atlanta. Bill Flynn, WXXI, 1370.