The Gymnastics Factory

By Bonnie D. Ford and Alyssa Roenigk, Illustrations by Louise Pomeroy
ESPN
July 14, 2020

https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/29235446/the-karolyi-ranch-where-us-women-gymnastics-gold-was-forged-price

For almost 20 years, top U.S. women gymnasts would pack a bag, say goodbye to their parents and take a monthly trip that ended with a long drive down a dirt road to a remote compound in a Texas forest. “You drive through the woods for like 15 miles and then you see this green gate,” says 2012 Olympic gold medalist Jordyn Wieber. “That’s when I knew we were pulling up to the Ranch. I started getting this pit in my stomach.”

The U.S. women’s gymnastics national team training center was located at the ranch home of Bela and Martha Karolyi, coaches who had defected to the U.S. from Romania in 1981 after the Olympic success of their protege Nadia Comaneci. The couple amassed unprecedented power in the sport and brought historic success to the U.S. program. As the Karolyis’ influence grew, so did the importance of the Karolyi Ranch. From a few rustic buildings within a national forest, it became the center of women’s elite gymnastics in the United States.