Olympic Fever: The Chelle Stack Story (unfinished book by Carrol Stack)

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I was livid, but I couldn't say a word. Parents aren't allowed to file complaints. If you raise a stink and file one anyway, you can just consider your daughter's career over and done with. The only thing that parents can do is complain to their coach, but the coaches always respond the same way. They don't say, "We have to get back in the gym and do better," they say, "We have to get judge so-and-so on our side." Bribery is what they're talking about. (When I say bribery, I mean back-scrathing.)

Dianne Durham didn't get her invitation to the American Cup. Calvinita (her mother) was saying it was because she's black. I didn't believe her, I thought it was just sour grapes. But then, in 1988 when Chelle went to the American Cup, I learned later that Chelle had not been invited, that Bela had withheld Rhonda Faehn's invitation because he wanted Chelle to go. I gather that's how Mary Lou got invited to the American Cup her first time. The USGF sent the invitations to the coaches, not the gymnasts.

Mary Lou and Dianne were supposed to go to the World Championships one year before the Olympics and Bela put out this horrible report that they were injured. There was nothing wrong with them. And the USGF went along with it. They don't require anything in writing. But that wouldn't matter anyway because Bela can pay anybody, especially doctors, to give him what he wants.

I always knew the judging was funny. Mary Lou 9.9 with 3 steps on vault. It's always, "We know she's capable of doing it." They don't say that in swimming.

Bela was telling Chelle that she was going to get invited to the American Cup. Before she got her invitation. He knew it was going to happen. She got it just a couple of weeks before the competition, and those invitations go out months in advance. That meant that somebody had gotten hurt and scratched to make room for Chelle. But nobody was hurt. $40 a pop for verifications, except Elites. Sharon Weber always came down. She's always the most expensive.

Jackie Fie (the queen judge) was coming to town. Bela told us we had to get her a gift. Why we had to do it, I don't know. I thought it was wrong, and I said so. She never gave us birthday gifts. It was bribery. They bought her a 14K gold bracelet. It hit us parents for about $50 apiece. We didn't have that kind of money to throw away, especially when we weren't there when Bela gave it to her. Marta and Bela got the brownie points, and we paid for them. And Bela's attitude was that we should have gotten her something "nicer." Chelle didn't get anything out of it. I certainly wouldn't have done it after the Olympics.

I never made of habit of getting to know the judges, I didn't think that was my place. Phoebe's mother and Brandy's mother knew everybody. I was wrong. I didn't play the game right. I didn't play it at all. You've got to sweet-talk and buy judges or you don't get the scores.

I spoke to Audrey Schweyer once when Chelle was switching gyms and she was pushing the gym in her area of the country. The ones that I'm sure she gets the most money from.

Banquet in Houston, 1988. I just wanted to see what was going on. One of the girls got so drunk she had to be carried out. Alcohol was flowing freely. Rick Newman was so drunk, he couldn't tell which way was up. The boys and the coaches had beer and wine, and they were giving it to the little girls. A lot of coaches have "things" for their girls. Rick especially. Whether any of them have ever done anything about it, I don't know. I don't think I'd want to know. It was just a big party. Kristy Krafft (a coach from Oklahoma) was the worst I've ever seen. Every meet she's drunk. This is the reason coaches go to meets, so they can get real drunk. The parents too.

The coaches say, "Go to our room and don't you move." The girls haven't eaten since 2 o'clock. If the meet starts at six, you eat at two, you get there at three for an hour of stretching, from five to six you have workout, six to seven you have timed warm-ups. Then you have the meet for three or four hours. You come back to the hotel, they're not going to feed you. Bela didn't want you seeing or touching his kids, they go to their room. They don't eat. They're machines. Long periods without eating.
 
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Some of the other coaches would let their girls carry a coke or a snack. But you do not ever EVER put anything in your mouth in front of Bela. You're gonna get fat. He sees you instantly blow up six pounds. He makes half his kids function on salads. That's all they can have when they're out on a meet with him is salads. One a day. Chelle would run out of gas all the time. You could see it. She couldn't pull the last part off. Chelle was big eater, which Bela hated, and he would say she had a "watermelon stomach!" She didn't have an ounce of fat. But she had a little girl belly. Like all little girls do. That bothered him. He constantly told her she looked like a spider. A belly with legs and arms sticking out. She hated him for that.

Chelle would report that kind of thing nightly. Or I would ask what he said today, and she say, "Same stuff he always says." "Y'all were lined up for a long time. What was he saying?." "Well, he didn't pick on me tonight. He went off on somebody else." They would stand there for forty or forty-five minutes, at attention in line, while he took off on somebody about how fat they were, how stupid they were. They couldn't look around, they watched him the whole time. Humiliation. The closer it got to a meet, the worse it got.

He had the proven track record. You go somewhere else and you can't get the judging. He can get you into meets that you can't get into. He has pull. And he does teach discipline. I didn't know at the time how much fear he employed. Well, yes I did. But I knew he had results. At the time, the end justified the means. I was no different than anybody else.

Our girls made the Olympic team and Seagram's was paying for one parent of every single Olympian to go to Seoul. USGF said, "Oh, no. We're not going to be represented by alcohol." They just told us we couldn't accept their money. "We want to go see our daughters in Korea." "No. Sorry." Mike Jacki (the director) said no way. We had to get irate. We wanted to go to the Olympics! Finally they came up with their own sponsorship program. USGF gave each family $4500, which took both me and Frank over there. But it only happened because we raised such a stink. They didn't want us over there. I don’t understand their rhymes or reasoning.

They put on a big show up front. Mike Jacki was having to explain himself on television about the limousines and parties. He just said they're not going on.

The trust fund jeopardized college scholarships. Chelle was only fourteen. I just needed to pay Bela's gym bills.

Kathy Johnson and I decided that Chelle and Brandy would room together whenever they travelled together. Because they didn't drink. The girls aren't watched after dark. They go where they want with who they want. Nobody checks on them. American Cup was always the worst. The banquet would let out at 1 AM or so, and nobody saw that the girls got back to their rooms. The coaches went out drinking. Bela and Marta were always out hobnobbing with judges.

But Bela did do something on Chelle's first day back that made us all a little angry. He removed the high-scoring tricks from her floor exercise that we were so proud of. Jack Thomas had taught her . . . But Bela took one look at it and said, "Looks like hell. Get rid of it." Nobody is allowed to do tricks that Bela's chosen stars aren't doing, and however much he seemed to like her at that time, Chelle was not his chosen star.

Kathy Johnson went to the Chiunichi Cup, and got to be a part of the team. I don't know how she got to go. I never got to go to any of the meets. I've never figured out how you do that. She took care of Chelle. Bela got mad at her cause she broke her foot. he wouldn't feed her or anything. He told her to go to her room and stay. Kathy would take her to Kentucky fried chicken or something.

It was just as humiliating for me to sit there knowing what Chelle was being put through. I took some comfort out of the fact that, no matter how much they postured and bragged, the other parents were just as miserable. It was our inability to admit this to each other that allowed us to let it go on.

* END*
 
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It's roughly written but absolutely raw to read. She understands that they were crazy (and got that way fast)--it's astonishing reading about how much Chelle didn't even like gymnastics and they put her through all this.

I doubt she could ever publish it, it's multiple liable suits waiting to happen. Certainly not in this raw format.

I wonder what she thinks about it all now. Chelle did some college gymnastics, but only a couple years, and a stint at Cirque, coached and owned a gym, and was a brevet, so she never got to leave the sport. Can you imagine your family deciding at 9 you're going to the Olympics for a sport you don't even like and putting you through all that, blaming you for their bankruptcy and losing their home and car when you just keep asking to quit?
 
At moments its very clear eyed about the abuse and the unhealthy emmeshed relationships between adults and children, and then other times its shocking in just how casual she is about how she and her husband decided at age 8 Chelle would go to the Olympics and they were continually forcing this child to do something she hated.
 
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crdubb17 said:
It’s unfortunate. When I was searching for this book to add to the earlier thread, I came across a Reddit post detailing how abusive Chelle was to the students she coached. Truly heartbreaking how she continued the cycle, but not remotely surprising.

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Same language reported from her to the kids as from Bela to her - watermelon stomachs.

Man hands on misery to man, indeed
 
  • Her husband seems like the driving force behind the initial investment, that Chelle was going to be coached by the best
  • With Anna Belder’s interaction with Bela, we see an instance of someone laying down a hard line with Bela and him respecting it. There does seem to be some trend of when adults were willing to stand up to Bela, he respected that. In other places, of course, Carrol reports him brushing off their concerns, particularly regarding Rick, which led to them pulling Chelle for a while
  • If your kid is throwing up from migraines, they shouldn’t be in practice…
  • Their relatives thinking they were crazy for throwing away Frank’s career and moving across the country for a nine year old who might have promise were right
  • I appreciate her honesty that she wasn’t really focused on what the other girls were going through, just Chelle. I think most people would be there, but it takes some guts to admit it
  • It’s interesting to me that the Karolyis were against setting up homeschool through the gym. I suppose “just take them out of school” is an option, but it would have been better marketing and given him more control to have it part of his program
  • Every time they talk about what Chelle’s home life was like I can only think that poor kid…
  • I love reading the about the arguments and sniping between the parents. Its gossip mongering, but yeah. I feel like Make It or Break It was based on this
  • Is Rick Newman still coaching? I feel like the last time I heard he was coaching in CA
  • I’m astonished the Bela as a businessman let Rick embezzle from him like Rick did by pocketing the travel fees. I feel like there has to have been more going on here
  • I admit I laughed at the idea of Rick making advances on Martha. I just have a hard time envisioning that on any level
  • “Up to that point, Chelle didn't live and breathe gymnastics like most other
    gymnasts. She didn't even like gymnastics, really. The only reason she went
    to workouts at all was because most of her friends were there. And because we
    told her she had to do it, of course.”
  • I laughed at young Chelle saying she could see Mary Lou any day
  • There’s a constant attitude, that Carrol promotes, that a gymnast is either afraid of the coach or is out of control. The idea that a gymnast might respect the coach literally never comes up
  • Another example of parents laying the line with Bela and him agreeing when they take Chelle back. Did Bela respect them for setting limits (which is different than challenging how he did things), or did he just see that much promise in Chelle that it was worth it?
  • I love her admitting she was just as in to the parent competition as the other parents
  • “Bela loves them little” is so creepy sounding
  • Seriously, is Newman still coaching?
  • USGF not stepping in during Chelle’s Japan injury is very telling
  • “Just like before, Chelle would come home every few days and tell me she
    couldn't go on, that she hated gymnastics. I gave her the same old speeches.
    "I've spent too much money on you, and by God you're going to do it!"” This poor kid. And two paragraphs later she talks about declaring bankruptcy. Who puts that on a 14 year old?
  • Northland Christian Academy is described here as not a real school. Kerri describes it as a good school that met her parents’ high standards. I’m putting more faith in Carrol’s evaluation, honestly
  • I assume Brandy Johnson not going to school means she was (officially) completely homeschooled? At 15, I think she would have been under the acceptable leaving at—that’s usually at least 16
  • Reading about the parents interactions really does sound like it was the fodder for MIOBI
  • It’s interesting reading in one place about Jack just not having the ability to coach Chelle at a high level and how she’d never be able to succeed under him and in another place that it was all about pre-chosen winners at those meets
  • I wonder if Schweyer was referring to Chelle’s form issues?
  • Conversations from Bela’s gym always seem to be deeper into gym politics and judging politics than conversations from other gyms at the same time. Might have to eat my words on this when I reread Sey’s book
  • Interesting to hear her impression that the federation didn’t want parents in Seoul. I don’t know if I’ve ever read that anywhere else? But this is slightly early for me. 1992 was when I got into things
  • Carrol and Kathy Johnson always having Chelle and Brandy room together because they didn’t drink raises a lot of questions about the other girls
 
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