It was a life that took him from peanut farming to the presidency.

Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died.

It remains the biggest jump at a single Olympics in the number of women competitors. Both wound up being two of the most popular sports at the Atlanta Games. On the other side of that curtain, the U.S. captured its first team gold medal in women's gymnastics with a group that became known as the Magnificent Seven. Then, for the gold medal game, I heard they were scalping tickets. You had some of the biggest, tallest women in the Olympics, and some of the shortest women in the Olympics going by each other.All of them stood tall in Atlanta.