SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A former Olympic gymnast who trained with the world-famous Karolyis in Romania claims Bela Karolyi frequently beat her, reported KCRA-TV in Sacramento.

Trudi Kollar, known to the world as Emelia Eberle, was a 12-year-old when she was summoned to join Romania's national team in 1976. She earned 13 individual medals in international competition, including an Olympic silver medal.

In Romania, Kollar trained under legendary coach Karolyi and wife Martha for six years. She lived full time at the Karolyis' gymnastic center in a small town in Transylvania. She said it was isolated with bars on the windows, and that there was very little food.

"In one word, I can say it was brutal," she said.

Kollar said mistakes in training or competition brought physical pain -- frequent beatings from Bela Karolyi.

"Nobody's perfect, so obviously we did mistakes. And we, you know, just got smacked everywhere from Bela -- on all our body parts. You know, he has huge hands and it hurts," Kollar said. "I had blood coming out of my body. I had my ears -- my skin ripped behind my ears. I had pus behind my ears, but, you know, nobody seemed to care."

Karolyi athletes were highly successful -- 40 medals for Romania from 1973 to 1981. In the U.S., their successes included Mary Lou Retton, Kerri Strug and Dominique Moceanu.

Martha Karolyi is now the U.S. national women's gymnastics coordinator. She led the American team into competition in Beijing. Bela Karolyi is partly retired, a respected expert and star commentator for NBC during the Olympics.

Kollar said Martha Karolyi watched the abuse and sometimes inflicted her own punishment.

"Occasionally she scratched us. She stuck her fingernails in the back of our necks, and she shook us," Kollar said.

KCRA-TV tried repeatedly to reach the Karolyis for comment. They did not respond to phone calls, faxes or registered mail.

A fellow Romanian gymnast, Rodica Dunca, confirmed Kollar's reports of violence. In a 2002 article in ProSport magazine, she said: "On certain days, we were hit until blood was pouring out of our nose. You can say it was a concentration camp. Or even a prison."

Gym practices were closed to everyone but the Karolyis and one other adult -- team choreographer Geza Pozar. He worked with them for 30 years.

Pozar said Kollar's story is absolutely true.

"I saw all the activities that went on. Of course I saw the beating and the abuse, you know, as Trudi told you," Pozar said.

Pozar said Bela Karolyi was large and powerful, and that Kollar was a frequent target.

"Trudi was the most abused, I mean physically. And when he hit her on the back, you can see that big hand, you know, landing on her back. That is something you would never forget," Pozar said.

Pozar is now a gymnastics coach and runs his own gymnasium in Sacramento, where Kollar has worked for 15 years. He hadn't previously spoken out about the Karolyis.

Another alleged witness, Joanna Voss, was a nurse who worked at the Karolyi camp in Romania. Now living in Sweden, Voss talked to KCRA-TV by telephone through an interpreter.

"The girls were verbally and physically abused. And basically that was the normal practice," Voss' interpreter said.

She added: "I resented for the girls, and I was on their side. And I felt that when they were physically abused or verbally abused -- slapped -- like they were, I felt like they were slapping me."

Kollar, now 44, is a dedicated wife, mother and gymnastics instructor -- and still lives with vivid nightmares of her past.

"It is horrifying," she said. I wake up crying. My pillow is wet from tears. I'm sweating, I'm kicking, I'm shaking -- that's how I wake up."

In July, former U.S. Olympic gymnast Dominique Moceanu said Martha Karolyi once grabbed her by the neck and slammed her face into a phone.

In response a few days later, Martha Karolyi said, "I feel sad that a gymnast so accomplished as Dominique, being a part of the 1996 Olympic team and being the individual medalist in the 1995 world championships, can remember the harder days during the preparation. I feel sad."