Sex, Uneven Bars And Videotape -- Minnesota Gymnastics Coach Vows To Fight Firing By School

MINNEAPOLIS - Fired as the University of Minnesota women's gymnastics coach and "devastated" by a report that her team saw a videotape that contained five minutes of lovemaking with her husband, Katalin Deli said yesterday that she has filed discrimination complaints against the women's athletic director.

Deli, a native of Hungary, said she filed sex and national origin discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the wake of her dismissal after 19 years as Gophers women's gymnastics coach.

Her termination came amid a report that her husband and assistant coach, Gabor Deli, gave a videotape to their team that contained a segment in which the Delis were shown for five minutes engaging in sexual activity.

Gabor Deli, Katalin's husband for 22 years and assistant coach for 14, resigned Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Gabor Deli gave a tape of highlights of a gymnastics meet to the Gophers gymnasts, according to yesterday's St. Paul Pioneer Press. When the sports footage ended, the sexual activity followed it. Sources told the Pioneer Press that Gabor Deli gave student-athletes the tape by mistake.

"I had nothing to do with the tape," Katalin Deli said last night. "I have no knowledge of the tape . . . The charges against me are absolutely outrageous."

In April, when Gabor Deli first was confronted with word of the tape by the Star Tribune, he didn't deny that it existed. He said, "It's personal between my wife and me. We love each other. There's nothing wrong. . . . We've been doing a good job at the university for the last 20 years."

"I think this is terrible, what is happening to Katalin and Gabor," said one team member, Zsuzsanna Csisztu. "I know the videotape was a mistake."