Mary Lou Retton, who became one of the country’s most popular athletes after winning the women’s all-around gymnastics competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, is suffering from pneumonia and is “fighting for her life” in the intensive care unit, she said daughter said in a statement this week.
Retton’s daughter, McKenna Lane Kelley, said on Instagram that her mother was “unable to breathe on her own” and that she had been in the intensive care unit for more than a week.
Kelley did not share more specific information about her mother’s condition, although she did say that her pneumonia was “a very rare form.” It was not clear which hospital Retton was at.
Kelley, who was a gymnast at Louisiana State University, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.
At the 1984 Olympics, Retton, 55, became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the all-around or an individual Olympic medal in gymnastics. Going into the final round of the competition, she was five hundredths of a point behind Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo, and the only way to beat Szabo was to score a perfect 10 on vault.
Retton scored a perfect 10.
She won five medals in Los Angeles, including two silver medals for team and vault and two bronze medals for uneven bars and floor exercise.
Although Retton’s victory had an asterisk in the history books – the Soviet Union, the dominant force in women’s gymnastics at the time, boycotted the 1984 Games – it still made her a sports hero in the United States. Not only did it earn her traditional Olympic gold, such as appearing on a Wheaties box, but it was also widely seen as an inspiration for a new generation of American girls taking up gymnastics.
Even as the American gymnastics program grew and the country won more medals, including the team gold in 1996, Retton’s prominence endured: For 20 years, Retton was the only American woman to win the all-around title until Carly Patterson became second in 2004.
Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia, and like many top gymnasts, got her start early. When Retton was seven years old, she trained in gymnastics full time.
Retton’s talent had been obvious from the start, but her big break came at a 1982 Olympic elimination tournament in Reno, Nevada, where she impressed Bela Karolyi, who later coached her at the 1984 Olympics.
“I immediately recognized the enormous physical potential of this little child,” Karolyi said in a March 1984 interview.
Retton appeared in numerous films and television shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, including the comedy “Scrooged.”
After her athletic career, Retton became a motivational speaker to promote the benefits of proper nutrition and regular exercise.
Maggie Astor contributed reporting.