The gymnastics champion sprang to stardom at the 1984 Olympics, where she became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the all-around competition. Her family is raising money online, saying she lacks health insurance.
May Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympics, where she won five medals.
Mary Lou Retton, who became one of the most popular athletes in the country after winning the all-around women’s gymnastics competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, has pneumonia and is “fighting for her life” in the intensive care unit, her daughter said in a statement this week.
Retton’s daughter McKenna Lane Kelley said on Instagram that her mother “is not able to breathe on her own” and that she had been in the intensive care unit for more than a week.
Kelley asked for donations to help pay for her mother’s hospital bills, saying her mother lacked health insurance. By Wednesday, she had raised more than $260,000 online from more than 4,600 donors.
She did not share more specific information about her mother’s condition, though she said that her pneumonia was “a very rare form.” It was not clear what hospital Retton was in.
Kelley, who was a gymnast at Louisiana State University, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, another daughter, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, released a video on Instagram thanking people for “all the love and support that you’ve given to my mom.”
“She’s still fighting,” Schrepfer said. “It’s going to be a day-by-day process, and we hope that you guys will respect her boundaries, as we want to keep the details between her and our family right now. She has been treated with the best of the best professionals here, and it has been such a blessing to have their hands on her.”
At the 1984 Olympics, Retton became the first American woman to win the all-around gold medal or any individual Olympic medal in gymnastics. Going into the final rotation of the competition, she was five-hundredths of a point behind Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo, and the only way she could beat Szabo was to score a perfect 10 on vault.
Retton scored a perfect 10.
She won five medals in Los Angeles, including two silvers, for team and vault, and two bronzes, for uneven bars and floor exercise.
Though there was an asterisk by Retton’s victory in the history books — the Soviet Union, which was the most dominant force in women’s gymnastics at the time, boycotted the 1984 Games — it nonetheless made her a sports hero in the United States. In addition to earning her the traditional trappings of Olympic gold, like appearing on a Wheaties box, she was widely viewed as an inspiration to a new generation of American girls entering gymnastics.
Even as the American gymnastics program grew and the country won more medals, including the team gold in 1996, Retton’s prominence remained: For 20 years, Retton, now 55, was the only American woman to win the all-around title, until Carly Patterson became the second in 2004.
Retton was born in Fairmont, W.Va., and got her start early, like many top gymnasts. By the time Retton was 7 years old, she was training in gymnastics full-time.
Retton’s talent had been apparent from the start, but a big break came at an Olympics elimination tournament in Reno, Nev., in 1982, where she impressed Bela Karolyi, who would go on to coach her in the 1984 Olympics.
“I immediately recognized the tremendous physical potential of this little kid,” Karolyi said in a March 1984 interview.
Retton appeared in a number of films and TV shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, including the comedy film “Scrooged.”
After her athletic career, Retton became a motivational speaker to promote the benefits of proper nutrition and regular exercise.
We found out why Carrie Underwood looks different in the new pictures, and it’s not for the reason you might think.
Carrie Underwood often gets dressed up for red carpet events, so it wasn’t surprising to see her wearing a lot of makeup while fishing with her husband, Mike Fisher. In a September 13 Instagram post, Underwood shared several photos of them on a boat, happily showing off their catches. She wrote, “Had the BEST day today fly fishing in Montana! Thanks to our awesome guide, Jason, for the expertise! What a day!” In the pictures, the singer of “Before He Cheats” looked almost unrecognizable, and as someone who knows about makeup, I could tell why.
Carrie Underwood usually has a smoky eye look, but she often adds some light shimmer to soften it. In her fishing pictures, though, she seemed to have used a darker brown eyeshadow that made her eyes look smaller instead of wider. Her eyebrows also looked darker than usual, which changed her overall appearance. One fan commented, “I think she’s great, but honestly, I can’t recognize her. She has always been so naturally beautiful. Has she had a lot of surgery or new teeth?”
Underwood did talk about an accident in 2017 that left her with over 40 stitches on her face, which might have changed how she looks. However, her heavy makeup and fuller lips lately are fueling ongoing rumors about plastic surgery.
Carrie Underwood’s overly bronzed makeup was somethin’ bad
Carrie Underwood looked almost unrecognizable in an Instagram video she shared on September 21. Instead of her usual soft glam, her face had a very dark bronze color that resembled a spray tan that didn’t turn out well. It wasn’t the nice glow that Jennifer Lopez made popular in the early 2000s. It was more like Ross Geller from Friends when he used the spray tan machine incorrectly and ended up way too dark.
We’ve seen Carrie Underwood without makeup many times, and she looks stunning. While we totally support her love for makeup, this time the bronzer seemed too much and gave her face a muddy look. One fan commented, “I know she’s making a video, but seriously!” Another fan noticed, “Her lips are getting bigger.”
It’s true that you can make your lips look fuller with lip liner, different lipstick shades, and gloss. However, many fans believe Underwood might have used fillers to enhance her lips, and there’s no shame in that. When asked about the plastic surgery rumors, she told Redbook in 2018, “It’s a little sad because the truth is just as interesting. I wish I had gotten some great plastic surgery to improve this [scar], but I try not to worry too much about it.”
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