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.
After waiting for so long, Simon Cowell pressed the button, knelt down, and simply asked her to sing once again…
In a world often characterized by turmoil and unpredictability, there are instances of profound clarity that shine through like stars in the night sky.
For Simon, such a moment arrived after years of anticipation, as he stood at a crossroads that promised to reshape his life.
The stage was set, the air heavy with emotion as Simon, with trembling hands, pressed a button that held the promise of something extraordinary.
It was a moment he had long awaited, the culmination of aspirations and dreams ingrained within him.
As the button yielded to his touch, Simon’s heart surged with a mix of excitement and trepidation. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision but a deliberate choice, a leap of faith into the unknown.
With held breath, he knelt down, silent entreaty shimmering in his eyes as he beheld the figure before him.
It was a gesture of vulnerability, an acknowledgment of the power embedded within the soul-stirring melodies that had once infused his life with purpose.
“Sing once more,” he whispered, his voice barely audible amidst the anticipation enveloping the room.
In those three simple words lay a universe of yearning, a fervent longing to reconnect with a part of himself that had long lain dormant.
For Simon, music transcended mere notes or harmonious melodies; it was a lifeline, a guiding light that had led him through the darkest of times and illuminated the path to redemption.
Yet, somewhere along the journey, the music had faltered, its once-potent enchantment fading into the background of his existence. It was a loss that had left an emptiness in his heart, a void yearning to be filled once more.
Here is the video:
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