Olympic Icon Mary Lou Retton in Intensive Care with Rare Pneumonia

THURSDAY, Oct. 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Olympic icon Mary Lou Retton, the first American to win the gold medal in the women’s individual all-around gymnastics category, is in intensive care with a rare type of pneumonia and “she can’t breathe on her own,” her daughter said on Instagram.

He is “fighting for his life,” McKenna Lane Kelley said, but did not share additional information, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Retton, 55, has been in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for more than a week, Kelley said, without identifying the hospital where he is.

The former gymnast became one of America’s most popular athletes after a dazzling performance at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

In a competition that became legendary, Retton was five hundredths of a point behind Ecaterina Szabo of Romania in the final rotation of the competition. She needed a perfect 10 on the vault, and she achieved it, catapulting her to fame.

Retton also won two silver medals (for team and vault) and two bronze medals (for uneven bars and floor exercise) at those Olympic Games. Notably, the Soviet Union, which dominated women’s gymnastics at the time, had boycotted the games, but Retton remained America’s idol.

Born in Fairmont, W.Va., Retton started gymnastics as a child and was training full time when she was just 7 years old, according to news reports.

Her break came when she impressed well-known gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi at an Olympic elimination tournament in Reno, Nev., in 1982. Karolyi coached her for the 1984 Olympics.

“I immediately recognized the tremendous physical potential of this little girl,” Karolyi said in a March 1984 interview.

The Olympian was ubiquitous for a time, appearing on a Wheaties box and seen as an inspiration to girls across the country. She remained the only American woman to win the individual all-around gymnastics title until 2004 when Carly Patterson won it.

Retton appeared in several films and television shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, including the film “Scrooged.” She has also worked as a motivational speaker promoting proper nutrition and exercise.

More information

The US National Institutes of Health has more information about pneumonia.

SOURCE: New York Times, October 11, 2023.

2023-10-12 19:17:00
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