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.
Rotting from hunger and disease while waiting for his owner who will never return
A girl from pokrovskoye richardalovsky Ukraine submitted a Facebook message to a local animal shelter claiming that near her departed owner left for a month, the owner of this house left two miserable chained dogs recently.
The name of this poster girl is to detect Xenia rotten smell in this house of course many were ridiculed to Xenia’s dismay and delete the post.
The rescue team of that local shelter had no information, no address, no phone number, and after they saw the sad pictures, they decided to locate themselves to save these two poor pets.
After almost three hours of traveling and questioning the individuals arrived home. After breaking the lock they get into the house a terrible rotten smell was rising, tragically one child did not survive.
The other was a Labrador, he was just bones and a terrible patient, he was starving for several days, he cried a lot and his tears are still flowing. Perhaps he was very sad. He was scared and did not dare to look at the Savior.
They called him the president.
The exhausted child in the car was taken to the vet, the boss is examined, after the transfusion the baby will be taken care of at the vet a little.
Boss has a great appetite, he eats well which is great, he is an exceptionally smart guy.
The boss is developing every day, he is released and welcomed into a temporary house, he is waiting for a joyful home.
Finally something wonderful happened, boss was adopted by a family in Kiev, boss’s wonderful adventure began.
Now is the moment when we look forward to watching the days of this delightful Angel. A really cool boss who loves everything has a big family.
“We appreciate his new family very much. we will always miss you, boss.”
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