Mary Lou Retton is “fighting for her life” as she is currently hospitalized with an illness. Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, shared on her Instagram story on Tuesday that Retton was admitted to the hospital with “a very rare form of pneumonia.” The 55-year-old retired gymnastics star has been in ICU for over a week, and Kelley has launched a *spotfund pageย to help raise money to cover the hospital costs.ย
“My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life,” Kelley wrote on the page. “She is not able to breathe on her own. She’s been in the ICU for over a week now. Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she not insured.”
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Retton became a household name in 1984 as she won five medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She won a goal medal in the individual all-around competition, making her the first American woman to earn gold in the category. It led to her being named Sportsperson of the Yearย by Sports Illustrated.
Retton retired from gymnastics in 1986 and went on to work in television. She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997 and became the first woman inducted into the Houston Sports Hall of Fame in 2020. In 2018, Retton competed on the ABC show Dancing with the Stars and finished in ninth place.
In a 2012 interview with Parade, Retton looked back on her favorite Olympic memory. “There are so many, but probably the best moment was after I had stuck the vault for the 10,” Retton said. “I knew I had won and Coach Bela rushes down on to the floor and he lifts me up and he says to me, ‘You are an Olympic champion.’ I still get goosebumps whenever I say that. It was a special moment that we shared. The whole world was watching, but it was just the two of us. I couldn’t have done it without him. I may have had the talent, but he pulled that out of me.”
Retton also talked about her daughters getting involved in gymnastics. She said: “It’s a sport that I love and have fond memories of so it was a very natural step for me to put them in gymnastics. I think that any parent should try their child out at gymnastics.”
