Mary Lou Retton is dealing with a scary health battle as her daughter, McKenna Kelley, announced that her mother “has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life.” Retton, who won five medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2018, and her professional partner, Sasha Farber, spoke to Entertainment Tonight about the legendary gymnast’s current health condition.
“I’ve been talking to her today and she’s fighting,” said Farber who was joined by current DWTS partner Alyson Hannigan. “She kind of wants to give up, but I’m sending her videos of her dancing and I’m telling her, ‘There’s only one Mary Lou Retton. You’ve got this!’”
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Farber went on to say the two remained close over the years. “She was in LA [a few weeks] ago and she wanted to meet up, [but] I had rehearsals and I couldn’t,” Farber revealed. “She was like, ‘Let me take you out for dinner,’ and I couldn’t go because I had rehearsals. But I just mean, you know, you’ve got to see the people [you care about], you’ve gotta say hi, you gotta call them. And I’ve been speaking to her today.”
Kelley launched a SpotFund page to help raise money to support hospital costs. She set the goal at $50,000, but Retton’s supporters came out strong as the page has raised over $180,000 as of Wednesday morning. “We ask that if you could help in any way, that 1) you PRAY! and 2) if you could help us with finances for the hospital bill,” Kelley wrote. “ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y’all so very much!”
Retton and Farber were on the 27th season of DWTS and finished in ninth place. Farber is confident the 55-year-old Gymnastics Hall of Famer will recover in a big way. “She’s a fighter. She’s going to be great,” Farber said. “And she’s like family to me and she’s a fighter… she’s strong. She’s strong.” Retton became the first American woman to win the gold medal in the individual all-around gymnastics competition at the Olympics. She also won two silver medals and two bronze medals in the 1984 games in Los Angeles at the age of 16 years old.
