By Diana Dasrath, Dennis Romero and Kaetlyn Liddy – NBC News
Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton is battling severe pneumonia in the intensive care unit of a hospital, according to the American gymnast’s family.
Her daughter McKenna Kelley published this Tuesday on a fundraising page that the gymnast was in critical condition. Her other daughter confirmed the illness to NBC News.
Kelley wrote: “My amazing mother, Mary Lou, is suffering from a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life. She cannot breathe on her own. She has been in the ICU for over a week.”
No further details were released and it is unclear where Retton, born in West Virginia 55 years ago and living in Houston, Texas, is being treated.
In her message, linked from her verified Instagram social network account, Kelley appealed for help with hospital billsensuring that his mother does not have health insurance.
“Anything, absolutely anything, would be a great help to my family and my mother,” he wrote.
Retton earned a perfect score of 10 and became the first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics with his victory in the All-around at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California. He took home more medals than any other athlete that summer: a total of five. In addition, he won silver medals in the team and vault competitions, and bronze medals in uneven bars and floor exercise.
The Soviet Union, which dominated the sport until then, boycotted the 1984 Olympic Games and its athletes did not participate.
Her exploits made her a household name and catapulted her to television screens as a sports commentator, to television shows as an actress and contestant, and even to film roles. Retton was inducted into the Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.
After her retirement from elite gymnastics, she was part of the Board of Directors of the USA Gymnastic organization and faced controversy for defending it when it was involved in the Larry Nassar sexual assault case. She was required by USA Gymnastics to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2017, but refused. Retton accompanied USA Gymnastics officials to meet privately with Senator Dianne Feinstein regarding the organization’s policies to protect athletes from abuse.
Their daughters, McKenna and Emma Jean, are gymnasts and have competed in NCAA Gymnastics. McKenna represented Louisiana State University (LSU) and Emma Jean currently belongs to the University of Arkansas.
In 2019, Retton and her daughter McKenna appeared on the TODAY show after she competed for LSU at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships. The varsity team finished in second place and Kelley anchored the floor rotation for the team, earning a score of 9.95.
[El reo sospechoso de apuñalar a Larry Nassar en su celda dice que lo hizo por comentarios lascivos sobre mujeres deportistas]
“I don’t think he understood the enormity of what he did and the groundbreaking gymnastics he did at that time,” McKenna said. “To me, she’s just mom,” she added.
In the interview with TODAY, Retton addressed the sexual abuse scandal and the culture of USA Gymnastics: “It is absolutely necessary to start from the bottom and build up. A culture of acceptance and safety. These girls have to feel safe. It’s a beautiful sport, full of beautiful people, and the spotlight is on a monster. It’s a problem. “I don’t have the solution.”
Since Retton’s daughters shared the news of her hospitalization, fellow Olympian and NCAA gymnastics commentator Kathy Johnson posted on X (formerly Twitter) a photo of the two hugging at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
2023-10-12 04:26:47
#Olympic #medalist #Mary #Lou #Retton #fights #life #hospital #family #asks #doesnt #health #insurance
