Olympic gold champion Mary Lou Retton has been undergoing treatment for acute pneumonia in an intensive care unit at a hospital, according to the famous American gymnast’s children.
Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, described the Hall of Fame gymnast as being in critical condition in a post on a crowdfunding website on Tuesday. The condition was confirmed to NBC News by a different daughter.
McKenna Kelley posted the following on a crowdfunding website: “My lovely mom, Mary Lou, is fighting for her life with an extremely uncommon kind of pneumonia. She is incapable of breathing alone. She has now spent more than a week in the ICU.
Retton, 55, was not given any other information, and it was unclear where he was receiving care. She was born in West Virginia and now resides in Houston.
Kelley made a plea for assistance with Retton’s hospital bills in the crowd-funding statement, which was linked from her verified Instagram account, noting that she does not have health insurance.
“ANYTHING, almost anything, would be extremely beneficial for my family & my mom,” she wrote in a letter.
Retton won the all-around competition at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles with a perfect score of 10, making her the first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics. She also won five medals in total, more than any other athlete that summer. She earned bronze for the uneven bars exercise and silver for the team and vault competitions.
The 1984 Olympic Games were boycotted by the Soviet Union, which had previously dominated the sport.
Retton’s achievements, however, made her a household name and propelled her into broadcast booths for sports commentary, competition shows on television as an actor, and even movie roles. In 1997, Retton was admitted into the Gymnastics Hall of Fame.
She attracted criticism for supporting USA Gymnastics during its involvement in the Larry Nassar sexual assault scandal while serving as a board member for the organization after retiring from competitive gymnastics. In 2017, a Senate Judiciary Committee requested testimony from USA Gymnastics; however, the organization declined. Retton instead went to a private meeting with Sen. Dianne Feinstein to discuss USA Gymnastics’ practices for safeguarding athletes from sexual abuse.
McKenna and Emma Jean, her kids, are gymnasts who have participated in NCAA Gymnastics. Emma Jean is a gymnast at the University of Arkansas, while McKenna previously competed for Louisiana State University.
After McKenna represented LSU at the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships in 2019, Retton and her daughter made an appearance on the TODAY show. With a score of 9.95, Kelley led the floor rotation for LSU, which placed second overall.
At the time, McKenna admitted, “I don’t think I realized the magnitude of what she accomplished and the ground-breaking gymnastics that she performed.” She is just a Mom to me.
Retton spoke about the USA Gymnastics culture and the sexual abuse crisis in the TODAY interview.
“They must unquestionably begin at the bottom and work their way up. a culture that values safety and inclusiveness. These young women must feel secure. It’s a gorgeous sport with gorgeous players, yet the attention is on a monster. It’s a problem, too. I don’t have the answer,” she admitted.
Retton’s Olympic teammate and NCAA Gymnastics analyst Kathy Johnson uploaded a picture of the two of them cuddling at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics to the social media site X after Retton’s daughters revealed the news of her hospitalization.