Former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton, 55, is “fighting for her life” in the hospital with a rare form of pneumonia, her daughter shared on social media Tuesday.
Retton, who became one of the most popular athletes in the United States after winning gold for her country at the 1984 Olympics, has been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit for over a week and is not able to breathe on her own, one of her daughters, McKenna Kelley, wrote on a Spotfund page collecting funding for her mother’s hospital bills.
“Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she [is] not insured,” wrote Kelley, who also competed as an NCAA gymnast in college.
The family’s $50,000 fundraising goal was surpassed by Tuesday evening.
When Retton competed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, she made history as the first American woman to win an individual all-around gold medal. She did so as a high school sophomore, just weeks after undergoing knee surgery. That success landed her the title of Sports Illustrated Magazine’s “Sportswoman of the Year” and several endorsement deals throughout the 1990s.
While competing, she was known for “the Retton flip,” a move The New York Times called “an affront to gravity” in 1984.
“It begins when she swings down from the high bar and slams her hips into the low bar, going immediately into a front flip that ends when she lands in a seated position on the bar ― the high bar,” the Times wrote.
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