Mary Lou Retton An American Retired Gymnastic

Mary Lou Retton is a former American gymnast who was born on the 24th of January 1968. She received two silver medals, two silver medals, and a gold medal in the individual all-around class at the 1984 Summer Olympiad in Los Angeles.

Retton became one of the most prominent athletes in the US as a result of her performances.Retton became the first American woman to accomplish the all-around gold medal in Olympic gymnastics, making her gold medal victory historic.

Education And Business Of Mary lou Retton

On January 24, 1968, Mary Lou Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia. Her father, Ronnie, founded a company that manufactured machinery for transportation for the mining sector. Despite attending Fairmont Senior High School for several years, she never received her high school diploma.She participated in the Olympics in 1984 when she was a sophomore in high school in Los Angeles, California.

Mary Lou Retton Gymnastic Career

When Retton was eight years old, she was inspired by observing Nadia Comăneci overcome the defending Olympic two-event championship Olga Korbut on television at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and she started competing in gymnastics in her home town of Fairmont, West Virginia. She received instruction from Gary Rafaloski. She then made the decision to relocate to Houston, Texas, where she would train with Romanians Béla and Márta Károlyi, who earlier trained Nadia Comăneci before they defected to America. Retton swiftly established herself in the United States while studying with the Károlyis, taking home the American Cup in 1983 and finishing second to Dianne Durham (another Károlyi student) at the US Nationals the same year. Although Retton failed to compete in the 1983 World Gymnastics Championships because1983 tournaments She won the American Classic in 1983 and 1984 as well as the Chunichi Cup in Japan thanks to a wrist ailment.In 1984, Retton was celebrating winning her second American Cup, the U.S. Nationals, and the U.S. Olympic Trials when she hurt her knee when executing a floor routine at a nearby gymnastics facility. Her knee froze when she sat down to sign autographs; as a result, she had to have operation five weeks before the 1984 Summer Olympics, which were to be organized in Los Angeles for the first time in 52 years and were to be the first Summer Olympics to be held in the United States.Retton competed closely with Romanian Ecaterina Szabo in the competition, which the Soviet bloc nations boycotted save for Romanian. She recovered in time for this greatest series of competitions.

for the gold medal overall. Retton completed the final two events in a very impressive way, scoring perfect 10s on floor exercise and vault while trailing Szabo after uneven bars and managing beam by 0.15 points. There had been concerns that her knee injury and subsequent surgery would have impacted her performance. Retton defeated Szabo for the individual all-around gold medal by 0.05 points, making her the first female gymnast from elsewhere in Eastern Europe to do it. She also became the first American woman to win an Olympic all-around title, a record that she kept until the current American all-around winners (in order: Carly Patterson in 2004 in Athens, Nastia Liukin in 2008 in Beijing, and Gabby Douglas in 2012 in London) completed a five-peat.

Personal Life Of Mary Lou Retton

 Retton’s years spent participating in gymnastics made her hip dysplasia, which she had from birth, worsened. She underwent hip replacement surgery on her left hip in her mid-thirties after sensation worsening hip awkwardness from the ailment.Retton resided in Houston, Texas, until her family returned back to West Virginia in 2009[39]. In 2012, she returned back to Houston. She wed Shannon Kelley in 1990, a former University of Texas quarterback and real estate developer residing in Houston who, as of 2012, worked for the sports department at Houston Baptist University.Shayla (born 1995), Kenna (born 1997), she (born 2000), and Emma (born 2002) are their four daughters together. Emma competed in NCAA gymnastics at the University of Arkansas, while McKenna competed for Louisiana State University.February 2018 saw the divorce of Retton and Kelley.Retton’s daughter McKenna said that her mother had pneumonia and was in a severe condition on October 10, 2023. According to reports, Retton used crowdfunding to obtain money for medical costs since he lacked health insurance.

Legacy In Gymnastic

The technique that came to be known as “The Retton Flip” was part of Retton’s performance on the uneven bars. This involved switching from a low- to a high-bar transitions (front flip), which left the gymnast perched or “sitting” on top of the high bar. This move and a few others like it have been removed from the artistic gymnastics Code of Points because no longer utilized in bars competitions are conventional “belly beat” techniques.

Paying for recommendations

 Retton served as the spokesperson for the American pharmacies chain Revco all through the 1990s, appearing in marketing for them.Retton has several commercial endorsements, such as those for shampoo and bowling.She was the first female athlete to be featured on the front of a Wheaties box, and according to General Mills, her appearance improved Wheaties sales. 2019 saw Retton take on the role of spokeswoman for the painkiller cream Australian Dream. After the Olympics, she studied at The University of Texas in Austin and is a regular gymnastics pundit on television.

Sex Abuse Scandal Involving USA Gymnastics

 When the 2016 United States Gymnastics sex abuse controversy broke, Retton found himself back in the press. She and other United States Gymnastics representatives met with Senator Dianne Feinstein after the Defending Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017[27] had been introduced to the 115th Congress in an effort to persuade her to withdraw the measure. Despite these attempts, the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017 was signed into law on February 14, 2018, and it went into effect right away.