The gymnastics champion sprang to stardom at the 1984 Olympics, where she became the first American woman to win a gold medal in the all-around competition. Her family is raising money online, saying she lacks health insurance.
May Lou Retton at the 1984 Olympics, where she won five medals.
Mary Lou Retton, who became one of the most popular athletes in the country after winning the all-around women’s gymnastics competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, has pneumonia and is “fighting for her life” in the intensive care unit, her daughter said in a statement this week.
Retton’s daughter McKenna Lane Kelley said on Instagram that her mother “is not able to breathe on her own” and that she had been in the intensive care unit for more than a week.
Kelley asked for donations to help pay for her mother’s hospital bills, saying her mother lacked health insurance. By Wednesday, she had raised more than $260,000 online from more than 4,600 donors.
She did not share more specific information about her mother’s condition, though she said that her pneumonia was “a very rare form.” It was not clear what hospital Retton was in.
Kelley, who was a gymnast at Louisiana State University, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, another daughter, Shayla Kelley Schrepfer, released a video on Instagram thanking people for “all the love and support that you’ve given to my mom.”
“She’s still fighting,” Schrepfer said. “It’s going to be a day-by-day process, and we hope that you guys will respect her boundaries, as we want to keep the details between her and our family right now. She has been treated with the best of the best professionals here, and it has been such a blessing to have their hands on her.”
At the 1984 Olympics, Retton became the first American woman to win the all-around gold medal or any individual Olympic medal in gymnastics. Going into the final rotation of the competition, she was five-hundredths of a point behind Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo, and the only way she could beat Szabo was to score a perfect 10 on vault.
Retton scored a perfect 10.
She won five medals in Los Angeles, including two silvers, for team and vault, and two bronzes, for uneven bars and floor exercise.
Though there was an asterisk by Retton’s victory in the history books — the Soviet Union, which was the most dominant force in women’s gymnastics at the time, boycotted the 1984 Games — it nonetheless made her a sports hero in the United States. In addition to earning her the traditional trappings of Olympic gold, like appearing on a Wheaties box, she was widely viewed as an inspiration to a new generation of American girls entering gymnastics.
Even as the American gymnastics program grew and the country won more medals, including the team gold in 1996, Retton’s prominence remained: For 20 years, Retton, now 55, was the only American woman to win the all-around title, until Carly Patterson became the second in 2004.
Retton was born in Fairmont, W.Va., and got her start early, like many top gymnasts. By the time Retton was 7 years old, she was training in gymnastics full-time.
Retton’s talent had been apparent from the start, but a big break came at an Olympics elimination tournament in Reno, Nev., in 1982, where she impressed Bela Karolyi, who would go on to coach her in the 1984 Olympics.
“I immediately recognized the tremendous physical potential of this little kid,” Karolyi said in a March 1984 interview.
Retton appeared in a number of films and TV shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, including the comedy film “Scrooged.”
After her athletic career, Retton became a motivational speaker to promote the benefits of proper nutrition and regular exercise.
The Remarkable Journey of Laura Ingraham
Uncovering the Female Figure Behind the TV Screen
With her fascinating personality and powerful voice, Laura Ingraham, one of today’s most prominent talk show hosts and a familiar face on Fox News, has captivated audiences. When the cameras are off, though, who is she? Let us explore this remarkable woman’s life.
Childhood and Schooling
Laura Ingraham was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut, on June 19, 1963, and raised in a working-class household. Her mother, Anne Caroline Kozak, worked as a server and at the local school, while her father, James Frederick Ingraham III, was a World War II veteran and ran a car wash. Laura, who grew up with three older brothers, remembers her early years as “rough and tumble.”
Following her 1981 graduation from Glastonbury High School, Laura attended the prestigious University of Dartmouth in New Hampshire to further her studies. As the chief editor of the school newspaper, the well-known conservative Dartmouth Review, she caused quite a stir there. Laura, who doesn’t hesitate to stir up controversy, gained notoriety when she dispatched an undercover journalist to look into an LGBTQ student organization.
From the Media to Politics’
Laura Ingraham found herself employed as a speechwriter for the Secretary of Transportation in the Reagan administration after graduating from college. Her love of the law drove her to work as a judicial clerk before she entered the media in the middle of the 1990s. She started her successful radio career with “The Laura Ingraham Show” after hosting her own program, “Watch It!” on MSNBC. Her radio show gained enormous popularity, making her a well-known conservative political voice.
The success Laura Ingraham had on television didn’t end there. Her popularity increased even further when she appeared as a guest host on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.” This helped pave the way for the debut of her own program, “The Ingraham Angle,” which took off right away.
A Political and Cultural Powerhouse
Laura Ingraham rose to prominence in the industry as one of the most powerful women thanks to her eloquence and sincere approach to political and cultural analysis. She wrote several New York Times best-selling novels and was featured on the cover of “The New York Times Magazine.”
Ingraham Laura’s Private Life
Although Laura Ingraham’s professional life and conservative opinions have garnered media attention, many people are equally curious about her personal life. Laura has remained single despite having dated well-known men including political analyst Keith Olbermann and former senator Robert Torricelli.
She still prioritizes her work and her relationships with her three adoptive children. Laura has welcomed Maria from Guatemala and her sons Dmitri and Nikolai from Russia into her loving home. She is an advocate for both domestic and international adoption.
It is incredibly motivating to see Laura Ingraham’s transformation from a conservative journalist to a well-known talk show host. Her unwavering dedication and her ability to express her passionate thoughts have solidified her status as a significant player in the media sector.
Don’t forget to tell your friends and family about this amazing story!
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