Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic gymnastics champion, is currently in a critical condition, according to her daughter.

Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic gymnastics champion, is currently hospitalized in Texas due to pneumonia and is receiving intensive care.

Retton‘s daughter, McKenna Kelley, shared Retton‘s condition in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Kelley said the 55-year-old Retton, who became the first American woman to win the Olympic all-around title, is “fighting for her life” and not able to breathe on her own.

Kelley initiated a fundraising initiative to support Retton with their medical expenses. Kelley mentioned that Retton is presently without any medical insurance coverage.



Retton was 16 years old when she became an icon of the U.S. Olympic movement during her gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Retton, who grew up in Fairmont, West Virginia, also won two silver and two bronze medals at those Olympics to help bring gymnastics – a sport long dominated by eastern European powers like Romania and the Soviet Union – into the mainstream in the U.S.

Retton, a mother of four, currently lives in Texas.

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