US gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton is “fighting for her life” in the intensive care unit suffering from pneumonia, her daughter Makenna Kelly said.
Retton remained in the intensive care unit for more than a week due to a “very rare form of pneumonia,” according to a note on a *spotfund account created by Kelly. According to Kelly, Retton is unable to breathe on her own.
“Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not divulge all the details. However, I will disclose that she is not insured,” Kelly wrote on the *spotfund page.
“We ask that you help in any way you can, 1) pray! and 2) if you can help us with the finances of our hospital bill. Anything, absolutely anything, would be so helpful to my family and my mom. Thank you all so much!”
Retton, 55, made history as a 16-year-old at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, becoming the first American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. Her individual all-around gold medal was one of five medals she earned at the 1984 Games, along with two silver and two bronze medals.
What makes Retton’s historic performance even more impressive is that it came just weeks later She underwent laparoscopic surgery On her knee.
“We did three months of rehab in two weeks,” she recounted years later.
Retton was inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame in 1985 and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame. In the year 1997.
