We’ve all been absorbing the spectacle of the 2024 Summer Olympics, and dreaming about showing off our skills on that kind of world stage, even though it’s a challenge just to get to the gym some days. It’s fun to look back on the winners over the years, and when people reflect on the best gymnasts, they remember Mary Lou Retton‘s 1984 gold medal. But while we all know about this big moment, we might not know what’s happened in her life since.
Retton got into gymnastics as a kid, just like Simone Biles, and was a high-energy seven-year-old when she became interested in the sport, according to People. After she stopped competing in 1986 when she was only 18 because she wanted to go to college, Retton lived a happy family life with her four daughters, and now ex-husband Shannon Kelley. But what has she been doing lately?
What happened to Mary Lou Retton, and is she still alive?
In May 2024, Retton gave a shocking interview to Entertainment Tonight, and explained that she got sick in October 2023. While she is much better now, she has made it clear that she is still healing. If we’ve ever had a health setback, injury, or surgery of any kind, we know it can be a long journey.
While fans want to know what disease Retton has, it turns out that doctors aren’t quite sure. But since she almost died, it was presumably serious. She told ET, “They’re calling it a rare form of pneumonia” and explained that she has had a problem with her lungs. She has to rely on oxygen in order to breathe properly, and thinks she will have to for almost two more years. She said, “My lungs are pretty scarred up and they’re gonna stay that way forever.”
As many publications have pointed out, one of Retton’s kids created a Crowdfunding page so she could pay for her hospital and other medical costs. NBC News reported that, by January 2024, people had donated a total of $459,000. However, this became fairly controversial. Some wondered why she would ask strangers for cash when she is an Olympic-winning athlete and has been famous for several decades. Retton shared with Today that after she got divorced in 2018 and also after the COVID-19 pandemic, she was in a different place, financially, than before. We don’t know what her bills cost, but Celebrity Net Worth puts her net worth at $2 million. We can imagine that the costs kept adding up (and probably continue to).
While spending time in the hospital and then recovering are of course completely life-changing, Retton’s illness has also altered her post-gymnastics career. She told ET that she is a professional speaker but, since it’s still challenging to breathe even with the oxygen, she can’t continue making money the way she always has.
In January 2024, Retton told Today co-host Hoda Kotb that she had a tough time going public with her health problems as she’s “private.” She explained,”Usually my interviews are, ‘Oh, yes — it felt great to win the Olympics,’ you know? This is different.” She also said “I’m a fighter and I’m not going to give up.”
It doesn’t sound like Retton’s illness was related to her gymnastics career. But since there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on what happened to her lungs, we can’t say for sure. But we do know that her years of splits and jumps did some harm to her body.
In 2016, she told Woman’s World that at 48 years old, she was determined to stay vibrant and healthy. She said “Make it the best years of your life and plan to be selfish.” In July 2024, she told the publication that she has had more than one hip replacement (five, in fact), two different neck surgeries, more than 30 orthopedic surgeries, and she also had metal put in her back. While she didn’t continue with her gymnastics career, it had quite the impact on her body. This is actually why she didn’t have health insurance when she got sick. McKenna Kelley, one of Retton’s daughters, was interviewed by USA TODAY Sports and said, “Due to her medical history and the amount of surgeries she has endured from gymnastics and just life, it’s unaffordable for her.”
What do we know about Mary Lou Retton’s life in 2024?
Retton keeps fans updated on her Instagram account, and posts a lot of photos with her four daughters — Emma Kelley, Skyla Kelley, McKenna Kelley, and Shayla Kelley. As she mentioned, she can’t book speaking gigs the way she once did, but she might be able to in the future, if she’s off her oxygen. Since she was on Dancing With The Stars in 2018, it’s possible she will appear on another TV series at some point. She seems to be keeping busy, as she and her daughter Emma have a Foxy’s leotard collection.
But while Retton’s fans are no doubt happy she recovered and everyone cheered her on when she was a successful gymnast, she has been part of some controversy. As The Mercury News reported, Retton was part of a lobby that tried to stop Congress from passing the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017 (also called the Safe Sport Act). After knowing about the horrible Larry Nassar, this was a strange decision. While we’re glad Retton is okay now, we don’t like hearing this part of her post-Olympics story.