What happened to Mary Lou Retton? All we know about the Olympic Champion's arrest so far

Mary Lou Retton is facing serious charges. The 57-year-old former Olympic champion gymnast from Fairmont was arrested a couple of weeks ago by authorities in West Virginia, before she was released.

As per the official magistrate court records, Retton was arrested for DUI in Marion County, West Virginia. She was charged with a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances, or drugs on May 17. The former gymnast was later released after a judge granted her a personal recognizance bond worth $1500.

For the unversed, Mary Lou Retton is a retired American gymnast who was born on January 24, 1968, in Fairmont, West Virginia, USA. The American gymnast was inspired to take up gymnastics at the age of eight after she witnessed the exploits of Romanian gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

Retton initially trained in gymnastics at her hometown in Fairmont before she moved to Houston to train under coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi, who had coached Nadia Comaneci before defecting to the USA. Retton rose through the ranks to make herself a top bet for the upcoming Olympics, which would be held in Los Angeles in 1984.

However, Retton's dreams were nearly shattered when she suffered a knee injury and was forced to undergo surgery five weeks before the commencement of the Olympic Games. The then 16-year-old gymnast recovered in time and went on to win five medals at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, which included a gold medal in individual all-around, two silver medals in team all-around and the individual vault, and two bronze medals in the uneven bars and floor exercise event. Retton retired from the sport in 1986.

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When Mary Lou Retton opened up about her battle against pneumonia

Mary Lou Retton's current battle against a rare pneumonia [Image Source: Getty]

Years after making the USA proud in international gymnastics, Mary Lou Retton was once again in the news, but for different reasons. A few years after her appearance on Dancing with the Stars in 2018, the Olympic champion was diagnosed with a rare form of pneumonia that doctors weren't able to completely diagnose.

In October 2023, the former gymnast's daughter, McKenna Kelley, launched a crowdfunding campaign for her mother, revealing that she is battling a lung infection in the ICU.

In an interview with NBC in May 2024, the former Olympic gymnast had opened up on her health issues, as she said,

“They still don’t know what’s wrong with me. They’re calling it a rare form of pneumonia.”

Retton had also stated that the experience had changed her mentality. She revealed that she didn't have health insurance, and hence, she couldn't afford treatment for her lung infection. In her words,

"I couldn't afford it, I couldn't afford it, I couldn't afford it," she said. "But who would even know that this was going to happen to me? That's the bottom line, I couldn't afford it."

Retton was released a couple of days later after she had been admitted to the hospital However, she had to breathe through tubes and stated that her lungs had been permanently damaged.