Mary Lou Retton Siblings: Mary Lou Retton is a former Olympic gymnast from the United States.
Mary Lou Retton Siblings
Mary Lou Retton is not the only child of her parents; Ronnie Retton (father) and Lois Retton (mother). She has three brothers: Ronnie, Donnie, and Jerry Retton, and a sister named Shari Retton.
Among her siblings, Jerry Retton stands out for his remarkable athletic abilities. Though he may not have achieved the same level of fame as his younger sister, his prowess in sports hasn’t gone unnoticed within the family.
Who is Mary Lou Retton
She was born on January 24, 1968, and at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she won a gold medal in the individual all-around event, as well as two silver and two bronze medals.
Retton’s success catapulted her into the ranks of America’s most popular athletes. Retton’s gold medal victory was historic since she was the first American woman to win the Olympic all-around gold medal.
Ronnie, her father, managed a coal-industry transportation equipment company. She attended Fairmont Senior High School but did not complete her education. During her sophomore year of high school, she competed in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, California.
When Retton was eight years old, she was inspired by seeing Nadia Comăneci surpass defending Olympic two-event winner Olga Korbut on television at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, and she began gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia. Gary Rafaloski was her coach. She then relocated to Houston, Texas, to train with Romanians Béla and Márta Károlyi, who had previously trained Nadia Comăneci prior to their departure to the United States.
Under the Károlyis, Retton soon began to make a name for herself in the U.S., winning the American Cup in 1983 and placing second to Dianne Durham (another Károlyi student) at the US Nationals that same year. Though Retton missed the World Gymnastics Championships in 1983 due to a wrist injury, she won the American Classic in 1983 and 1984, as well as Japan’s Chunichi Cup in 1983.
Retton had a knee injury while doing a floor routine at a local gymnastics center in 1984, after winning her second American Cup, the US Nationals, and the US Olympic Trials. She had sat down to sign autographs when she felt her knee lock, causing her to have surgery five weeks before the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles—the first time the Summer Olympics had been staged in the United States in 52 years.
She recovered just in time for this most prestigious of competitions, and in the competition, which was boycotted by all Soviet bloc nations save Romania, Retton was locked in a close struggle for the all-around gold medal with Ecaterina Szabo of Romania. With two events remaining and behind Szabo (after uneven bars and balancing beam) by 0.15, Retton earned perfect 10s on floor exercise and vault—the final event in particularly dramatic way, given there had been concerns that her knee injury and subsequent surgery might hamper her performance.
SOURCE: Ghnewslive.com
