Olympic Gymnast Mary Lou Retton, Currently on Oxygen, Finally Speaks Out after ‘Fighting for Her Life’

Mary Lou Retton has been through challenging times since becoming an Olympic champion. She has remained relatively private about her struggles but is finally speaking out about how she feels now.

Mary Lou Retton is best known for her incredible prowess as an American gymnast. However, she recently faced a life-threatening battle and has now opened up about “fighting for her life.” She sat down with Hoda Kotb to discuss her health battles.

During the interview, which Retton says is rare because she is so private about her life outside winning the Olympic gold at the 1984 Olympics, she talks about what it has been like as she is “not able to breathe on her own” because she is fighting a rare form of pneumonia.

Retton shared that doctors thought her diagnosis was different many times, and still want to do a biopsy on her lungs when she gains more strength to find out exactly what went wrong. Retton’s symptoms were fatigue and not being able to breathe properly.

The Olympic gold medalist was placed in ICU and remained there for a while before being discharged, still on oxygen. During this time, her family tried to find a way to cover all her medical bills and stay strong for Retton.

Retton’s four daughters set up a crowd-funding account to help them fund their mother’s medical bills. The crowdfunding account has raised over $450,000 of an initial $50,000 goal. The account says that details will be withheld out of privacy, but it was confirmed that Retton was not insured.

Now, she has shared with Kotb that she felt she was vulnerable and preferred to remain private. However, in the interview with Kotb, she confirmed that her condition was serious, but that she was grateful and blessed to still be alive, considering there was a time when doctors were considering placing her on life support.

Although Retton is now on oxygen, she has always valued her health, saying that she didn’t want to be “crumpled up in a recliner or a wheelchair or in crutches or a walker.” Instead, she wanted to be able to throw enormous weddings for her daughters and be there for her grandchildren when they came.