American gymnastics icon and Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton, aged 57, was taken into custody earlier this month on suspicion of impaired driving and subsequently charged with driving under the influence (DUI), as confirmed by publicly accessible court records reviewed by Daily Mail.
The West Virginia native was apprehended on May 17 in Marion County, facing allegations of operating a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances, or drugs, as per records from the West Virginia Magistrate Court. Retton secured release upon posting a personal bond set at $1,500.
No legal representation for Retton is currently documented in the court filings, and her representatives have yet to issue a statement regarding the arrest.
Mary Lou Retton, best known for earning two perfect-10 scores at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics just weeks following knee surgery, has faced significant health challenges in recent years.
Most notably, in 2023, Retton battled pneumonia, prompting her daughter to establish a crowdfunding campaign to assist with escalating hospital expenses. According to WBOY.com, the fundraiser raised $200,000 within a single day.
However, the family faced scrutiny after declining to provide detailed disclosures regarding the allocation of the donated funds, and Retton’s assertion of lacking health insurance was met with skepticism by some observers.
Mary Lou Retton spoke out in May defending her daughters amid backlash over their crowdfunding efforts. She said,
“They didn’t deserve that. They were just trying to take care of me. I don’t care about the naysayers. There are trolls everywhere. It’s what makes us America. Everybody’s got an opinion, but it is what it is.”
Despite a hopeful outcome in 2023, Retton’s battle with pneumonia was harrowing. Doctors feared for her life, and her daughters prepared for the worst, delivering what they thought would be a final farewell.
Retton shared in a 2024 interview with People that her lungs remain severely scarred and recovery will be lifelong:
“It’s been really hard. My lungs are so scarred. It will be a lifetime of recovery. My physicality was the only thing I had and it was taken away from me. It’s embarrassing.”
She credits her survival to fate, saying,
“God wasn’t ready for me yet. Girl, I should be dead.”
She recalled the emotional moment when doctors told her daughters to say goodbye:
“They prayed over me, and McKenna said, ‘Mommy, it’s OK, you can go.’ I didn’t have much of a relationship with my mother, but I can’t imagine what that was like, to watch their mom on her deathbed.”#newsafro_
