The memories come flooding back along with her trademark smile.
Mary Lou Retton speaks of her Olympic gold medal as if she won it yesterday, and her effervescence and charm that captured the hearts of millions remain aglow.
In fact, she is on the verge of the 20th anniversary of her championship in the gymnastics all-around competition at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. The drama of the final had been palpable. Retton needed a perfect score on the vault to beat Romanian Ecaterina Szabo and become the first American woman to win gold in all-around.
“I was smiling in the air because I could feel it,” Retton said earlier this week at her home here.
“Gymnasts have incredible body awareness,” she said. “You just know where you are at all times. I knew to get the 10 I’d have to stick the landing. I was feeling it. I had such height and such control. I landed solid, my arms went up and the place erupted.”
Retton never stopped smiling amid the celebration. Coach Bela Karolyi enveloped her in a bear hug and she proceeded to perform another perfect vault for the frenzied crowd. Since then, her life and her sport have not been the same.
Every four years Americans eagerly await the next Mary Lou. But no U.S. woman since has won Olympic gold in the all-around, and none has been as popular as the 4-foot-9-inch dynamo who still has every bit of the enthusiasm and determination that lifted her to the pinnacle of her sport and transcended it as she became one of the world’s most famous athletes.
At 16 she stood on the medal stand at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion beaming with pride while singing the national anthem. There was no time for tears then and no time now, although her story chokes her up just a bit.
“My life is a fairy tale,” Retton said, swallowing hard on her words. “Were there hardships? Were there obstacles and adversity? Of course. But the plan the Lord had written out for me–of course we don’t know the ending yet–it’s just a fairy tale.”
Retton remains amazed by her story. She was the youngest of five children in a middle-class family in Fairmont, W.Va. Her father and grandfather were coal miners. She had to fight siblings for attention but eventually shifted her energy to the gym.
For two years she fought homesickness while training with Karolyi in Houston.
And then overnight she became a magazine cover girl. Her picture was on Wheaties boxes, and national restaurant chains sought her endorsement.
In all, she won five medals. The U.S. team won silver behind Retton, who also had a silver-medal finish on the vault and won bronze on the uneven parallel bars and floor exercise in the event finals.
Some believed her gold medal was tarnished by the absence of the Soviet Union, which boycotted the Los Angeles Games. But Retton already had beaten some of the top Soviet gymnasts in other competitions.
“My medal to me, in my heart and in my head, is still gold because I had gone up against them,” she said. “If I had not, I would be questioning it.”
Most fans had no doubts regarding Retton’s victory. Captivating audiences with her determination and her mega-watt smile, Retton was embraced by the nation.
“Those ’84 Games were great,” she said. “America needed that. We had boycotted in ’80.We were low on patriotism.”
She became part of an elite group of athletes admired for their achievements and ability to perform under pressure.
Her contemporaries included Michael Jordan and the late Walter Payton. Each athlete’s achievements helped create an economic boom in sports in the mid-1980s, said Nova Lanktree, executive vice president of player marketing for CSMG International.
“Those three were the catalysts,” Lanktree said. “That’s when the ball started rolling into this multibillion-dollar industry we call sports marketing.”
Retton graciously and cheerfully accommodated fans, reporters and sponsors. She stood proud of her achievement and was stunned by the attention.
“You’re standing on top at the Olympic Games, the national anthem is playing … it’s a surreal moment,” Retton said. “That was what you dreamt of. I had no clue that all this endorsement stuff and all this craziness was going to happen to me.”
More Top Picks Best 50 Inch Tvs
Nor was she certain how to handle it.
Retton’s parents, Lois and Ronnie, were overwhelmed by their daughter’s celebrity. Fans began showing up near the Retton home, stealing the street signs bearing her name.
“My parents went into a shell, and I don’t think they’ve ever come out of it,” Retton said. “I had to deal with it, but my family had a rough time with it.”
Her public and corporate commitments curtailed her training, and Retton retired in 1986. She enrolled at the University of Texas, where her boyfriend and future husband, Shannon Kelley, played quarterback.
Kelley had no problem dealing with Retton’s fame.
“She always made me feel like I came first,” he said. “Her ego has never been bigger than anything she cared about.”
Sorority life and friendships awaited her in Texas–or so Retton thought until some classmates gave her the cold shoulder.
“Michael Jordan gave me a piece of advice: `Fame doesn’t change you, but fame changes the people around you.’ I was getting a really good shot of that. Everybody wants to be your best friend or people are real intimidated by you.
“I remember thinking, `Why am I not being accepted? Because I sacrificed my whole life to win a gold medal?’ Again, it hadn’t changed me at all. It had changed the people around me. I got over it. It got better as I gained more confidence in myself.”
But when Kelley graduated, Retton withdrew from school. She is about three semesters short of graduating, and while she insists she’ll complete her course work for a degree in communications, it won’t be in the near future.
Retton’s life has changed significantly in the last 20 years, and her happiness now is rooted in her family.
She married Kelley in 1990 and they have four daughters: Shayla, 9; McKenna, 7; Skyla, 3; and Emma, 2.
After giving birth to Skyla, Retton suffered a life-threatening staph infection that left her bedridden for seven weeks. She also underwent counseling to deal with postpartum depression.
“I’d had injuries before, but it was the sickest I had ever been,” she said.
Three years later, at 36, she is tougher than ever physically and emotionally. She is trim and fit with impressive muscle definition.
Her bubbly personality and charity work continue to bring her attention. She wrote for USA Today briefly and also worked as a television commentator.
She has worked extensively with the Children’s Miracle Network, which raises funds for children’s hospitals throughout the nation. Retton also is seeking funding to continue a children’s show that airs on some PBS stations.
While she doesn’t earn the endorsement dollars top-tier athletes command nowadays, she is in demand as a motivational speaker. Her audiences range from children to corporate CEOs.
“For these kids who have these dreams and they think they are so unattainable, I’m there going, `Look at me. I was you 30 years ago,’ ” Retton said.
“You can make it happen if you have passion, if you have faith and if you believe in yourself. But you have to be willing to work.”
Two decades after her Olympic triumph, elderly women sometimes approach Retton to congratulate her, pinching her cheeks as if she were a child.
“I’m a grown adult with children,” she said. “People will always remember me in that red, white and blue leotard.”
She says it with a smile.