Mary Lou Retton's Birthday

The American Gymnast Mary Lou Retton

Determination is nearly synonymous with Mary Lou Retton, a gymnast who would one day become the first ever USA gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title.

Mary Lou Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia on January 24, 1968. She was fairly normal girl with high hopes of reaching her dreams of becoming a gymnast after watching a meet on television. Watching Nadia Comaneci that day prompted her to take up gymnastics in her hometown. Gymnastics is an intensive sport which needs constant training. This need for intensive training eventually inspired a move to Houston, Texas in 1982 and the great coaching team of Bela and Martha Karolyi. These Romanians were the very ones who trained Nadia Comaneci herself before moving to the United States.

The Rise to Success:

During the next year of 1983, she won the American Cup and placed second to Dianne Durham in the US Nationals. She also won the esteemed Chunichi Cup in Japan the same year. She bagged the American Classic in 1983 and 1984. She was not able to join the World Championship in 1983 though because of a wrist injury.

Mary Lou Retton went on to win her second American Cup in the year 1984. She also won the US Nationals and the US Olympic Trials that year. Her intensive training caused her to suffer a knee injury which she had to undergo an operation for. She recovered fully from it the same year to compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Competition was stiff in that event but she won against Ecaterina Szabo, a Romanian gymnast, for the all-around title. She won by a mere 0.050 to the delight of the audience.

Mary Lou Retton has indeed made a name for herself in the sports world and this earned her the title Sportswoman of the Year from the magazine Sports Illustrated. She was the first ever woman to appear on a Wheaties box. Being small in stature, she was often lovingly kidded that the Wheaties box can hold her life-size picture! She won her third American Cup in the year 1985 and decided to retire after her unparalleled success. She was inducted in the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.

Community Involvement:

Mary Lou Retton is an outspoken conservative and Christian and was a supporter of President Ronald Reagan during the peak of her career. She was also active in giving her support for the re-election of President George W. Bush along with her fellow athletes.

She is currently the host of a popular children’s program called Mary Lou’s Flip Flop Shop and still resides in Texas with her husband and her four children.