Who Is Mary Lou Retton?

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I’m sure that some of you will remember Mary Lou Retton as the winner of the gold medal for best Olympic all-around gymnast in the Summer of 1984 in Los Angeles, California. Mary Lou Retton was born in Fairmont, West Virginia in 1968, and she attended the same high school my mother had attended. Mary Lou also lived on the same street near my Aunt Margie, when she was growing up. Mary Lou won a total of five medals and was the first American woman to win a gold medal in gymnastics. Several moves for both the vault and the uneven parallel bars were named for her. Her score for the vault in the Olympics was a perfect 10. She was a very strong vaulter, in spite of the fact that she was only four-foot-nine-inches tall. She started her career very young, at the age of seven and by age 15, she had won the first of three American Cup championships. She was the first female athlete to appear on Wheaties cereal boxes and she also appeared in many television commercials. I wonder what she is doing today? I think I will do some research on her. I did find out that she was coached by the famous Karolyi’s and that she married University of Texas quarterback Shannon Kelly and they have four daughters. You can find out more about her on Wikipedia.com.