Mary Lou Retton biography
Mary Lou Retton, (born January 24, 1968, Fairmont, West Virginia, U.S.), gymnast who was the primary American girl to win a person Olympic gold medal in gymnastics. At the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Retton achieved excellent scores in her ultimate two occasions (the flooring train and vault) to win a dramatic victory within the all-around workouts.
Retton started learning dance and acrobatics at age 4, beginning gymnastics coaching a 12 months later. In 1983 she moved to Houston, Texas, to coach with Bela Karolyi, who helped Retton develop a method that suited her compact, muscular body. In distinction to the fluttering, balletic actions then common in floor-event efficiency, Retton’s revolutionary type exhibited velocity, accuracy, and energy and remodeled ladies’s gymnastics.
Retton was profitable at main American and worldwide tournaments throughout the early Nineteen Eighties, turning into the primary American to win the combined-events title on the Chunichi Cup in Japan (1983). At the 1984 U.S. nationwide championships, she gained first place within the vault, flooring train, and all-around occasions. Later that 12 months she made her Olympic debut.
In the all-around competitors, Retton trailed the Romanian staff’s Ecaterina Szabo by 0.05 factors going into the ultimate rotation and wanted an ideal rating of 10 on the vault to win the gold. She executed the exceptionally troublesome Tsukahara vault—a twisting format again somersault—flawlessly, successful the gold. In addition, she led the U.S. ladies’s staff to a silver, its first medal since 1948, and gained particular person medals within the vault (silver), the uneven parallel bars (bronze), and the ground train (bronze).
Soon after the Los Angeles Games, Retton retired from competitors and have become a motivational speaker and a tv commentator. In 1985 she grew to become the primary gymnast to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame.