Mary Lou Retton Biography - Inspired By Nadia, Karolyi The Bear, Olympic Visions, Chronology, Mary Lou Retton, Dreams Do Come True - CONTACT INFORMATION, SELECTED WRITINGS BY RETTON:
people world smile gymnast
1968-
American gymnast
Mary Lou Retton burst onto the gymnastic front with all the vivaciousness she could muster, and in doing so, took the world by storm. She changed the way people thought of a gymnast, not having the typical physique for
the sport. Retton was very muscular, a change from the petit, smaller gymnasts fans were used to seeing catapulting off the balance beam and swinging around the uneven bars. She also changed the world simply by her exuberance. Retton's infectious smile captured the hearts of people everywhere during the 1984 Olympics. It is that smile that continues to inspire people to this day.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Address: Mary Lou Retton, c/o Washington Speakers Bureau, 1663 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. Phone: (703) 684-0555.
SELECTED WRITINGS BY RETTON:
(With Bela Karolyi and John Powers) Mary Lou: Creating an Olympic Champion. McGraw–Hill Book Company, 1986.
(With David Bender) Gateways to Happiness: 7 Ways to a More Peaceful, More Prosperous, More Satisfying Life. New York: Broadway Books, 2000.
Additional Topics
Mary Lou was born to Lois and Ronnie Retton. She was the youngest of five children. Growing up in the Retton household meant you were going to be very active. All five of the children would participate in various sports at any given time. Lois described her children as hyper and wanted to channel that energy into something positive. She would take Mary Lou and her sister Shari to West Virginia Uni…
Karolyi had been known for his harsh training style when in Romania. When he defected to the United States with his wife they opened their gymnastic school in Houston. Since being in the States Karolyi had mellowed considerably. He had become "an enthusiastic cheerleader, constantly shouting words of encouragement during competitions, clapping his gymnasts on the back, and rewarding display…
A mere six weeks before the Olympics Retton suffered a major knee injury that required surgery. Her parents consulted with the most skilled physician they could find, who flew in to do arthroscopic surgery. The surgery was minimally invasive, and allowed Retton to walk immediately and begin training again a week later, after doing physical therapy to ensure the knee was healing properly. By the ti…
It came down to the final event. For almost a week, 16-year-old Mary Lou Retton, America's best female gymnast, had sparred with Romania's Ecaterina Szabo for the gold medal in all-around gymnastics in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The winner would bear the title of finest woman gymnast in the world. The competition had been nip and tuck. Then Szabo, a solid international st…
What Retton had envisioned years ago at seven years old, while watching Nadia Comaneci, had come to fruition. She had won the gold she had longed for. In addition to the gold for the all-around competition, Retton also earned a silver medal on the vault, and bronze medals in the uneven bars and floor exercise. She came home from the 1984 Olympics having earned the most medals any athlete had recei…
"Mary Lou Retton." Contemporary Newsmakers 1985. Issue Cumulation. Gale Research, 1986. "Mary Lou Retton." Great Women in Sports. Visible Ink Press, 1996. Sullivan, George. Mary Lou Retton. New York: Julian Messner, 1985. Woolum, Janet. Outstanding Women Athletes: Who They Are and How They Influenced Sports In America. Vol.1."Chapter 3, Outstanding Women Athletes…
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