MARY LOU RETTON'S LONG RECOVERY - 'I'm a Fighter'

40 YEARS AFTER CAPTURING GOLD AT THE 1984 OLYMPICS, THE GYMNAST FACES AN EVEN BIGGER CHALLENGE: WINNING BACK HER HEALTH

- GILLIAN TELLING

Fans of Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton were delighted to see their beloved hero smile again on Jan. 8 after she spent a month in the hospital, where she’d been fighting a rare form of pneumonia that nearly took her life. But the 56-year-old athlete, who rose to fame as America’s sweetheart during the 1984 Olympics when she became the first American woman to win an individual gold medal in the all-around competition, revealed that her journey to good health is far from over. “This is serious,” Retton said in an interview with Hoda Kotb on Today, during which the star— known for her awe-inspiring flips and twists— wore an oxygen tank and struggled with her words and with breathing. With tears in her eyes, she admitted that she was lucky to be alive. “I’m blessed to be here,” she whispered from her sofa at home in Boerne, Texas. “Because there was a time when they were about to put me on life support.”