As the Olympic gymnastics icon battles life-threatening pneumonia, fans were dismayed to learn that she has no insurance and her family needs to ask strangers to help pay her hospital bill.
Mary Lou Retton, 1984 Olympic gold medalist, sits for an interview during a visit to the SAP Center in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Retton appeared in San Jose to promote the 100-day countdown for the Olympic women’s gymnastic trials to be held at the SAP Center in July.
“Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details,” Kelley said. “However, I will disclose that she not insured.” “I’m not sure if she’s still wealthy. Something must have happened. Or else they wouldn’t be crowdfunding for her medical bills,” Feigl-Ding said. He agreed with many others in saying, “It’s sad a former Olympic champion who is famous like this now has to beg and crowdfund for medical care. I’m not sure if she is still a millionaire like some claim — people’s situations can quickly change.”campaign, nearly 6,000 people have donated varying amounts of money, from $10 to $50,000.
Retton also has appeared on “Dancing With the Stars,” a Dairy Queen commercial and an advertisement for Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, which the company uploaded to YouTube last week, the Washington Post said. But as much as many people have been honoring Retton and fondly remembering her at the 1984 Olympics, her “America’s sweetheart” reputation isn’t universally observed. Some gymnastics fans point out that there’s an asterisk by her victory in the history books, given that the Soviet Union, then the most dominant force in women’s gymnastics, boycotted the Los Angeles games, as the New York Times reported.
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