Editing Mary Lou Retton (section)

==Gymnastics career==
Retton was inspired by watching [[Nadia Comăneci]] outshine defending Olympic two-event winner [[Olga Korbut]] on television at the [[1976 Summer Olympics]] in Montreal, when she herself was eight years of age, and she took up gymnastics in her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia. She was coached by Gary Rafaloski. She then decided to move to Houston, Texas, to train under Romanians [[Béla Károlyi|Béla]] and [[Márta Károlyi]], who had coached Nadia Comăneci before their defection to the United States. Under the Károlyis, Retton soon began to make a name for herself in the U.S., winning the [[American Cup (Gymnastics)|American Cup]] in 1983 and placing second to [[Dianne Durham]] (another Károlyi student) at the [[USA Gymnastics National Championships|US Nationals]] that same year. Though Retton missed the [[1983 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships|World Gymnastics Championships]] in 1983 due to a wrist injury, she won the American Classic in 1983 and 1984, as well as Japan's Chunichi Cup in 1983.<ref name='ighof'>{{Cite web |url=https://www.ighof.com/inductees/1997_Mary_Lou_Retton.php |title=International Gymnastics Hall of Fame Mary Lou Retton |website=ighof.com |access-date=February 21, 2025}}</ref>

[[File:Mary Lou Retton doing a beam routine.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Retton performing splits on a balance beam, 1985]]
After winning her second American Cup, the U.S. Nationals, and the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1984, Retton suffered a knee injury when she was performing a floor routine at a local gymnastics center at this time. She had sat down to sign autographs when she felt her knee lock, forcing her to undergo an operation five weeks prior to the [[1984 Summer Olympics]], which were going to be held in [[Los Angeles]]—the first time the Summer Olympics had been held in the United States in 52 years.<ref>{{cite web |date=2014-04-02 |title=Mary Lou Retton |url=https://www.biography.com/athlete/mary-lou-retton |access-date=2023-01-17 |website=The Biography Channel |publisher=}}</ref> She recovered just in time for this most prestigious of tournaments, and in the competition, which was [[1984 Summer Olympics boycott|boycotted by the Soviet bloc nations]] except for [[Romania]], Retton was engaged in a close battle with [[Ecaterina Szabo]] of Romania for the all-around gold medal. Trailing Szabo (after uneven bars and balance beam) by 0.15 with two events to go, Retton scored perfect 10s on floor exercise and vault—the last event in an especially dramatic fashion, as there had been fears that her knee injury and the subsequent surgery might impair her performance.<ref name="ESPN70">
{{cite web|title=Mary Lou beams after sticking her vault to capture the all...|work=[[ESPN]]|url=https://www.espn.com/espn/espn25/story?page=moments/70|access-date=December 15, 2013|date=June 30, 2004}}</ref> Retton won the all-around gold medal by 0.05 points, beating Szabo to become the first female gymnast from outside [[Eastern Europe]] to win the individual all-around gold. She also became the first American woman to be an Olympic all-around champion, which was an honor she held alone until the ongoing six-peat of American all-around champions. (In order: [[Carly Patterson]] in [[Gymnastics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around|2004]] in Athens, [[Nastia Liukin]] in [[Gymnastics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around|2008]] in Beijing, [[Gabby Douglas]] in [[Gymnastics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around|2012]] in London, [[Simone Biles]] in [[Gymnastics at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around|2016]] in Rio de Janeiro and [[Gymnastics at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around|2024]] in Paris and [[Sunisa Lee|Suni Lee]] in [[Gymnastics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's artistic individual all-around|2021]] in Tokyo.)

At the same Olympics, Retton won four additional medals: silver in the team competition and the [[vault (gymnastics)|horse vault]], and bronze in the [[Floor (gymnastics)|floor exercise]] and [[uneven bars]]. For her performance, she was named ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' Magazine's "[[Sportsman of the Year|Sportswoman of the Year]]." She appeared on a [[Wheaties]] box, and became the cereal's first official spokeswoman.<ref name="the box">{{cite web |url = http://www.wheaties.com/feature/the-wheaties-story/ |title = The Box: The Wheaties Story: From a humble beginning, a cultural icon was born |work = [[General Mills]] |access-date = June 5, 2016 |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160605090548/http://www.wheaties.com/feature/the-wheaties-story/ |archive-date = June 5, 2016 |df = mdy-all }}</ref>

In 1985, Retton won the American Cup all-around competition for the third and final time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2016/03/04/mary-lou-retton-gymnastics-olympics-retirement/|title=Mary Lou Retton Reflects On 1985 American Cup Win, Retirement Decision|last=Zaccardi|first=Nick|work=NBC Sports|date=March 4, 2016|access-date=June 4, 2017}}</ref> She retired in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Zaccardi |first=Nick |date=2016-03-04 |title=Mary Lou Retton reflects on 1985 American Cup win, retirement decision |url=https://www.nbcsports.com/olympics/news/mary-lou-retton-gymnastics-olympics-retirement |access-date=2024-03-09 |website=NBC Sports |language=en-US}}</ref>