Mary Lou Retton, once a superstar Olympic gymnast for the United States, is facing a count of DUI in West Virginia.
Retton was pulled over in Marion County earlier this month, on May 17, and charged with one count of “driving under influence of alcohol, controlled substances, or drugs,” according to records posted online by the state’s Magistrate Court system. She was later released after posting $1,500 bond.
Authorities have provided few other details, and 57-year-old Retton has not yet commented on the matter.
Nicknamed “America’s Sweetheart,” Retton was just 16 years old during the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984, when she became the first ever U.S. woman to take home the gold medal in the individual all-around competition. She also earned two silver and two bronze medals that year. After her retirement in 1998, she went on to dabble in broadcast journalism, writing and motivational speaking.
In 2023, her daughter, McKenna Kelley, revealed Retton was struggling with some major health issues that ultimately landed her in the hospital for more than a month.. She said Retton was “fighting for her life” with “a very rare form of pneumonia” and was not insured, prompting an outpouring of donations totaling more than $450,000. The following year, the Olympian appeared on NBC, sporting a nasal cannula hooked up to oxygen while she recalled her harrowing hospitalization, including a moment when “they were about to put me on life support.”
“It’s been really hard,” Retton later told PEOPLE.
“My lungs are so scarred,” she continued. “It will be a lifetime of recovery. My physicality was the only thing I had and it was taken away from me. It’s embarrassing.”
