Retton was 16 when she became the first American female gymnast to win the all-around title at the 1984 Olympics.
WASHINGTON — Retired Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton was arrested earlier this month on a DUI charge in her West Virginia hometown.
Court records indicate Retton, 57, was arrested on May 17 and charged with one count of driving under the influence of alcohol or another controlled substance. Magistrate court records show the charge is a misdemeanor.
Her arrest records show the Olympic champion was released on bail after posting a $1,500 bond.
According to the Associated Press, Fairmont police stopped Retton on May 17 following a report about a person in a Porsche driving erratically. According to the criminal complaint, Retton smelled of alcohol and was slurring her words, and she failed a field sobriety test, AP reported. Officers also reported observing a container of wine in the passenger seat. She also refused a roadside breath test and a blood test.
Retton is a household name for longtime Olympic fans. She won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for the individual all-around competition, and brought home another two silver and two bronze medals for Team USA that year.
The gold medal notched Retton’s place in history as the first American woman to win the all-around competition in the history of the Games. She was the only American to have done so until 2004, when Team USA began taking gold in the all-around every four years.
Retton retired from gymnastics in 1986. She also became the first woman to be featured on the front of a Wheaties cereal box.
In the decades since, she has appeared in a number of television roles and in endorsements for products. Retton was one of the competitors on the 2018 season of “Dancing with the Stars.”
In 2023, she made headlines again, revealing that she was battling a rare form of pneumonia in which doctors weren’t sure whether she would survive. Retton’s daughter began a fundraiser that raised nearly $500,000 for her medical bills.
“This is serious and this is life,” Retton said during a January 2024 interview on NBC’s “Today” show. “And I am so grateful to be here. I am blessed to be here. Because there was a time when they were about to put me on life support.”