Mary Lou Retton’s 1984 Olympic teammates are still her ‘best friends’

(WBOY) — Even 40 years after West Virginia native Mary Lou Retton made history as the first American woman to win all-around gold in Olympics gymnastics, she still leans on her teammates for support.

In an interview on the Kelley Clarkson Show, which aired on WBOY, she opened up about her relationship with the “’84 Squad,” which regularly talks in a text chain.

The group changed the game for Americas in gymnastics, which at that time was primarily dominated by Russian and eastern European athletes, paving the way for a dynasty of all-around Olympic gold-winning American gymnasts, like Carley Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008), Gabby Douglas (2012), Simone Biles (2016) and Suni Lee (2021). Biles is the favorite to win all around gold again in the 2024 Paris Olympics next week.

“Of course that was 40 years ago, and we’re still best friends, still sisters. We’ve helped each other go through life, you know, the good and the bad,” Retton said on the show.

Retton got emotional during a video montage of messages from her former teammates—Kathy Johnson, Julianne McNamara, Tracee Talavera, Michelle Dusserre and Pam Bileck—telling her to stay strong and keep pushing.

Retton almost died last year during a month-long ICU stay battling a rare form a pneumonia. Although she was put on a ventilator and her family was gold to say goodbye, she pulled through.

“The big guy upstairs wasn’t ready for me,” Retton said during the interview.

Retton said doctors still don’t know what caused her to get so sick. She is still on oxygen and sometimes has a hard time talking and breathing due to scarring in her lungs.

Retton said she has experienced “mom guilt” from knowing that her daughters had to take care of her instead of her caring for them. She said even though she didn’t look like herself, her girls never left her side.

Retton was released from the hospital at the end of October last year and did her first interview after her illness in January . Since then, “America’s Sweetheart” has opened up about her illness in other interviews and criticized backlash regarding a crowdfund that her daughters created to help pay for her medical bills .

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