Olympian Mary Lou Retton ‘Fighting for Life’ in ICU, ‘DWTS’ Partner Sasha Farber Shares Update
Mary Lou Retton, the Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast who appeared on Season 27 of Dancing With the Stars, has been hospitalized and is in the ICU with a rare form of pneumonia.
The news was shared by Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, who posted a link to a crowdfunding website on her Instagram, which revealed that her mother “has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life.”
“She is not able to breathe on her own. She’s been in the ICU for over a week now. Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she not insured,” Kelley wrote on the fund raising page.
DWTS pro Sasha Farber, who competed alongside Retton on Season 27, provided an update on Tuesday (October 10), revealing that he’d spoken with the Olympic gymnast earlier in the day.
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“I’ve been talking to her today and she’s fighting,” Farber told ETOnline. “She kind of wants to give up, but I’m sending her videos of her dancing and I’m telling her, ‘There’s only one Mary Lou Retton. You’ve got this!'”
Farber and Retton were the fifth couple eliminated in the 2018 season but have remained friends ever since.
“She was in LA [a few weeks] ago and she wanted to meet up, [but] I had rehearsals and I couldn’t,” Farber stated. “She was like, ‘Let me take you out for dinner,’ and I couldn’t go because I had rehearsals. But I just mean… you’ve got to see the people [you care about], you’ve gotta say hi, you gotta call them. And I’ve been speaking to her today.”
Retton is best known for winning the gold medal in the individual all-around gymnastics competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She retired from the sport in 1986 and was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.
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