Mary Lou Retton is Out of Hospital and Recovering at Home

Mary Lou Retton on red carpet
Robin Marchant/Getty Images for Buca, Inc

It’s good news for Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Mary Lou Retton as she’s been released from hospital following a battle with a life-threatening form of pneumonia.

Earlier this month, Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, shared a crowdfunding link for her mother, revealing that the former Dancing With the Stars contestant was “fighting for her life” and “not able to breath on her own.”

In a new update on Monday, October 23, Kelley took to Instagram to tell fans that her mom has now been released from hospital and is back home recovering.

“Mom is HOME & in recovery mode,” Kelley wrote. “We still have a long road of recovery ahead of us, but baby steps. We are overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone. Grateful doesn’t scrape the surface of the posture of our hearts.”

The positive news comes after an ominous update from Retton’s eldest daughter, Shayla Schrepfer, who revealed last week that her mom had suffered “a pretty scary setback.”

“Basically, at the beginning of this week, we were going on the up-and-up. We were so excited, seeing so much progress, and then yesterday, we had a pretty scary setback,” Schrepfer stated in an Instagram video.

The sisters, which also include Skyla Kelley and Emma Kelley, have expressed gratitude to fans for all their support and well wishes over the past few weeks.

“My sisters and I are overwhelmed — overwhelmed,” Schrepfer shared on Instagram. “We didn’t even realize that there’s so many people out there that love her just as much as we do and it’s been a really hard time for our family.”

She continued, “And so just seeing that people love her like that, showing her that support has just meant the world to us and to her, so thank you.”

Retton is best known to fans for her Gold medal-winning performance in the individual all-around gymnastics competition at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She also appeared on Season 27 of Dancing With the Stars in 2018, where she was partnered with Sasha Farber; the pair were the fifth couple eliminated from the competition.