Mary Lou Retton
Mary Lou Retton was born on January, 24, 1968 in West Virginia. She found her passion and love for gymnastics after watching Nadia Comăneci dominate the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. She decided that gymnastics was the direction she wanted to go towards and moved to Houston, Texas in order to be trained by Nadia’s former coaches, Márta and Béla Károlyi.
New Success
Under the coaching talent of the Károlyi’s, Mary Lou Retton performed at a top level during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. She even managed to win a fierce battle with Romanian, Ecaterina Szabo, which made her the first female outside of Eastern Europe to win the individual all-around gold.