Former Olympic gymnast Mary Lou Retton has been discharged from the hospital after battling a rare form of pneumonia, her daughter said Monday.
“Mom is HOME & in recovery mode,” McKenna Kelley, one of Retton’s children, wrote on Instagram. “We still have a long road of recovery ahead of us, but baby steps.”
“We are overwhelmed with the love and support from everyone,” she continued. “Grateful doesn’t scrape the surface of the posture of our hearts.”
The Olympian’s family said earlier this month that Retton, 55, had been hospitalized and was “fighting for her life” in the intensive care unit, unable to breathe on her own. Her daughter asked for donations, saying Retton didn’t have health insurance.
Nearly $460,000 has been raised for her care.
Retton is one of the most celebrated Olympic gymnasts in U.S. history. She became the first American woman to win an individual all-around gold medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, scoring a perfect 10 in her last event.
“I slept with my medal under my bed that night,” Retton said at the time. “The first thing when I got up in the morning I checked to see if it wasn’t a dream.”
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