Olympic gold medalist Mary Lou Retton was caught with a 'screw top container of wine' on the seat of her Porsche
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American gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton was caught 'slurring her words' with a bottle of wine behind the wheel of her Porsche, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The Olympic gold medalist, 57, had pulled over at an AutoZone in Fairmont, West Virginia, on May 17 after being seen 'driving all over the roadway'.
Court documents obtained by DailyMail.com revealed that the West Virginia native had 'the odor of alcohol' coming from her while sitting in the driver’s seat of her still-running car.
Officers also noted that she had a 'screw top container of wine' that was in the passenger seat of her car when they approached her.
She failed all three phases of the standard field sobriety test and refused a roadside preliminary breath test, as well as a secondary chemical test of her blood.
Retton-Kelly was charged in Marion County for 'driving under influence of alcohol, controlled substances, or drugs,' according to court records.
She was released after personally posting a $1,500 bond. An attorney for Retton was not listed in court records and Retton's spokespeople have yet to address the arrest.
Best known for receiving two perfect-10 scores at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics weeks after a knee operation, she has battled more health issues in recent years.
The decorated gymnast struggled with pneumonia in 2023, which led her daughter to create a crowdfunding page to help pay mounting hospital bills, raising $200,000 in just a day.
But the family soon drew criticism after refusing to clarify where the donations would be going, while Retton's claim to not have insurance was also doubted by some.
'They didn't deserve that,' Retton said in May when asked about the backlash her daughters received.
'They were just trying to take care of me. I don't care about the naysayers. There are trolls everywhere. It's what makes us America. Everybody's got an opinion, but it is what it is.'
While there was a happy ending for Retton in 2023, doctors briefly feared for her life as her daughters delivered what they thought would be their final farewell to their mother.
Even now, Retton fears she will never properly recover from the damage to her lungs.
'It's been really hard,' she said in an emotional interview with People in 2024. 'My lungs are so scarred. It will be a lifetime of recovery.
'My physicality was the only thing I had, and it was taken away from me. It's embarrassing.'
Retton believes she recovered from the terrifying ordeal as 'God wasn't ready' for her yet, despite admitting that she is extremely fortunate to still be alive.
'Girl, I should be dead,' she added. 'The doctors told them [daughters] to come to say their goodbyes.
'They prayed over me, and McKenna said, 'Mommy, it's OK, you can go.'
'I didn't have much of a relationship with my mother, but I can't imagine what that was like, to watch their mom on her deathbed.'
Her health issues come after DailyMail.com revealed that she was also expected to collect around $2million more in compensation after a legal spat with the manufacturer of her two metal hip replacements.
The revelations cast more doubt on why the five-time gold medal winner had no health insurance when she was struck down with a rare form of pneumonia and why her family resorted to begging for cash online to bail her out.
Court papers filed in Houston showed she had a small fortune following her divorce from Texas Longhorns quarterback-turned-real estate developer Shannon Kelley.
The property division accepted by the court showed that Retton received cash and property worth $1,950,597 as she and Kelley split their assets down the middle after 28 years of marriage.
Not included in that figure were the proceeds from the sale of two houses, one in Houston and the other in Fairmont, West Virginia, which again were to be split 50/50.
Nor were the proceeds from a lawsuit in which she sued Indiana-based medical company Biomet Recovery over two hip replacements that went wrong.
It is not known how much she received but others who sued the company in similar circumstances got around $2million each.
Retton found instant fame as a 16-year-old when she won her medals at the 1984 Los Angeles games.
She became the first American woman to win an Olympic individual all-around gold when she edged out Romania's Ecaterina Szabo.
