Questions surrounding Olympic icon Mary Lou Retton's financial status have emerged after a fundraising campaign for her health care bills revealed she had received a considerable divorce settlement and was allegedly in line for a hefty lawsuit payout. According to Mercury News, Retton was awarded nearly $2 million from her divorce and was expecting to potentially acquire an additional $2 million from a legal battle with the hip replacement manufacturer Biomet.
Despite this financial backdrop, Retton faced hospitalization for a rare pneumonia case without insurance. Her daughter, McKenna Kelley, launched an online fundraiser that amassed over $459,000. During a "Today" show appearance, Retton disclosed that due to her plethora of pre-existing conditions and recent divorce, she simply couldn't afford insurance. "I’ve had over 30 operations of orthopedic stuff — I couldn’t afford it… That’s the bottom line: I couldn’t afford it," Retton told Kotb. However, Retton has now confirmed she's covered: "I’m all set now," she proclaimed on the show.
Scrutiny has intensified after it was revealed that Retton had the opportunity to buy insurance through Obamacare, which prohibits insurers from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions or charging higher rates for them. This is according to the Houston Chronicle, which also noted that premium costs for people with high incomes are capped at 8.5% of household income. These revelations have made some observe that her situation and reasonings require, to quite literally steal a page from the gymnastics handbook, some mental gymnastics.
Critical eyes are also turned toward what happened to the near half-million-dollar funds raised on her behalf. Retton's daughters stated that any remaining funds after medical bills would be donated to a charity of Retton's choosing, yet no specifics or timeline have been provided. Retton's financial situation, along with her lack of health coverage, has come under question partly because details about her search for insurance coverage remained undisclosed. "But who would even know that this was going to happen to me?" Retton exclaimed in her public statements. Meanwhile, concern about her transparency arises since neither Retton nor her daughters responded to queries about where the donated funds went.
Retton, a household name in the U.S. after becoming the first American woman to win a gold medal in the all-around gymnastics competition at the 1984 Olympics, has managed to keep Houston as her home for decades. Her legacy includes an induction into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame and being the first woman in the Houston Sports Hall of Fame. However, this current financial saga has cast a shadow on her golden American image, prompting more than just a few to reexamine the tapestry of celebrity, health crises, and the intersection of personal responsibility and public goodwill.
