Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Mary Lou Creating an Olympic Champion by ISBN 13: 9780896216976. Mary Lou: Creating an Olympic Champion (Thorndike Press Large Print Americana Series) Retton, Mary Lou ; Karolyi, Bela ; Powers, John. This specific ISBN edition is currently not available. The complete, first-hand story of the seventeen-year-old who captured worldwide attention by winning the first American gold medal in women's also recounts the life of her defected Romanian coach. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. YA Retton's life story is presented, in her own words, to the author. Since she was only 16 when the book was written, she does not have a whole lot to tell. Equal space is devoted to her trainer, Romanian-born Bela Karolyi, whose life is more interesting. He tells of his struggles with the Romanian government in trying to start a gymnastics program, his defection to this country and his success in overcoming obstacles in America to get his gymnastic program started here. Once Mary Lou and Bela get together, her story really picks up. She talks about her hopes and dreams, her feelings about Bela's hard training and about going to the Olympics. She comes across as a determined and purposeful young woman who sets goals and then goes all out to accomplish them. There are 12 pages of black-and-white photographs; some are of Mary Lou as a small child but most are of her in action at the Olympics. Powers has done a successful job of letting Mary Lou's and Bela's personalities come through in their speech patterns. Readers will feel as though they are talking directly to them, rather than through an intermediary. Pat Royal, Prince George's County Public School System, Md. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. Mary Lou: Creating an Olympic Champion by Mary Lou Retton. Gender: Female Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Gymnastics. Nationality: Executive summary: Olympic gymnast. Husband: Shannon Kelley (m. 29-Dec-1990, four daughters) Daughter: Shayla Rae (b. 1995) Daughter: McKenna Lane (b. 1997) Daughter: Skyla Brae Kelley (b. 2000) Daughter: Emma (b. 2002) High School: Fairmont Senior High School, Fairmont, WV. Author of books: Mary Lou: Creating an Olympic Champion ( 1986. , memoir) ISBN 13: 9780070518940. YA Retton's life story is presented, in her own words, to the author. Since she was only 16 when the book was written, she does not have a whole lot to tell. Equal space is devoted to her trainer, Romanian-born Bela Karolyi, whose life is more interesting. He tells of his struggles with the Romanian government in trying to start a gymnastics program, his defection to this country and his success in overcoming obstacles in America to get his gymnastic program started here. Once Mary Lou and Bela get together, her story really picks up. She talks about her hopes and dreams, her feelings about Bela's hard training and about going to the Olympics. She comes across as a determined and purposeful young woman who sets goals and then goes all out to accomplish them. There are 12 pages of black-and-white photographs; some are of Mary Lou as a small child but most are of her in action at the Olympics. Powers has done a successful job of letting Mary Lou's and Bela's personalities come through in their speech patterns. Readers will feel as though they are talking directly to them, rather than through an intermediary. Pat Royal, Prince George's County Public School System, Md. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. How Mary Lou Retton Tries to Rewrite Gymnastics History. In an era where powerful marketing teams are a staple of nearly every major institution in the country, that simple phrase is more important than ever. With just a couple of carefully orchestrated words, an institution can respond to a scandal by whitewashing its own misdeeds, skewing perceptions, twisting the version of events, and masking its true intentions. Often times it involves a public relations team making small word changes to their statements that may appear trivial at face value, but significantly alter the context of what is being said. Other times they craft alternative explanations in an attempt to explain away scandalous behavior. Framing it as if nothing scandalous had ever occurred in the first place and their intentions had always been pure. USA Gymnastics during the Nassar scandal is a perfect example of this. As Mary Lou Retton, Steve Penny, and other members of the organization tried to spin it, they didn’t meet with members of Congress in an attempt to block a bill aimed at trying to curb sexual abuse in sports, but rather, they just wanted to highlight how solid the federation’s existing policies were. As if the implication clearly wasn’t “the current rules are fine, we don’t need more rules.” Mary Lou Retton isn’t just a perpetrator of this tactic, she is a master of it. She appeared to do it again in an interview that was published in late June of 2020. This time it had nothing to do with the topic of sexual abuse within gymnastics, but the 1984 victory that made her famous. During the interview she said the following: For those who don’t want to watch the YouTube video, the quote is below: “And before he left he trained who was the World Champion going into my 1984 . She was supposed to win.” So what exactly is wrong with this quote? The problem is that while it is correct to assert that Szabo was the favorite to win the 1984 Olympic All- Around (AA), it comes with the caveat that Szabo was the favorite only among gymnasts who didn’t boycott. Women’s (WAG) was hit rather hard by the 1984 Olympic boycott. Boycotting nations accounted for roughly 66% of the WAG medals won at the 1983 and 1985 World Championships. Amongst the casualties was the famed Soviet WAG team which is arguably the most successful dynasty in Olympic history, having won the team gold medal in all ten of its Olympic appearances. Not even in the current era where they are allowed to use NBA players has USA basketball matched the Soviet WAG feat of ten consecutive gold medals. Mary Lou Retton asserts that Szabo was “the” World Champion. While it is true that Szabo was the World Champion on , Retton was clearly stating it in regards to the AA, the most prestigious event in gymnastics. It wouldn’t make sense for Retton to say this in regard to floor-exercise as Szabo was the gold medalist on floor in both 1983 and 1984. By calling Szabo “the World Champion” Retton is asserting that Szabo won the AA gold medal at the 1983 World Championships and as a result, was considered the top ranked gymnast in the world. But that wasn’t the case as Szabo finished third. So who finished first and second? Two Soviet gymnasts. Perhaps Retton misspoke, but she most likely didn’t. During the 2016 American Cup Retton gave an interview with NBC where she said virtually the exact same thing: “Ecaterina Szabo was World champion, and she was supposed to win that [Olympic] title.” It isn’t so much a mistake, but a repeat pattern where Mary Lou Retton has rewritten gymnastics history so she can tell the story of how she beat the #1 ranked gymnast of the era. It is hard to believe a high-level gymnast could ever get through her career without knowing who two of the top gymnasts of her era were. Retton almost certainly remembers, she just doesn’t care. For Mary Lou Retton, it wasn’t enough that Olga Mostepanova and had 1984 taken away from them, she wants to take 1983 away from them as well. What Mary Lou Retton had done was a brilliant crafting of a narrative to suit her agenda. The statements “Szabo was the favorite” and “Szabo was the defending World Champion” sound so similar that if one were to mix them up, it could be chalked up as an innocent mistake. It was such a minor difference that even NBC Sports would publish the comment without realizing the significance of the change in words. But it almost certainly was an intentional choice of words as one is a truthful statement whereas the other represents the total erasure of the 1984 boycott that was vital to her win. Retton mixes truth and lie while omitting key context to produce a deceitful version of events that makes her 1984 win look far better than it actually was. Going beyond downplaying the possibility Yurchenko and Mostepanova could have won medals in Los Angeles, but acting as if the 1984 boycott erased their non-Olympic accomplishments as well. It is classless behavior and poor sportsmanship, but it wasn’t even the most outrageous part of the interview. In this exact same interview Retton fielded a question where the interviewer incorrectly introduced her as an advocate of the very same bill she is alleged to have actively tried to block from passage. Retton simply went along with the question and in doing so helped spread the message that she and her USAG associates never worked to block a bill aimed at protecting children from sexual predators. In an interview featuring lies that were used to rewrite gymnastics history, what was one more? Biography of Mary Lou Retton, Olympic Gymnastics Champion. Mary Lou Retton (born January 24, 1968) won a gold medal for the United States in women's Olympic gymnastics in 1984. She was the first American woman to win gold in the all-around event, and she won the most Olympic medals of any athlete at the 1984 Games. She also was known for her warm style, enthusiastic personality, iconic pixie haircut, and a more muscular build than many other female gymnasts. Fast Facts: Mary Lou Retton. Known For : Gold-medal-winning U.S. Olympic Gymnast Born : January 24, 1968 in Fairmont, West Virginia Parents : Ronnie Retton and Lois Retton Published Work : Mary Lou Retton's Gateways to Happiness: 7 Ways to a More Peaceful, More Prosperous, More Satisfying Life Awards and Honors : Five Olympic gymnastics medals, including one gold Spouse : Shannon Kelley (divorced) Children : Shayla, McKenna, Skyla, Emma Notable Quote : "You give up your childhood. You miss proms and games and high school events, and people say it's awful. I say it was a good trade. You miss something but I think I gained more than I lost." Early Life. Mary Lou Retton was born on Jan. 24, 1968, in Fairmont, West Virginia. She was the youngest of five children. Her father Ronnie Retton played basketball in college and was a minor league baseball player. Her mother Lois signed up Mary Lou for dance classes when she was 4, then enrolled her and her older sister in gymnastics classes at West Virginia University. She didn't have to be pushed into working out. "I would sleep in my leotard on Friday nights because I was so excited about gymnastics on Saturday mornings," Retton told Texas Monthly magazine writer Skip Hollandsworth . She later remembered at age 4 watching skate in the 1972 Olympics for the and identifying with her courage and vigor. Four years later, it was Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci who caught her eye, inspiring dreams of Olympic gold. Preparing to Compete. By the age of 12, Retton had become dedicated to gymnastics and was competing in national and international competitions. Her parents allowed her to move to Houston, Texas when she was 14 to study and train with gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi, a Romanian defector who had previously coached Comaneci. She lived with the family of a fellow student and finished high school via correspondence courses while training 8-10 hours a day. She enjoyed the rigorous gymnastics schedule and flourished under Karolyi's coaching. Retton stood out physically from many of the other female gymnasts. She was muscular, a change from the petite athletes that fans were accustomed to seeing in competition, even at the highest levels of the sport. One month after beginning her training with Karolyi, Retton's team went to Madison Square Garden in New York, New York, for the McDonald's American Cup Competition. She wasn't ranked high enough to be invited but she went as a substitute. One of her teammates got injured and Karolyi put in Retton. She won the competition and set a meet record, putting her in contention for the 1984 Olympics only two years away. Competition. By 1984, Retton had won 14 all-around competitions in a row and was expected to compete in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She was then 16 years old. The Soviet Union and most of its allies were boycotting the Games in response to the United States boycott of the 1980 Olympics. About six weeks before the games were to start, Retton suffered a major knee injury, which turned out to be torn cartilage. She and her parents opted for minimally invasive arthroscopic surgery, which enabled Retton to walk immediately and to begin training after just one week of physical therapy. In the weeks before the Games, Retton would lie in bed, her eyes closed, imagining each piece of equipment and each routine and performing perfectly. Then she imagined receiving the gold medal with "The Star-Spangled Banner" booming around her. Olympic Showdown. Sometimes, creative visualization works. At the Olympics, she won the gold medal in women's gymnastics for the all-around competition. The win was dramatic. Coming into the last event, she was barely behind Ecaterina Szabo of . Retton approached her event, the , needing a 9.95 out of 10 to tie Szabo for the gold medal, and a perfect score of 10 to win it outright. She scored a 10. Olympic rules required that she perform another vault, although her first score still would count. So she landed another . In addition to the gold medal in the all-around event, Retton won an individual silver for the vault, a bronze for the , another bronze for the floor exercise, and another silver as part of the team competition. The five medals were the most for any athlete at the 1984 Olympic Games. Legacy. Following her retirement from gymnastics in 1985 after winning her third American Cup title, Retton briefly attended the University of Texas at Austin. She married Shannon Kelley, whom she had met in college, in 1990, and they had four daughters: Shayla, McKenna, Skyla, and Emma. She made many commercials, appeared in several movies and television shows, and was a popular speaker. Among the other recognition, Mary Lou Retton was the first woman to be featured on the front of a Wheaties box and she became a spokeswoman for the cereal brand. Through the many accolades and honors, she retained her fresh and "perky" personality and continued to convey a sense of being the "girl next door." She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997. Sources. Retton, Mary Lou. "Mary Lou: Creating an Olympic Champion." Hardcover, First Edition edition, McGraw-Hill, September 1, 1985. Retton, Mary Lou. "Mary Lou Retton's Gateways to Happiness: 7 Ways to a More Peaceful, More Prosperous, More Satisfying Life." Hardcover, Broadway, April 4, 2000. Retton, Mary Lou. "The Olympic Dream and Spirit Volume 1: Stories of courage, perseverance and dedication." Mary Joe Fernandez, Bela Karolyi, et al., Paperback, Cross Training Pub, November 1, 1999.