Mary Lou Retton Tears Up Over Inspirational Messages From Her 1984 Olympic Teammates
For Mary Lou Retton, the 1984 Olympics yielded a sisterhood that has lasted 40 years.
So the gold medalist could not help but be moved to tears when she was surprised with a special videotaped message from all five of her former teammates—Michelle Dusserre, 55, Pam Bileck, 55, Tracee Talavera, 57, Julianne McNamara, 58, and Kathy Johnson, 64—on the Kelly Clarkson Show July 25.
Dusserre said she was glad Retton, who was hospitalized last fall with a rare form of pneumonia, was feeling better, adding, "Keep getting better."
Johnson, meanwhile, told Retton, "We have your back. Always have, always will. You got this."
As for how Retton, 56, reacted to the moment? Emotional, the retired gymnast called the video "so special."
Of course, this isn’t the first time she’s heard from her fellow Los Angeles Olympics athletes, as Retton revealed the “84 Squad” has a group text.
"Of course, that was 40 years ago, and we're still best friends, still sisters," she expressed to Kelly Clarkson. "We've helped each other go through life, you know, the good and the bad, seeing each other through that and always supporting one another."
At age 16, the West Virginia native became the first American woman to win the individual all-around Olympic gold medal. At the 1984 Olympics, held in Los Angeles and boycotted by most members of the Soviet Union amid the Cold War, she also took home two silver and two bronze medals.
And while reflecting on the games, during which she and her teammates won silver in the team all-round competition, she noted how it felt to set a new precedent for the next generations of U.S. gymnasts.
"I look back and my inspirations were Russian, Romania, East Germans," she told Clarkson. "But we changed it."
And this newest generation of U.S. gymnasts includes Simone Biles, returning for her third Olympics, as well as Jade Carey, Sunisa Lee and Jordan Chiles, who will each mark their second Olympic Games in Paris. Rounding out the team is 16-year-old Hezly Rivera.
For more about the 2024 Paris Olympic gymnastics team representing USA, keep reading.
There’s a reason Simone Biles is called the G.O.A.T.
The 27-year-old from Texas is the most-decorated gymnast in history—racking up seven Olympic medals (four golds, one silver and two bronze) from the 2016 and 2020 Games as well as 30 World Championship medals (23 golds, four silver and three bronze).
However, Biles’ gymnastics journey—which began at age 6—hasn’t been without challenges. At the 2020 Olympics, she experienced the “twisties" during the women’s team final.
While it wasn’t an easy decision and she feared what the world would think, Biles knew she had to take care of herself. So, she withdrew from that event and others—sparking an important discussion on mental health.
Biles won silver with her team and returned to win bronze in balance beam. However, she questioned if she would compete again.
So, the champion took the time she needed for her mental and physical health.
"I didn’t want to be afraid of the sport anymore," she said in Netflix's Simone Biles Rising. "Because so much has happened in the sport, so much has scared the living s--t out of me that I couldn’t have it take that one last thing from me. Also ending on my terms.”
Biles went on to win gold in many events at the 2023 World and 2023 and 2024 U.S. Gymnastics Championships. And she’s excited for Paris.
“The only thing I have to prove is to myself that I can get out there and do it again,” Biles—who’s married to NFL player Jonathan Owens—told Today. “I think we’re gonna get the job done.”
Born in Minnesota in 2003, Sunisa “Suni” Lee started training in gymnastics at age 6 and continued to vault her way to success.
During the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, the 21-year-old made history as the first Asian American woman to win the gold medal in the all-around competition. She also won silver with her teammates and bronze in the uneven bars.
After the Games, Lee enrolled in Auburn University, where she competed for the school’s gymnastics team. With her sights set on returning for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the athlete announced in November 2022 that her next collegiate season would be her last. However, Lee’s time on the squad was cut short as she shared in April 2023 that she was dealing with an issue involving her kidneys.
In June 2024, following her performance at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Lee told E! News she was “doing really good” health-wise. She qualified for the Olympic team soon after and is proud of how far she’s come.
“I think I would give myself a medal for not giving up,” Lee added. “There has been so much that I could have given up on and so many things that have happened to where I could have just put this aside and moved on with my life. But I wanted better for myself, and I also wanted to be able to walk away from this Olympics or this quad knowing that I gave everything that I had and not regret anything.”
Named after fellow sports great Michael Jordan, Jordan Chiles entered gymnastics at age 6 and quickly advanced through the levels of competition—adding to her trophy shelf along the way.
Despite her success, the 23-year-old didn’t always feel welcomed.
“Every single time I went into a competition, I was like, ‘Well, what are they going to say this time?’” Chiles recalled to ELLE in a July 2024 interview. “I was racially attacked. I was always told, ‘You’re not the typical gymnast. You look like a man. You’re too muscular.’”
After feeling like “gymnastics didn’t want me,” Chiles continued, she considered leaving the sport. Instead, Biles invited her to train at her Texas gym in 2018.
“I wish I could take that part of my life back,” the athlete from Washington added, “but at the same time, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today if those things hadn’t happened, because they made me stronger, more confident, and helped me understand who I am as a person. But it did take me a while to get the love back. I can tell you that.”
Fast-forward a few years, they both competed at the 2020 Olympics—where Chiles filled in after Biles withdrew from the team final—and they took home the team silver.
The UCLA gymnast has also gone viral, earning a perfect 10 for her 2023 NCAA Championship performance set to 90s hip-hop and securing a spot at the 2024 Olympics with her Beyoncé-inspired routine.
Jade Carey can thank her dad (who’s also her coach) and mom for her introduction to gymnastics.
“My parents owned a gym when I was born,” the 24-year-old, who’s been training since 2002, stated in her USA Gymnastics bio, “so I was always in the gym playing!”
Carey started competing at the elite level in 2017 and joined the 2020 Olympics team just a few years later. However, things didn’t go according to plan.
Carey struggled with her footwork on her run towards the vault, which resulted in her performing a different routine, not sticking her landing and coming in eighth place. Still, the gymnast from Arizona didn’t give up, and she won the gold in the floor exercise event shortly after.
“I’m just really proud of myself for turning it around after vault,” she told Olympics.com in a video at the time. “It was really hard, especially at first because I was so upset. But my dad just told me we had to let it go and we could turn the worst day into the best day.”
While Carey has certainly had several moments of redemption—including winning the gold in vault at the 2022 World Championships—she’s looking for another at the 2024 Olympics.
“I thought after the Olympics I would be done and just go to college and enjoy it,” the Oregon State University athlete told the outlet in another clip. “But after the experience that I had, it made me want to go back because I feel like I'm capable of more."
Hezly Rivera is ready to make her Olympics debut.
And she’s doing it less than two months after turning 16—making her the youngest member of the entire U.S. team to be competing at the 2024 Games.
“I was ecstatic because everything I’ve been working for finally paid off,” Rivera told E! News in July. “I heard my name, and I was shocked. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! I made the team!’ I almost couldn’t believe it.”
But make no mistake: While Rivera is a first-timer at the Olympics, she’s certainly no rookie. The athlete from New Jersey was the 2024 Winter Cup balance beam champion and won first in the all-around, uneven bars and balance beam events for the junior division at the 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
As for how Rivera got her start in gymnastics, it all began just over a decade ago.
“At the age of 5 I attended a friends birthday party that was celebrated in a gymnastics facility,” she noted in her USA Gymnastics bio, “and the staff at the facility approached my parents and told them that they should try to have me try out for the team and that's what they did.”
Joscelyn Roberson is one of two traveling replacement gymnasts for the 2024 U.S. women’s Olympic team. And let’s just say, the 18-year-old from Texas is pretty excited about it.
“THIS! IS! EVERYTHING!” she wrote on Instagram in July after qualifying. “I am going to Paris!!!! Dreams really do come true. See you guys there!”
While she’s been practicing since 2009, Roberson has recently seen her gymnastics career reach a new level. According to NBC Sports, after the athlete made her senior nationals debut in 2022 and placed 18th in the all-around, her mom got a job in Houston. Roberson had the opportunity to attend World Champions Centre—the gymnastics training facility run by Biles’ family—and she took it.
“Having people I could relate to every single day,” she told the outlet in 2023, “it worked wonders for me.”
At the 2023 Winter Cup, Roberson placed first in vault and second in balance beam. She also won first in vault at the 2023 Xfinity U.S. Gymnastics Championships.
Leanne Wong is also a traveling replacement athlete for the 2024 women’s gymnastics team at the Olympics.
The 20-year-old from Kansas was originally an alternate for the 2020 Games in Tokyo. But after fellow alternate Kara Eaker tested positive for COVID-19, they both had to quarantine.
“After the last Olympics and getting quarantined and then just being stuck in my hotel room, I think that really gave me time to think about what I wanted to do after that,” Wong recalled to Olympics.com in May. “That’s why I decided to go back to elite gymnastics after that and go to my first worlds.”
And she did just that—winning a silver and a bronze in the 2021 World Championships. Wong also took home the gold in the 2022 and 2023 World Championships with her team. In addition, she competes with the University of Florida Gators, being named the NCAA uneven bars champion earlier this year.