She might have won five medals as a teenager, but Mary Lou Retton says she’s a “work in progress” like any other 40-year-old working mother and wife.
A motivational speaker and corporate spokeswoman, Retton was in Colorado Springs for the culinary summit the U.S Olympic Committee and Tyson Foods hosted to introduce its “Performance Nutrition” initiative that is preparing American athletes for the Summer Games in Beijing.
“I have to work out in the morning or I won’t get it done,” says Retton, who lives in Houston with her husband and four daughters, ages 5, 7, 10 and 12. The two oldest are gymnasts with tough training schedules. “We eat in shifts,” she says. She feeds the younger girls dinner by 6, gives them baths, and “they’re asleep by 8,” she says. The older daughters train until about 9 p.m., when they eat a late dinner.
They aren’t picky eaters, but Retton says “all four have different tastes.” She says she works to feed them meals that are “lean, healthy and natural,” something she learned long ago.
“Bela Karolyi and other trainers instilled in us the importance of eating quality lean protein at every meal,” she says of the team on which she won five medals at the 1984 Olympics, including becoming the first American to win the all- around gold medal in women’s gymnastics.
Instead of those eight- hour gymnastics sessions she had as a youth, Retton today stays in shape with five workouts a week. She typically spends 45-minute cardio sessions on an elliptical trainer or bicycle, as well as weight training. “I don’t do it to look good in a leotard,” but to be healthy, she says.
Retton says her training weight when she competed in the Olympics was 93-95 pounds, which is in ideal proportion to her 4-foot, 9- inch height. And while she maintains that weight today, “I don’t get caught up in numbers, but I figure I was pregnant or getting back to my prepregnancy weight for 10 years.”
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it reported an incorrect number of Olympic medals won by Mary Lou Retton. She won a gold, two silver, and two bronze medals in the 1984 Olympics.
