SAN JOSE — She used to keep the five Olympic medals in a Wonder Bread bag under her bed. Mary Lou Retton was over herself long before the rest of us.
The precocious teen who 32 years ago cartwheeled into American homes was well grounded for someone always soaring.
“I was going to go to the Olympics and then go back to West Virginia to finish my 10th year of high school,” she said. “God had a different plan for me.”
Retton, 48, laughed when retelling some of those memories Wednesday while in San Jose to promote the U.S. Olympic trials for women’s gymnastics at SAP Center on July 8-10.
America was a gymnastics afterthought when Retton became the first U.S. man or woman to win the all-around Olympic title in 1984.
The U.S. women now are a couple back flips ahead of the rest of the world heading into the Rio Games in August.
“We could send three teams and win gold, silver and bronze,” Retton said.
The Americans are led by Simone Biles, a three-time all-around world champion. She is joined by two Fierce Five stars from the London Olympics — all-around champion Gabby Douglas and floor exercise gold medalist Aly Raisman.
Retton has watched Biles spring onto the world stage from a young age because her daughter has trained with the Olympic favorite in their hometown of Houston.
“She can fall a couple times and still win, she’s that far ahead of everybody else,” Retton said.
Biles’ ascendance can be traced to Retton, whose groundbreaking accomplishments spawned a gymnastics revolution. It has led to Carly Patterson (2004), Nastia Liukin (2008) and Douglas (2012) winning consecutive all-around Olympic titles. Dominique Dawes (team), Shawn Johnson (balance beam) and Shannon Miller (team) also won Olympic gold medals since Retton.
“It is good the U.S. has kept it up all these years, but it is something big to carry on our shoulders so it is kind of stressful,” Biles said this week.
Retton also is credited with opening the door to a more athletic style of tumbling that is Biles’ strength. Retton was the first woman gymnast outside Eastern Europe to win the Olympic title.
“They were all slender, with little ponytails, and graceful and flexible,” Retton recalled. “I was Earl Campbell legs. It was like boom, where did she come from?”
Retton was a high school sophomore when she followed Soviet block sensations Nadia Comaneci and Olga Korbut to the Olympic launching pad.
Retton had moved from West Virginia to Houston to train under Bela and Marta Karolyi, who defected from Romania after coaching Comaneci to perfection at the Montreal Games in 1976.
The storyline got the Hollywood treatment when Retton underwent knee surgery six weeks before the L.A. Games. Physicians told her she didn’t have enough time to recover. The 4-foot-9 gymnast wouldn’t hear it.
“I’m just not a quitter,” Retton said.
Then it took scoring perfect 10s on the final two events, the vault and floor exercise, to win the gold medal by 0.05 of a point over favored Ecaterina Szabo of Romania.
After the floor exercise at UCLA, Bela Karolyi screamed for Retton.
“You need a 10,” he said of the vault.
Retton had never been told to get a certain score, but Karolyi’s words inspired her.
“I remember telling myself, let’s do it on the first one,” she recalled.
Retton knew she had won when Karolyi lifted her in the air before the score appeared on the screen.
Hello Mary Lou, goodbye hearts.
Celebrity happened almost as soon as Retton hit the springboard on that Friday night. The next morning, she and teammate Tracee Talavera of Santa Clara left the athletes village to pick up rings they had ordered just outside the gates.
They were swooped upon by adoring fans.
Retton became the face of a wildly successful Olympics that has endured a lasting legacy.
She was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportswoman of the Year and had her likeness plastered on boxes of Wheaties — the first time General Mills bestowed that honor on a woman athlete.
Retton parlayed her celebrity into being a “fitness ambassador” who promotes eating right and exercising. She also has had roles in movies and television shows.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride, though. Retton has undergone 19 surgeries, including having both hips replaced, partially because of all the pounding as a gymnast. She needs back and shoulder surgery, which won’t be scheduled until after the Rio Games.
“When I say we did 60 to 70 vaults a day, we did — and that was landing on that hard surface,” Retton said.
Joint issues surfaced after she had four children with husband Shannon Kelley, a former Texas football quarterback. Retton’s not complaining about that.
“It is better than any gold medal I could bring home,” she said of daughters aged 21 to 13. Three of them compete in gymnastics. One is at Baylor, the other at Louisiana State and Emma, 13, already is just a step below elite — or international — status.
Retton has been careful not to coach the daughters. She’ll give advice only when asked.
The mother learned how unforgiving kids can be when her second daughter McKenna once was tumbling in the front yard.
When Retton suggested a slight change to her then-6-year-old, McKenna replied, “What do you know?”
“When I say I’m Joe Schmoe mom, I really am,” Retton said. “Oh by the way, I happen to have five Olympic medals, so what?”
Follow Elliott Almond on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond.
