Mary Lou Retton's Arrest Captured on Bodycam — Mugshots of Former Gold Medalist Released
The Olympian's arrest was captured on body cam footage
She made history in 1984 as the first American female gymnast to win an individual all-around gold medalBodycam footage of Mary Lou Retton's May arrest shows her in an apparently distressed state as she tries to perform a sobriety test for West Virginia law enforcement officials.
Retton was arrested on a DUI charge on May 17 in Marion County, W. Va., according to court records reviewed by PEOPLE at the time.
The five-time Olympic medalist was allegedly spotted in her car in a Marion County AutoZone parking lot with a screw-top bottle of wine in her passenger seat, the Associated Press reported, citing a criminal complaint.
Retton, 57, is seen in the bodycam footage obtained by Entertainment Tonight as an officer with the Fairmont City Police Department instructs her to carry out the sobriety test.
As the officer guides her through the steps, Retton appears compliant, though at times she expresses shock at the situation, gasping and saying, "Oh my God."
She appears to struggle to complete the test, which requires her to put her foot up six inches off the ground, and count until instructed by the officer to stop.
Retton appears to struggle to count past nine.
At one point, she seems to have trouble breathing, and has to get her oxygen, tying the tube to her nose while doing the test.
Retton has been relying on daily oxygen since her recovery from a serious bout of pneumonia in 2023 — an illness so severe that doctors briefly believed she might not survive, she told PEOPLE in 2024.
In July 2024, the Dancing with the Stars alum told PEOPLE that she was so gravely ill at one point during her month-long hospital stay that the doctors had told her four daughters she might not make it.
'It's been really hard," she told PEOPLE in 2024. "My lungs are so scarred. It will be a lifetime of recovery. My physicality was the only thing I had and it was taken away from me. It's embarrassing."Retton entered a no contest plea to a non-aggravated DUI charge and was slapped with a $100 fine, standard for first-time, non-aggravated offenses in the area.
Following her arrest, she told PEOPLE in a statement that she is taking accountability for the incident.
"What happened was completely unacceptable. I make no excuses. To my family, friends and my fans: I have let you down, and for that I am deeply sorry," she said through her attorney Edmund J. Rollo.
The Fairmont City Police Department, which made the arrest, was not available for comment at publication time.
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