Mary Lou Retton Olympic gold-winning gymnast in ICU

You would be amazed at how little wealth Olympic champs have.
Outside of a handful

 

There isn’t a ton of money in these camps.

 

My cousins did gymnastics and their weekly camps were over $1,000 each. Overnight camps with a even college level gymnists could cost hundreds of dollars each.

I know because most athletes aren't in big money sports. Mary Lou Retton was one of those handful in a prominent sport who also was very marketable.

 

Sad situation but has to be said. Rich or not, her estate could've handled catastrophic care insurance moreso than a hourly worker living paycheck to paycheck.

I guess no one's Principles are beyond an old fashioned bailout.

Anyhow I wish her a full recovery and maybe some self reflection on her personal decisions vs public positions.

 

I am in the field, I know what the camps pay out. It’s not as much as you think. Most of the tuition is to pay for facilities or venue.

I’m not gonna talk about Mary Lou’s finances. I’ve known her and her daughters for 20 years. They’re good people, have had a rough stretch the last few years. But she donates a ton to the area.

 

Also, outside of a handful of gymnasts. Majority don’t get much in endorsements. Their biggest payday is tour after Olympics.
National teams don’t pay hardly anything, specially for 36+ hr of workouts a week.
Almost every national team member is subsidized by their club.

 

Right, I don't want her to die or anything, but I think it's sick when people with access to money use these fundraiser tools to get people who really don't have financial freedom to bail them out.

 

On a related note I and another Judo instructor were talking about Ronda Rousey the other night. She's didn't win a gold but has made a lot of money capitalizing off of her Olympic performance, then into the UFC and now into movies. She is the handful of athletes that have made it big.

I don't know Ronda well but I know her mom who was also a great Judo athlete. I suspect her mom is giving her plenty of advice about saving your money and preparing her for when tough times do happen.

 

Unfortunately a lot of these Olympic athletes don’t have good advice or good people helping them.
And I hate to say it but majority are so sheltered that they have no real life experiences to fall back on

 

Again I don't wish her ill and am glad to hear she raised the money she needed and hopefully she makes a full recovery. I do find it questionable though for someone who had as many endorsements as she had and is living in a 9,000 SF house to have the type of financial troubles she did and also to not have health insurance.

 

Yes I agree this is a problem and we hear it a lot about pro-athletes who've lost all their money.

 

The divorce was not good.
Endorsement money doesn’t last. Honestly not sure why she wouldn’t have insurance right now.
Either way, she isn’t as well off as people want to believe. That’s not specific to her.
I know multiple Olympic medalists that are insurance salesman and similar


Edit- and that’s in multiple disciplines. Track and field, boxing, gymnastics

 

Setting up a donation fund helps people to help the person. It's not about the money or the need, people want to express their support and help and this is a modern-day way to do it. Stop trying to rationalize the financials.

 

This is what I have read/heard too. Like sometimes these folks just end up as substitute teachers and uber drivers. It's crazy how little that medal amounts to if you do not catch fire during your 15 seconds of fame.

Also not to be understated. Olympians are like PhDs of athletics. They train and train and train to do ONE specific athletic event the entire first 20+ years of their lives (when they would otherwise be finding ways to make a living) and then once they hit adulthood they are basically left to their own devices. Its a recipe for disaster unless you have a very strong support system around you.

In MLR's case, like I said, she made her bones when she was really young. Who knows where that money went. Lord know I'd have blown it all at that age.

 

We're all victims of American healthcare. But yes dude, she got bushwhacked by a deadly virus. If that ain't a victim, I don't know what is.

 

Not to delve too much into personal stuff, but my business partner is an Olympian and world champion. He is an awesome guy but knows very little about normal living.
These niche athletes that train ridiculous amounts from an early age don’t have time to experience real world things, they’re very naive and need guidance often times.

I train tons of kids and adults. But one thing I tell them is to not let it consume you, if you need time to have “fun” go do it.

 

Not everyone seems to understand this, which is sad.

 

Exactly this, at least that is the original intention of these GoFundMe drives. However: 1) there is more skepticism now on these because there is a lot of GoFundMe abuse and overuse. For example, I saw somebody set one up strictly on the basis they had a baby..not a sick baby, or a sick mother, or anything out of the ordinary. They decided to have a baby, their choice, and now they are requesting financial support from other people because of the baby.....and 2) there is a generation of people out there that believe even when times are tough, asking people for money (outside of your close personal circle) comes off as tacky.

 

I agree American healthcare has many problems. I also agree it sucks to be sick and wish her a full recovery. What I don't agree with is not getting health insurance. I understand even with health insurance medical expenses can be burdensome that said I would feel better about helping out knowing that someone was also doing all they could already to help their expenses.

And yes I understand donating is more about expressing sympathy. In this case though sympathy is tempered by what we see are the actions they are taking to help themselves.

 

Irrelevant comment:

It would have been so cool if she married Johnny Rotten.

And even if they don't marry, someone could name a band Mary Lou Rotten.

Spoiler

Gymnastic punk rock in leotards.