In a new interview, the 1984 Olympic champion, Mary Lou Retton, opened up about the public scrutiny she faced regarding her weight, even though she had a petite frame.

Mary Lou Retton has experienced the immense pressure Olympic athletes endure while training for the Games.

At the tender age of 12, she moved from her home in Fairmont, West Virginia to Houston. She lived with a host family there to train under the renowned gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi, who had promised to transform her into a star.

Four years later, at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Retton’s dedication bore fruit. She became the first American woman to clinch the gold in the women’s all-around event, making her an overnight sensation nationwide.

Reflecting on the moments before her monumental win, Retton, now 56, shared, “My coach Bela Karolyi looked at me and said, ‘Mary Lou, you need to give a 10.’ He had never said that before.”

Determined to rise to the challenge, she thought, “You’re putting pressure on me? I’ll show you!” and then executed the most technically perfect vault she could.

Recalling that triumphant moment, Retton revealed, “You can see on the video that I was smiling before my feet touched the floor when I stuck the landing. The Pauley Pavilion was shaking with all the cheering. They were all shouting, ‘Ten! Ten! Ten!’”

While the victory shot her to stardom, Retton explains that her fame came with significant challenges.

“I was starved,” she confessed, remembering the expectations to look like her extremely thin Eastern European gymnastics peers. “I was considered the fat one.”

Over the years, many top gymnasts have accused Karolyi and his wife Marta, both now retired, of being verbally and psychologically abusive.

Marta Karolyi refuted these claims in a 2018 interview, stating, “Verbally, we were not abusive. Emotionally, it depends on the person. You have to be a strong person to handle the pressure.”

Retton, however, felt the impact of these pressures deeply. Not only her coaches but also the media viewed her as “a big girl.”

“At 4’9″ and 94 pounds, I was considered a big girl! They dubbed me ‘the fat one,’ even though I wasn’t fat in any way,” she said, expressing her hurt. “It hurts to be called something that you’re not.”

She also shared how people would say, “‘You are heavy. This is not what gymnastics is supposed to look like.’ They even compared my thighs to Earl Campbell’s, the football running back, which wasn’t a compliment.”

The fame, scrutiny, and the fact that she was merely 16 when all this attention was showered upon her left her feeling very lonely.

“It was naive to think that winning the Olympics would let my life return to normal,” she said. “That didn’t happen. My fame level was crazy.”

She even recounted unveiling a new Wheaties box with basketball star Michael Jordan, who advised her, “Mary Lou, fame doesn’t change you. It changes everyone around you.” She felt like the same little girl from West Virginia, but “everyone around changed, making me feel very alone.”

Today, when she sees gymnasts who pride themselves on being strong and muscular, she feels accomplished.

“I feel like I started that,” she said with a smile.