Unlike nearly all of her contemporaries who complemented their competitors and were never afraid to give someone else credit. All MLR ever did was to hype up her own accomplishments. She did this to justify the major shortcomings of her own athletic resume. Personally I find this incredibly disrespectful to the sport and MLR literally stood on the shoulders of others and called herself tall. If MLR did something once, she would argue that was the same as Eastern Bloc gymnasts, even if those foreign gymnasts had done that same thing 50 times themselves. She even labelled herself a pioneer for American gymnastics.
In a sport where all the top gymnasts never backed down from competing in unfavorable circumstances, MLR did the opposite. She rarely competed outside of the USA. She stuck to domestic competitions that had weak foreign fields. And when she did leave the USA, most of the time it was either Canada or a competition that the Eastern Bloc gymnasts wouldn't be attending. Then came the 1985 World Championships which was an event MLR couldn't skip without losing face. She had effectively run out the clock on dodging the best of the Eastern Bloc. Rather than face them, Retton retired. Retton ended her career having never competed in a World Cup, World Championship, or any event on European soil. During her time American gymnasts competed against a full strength Soviet delegation on five different occasions. Retton missed all five of those competitions.
At this point you can probably say I'm simply being bitter. I'm faulting MLR because she had success as a celebrity when other gymnasts didn't. And you would be right. But it's what Retton did with that success that became the big problem. Retton was the sixth American to win a medal of any kind in women's gymnastics. The five that preceded her are: Tracee Talavera, Julianne McNamara, Cathy Rigby, Kathy Johnson, and Marcia Frederick. All five of them have a track record of advocating for and fighting for reform in gymnastics. Retton has no such track record.
Retton kept quiet as the sport underwent a reckoning in the 1990s after two American gymnasts died. USA Gymnastics underwent a movement very similar to #MeToo but on the topic of eating disorders. That movement ultimately failed to enact any actual reform because the biggest gymnastics star did not support it. MLR had more clout and influence than any other gymnast. She could have easily used her status to bring awareness to an issue. She had the financial stability to not depend on USAG for endorsement deals. Whereas USAG could blacklist any other athlete who spoke out against the abusive culture, MLR was bigger than even USAG. Yet MLR without needing USAG, joined the USAG old guard out of free will. She helped combat any attempts at reform. When an athlete would speak out against the terrible gymnastics culture, USAG simply invoked a counter response from Retton. And Retton's clout and status would drown out any lesser known gymnast in media coverage. She was Penny's biggest ally. But it was what she did during the Nassar scandal that would make Retton so hated among the gymnastics community. Retton privately lobbied Congress against passing a bill that was designed to protect athletes from child sexual assault. The bill was created specifically in response to the Nassar scandal and to fix existing flaws that it had exposed. In the end the only time Mary Lou ever took a stand on anything, was to advocate against protecting children from sexual predators. And as a result people stopped holding back on criticizing her for the way she won in 1984.
