Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton incoherently berated officers during her May DUI arrest — insisting she’s a “gold medalist” and oddly complimenting the cop on his “beautiful blue eyes” while failing her three field sobriety tests, newly-released bodycam footage showed.
Retton — once hailed as “America’s sweetheart” after taking home gold in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics — became combative, repeatedly huffing, “Oh, come on,” as the officer ordered her to follow his finger and later walk a straight line in the parking lot of a West Virginia AutoZone on May 17.
“You should be pretty good at this,” the cop quipped, according to the shocking footage.
Mary Lou Retton’s mug shot following her arrest in May. City of Fairmont
The 57-year-old former athlete then exclaimed, “Yeah, I mean upside down.”
Retton, grinning wildly, continuously failed to keep her head still while tracking the officer’s finger during her first test — prompting the cop to stop multiple times and remind her to stop moving.
“You’re making me feel like I’m … I see it,” Retton muttered, as the officer instructed her to focus on his finger.
“I see it, I see it, I see it. I’m looking at your beautiful blue eyes.”
The patient cop directed a flustered Retton to walk in a straight line with her hands at her side, but she interrupted, reminding him, “I’m an Olympic gold medalist,” the wild footage showed.
Mary Lou Retton was ultimately arrested with a DUI. Fairmont City Police Department
The former Olympian, wearing a bright yellow shirt and brown shorts, stumbled through the impairment screening before the cop notified another officer that she failed the prompts.
A stunned Retton, who refused a breathalyzer, shot back that she wasn’t intoxicated and proceeded to struggle while the officers tried to cuff her, according to the video.
“I’m gonna go to jail,” she slurred in disbelief.
Retton is seen from a police body cam taking a sobriety test. Fairmont City Police Department
“Are you kidding me?! Oh my God, no!”
She told a loved one, “Oh my god, Gia, they think I’m drunk,” as the relative told police that Retton had just come from the nail salon.
The mom of four was arrested in the Mountain State after police pulled over her Porsche and found her in the driver’s seat with a screw-top bottle of wine.
Although Retton was pulled over in West Virginia, she told the cops she only had a Texas-issued license — but that it was not on her at the time — and that she only had her passport.
The officers escorted Retton down to the station, but upon her arrival there, she told the cop, “I mean, really … I know, you know [who I am.]”
The American superstar was on the verge of tears as she squinted at the camera in her mug shot, which was also released Tuesday, before breaking down at the station.
“Put me in the cell,” she told officers.
“Y’all are terrible. I nearly died from double pneumonia. I’ll die here, and you guys will live with that. I’m crazy right now, I’m so lightheaded,” Retton added, later declining an offer from cops to provide her with extra oxygen, the footage showed.
She made headlines in 2023 when she was hospitalized and in the ICU with a rare form of pneumonia, before recovering, but still relying on the help of an oxygen tank, which she was seen using during the traffic stop.
Retton was slapped with a $100 fine related to the drunken episode, which is standard for first-time, non-aggravated offenses in West Virginia.
She later took “full responsibility” for what occurred after she entered a plea of no contest to a charge of non-aggravated DUI.
“What happened was completely unacceptable,” she said in a statement released to People through her lawyer.
“I make no excuses. To my family, friends and my fans: I have let you down, and for that I am deeply sorry.”
