Family says Mary Lou Retton is making progress in battle with pneumonia

The family of Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton says she is making “remarkable” progress in her battle with a rare form of pneumonia that landed her in intensive care.

McKenna Kelley, one of Retton’s four daughters, posted an update on Instagram on Saturday that said the 55-year-old Retton’s breathing is becoming stronger and her “path to recovery is steadily progressing.”

“Though it’s a lengthy journey, witnessing these improvements is incredibly heartening,” Kelley wrote. “She’s beginning to respond to treatments.”

The family disclosed earlier this week that Retton — who became the first American female gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics — was “fighting for her life” and unable to breathe on her own after being diagnosed with pneumonia.

Donations have poured in to a fundraiser the family set up to help offset Retton’s medical expenses after the family said she didn’t have medical insurance. There have been more than 7,500 donations totaling more than $415,000 by Saturday afternoon.

Retton was 16 when she became an icon of the U.S. Olympic movement during her gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Summer Games.

The native of Fairmont, W.V., also won two silver and two bronze medals at the Olympics to help bring gymnastics — a sport long dominated by Eastern European powers like Romania and the Soviet Union — into the mainstream in the U.S.