Mary Lou & Matt

During the 1984 Olympics I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated about American gymnast Mary Lou Retton arriving in Los Angeles and driving through the city hoping to spot Matt Dillon.  I immediately liked her. I also was a huge fan of Matt Dillon & was jealous of the fact that she might actually catch a glimpse of him walking down the street in L.A.   Mary Lou went on to win the gold medal in the All-Around competition of women’s gymnastics.  She was the only American ever to accomplish this.  I hope that’s not a question in the trivia portion of our Shenanigan Olympics since I just gave away the answer.   Anyway, Mary Lou was so much fun to watch in those Olympics.  She was small, but very powerful, which I admired being a gymnast myself, although I was too tall and lanky to be any good.  My claim to fame came when I beat my older sister on the beam in a high school meet.   She was a way better gymnast than I was, but not on that day! Robin claims she fell off the beam a few times during her routine causing extra deductions to her score, but that’s not how I remember it!  Pretty sad that that one 90 second beam routine was my one moment of gymnastics glory, but they say gymnastics is the original extreme sport and I’m happy to have been a part of the “Gymnastics World “for most of my youth. (Shout out!) I’ll be looking for Mary Lou in London.  I need to ask her if she ever spotted Matt Dillon.