Mary Lou Retton Reveals Qualities Of Success

	Michael James - Transport Topics
	Mary Lou Retton

SAN DIEGO — The qualities that make an athlete a champion can make champions in business too, Olympic gold medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton said at a breakfast during the American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference.

Retton, who became the first American female gymnast to win an Olympic gold when she nailed a vault for a perfect score of 10 to take the 1984 all-around title, shared her Olympic story and related it to the business world.

For example, in business one must learn to overcome limits, which Retton did athletically by breaking a gymnastics stereotype. The typical female gymnast at the time was slender and balletic, while Retton was more muscular and powerfully built. To help make her point, Retton mimicked her legendary coach, Bela Karolyi, and his Romanian accent, saying, “Mary Lou, she is not quite the butterfly.”

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But her nontraditional gymnastics build was not the only adversity Retton had to overcome to win an Olympic title. Six weeks before the Los Angeles Summer Games, she had surgery to clean out loose cartilage in her knee, and did three months worth of rehabilitation in the short time before the Olympics.

Determination, consistency and confidence were other qualities Retton cited as keys to her Olympic success, and they were also qualities she said could turn trucking companies into champions of their industry.