Olympian Mary Lou Retton speaks out in first interview since life-threatening health scare

Mary Lou Retton, former Olympic champion, is speaking out for the first time after facing “death in the eyes” while battling a severe bout of pneumonia last fall.

“I am blessed to be here because there is a time when they were about to put me on life support,” Retton, 55, told Today‘s Hoda Kotb.

“Usually my interviews are, ‘Oh yes — it felt great to win the Olympics,’ you know?” Retton, who was using portable oxygen during the interview, said. “This is serious and this is life.”

Retton, who made history at the 1984 Olympics, was hospitalized in intensive care in October with a rare form of pneumonia.

One of her four daughters broke the news when they asked fans for donations to help cover the five-time Olympian’s medical bills. Retton’s daughter, McKenna Lane Kelley, claimed she was not insured at the time of her hospitalization.

Kelley stated at the time that her mother was “fighting for her life” and “not able to breathe on her own.”

The crowd-funding effort raised more than $459,000.

LOS ANGELES – AUGUST 1984: Mary Lou Retton of the USA waves to the crowd during the Women’s Gymnastics competition of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games held from July 30 to August 3, 1984 at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by David Madison/Getty Images)

Two weeks after revealing the devastating diagnosis, Retton was released from the hospital.

The Olympic champion broke her silence on October 30.

“I’m beyond blessed to have the opportunity to make this statement,” Mary Lou wrote on Instagram. “I am overwhelmed with the love and support from the world as I fight. I am forever grateful to you all!”

“I’m with family continuing to slowly recover and staying very positive as I know this recovery is a long and slow process.”

Gold medal winner Mary Lou Retton poses for a photograph after the awards ceremony for the Women’s Gymnastics Combined event at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games. (Photo by © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

“I’m not great yet, I know it’s going to be a really long road — I don’t know how long, I may indefinitely need oxygen — but you have no idea how blessed and how grateful I was for this holiday season,” she told Kotb.

Retton admitted she has “no idea what the future holds,” but she has so much to look forward to and doesn’t plan to give up.

“I’m not going to give up. I have no idea what the future holds for me. I don’t know if I’m going to have lasting issues with my lungs. They don’t know. I wish I had answers. But I will never give up, it’s not in me.”

Mary Lou Retton, we wish you the best in your continued recovery.