aged cartilage in her knee. After only one day of rest,
Retton returned to the gym and worked hard at re-
habilitation. She defied her doctor’s expectations
and recovered in time for the Olympics. In the indi-
vidual competition, Retton scored a perfect 10 on
her floor exercise. She then sealed her all-around
gold medal with a perfect 10 on her final apparatus,
the vault. Retton performed her second vault, al-
though it was not necessary, scoring another 10. She
became the first American female athlete to win a
gold medal in gymnastics. She also took home two
silver medals, in team and vault, and two bronze
medals, for uneven bars and floor exercise. Her five
medals were the most won by any athlete at the 1984
Olympics.
Retton, dubbed “America’s Sweetheart” by the
media, capitalized on her fame with national en-
dorsement offers and appearances. Retton’s en-
dorsements for companies such as McDonald’s and
Vidal Sassoon hair products earned her an esti-
mated $1 million in the year following the Olympics.
She also became the first woman to appear on a
Wheaties cereal box. She briefly continued to com-
pete in gymnastics, winning her third American Cup
in 1985. In 1986, however, she retired from gymnas-
tics to attend the University of Texas.
Throughout the 1980’s, Retton remained in the
public eye working as a sportscaster, including act-
ing as commentator for the National Broadasting
Company (NBC) at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul,
South Korea. She also appeared in the filmScrooged
(1988). Her numerous accolades during the 1980’s
included 1984 Sports Illustrated Sportswoman of
the Year and 1984 Associated Press Female Amateur
Athlete of the Year. In 1985, she became the youn-
gest person ever inducted into the U.S. Olympic
Committee’s Olympic Hall of Fame.
Impact Mary Lou Retton inspired a generation of
Americans with her perfect performances in the
floor exercise and vault, which won for her the all-
around gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olym-
pics. One of the first female athletes in America to
earn significant fame and endorsement revenue,
Retton paved the way for future female athletes with
her success.
Further Reading
“Gymnastics: Pathways to the Olympics—The Golden
Girls.”Sports Illustrated88, no. 23 (June 6, 1988):
61-68.
Hoobing, Robert.The 1984 Olympics: Sarajevo and Los
Angeles. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Postal Service,
1984.
Malana S. SalyerSee also Advertising; Olympic boycotts; Olympic
Games of 1984; Sports.Reykjavik Summit
The Event Meeting between U.S. president
Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary
Mikhail Gorbachev over arms control and other
issues
Date October 11-12, 1986
Place Höf ði House, Reykjavik, Iceland
U.S. and Soviet leaders met at this groundbreaking summit
that many participants believed was a key turning point in
the Cold War. While in the end the two sides were unable to
agree upon final terms for the elimination of nuclear weap-
ons, the negotiations at Reykjavik eventually led to crucial
agreements on intermediate-range and strategic nuclear
force reductions.
The summit meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, between
U.S. president Ronald Reagan and Soviet general
secretary Mikhail Gorbachev on October 11-12, 1986,
followed from their first meeting in Geneva, Switzer-
land, in 1985. Though no arms control agreements
were initialed at Geneva, the two leaders of the
world’s most powerful states did declare that a nu-
clear war could not be won by either side and that
such a war should never be fought.
After President Reagan made an impassioned
speech for a nuclear arms reduction accord before
the United Nations in September of 1986, General
Secretary Gorbachev extended an offer for the two
leaders to meet in October, 1986, in either Iceland
or the United Kingdom. In the end, Reykjavik was es-
tablished as the meeting place for what was billed as
an informal tête-à-tête.
The talks began early on the morning of Saturday,
October 11; as agreed, the negotiations were to be
wide-ranging, covering four major thematic areas:
arms control, regional issues, bilateral issues (such
as Jewish and dissident emigration from the Soviet
Union), and human rights. However, in the final
analysis, most commentators and journalists would
report that the primary importance of Reykjavik was824 Reykjavik Summit The Eighties in America