WASHINGTON — US Olympic gold medallist Mary Lou Retton says she is grateful to be alive after a life-threatening battle with a rare form of pneumonia.

"When you face death in the eyes, I have so much to look forward to," the gymnast said in her first interview since she was in hospital last October.

Retton became the first American woman to win the all-around gold in 1984.

"I am blessed to be here because there is a time when they were about to put me on life support," she said.

Speaking to NBC for the first time since her health scare, Retton said there are still unanswered questions about her illness.

"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," she said in the interview that aired on Monday. "I wish I had answers."

After her win in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, Retton was nicknamed "America's Sweetheart". She appeared on Wheaties cereal boxes and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportswoman of the Year.

She was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1997.

Retton, who is now breathing with the help of a nasal oxygen tube, says she is not giving up.

"This is serious and this is life," she says, adding she is thankful to still be here.

Recovering at her home near Houston, Texas, she says it has been difficult discussing her health in the public eye.

"I'm very private," she said. "Usually my interviews are, 'Oh, yes — it felt great to win the Olympics,' you know? This is different."

News first emerged of her battle with pneumonia in early October, when one of her daughters launched a crowdfunding campaign for medical bills because the gymnast did not have health insurance.

The family managed to raise $460,000 (£360,000) prior to her being discharged from hospital.

In the NBC interview, Retton said she was struggling financially after a divorce in 2018 and the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I couldn't afford it," she said. "But who would even know that this was going to happen to me? That's the bottom line, I couldn't afford it."

News of her health scare prompted an outpouring of support from people across the country. — BBC