Mary Lou Retton Arrested for DUI

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

ETA…Hey does this mean she won’t be hired to promote LA 2028?

Yeah but it makes her a shoe-in for the VP spot later that year.

 

[RichardL]

It's the bottle of wine on the passenger seat that I keep coming back to.

"container of wine" is serving boxed wine energy for me, not gonna lie...

 

[JaJa]

Maybe a little compassion? Alcoholism is a terrible disease which people struggle with throughout their entire lives. I am no fan of hers but this is just a sad situation.

 

[Sasha]

It is, but to be frank my compassion dries up when people get behind the wheel and endanger others. I've known people who have lost loved ones that way, and it was a horrible thing to see them go through.

 

[Bob]

It is, but to be frank my compassion dries up when people get behind the wheel and endanger others. I've known people who have lost loved ones that way, and it was a horrible thing to see them go through.

This one million percent

 

[JaJa]

It is, but to be frank my compassion dries up when people get behind the wheel and endanger others. I've known people who have lost loved ones that way, and it was a horrible thing to see them go through.

For sure. But there is deliberate evil behavior and then there is behavior which results in great evil being done but has no evil intent. Alcoholics are out of control and need help. I see both sides of this. Which is not to say there should be no consequences for Mary Lou. There should be.

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

"container of wine" is serving boxed wine energy for me, not gonna lie...

I was thinking "bucket".

 

[QuietColours]

MLR has at this point made a habit of putting other people at risk.

1. She actively campaigned against the Protecting Young Victims from Sexual Abuse and Safe Sport Authorization Act of 2017
2. She chose to film herself driving while actively watching TV (a live stream of a college meet)
3. She refused to vaccinate for COVID, putting others at risk
3a. She 'couldn't afford' insurance and outsourced the cost of her health care (necessary due to her negligence).
4. She chose to drive while very drunk and apparently still actively consuming alcohol--while driving a very expensive car despite having apparently been experiencing severe financial hardship, according to her Go Fund Me and statements she's made about her ability to worker as speaker afterwards

I think most people are through with granting grace for what is a consistent pattern of behavior--she has consistently shown she is not interested in thinking of people beside herself, and that she is interested in endangering the lives and safety of others if she feels like it.

When she publicly acknowledges this and we see evidence of actions she's making to change this, I'll be willing to talk about compassion.

 

[Denn]

Has she shared that she actually has a problem with alcoholism? If so, then I think you all have points. But just because she got this DUI doesn't necessarily mean....

 

[MaryClare]

Maybe a little compassion? Alcoholism is a terrible disease which people struggle with throughout their entire lives. I am no fan of hers but this is just a sad situation.

Sorry, but there’s no indication that she is struggling with alcoholism. The majority of people who drink and drive are not alcoholics.

Even if she is, it’s still a choice to then get behind the wheel.

 

[naimushina]

In a better universe Kathy Johnson-Clarke would be the icon of American gymnastics. In the best universe, the 1984 Olympics wouldn't have been boycotted and Mostepanova could've had her moment.
MLR's gymnastics was quite honestly never all that. Her AA floor was so overscored, and her interview before the 1985(?) American Cup shows that she had a lot of vanity. Also she/her agent were quite rude and disrespectful to her 1984 teammates.

 

[Angelika]

My random hate on MLR is that she used Teodora's floor music - petty but whatever!

 

[naimushina]

My random hate on MLR is that she used Teodora's floor music - petty but whatever!

100% and she did not do it justice unlike artistry queens Teodora and Emilia

 

[Puffin]

My random hate on MLR is that she used Teodora's floor music - petty but whatever!

It was the Karolyi favourite music at several consecutive Olympics
1976 - Teodora
1980 - Emilia/Trudi
1984 - Mary Lou

Teodora was the best choreography though

 

[naimushina]

It was the Karolyi favourite music at several consecutive Olympics
1976 - Teodora
1980 - Emilia/Trudi
1984 - Mary Lou

Teodora was the best choreography though

i hope somebody brings it back soon, i love that music! hopefully different choreography though

 

[JaJa]

The majority of people who drink and drive are not alcoholics.

Not so. I know people often say this but the actual scientific data says otherwise.

Addiction, Drinking Behavior, and Driving Under the Influence - PMC

Using a survey of drinkers (N=1,634), we evaluated alternative explanations of heavy and binge drinking, driving under the influence (DUI), DUI arrests, speeding citations, and chargeable accidents. Explanations included socializing, short-term ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

" Most consistent relationships were between substance use and alcohol addiction and dependent variables for (1) binge drinking and (2) DUI episodes."

 

[MaryClare]

Not so. I know people often say this but the actual scientific data says otherwise.

Addiction, Drinking Behavior, and Driving Under the Influence - PMC

Using a survey of drinkers (N=1,634), we evaluated alternative explanations of heavy and binge drinking, driving under the influence (DUI), DUI arrests, speeding citations, and chargeable accidents. Explanations included socializing, short-term ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

" Most consistent relationships were between substance use and alcohol addiction and dependent variables for (1) binge drinking and (2) DUI episodes."

All that means is that people who are alcoholics have a high chance of committing a DUI offence. It doesn’t mean that they make up the majority.

 

[OnlyBeansOnToast]

" Most consistent relationships were between substance use and alcohol addiction and dependent variables for (1) binge drinking and (2) DUI episodes."

That study (and others like it) show that someone who has an alcohol dependency problem is more likely to drive while under the influence than someone who does not. Which makes sense, because if you're drinking heavilly all day every day then the odds are you're going to be drunk when you're behind the wheel at some point (as my dad demonstrated many times, often with young me in the back, before his liver packed up). The literature also shows that alcoholics make up a disportionately high share of drunk drivers: a sample of drunk drivers is more likey to contain someone with a drinking problem than an equivalent sample of law-abiding motorists.

But none of this contradicts what @MaryClaire said, that in terms of raw numbers most drunk drivers are not alcoholics, and that we shouldn't assume someone has a problem just because they've been caught driving while over the limit.

And in any case, as others have said, even if she does have a problem it's very much an explanation rather than an excuse. I don't disagree with you that alcoholism is a terrible disease that destroys lives, but it's not just the drunk who suffers and most of my empathy lies with the other parties involved.

 

[wishfulgoddess]

Is she even an alcoholic? I have sympathy for people who are suffering from addiction. If the news story was that she has entered rehab for alcohol addiction, she would be getting some sympathy from me in that situation even though she has shown herself to be a repugnant person so many times in the past. As soon as one makes the decision to get behind the wheel whilst intoxicated, all of my sympathy is completely gone. There is no excuse for putting people's lives in danger. I'm glad nobody was hurt because of the decision she made to drive drunk.

 

[JDB]

Problem drinkers are overrepresented among drunk drivers (easy to figure out why). A 57 year-old driving under the influence with a bottle of wine on the passenger seat has a drinking problem. There's no way it's a one-off incident.