The American gymnastics legend Mary Lou Retton has stirred up a storm in U.S. media after she posted a message “criticizing” Simone Biles’ thoughtless actions at the 2024 Olympic Games. Many believe this is ‘a betrayal of America.’ | HO

At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Retton became the first female gymnast to ever win gold for Team USA. Now, she thinks Biles is the best gymnast she’s seen in the history of the sport.

Mary Lou Retton was to the 1984 Summer Olympics what Simone Biles is to the 2016 Rio Games: A gymnastics force to be reckoned with. At the 1984 summer games in Los Angeles, 16-year-old Retton became the first American woman to ever win a gymnastics gold medal for Team USA.

Retton took home the coveted individual all-around gold medal at the games, as well as a silver in vault, a bronze in uneven bars, a bronze in floor exercise, and a silver medal for the team finals. If Instagram existed back then, the lady would’ve scored all the double taps for her killer Olympic performance. (She did get her face on a Wheaties box, which is probably the 1984 equivalent of Insta-fame).

Today, Retton, now 48, gets to watch Simone Biles and Aly Raisman take to the gym floor in Rio, competing in the individual all-around event she left her mark on in 1984. And while she’s ecstatic for both of them, it’s Biles that’s got her fangirling.

Retton spoke with SELF while promoting her new partnership with vitamin and supplement company Nature’s Bounty, and she said 19-year-old Biles is the best gymnast she’s seen in the “history of gymnastics.”

“It’s hard to compare—my Olympics were 32 years ago, and I was the Queen Bee of my era—but what she is is truly special,” Retton says. “It’s unique. It’s something you can improve upon, but you don’t teach it. She’s just got that natural gift of explosiveness and athleticism.”

As for the pressure that comes with performing at the Olympics, Retton says she thrived on that back in 1984, and she knows Biles will do the same.

“Simone is so good. She’s insane. She’s just like, a super freak,” she says. “She’s so gifted and so talented, that she can handle the pressure. She hasn’t lost a competition in four years.”

Retton—who’s now a mother of four daughters who compete in gymnastics and cheerleading—lives in Houston where Biles trains, and she’s personally offered some advice to the rising star, as well as the other women in the Final Five. For Biles especially, she told her the craziness of Rio will only intensify when she gets back to the U.S. But she knows the gymnast is prepared for that. For now, Retton hopes Biles and the other women on Team USA soak in the experience in Rio—and, most importantly, leave it all on the gym floor.

“This is what you’ve trained for, and the hype is here,” Retton says she told the gymnasts. “Just go do what you do, don’t overthink things. I’m so not worried about any of those girls, because they’re just rocking it.”

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