Mary Lou Retton’s family says they are making “remarkable” progress in the fight against the rare form of pneumonia

The family of Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton says she is making “remarkable” progress battling a rare form of pneumonia that put her in intensive care.

McKenna Kelley, one of Retton’s four daughters, posted an update on Instagram On Saturday it was said that 55-year-old Retton’s breathing was getting stronger and her “road to recovery was progressing steadily.”

“Although it is a long journey, it is incredibly encouraging to see these improvements,” Kelley wrote. “She’s starting to respond to the treatments.”

The family announced earlier this week that Retton – who became the first American gymnast to win the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics – was “fighting for her life” and unable to breathe on her own after she suffered a stroke Pneumonia had been diagnosed.

The donations went toward a fundraiser the family set up to offset Retton’s medical expenses after the family said she had no health insurance. As of Saturday afternoon, more than 7,500 donations had been received, totaling more than $415,000.

Retton was 16 when she became an icon of the U.S. Olympic movement when she won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Games. The Fairmont, West Virginia, native also won two silver and two bronze medals at those Olympics, helping to bring gymnastics — a sport long dominated by Eastern European powers like Romania and the Soviet Union — to the United States to make it mainstream