The price of such glories had to be paid later in life.

“She couldn’t even take a full breath when I talked to her, she takes these little panting breaths,” ex-brother-in-law Shaun Kelley, who remains close to her, told The Post.

It’s a far cry from when she proudly became the first female athlete to grace a Wheaties box in her Olympic year.

Retton, now 57, frequently wears an oxygen cannula, remains on medication and has undergone many debilitating hip surgeries that have left her struggling physically. It’s a heavy toll that her career as an Olympian has taken on her body, according to Kelley, who said he last spoke with Retton a few weeks ago.

The once-mighty, 4-foot-9-inch gymnast crashed back into the news on May 17 when she was hit with a DUI after cops in her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia, allegedly found her in her 2019 Porsche Macan in an AutoZone parking lot. An arrest report claimed she reeked of booze, was slurring her words and had a bottle of wine by her side.

Somewhat ironically, she was just two miles from her namesake Mary Lou Retton Drive when it happened.

Kelley said Retton — who also has a home in Boerne, Texas — continues to undergo treatment for long COVID and lung problems and he was alarmed by the alleged presence of the wine.

“She is on all these meds and one drink could throw off her brain chemistry,” he claimed, adding that since the incident — from which she quickly bailed out of jail — “she is healing” and lying low in West Virginia.

“She’s a great mother and a giving person, she raised four amazing daughters,” he added, saying he hopes she gets better. He also clarified that Retton has no history of alcohol abuse that he knew of.

Retton — whose daughters are all with ex Shannon Kelley, whom she divorced after 27 years of marriage in 2018 — suffered another health scare in 2023 when she contracted “a very rare form of pneumonia,” according to a post made by her second-oldest daughter, McKenna Kelley.

“Girl, I should be dead,” she told People magazine a year later, describing how she spent a month in the hospital.

At one time, doctors told her daughters — Shayla Rae, 30, McKenna, 28, Skyla, 25, and Emma Jean, 22 — “to come to say their goodbyes.”

She pulled through, but was left depleted.

At one time, doctors told her daughters — Shayla Rae, 30, McKenna, 28, Skyla, 25, and Emma Jean, 22 — “to come to say their goodbyes.”

“My lungs are so scarred. It will be a lifetime of recovery. My physicality was the only thing I had and it was taken away from me. It’s embarrassing,” she added to People.

Even worse, she had no insurance, saying in another interview with NBC, in which she appeared with an oxygen cannula in her nose, “I just couldn’t afford it,” citing her divorce and the underlying health conditions she had been left with, after 30 orthopedic surgeries.

McKenna created an online fundraiser that brought in almost $500,000 from fans, sportspeople and public figures shocked by how Retton had seemingly fallen on such hard times.

McKenna told USA Sports last year her mother started running into money troubles during the COVID pandemic, which limited her ability to earn money “because she was not able to work and give speeches for two years due to the pandemic.”

However, it appears Retton traded an older Porsche for her current one during this same period, getting the newer car in December 2021, according to a Carfax report seen by The Post.

Retton had retired from professional gymnastics in 1986, not long after her gold medal triumph. She capitalized on her fame and had signed endorsement deals with many products, then became a commentator for NBC at the 1988 Olympics. She wrote a daily column through the 1992 and 1996 Olympics for USA Today and co-hosted a TV show, “Road To Olympic Gold,” per her USA Gymnastics biography.

Retton also tried her hand at movies, appearing in “Scrooged” in 1988 and 1994’s “Naked Gun 33 1/3” as well as making guest appearances in shows including “Baywatch” and “Knots Landing” plus continuing to take bookings and as a motivational speaker and “fitness ambassador.” Her last high-profile bookings were a 2014 Super Bowl XLVIII commercial and a 2018 stint on “Dancing With The Stars,” where she finished in ninth place.