NEW YORK (AP) — America's Sweetheart is helping to choose America's favorite mom.

Mary Lou Retton has teamed up with Tyson Foods in a search for the mom most deserving of the title "Gold Medal Mom." The winner of five medals at the 1984 Olympics is serving as one of the contest's judges.

The winning mom gets a trip to the Beijing Olympics, where Retton predicts the Chinese gymnastics team is "going to be very difficult to beat."

Retton, now 39 and living in Houston, said she introduced gymnastics to her four daughters, ages 5 to 13. They started at 18 months in "Mommy and me" classes — though she quips the class should have been called "Chase your child around the gym for 45 minutes."

Today's gymnasts are doing much harder routines than she was performing, says Retton, who in turn did routines that were harder than her idol Nadia Comaneci.

"As an ex-athlete, I think to myself, 'are we at that physical limit?" she says. "You can only go so high and do so many flips."

—_—

On the Net:

Gold Medal Mom contest: http://goldmedalmom.com