Shawn Johnson was just 16 years old when she dominated the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning
several individual medals and helping Team U.S.A. take home the silver. But life has
completely changed for the athlete since her days on the mat. Here's a closer look at why
Shawn Johnson is turning heads.
"Honestly, I was never looking to becoming an Olympic gymnast. I was never going to compete,
I was just going there to have fun."
Johnson discovered her talent for gymnastics when she was just 3 years old. Her mom, Teri,
revealed during the Des Moines Storytellers Project that she and her husband Doug enrolled
their daughter in the sport…
"Literally out of desperation. At home she was a terror, and she was a danger to herself.
She would stack her toys and try to get to a higher level, and it was awful."
"She was just into or on top of something, constantly."
With that, Johnson's future was set, although she didn't yet realize it. She told HuffPost
that, while she knew she loved gymnastics as a little girl, she had no idea how far
that passion would take her.
According to her mom, Johnson was just 11 years old when she qualified for the U.S.
Women's Team. As an elite gymnast, Johnson was expected to put in a lot of practice hours,
but she did her best to find a balance between school, gymnastics, and a social life. Johnson
explained to CreditCards.com that her parents didn't want her to be hyper-focused on achieving
in her sport, adding,
"They wanted me to be a normal kid: get in trouble, have chores, go to games and do everything.
They didn’t want me to live and breathe becoming a future Olympian."
"Gymnastics just seemed to be the one thing she couldn't get enough of."
But the fact remained that Johnson was not a normal kid. She sacrificed a lot for her
career, but even so, she doesn't consider those things losses. Instead, she looks at
what she gave up as, quote, "exchanges," telling Parents,
"[I] had to exchange a lot of family time, friend time, school time, and social time
for gym time."
"Do you feel like you're under pressure? Ah, yes."
Even though Johnson's family tried to minimize the pressure she faced in her sport, life
as an elite athlete still took its toll. She told Entertainment Tonight that even on the
day of all-around competition at the Olympics, someone close to her warned her:
"You're overweight. The judges aren't going to like it. You're not going to win because
of it. And you should have worked harder."
In a 2015 interview with People, Johnson said that she always felt like she had to look
a certain way, telling the outlet,
"I was always the very strong, powerful, muscly, bulky gymnast and I felt like people always
wanted me to be thinner and lighter and leaner. And as a 12-year-old […] I remember kind
of obsessing over it."
Johnson completely restricted her carbs down to none. And she limited herself to just 700
calories per day, a pattern that continued for years. In a 2020 YouTube video, she also
admitted that she was abusing Adderall and weight loss pills, adding,
"There was nothing in my life that was healthy. I wasn't eating, I was overdosing on Adderall,
I was overdosing on, you know, any medication that wouldn't be caught by USADA."
Johnson positively stunned the world at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she won big for
Team U.S.A. She took home a total of four medals: gold for beam, silver in the individual
all-around competition, and silver on floor. Johnson's efforts also helped her team win
silver — not too shabby for a 16-year-old who just barely met the minimum age requirement
to compete.
Johnson's Olympic performance instantly catapulted her to stardom. While she thought she'd be
able to slip back into her regular life after Beijing, she would be returning home with
newfound celebrity status.
"People would say, 'Oh, Shawn Johnson,' I'd be like, who's that?"
While she was a little overwhelmed at first, she gradually adjusted to her new normal,
telling WBUR,
"Adjusting to it was just sorting through all of the opportunities, learning what I
liked and disliked and what felt good for me and what felt true to me."
Johnson leveraged her Olympic success into multiple opportunities, including the chance
to compete on Dancing With the Stars. Since she was still a minor at the time, the 17-year-old
Johnson required a chaperone to accompany her during the competition — and mom Teri
happily moved to Los Angeles to be with her.
"I had a great time. I just loved every second of it."
After rehearsing six days a week for the grueling show, Johnson's hard work paid off — she
walked away with the coveted Mirrorball Trophy in 2009. Johnson was the youngest person to
compete on the show at the time but still managed to nab the top spot by a one percent
margin. She told ABC News after her win,
"This is my new gold medal. It's made me the happiest person ever and changed my life."
After her back-to-back wins at the Olympics and on Dancing With the Stars, it seemed almost
certain that Johnson would be competing at the 2012 Olympics — but a skiing accident
during her 18th birthday changed everything when she tore her ACL. Johnson underwent surgery
and did her best to recover in time for the Olympics, but she ultimately wouldn't be able
to do it. Johnson revealed that it wasn't just her knee holding her back, telling Inside
Gymnastics,
"I had a partially torn labrum, a fractured back, and then my body was just falling apart."
"The decision to stop was kind of a combination of everything."
While she had hoped to continue competing, Johnson formally retired from gymnastics a
week before the Olympic Trials for the 2012 games. Stepping away from the sport she had
loved for her whole life was bittersweet, and she told WBUR,
"It was challenging and emotional […] but it was also liberating because I finally got
to turn the page and go to the next chapter."
"Fitness is my life. And it always will be."
After retiring from gymnastics, Johnson wasn't entirely sure what her next steps would entail.
So the Des Moines native enrolled at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and ended
up falling in love with the city. She told HuffPost,
"There's a lot of fun stuff to do, a lot of fun people, and it's a very young town, so
I love that."
But Johnson didn't just fall in love with the city — she also fell in love with her
future husband. NFL player Andrew East was also attending the school at the time, and
he and Johnson started dating after they were introduced by Andrew's brother.
"Cheers. Um, cheers."
Nashville proved to be a turning point for Johnson in more ways than one. Not only was
she building a life outside of gymnastics, but she also found a support system in East.
Johnson explained to People that until she met him, she hadn't talked about her history
with eating disorders, but that East helped set her on a healthier path. Thanks to him,
Johnson began to see a nutritionist and developed much gentler eating habits.
Johnson's move to Nashville ended up becoming a permanent one, just like her relationship
with Andrew East. The couple tied the knot in 2016, but Johnson told FIV magazine that
she knew he was the one after just a few dates. Johnson's family also approved, with Teri
describing East to the Des Moines Register, noting,
"[Shawn] married an absolutely unbelievably wonderful man. […] She’s married somebody
that I know is going to take care of her."
"Oh my gosh. I love you. I love you."
But while their relationship appears to be a strong one, like any married couple, these
two certainly have their ups and downs. Their first year as husband and wife was particularly
difficult, considering that they spent more time apart than together, due to work. Still,
Johnson refused to let that shake up their relationship. She told People in 2017,
"I love him more every single day. […] The first year is the hardest and best year of
your life!"
Backing away from gymnastics allowed Johnson to pursue other avenues, including her love
of writing. In fact, she has even published a few books over the years. Her first effort
was 2008's Shawn Johnson, Olympic Champion: Stories Behind the Smile. But four years later,
her 2012 memoir, Winning Balance: What I've Learned So Far about Love, Faith, and Living
Your Dreams became a New York Times bestseller. Johnson told CBN,
"It’s therapeutic, going back and reliving it and re-reading all of the journals and
diaries. […] It was hard to bring that all back up and then put it on paper for millions
to read and see. It was a risk; and it was scary, but I liked it."
Johnson then took on the Young Adult genre with 2016's, The Flip Side. The story centered
on a teenage gymnast and was heavily influenced by Johnson's own experiences. Johnson explained
that while she enjoyed writing fiction, it was a totally different task. But as she told
Justine,
"I think there’s definitely a void out there for good, wholesome, good-messaged books for
kids, so I was trying to balance all of that together."
Johnson may have retired from gymnastics, but she isn't skirting the spotlight. Several
years after winning Olympic gold, she returned to our screens in the form of her YouTube
channel, The East Family, to the delight of her more than 1 million subscribers. But even
though life as a YouTube star has been exciting for the athlete, it's also been a challenge.
She told FIV,
"It's tough to find that healthy balance of sharing the appropriate amount without giving
everything away."
"What better company to have?"
Johnson is also active on other social media, including Instagram, where she has millions
of followers. But all this hustle seems to be paying off for the couple. She told The
Des Moines Register in 2017,
"We've done better with ourselves [financially] in the past year with social than the Olympics
produced, which is crazy for us."
Looking to boost her estimated $9 million net worth, in 2017, Johnson joined the reality
show Adventure Capitalists, in which entrepreneurs pitched their products to a panel of investors
— who then road-tested the various ideas — all in the hopes of making a deal.
"I've made a career of branding and I can brand…almost anything."
As an investor, Johnson was able to show fans another side of her personality. The athlete
explained to USA Today that she's been involved in the business world for a long time, since
she negotiated her contracts for years.
Per her Adventure Capitalists bio, Johnson also co-founded the fitness and empowerment
brand, The Body Department. She and East also run the multimedia company SMJ Incorporated,
and in 2020, they launched a sock puppet line for kids called Teddy & Bear.
"Hey, for those of you who don't know, Shawn was an Olympic gymnast, won three Olympic
medals, and I…Four. So sorry."
It certainly appears that gymnastics will always be part of Johnson's life. Here and
there, she's even done some coaching since her retirement, telling Lifehacker in 2017,
"I love working with kids and seeing them learn. Kids have the purest form of passion
and drive and it’s inspiring to be around."
"I remember being a little kid and looking up to Nadia and Mary Lou and all of these
athletes, and thinking, "There's no way I could ever do that.'"
Johnson certainly has the skills and experience to coach at an elite level, but she admits
she's unsure if she'd want to turn it into a career. The certified Nike trainer told
Inside Gymnastics,
"I've always loved the idea of coaching collegiate. […] I don’t know if I could coach elite
because — it’s just so intense. I want to have more fun with it than that."
"So…I'm pregnant."
Johnson suffered a devastating blow when she endured a miscarriage in 2017. Crushed by
the loss, she revealed to People,
"I felt so sad and guilty that I had done something wrong to lose this child."
Even though her doctor explained that she wasn't at fault, Johnson still worried that
the strain she had put on her body as an elite gymnast — between the rigorous training
and the extreme dieting — would make it difficult for her to even get pregnant. She
said,
"I couldn't help but think I did enough damage to my body at a young age that it was almost,
like, payback."
Johnson and her husband opened up about the heartbreaking loss in 2018, where she shared
with I Am Second,
"I felt guilty to Andrew that I had lost his child. And I felt guilty to God that I had
lost his child."
"It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to go through."
Two years after they lost their first pregnancy, Johnson and East got some very good news.
"We're pregnant."
The couple welcomed their first child, Drew Hazel East, in 2019. And as the daughter of
influencers, she already boasts more than half a million followers on Instagram. Johnson
clearly loves being a mom, but admits it hasn't been easy. Acknowledging the pressure involved
in parenting, she told Us Weekly,
"Every single decision you make you feel is impacting [your child's] future and setting
them up for life or tearing them down."
As she's gotten more comfortable in her new role, the former Olympian hopes to keep growing
her family, telling the outlet in 2020 that she and East would, quote, "love a baby anytime."
…Well, almost.
"I just want some time to drink wine and eat sushi then enjoy our daughter and then it'll
be time for number two."
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