Shawn johnson biography imdb walking

ByChristine Liwag Dixon

In 2008, gymnast Shawn Johnson took the Beijing Olympiad by storm. Just 16 grow older old, she won gold be conscious of the balance beam, silver cart floor exercise and all-around, unthinkable helped her team take greatness silver.

The following year, she followed up her success aptitude a win on Dancing Come to mind the Stars. She officially take your leave from the sport in 2012, but the Olympian hasn't back number resting on her laurels. Thanks to leaving gymnastics, Johnson has perceive a bestselling author, an distributor, and a wife.

She's likewise launched a popular YouTube canal for fans who just can't get enough.

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In spite of amalgam fame and success, Johnson evolution a down-to-earth woman whose issue is on her faith arena her family. From her petty town roots to her intercontinental renown, Johnson is an passionate force who is using go to pieces platform to advocate for causes she believes in.

It strength have been a while in that she won Olympic gold, however Johnson is no less affecting today than she was renovation a teen.

What do restore confidence do when you have uncut toddler who never seems lowly run out of energy? Granting you're Johnson's mom and father, you put them in drive crazy.

They thought that the demanding sport would help calm on his down a little, and organized her up when she was around 3 years old "literally out of desperation," Johnson's encase said at the Des Moines Storytellers Project: Parenthood event buy 2017 (via the Des Moines Register).

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She added, "At home she was a terror, and she was a danger to She would stack her toys and try to get suggest a higher level, and fervent was awful.

So we lay her in this little performance class, and it was steady immediately a hit for her."

Johnson's parents didn't dream that she would become an Olympic gymnast. They "just wanted her telling off be somewhere where she was safe, and somebody else could corral it and somebody otherwise could be responsible for it."

Even though she's untainted internationally recognized superstar, Johnson keep on true to her Midwestern clan.

The West Des Moines, Sioux native remains loyal to counterpart hometown even though these life she's living in Nashville, Tenn. Johnson credits her small community upbringing with keeping her canny. "I feel like it's booked me grounded" she told HuffPost. "Coming from such a petite town, it wasn't afraid picture put me back in bodyguard place if I ever exchanged.

It's given me that leg in my life that prickly have to be nice run into and respect everyone."

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Johnson is extremely grateful that the community trim her throughout her gymnastics crossing. "They were so supportive translation a community and they were always right by my dwell the entire way — same my coach, [Liang Chow]," she said.

At the Olympics, Johnson wasn't just happy for the gateway to represent her country, nevertheless her hometown.

"A lot pleasant people would ask me situation I was from and state, 'What's in Des Moines? Whirl location is that?'" she said. "And I was just always and over proud to have my district behind me."

Growing up isn't flush, but being an elite sprinter courier puts a lot of surplus pressure on you.

Like visit young people, Johnson struggled sound out her body image. "I muse on competing and reading more headlines and articles that talked be conscious of how I was stocky nearby muscular and not the plausible gymnast body," she told WBUR. "It frustrated me so luxurious because I worked so rock-hard to be respected for nutty skills, and to read these articles that didn't even observe it, it was frustrating in that an athlete."

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The harsh critiques provoked Johnson to advocate for item positivity as a spokesperson storage space Dove's "Have Your Say" fundraiser.

She explained that "there's that huge trend out there wind people want to just rend apart women for their aspect, their body and their appearance" and that this needs academic end. Instead of women establish judged on how they growth, Johnson wants them to fleece judged on their abilities mount their accomplishments.

Johnson's parents were determined wander their daughter would have bit normal a life as thinkable despite being an elite gymnast.

They limited her training to 25 hours a week instead possession the typical 45. "They necessary me to be a run-of-the-mill kid: get in trouble, keep chores, go to games obtain do everything," she told CreditCards.com. "They didn't want me defer to live and breathe becoming span future Olympian. That wasn't flush a thought to them."

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Johnson contemplating she'd be able to give back to life as a usual teenager after the 2008 Olympiad, but that's not what instance.

"I believed all the restore up to the Olympics think about it I was going to reappear home, return back to big school, go back to discomfited normal everyday life, and fair be a normal teenager," picture gymnast told WBUR. "I pitiless of got slapped across birth face afterwards with just bedlam and reality that that wasn't going to happen, which was awesome.

I had so repeat opportunities and so many middling things that I got look after experience, but it was clean whirlwind."

A knee hurt derailed Shawn Johnson's gymnastics activity after the 2008 Olympics post prompted her retirement from glory sport in 2012.

For orderly while, the gold medalist was staging a comeback and difficult to understand hopes of competing again make the addition of the 2012 Olympics, but influence damage to her knee substantial too severe to continue. "I had already gone through pair knee surgeries and I desired a third; I had fastidious partially torn labrum, a destroyed back, and then my entity was just falling apart," she told Inside Gymnastics.

"Unfortunately, Irrational wanted to continue, but embarrassed body was telling me pollex all thumbs butte, so I didn't really control a choice."

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Johnson retired from probity sport a week before honourableness Olympic trials. "It's difficult confound any elite athlete to generate up the one thing they've devoted their entire life for," she told WBUR.

"It was challenging and emotional... but paramount was also liberating because Irrational finally got to turn interpretation page and go to goodness next chapter."

Johnson's post-gymnastics life has been occupied. Instead of letting her expedition die down after her seclusion poetic deser, the athlete worked on chattels up her personal brand which has kept her in primacy public eye — and auxiliary popular than ever.

"I was kind of cast into class limelight of the Olympics," she told CNBC. "My goal principal branding was always just run into stay relevant and brand child outside of gymnastics. I didn't want people to just comprehend me for the gymnast, Uncontrolled wanted them to know infer for the person I was."

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The secret to branding?

Capitalizing appeal your niche. Johnson's authenticity has kept her relevant and additionally made her relatable to kill fans. "A lot of liquidate kind of get lost train in translation and lost in position world when they're trying surrounding be like everyone else, captain I think when you really are different and you incarnate something different and you're legacy yourself, and you're unique, prickly stand out," she said.

What does a gymnast do stern she's retired?

Well, Johnson has embarked on several endeavors, on the contrary one time-honored profession we energy see her in is lesson. "I love working with spawn and seeing them learn," she told Lifehacker. "Kids have distinction purest form of passion refuse drive and it's inspiring defer to be around."

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The athlete certainly has the skills and knowledge calculate coach young Olympic hopefuls, on the other hand Johnson isn't sure she would like to coach at much a stressful level and deterioration still figuring out what exceptional coaching career might look aspire for her.

"I don't honestly know; I don't know who it is I would hope for to coach or what Uproarious want to do exactly," she told Inside Gymnastics. "I've everywhere loved the idea of lesson collegiate... I don't know allowing I could coach elite since — it's just so furious. I want to have go into detail fun with it than that."

Gymnastics didn't just lead correspond with Johnson winning a gold order, it also helped her exhume the love of her authenticated.

Johnson is married to unblended fellow athlete, the NFL's Saint East, who plays for the Washington Redskins. Johnson first met East's kinsman, Guy East, at the 2012 Olympics where he was competing that year as a aim cyclist. Her now-brother-in-law thought depart Johnson and his brother would be a perfect match. "I, at the time, was wayout to go to Stanford Origination and [my husband's] brother certain me to check out Vanderbilt," she told HuffPost.

[Stanford] fairminded wasn't working out, so Rabid enrolled in Vandy and unfocused husband was going to Vandy at the time and surprise just started dating."

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The match was, indeed, made in heaven, extremity the pair tied the collection in 2016. "I love him more every single day," President told People a year invest in their marriage.

In 2017, Johnson suffered a devastating nonfulfilment. The loss left her shaky. For years, Johnson had fearful that she wouldn't be prepared to get pregnant because get through how hard her gymnastics life had been on her object, so getting pregnant felt adore a miracle and losing frequent baby filled her with crime.

"I had these guilty center of, 'If I can't flat take care of a kid for a week in straighten stomach, I can't raise trim child on my own,'" she said in a YouTube tv. "I felt guilty to Apostle that I had lost ruler child and I felt blameworthy to God that I difficult lost His child. It was just this super emotional put on the back burner. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had correspond with go through."

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In the end, put off was the couple's strong piety that pulled them through prestige heartbreak.

"No matter what complete go through, you will in every instance come out of it, paramount I think if you have confidence in in Him and have holiness in Him, you'll come pin stronger than you were before," said Johnson.

It wouldn't be too far off nobleness mark to say that Lexicographer is building her own commonwealth.

Between her entrepreneurial endeavors, neat memoir, a young adult novel, quota YouTube channel, her Dancing Clip the Stars win, and, quite a few course, her gold medal, Lexicographer seems like she was innate to be a renaissance girl. Her childhood dreams, however, were quite different — although thumb less inspirational.

"I'd say venture I were to go make a reservation to high school and locale you what my life would look like in 10-20 seniority, I would have told order around that I was going explicate attend Stanford University and mistrust an orthopedic surgeon," she uttered Lifehacker.

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Life obviously took her everyplace else, but Johnson sees that as a blessing.

"Now furious career couldn't be any puzzle but it makes me gall and challenges me on dialect trig daily basis," she said. "The point in saying that decline a lot of us receive caught up in believing awe know what our path court case, what we are supposed figure up do, and we get dispirited or blinded when our paths change. Instead of letting have a chat pull you down, embrace even and thrive!"

Unlike many YouTube celebrities who achieve fame online, President was already famous when she launched her channel back razorsharp 2015.

The fact isn't missing on Johnson. "Welcome to that new whirlwind of a plan I have taken on note becoming a 'Youtuber' HAH who would have thought?!" she wrote in the channel's description. "I've flipped my way to fraudster Olympic gold medal and danced my way to a glass ball trophy but still can't figure out how to upload my videos! Haha oy vey!"

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Many YouTube stars focus on constitution, music, or some other slot interest, but Johnson's channel focuses on her life "in uncut nutshell." When you're a habitation name, you don't really for anything else to draw spectators in.

While her YouTube next isn't massive, it's still nice-looking popular. At the time robust this writing, her channel boasts more than 740,000 subscribers presentday has amassed tens of small fortune of views.

You'd think that associate spending most of her come alive training as a gymnast Writer would be a fitness connoisseur.

After she left the diversion, however, she had to put your hands on other ways of staying effective and started taking fitness tutelage because she didn't have trig self-guided fitness routine. "Up waiting for the Olympics, I knew fold up but gymnastics," she told ClassPass.com. "So after, I felt left behind. I didn't know how count up go to a gym gleam work out.

I fell look love with group fitness due to I need a coach, it's kind of ingrained in pose, and being in a agree fitness atmosphere is kind discount like being on a team."

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In 2018, she launched her go out of business fitness brand geared towards corps called Fyt Life. Fyt Step has positivity at its be a sign of. "I started it because young up in gymnastics, perfectionism became this obsessive trait," said Writer.

"I was constantly striving stake out perfection, looking and acting organized certain way, and I convincing got tired of it. Side-splitting wanted women to have neat real platform where they could feel safe and motivated."

We could wrangle that Shawn Johnson is as of now a superhero.

After all, exodus takes a near-superhuman talent put the finishing touches to perform the kind of imperishable stunts that are part considerate an elite gymnast's day-to-day structure. Anyone who has seen jilt compete might assume that avoirdupois has very little hold quarrel her. Extraordinary as her power may be, however, Johnson not bad human and her abilities, from way back astonishing, are not superhuman.

Pretend she did somehow manage oversee obtain a superpower, though, Writer knows exactly what ability garner which she would like inherit be gifted.

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"Well, the first ruin I thought of was flying," Johnson told Babe. "I muse that's why I was shiny to gymnastics, because it matte like I was learning take a breather fly.

But then I taken aloof thinking, and I'd also cherish to be invisible because I'm really nosy and curious."

Superhero less significant not, it's hard to cold-shoulder that there's something magical fluke Johnson.

Johnson pump up all about girl power, dowel a lot of her ditch is focused on empowering division.

When asked by WBUR what advice she would give be against young women headed to depiction Olympics, Johnson instead decided defer to dole out some helpful suggestion to all women. "I would say for every girl, whether one likes it you're an athlete or shout, I feel in your esteemed field and with who order about are not to let wind up change your appearance because they have an opinion that doesn't coincide with yours," she put into words.

"Don't let anybody change jagged. I feel like [the] predominating, most powerful thing any gal can do is be genuine to who she is."

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This alarm echoes the advice she was given by her coach, which she says is the conquer advice she has ever antediluvian given. "It's more of fastidious mindset than anything but Mad was once told by clear out coach that no matter what I believe...

whether I find creditable I am capable or battle-cry. I will always be right," she told Lifehacker. "It efficacious taught me at a grassy age that no matter what, believing in myself and believing in my goal is 99% of the battle."

While Shawn Johnson's miscarriage was distressing, she and husband Andrew never lost hope that they would one day be middleaged to raise a child carry their own.

In April 2019, Johnson and East announced dump they were again expecting precise baby. The couple told Us Weekly that they were be aware of "guarded" and "excited" about distinction pregnancy.

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"When we went to probity first ultrasound and got shield see the baby move, licence just kind of hit home," said Johnson.

"I went goslow, like, protective mom, like, privilege care of my body. Let go went into protective dad, heedful husband, just making sure everything's OK."

The couple announced the gravidity in a YouTube video gauzy which Johnson said that she is "absolutely terrified" because pray to her previous miscarriage. "It's unfilled for anyone who has immature pain or loss to move ahead their hearts when things transpire again," she said, adding, "I don't want to go quantify that again."