What Happened To US Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson?
The following article mentions an eating disorder.
In 2008, Shawn Johnson became one of America's sweethearts when she earned four Olympic medals in Beijing, including gold for her performance on the balance beam. After the 2008 Summer Games, however, Johnson sustained an injury that derailed her gymnastics career, but she didn't fade into obscurity. Thanks to social media, present-day Olympic athletes are able to stay relevant even after they've retired from their sport, maintaining a presence in the sports world and pop culture. And that's exactly what Johnson has done.
Although it's been over a decade since she's competed in gymnastics professionally, the Olympian stays active in the world of sports — and she has a strong social media following, to boot. Though she doesn't make headlines like she did when she was at the top of her gymnastics game, Johnson is still very much a public figure. Here's what she's been up to since winning gold in Beijing.
Shawn Johnson trained for a second Olympics
Shawn Johnson had a tremendous performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The powerhouse athlete took home gold on the balance beam and silver in all-around, floor, and team events for the U.S. Women's Olympic Team. And after crushing it in '08, she wasn't quite ready to hang up her hat. In 2010, the gold medalist announced that she was training for a second Olympic Games. However, the year before, she suffered a serious injury, tearing her ACL while on a skiing trip. It seemed like the odds were stacked against her.
But Johnson did everything she could to prepare for a second Olympics, and she even made it back to competition. She joined Team U.S.A. for the Pan American Games in 2011, not only helping the country bring home gold in the team event, but earning a silver medal on the uneven bars. Unfortunately for Johnson, the knee injury proved to be too much to overcome, and the gymnast didn't make it to the Olympic trials for Team U.S.A. Understandably, this decision wasn't easy. As she told Fox 6, "As an athlete, to not decide on your own, to have your body decide for you is the most frustrating thing out there ... You just want to be out there playing."
She officially retired from gymnastics
When Shawn Johnson gave up on her Olympic bid, she also completely retired from the sport of gymnastics. At the time, she cited her knee injury as the reason for her retirement, but she later revealed that there was more to the story. On a 2022 episode of "The Players' Pod," Johnson shared that she experienced a lack of confidence after her injury, which in turn impacted her passion for competing negatively. What's more, she had some disagreements with Team U.S.A. that also fueled her decision. "I butted heads with the leaders of that organization a lot, and it got to a point where I was just fighting them so much that it just wasn't worth it. I knew that if I went under their guidelines that I was going to break, and I knew it just wasn't my time anymore," she said.
It wasn't lost on Johnson that she was in a unique position retiring from something as a teenager. "Transitioning from the Olympic athlete to just the every day person and looking for jobs and everything is crazy. I was also 16 when I retired from my sport. I was getting ready to graduate high school. It's just a new chapter. It's only the beginning. I've set the bar really high for myself which is intimidating," Johnson told Fox 6 in 2014. When it came to the new chapter, Shawn Johnson had little trouble clearing that bar.
Shawn Johnson competed on Dancing with the Stars for a second time
In 2009, the year after bringing home a gold medal at the Olympics, Shawn Johnson joined the "Dancing with the Stars" cast. This proved to be a great move for Johnson: The elite gymnast won her season, taking home the Mirrorball Trophy alongside partner Mark Ballas. She became the youngest competitor to ever win "Dancing with the Stars," and she later shared that she was more proud of her Mirrorball Trophy win than her Olympic gold medal win. "I'm, like, the shyest person in the entire world. I knew I was, like, pretty good at gymnastics ... I could not dance. I wanted to lock myself in a bathroom and cry and go home. So when I won the Mirrorball Trophy, I felt like I conquered Everest," Johnson said of her "Dancing with the Stars" win on "The Kelly Clarkson Show."
Johnson enjoyed her time on "Dancing with the Stars" so much the first time that she wanted to return for a second bout: In 2012, she competed on "Dancing with the Stars: All-Stars." Though the former champion came in 2nd place on "All-Stars," she thrilled fans by bringing out the Fierce Five gymnasts — Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, McKayla Maroney, Kyla Ross, and Jordyn Wieber — for her final performance.
She opened up about her struggle with an eating disorder
There are a lot of mental and physical benefits that come with being an athlete, but there are also a lot of risks, too. Injuries are always on the table, and the pressure that can come with sports can take a toll on a person's overall mental health. It's also not uncommon for athletes to struggle with eating disorders — and Shawn Johnson knows this struggle all too well. Years after she retired from gymnastics, the Olympian shared that while she never received a formal diagnosis, she suffered from an eating disorder throughout her career.
As Johnson recalled to People in 2015, she felt pressured to lose weight when she was still a kid. "I went as far as literally not eating any carbs. I wouldn't allow myself to eat a single noodle of soup. It got to [the] point where my body was like, shutting down. I was on a diet where I would eat like 700 calories a day –- all the way through the 2008 Olympics," she said. The struggle didn't fade away after she retired from gymnastics. As she shared with People, she continued to grapple with her body image and relationship with food when she was on "Dancing with the Stars."
Johnson told People that things shifted for the better after she started dating her now-husband. "I felt like I could just be me and I knew he was still going to love me," she said.
If you need help with an eating disorder, or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
In 2016, she released an ebook
Shawn Johnson is a published author three times over. The gymnast first put pen to paper after the 2008 Olympic Games, resulting in a picture book. In 2013, she released a memoir called "Winning Balance: What I've Learned So Far about Love, Faith, and Living Your Dreams." In 2016, the star released her first ebook, a novel about a gifted young gymnast called "The Flip Side." The YA book may indeed be a work of fiction, but it was inspired by her real-life story.
As Johnson shared, she decided to write a third book because she enjoyed writing the first two, but she wanted to get out of non-fiction for her third attempt. "I wanted to do something different for kids, and I wanted to write one of those stories that I loved as a kid to read," Johnson told Justine Magazine. She went on to add that diving into the world of fiction proved to be a new challenge for her, but she still enjoyed the process. "It's actually more difficult because, instead of going by the facts, you're going just by imagination," she said. "It was a lot of fun. I got to kind of be a kid again. 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."
Shawn Johnson got married
Although Shawn Johnson didn't compete in the 2012 Olympics, she did go to London for the competition, and it proved to still be a very successful trip for her. While there, Johnson met cyclist Guy East, and he set her up with his brother, Andrew East, a professional football player. Andrew and Johnson hit it off, and by 2015, the two were engaged. Andrew asked Johnson to marry him after throwing out the first pitch at a Cubs game, and the engagement was caught on camera. "Well I know it's not a secret.... But I experienced the greatest surprise a girl could ever ask for today.... The love of my life @andrewdeast asked me to be his forever AND I SAID YES!!!!!!" Johnson said on Instagram after getting engaged.
Not even a year later in 2016, Shawn Johnson and Andrew East got married in Tennessee. The two served their 350 guests Southern fare, and the whole vibe was classy but comfortable. As their wedding planner told People, "Rustic elegance was what we were going for and it wasn't overdone." All in all, it was very them — and that's exactly what they wanted. "We weren't trying to put on an elaborate wedding or have a wow factor," Johnson added. "We wanted it to be quirky and traditional and we wanted it to represent us."
She dove into more reality competitions
It's no secret that Shawn Johnson thrives in a competitive setting. The athlete won gold at the Olympics and the Mirrorball Trophy on "Dancing with the Stars," and in 2017, she tried a new competition: "The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars," a spin-off of MTV's hit reality competition series "The Challenge." In "Champs vs. Stars," former "The Challenge" champions faced off against celebrities, like Johnson.
The Olympian only lasted four episodes of the series, but she was confident while she was active — especially when she found out that one of the challenges involved doing a parkour course. "I am really excited about this challenge. It's kind of, like, me and my playground that I grew up in," Johnson said in a behind-the-scenes video. "I kind of play this whole, like, 'I haven't been in the gym in, like, eight years. I've been injured.' I mean, yes, it's all true, but I live in this. This is kind of, like, what I'm good at." "Champs vs. Stars" and "Dancing with the Stars" weren't Johnson's only stints on TV. She also appeared on "Celebrity Apprentice" and an episode of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
Shawn Johnson and her husband started their family
Shortly after getting married, Shawn Johnson and Andrew East started expanding their family. Unfortunately, it wasn't without heartbreak. In October 2017, the couple shared on their YouTube channel that Johnson suffered a miscarriage shortly after they learned she was pregnant. "The past 48 hours have been some of the happiest, scariest, and saddest times of my life. My husband Andrew and I found out that we were unexpectedly pregnant, only to find out hours later some tragic news. I have been crying more than I ever have, but am still optimistic for what is next," Johnson said in the caption of their video "pregnancy + heartbreak."
After experiencing this great loss, they continued to try for children. A couple years later, Shawn Johnson and Andrew East went from athletes to parents when their first child, a daughter named Drew, was born. "Named after the most incredible person I know... her daddy," Johnson said on Instagram after her daughter's birth. Since then, Johnson and East have welcomed two more additions to their family, two sons named Jett James and Barrett Madison, born in 2021 and 2023, respectively. After Barrett was born, Johnson opened up in her family's newsletter about how excited her eldest kids were for his arrival. "Seeing them meet their newest sibling was the sweetest thing EVER. They've been so gentle with the baby and I know they're glad the wait is over, especially Drew," she said, as reported by People.
She went all in on her social media career
Winning gold at the Olympics is an incredible feat, but it typically doesn't set up athletes for the rest of their lives. Many Olympic athletes have to find a way to continue making money after their competitive career, and it was no different for Shawn Johnson. The champ dabbled in multiple fields after retiring from gymnastics, including social media. As Johnson shared on the aforementioned episode of "The Players' Pod," she and her husband, Andrew East, didn't take social media too seriously when they first started. However, after they shared the story of their miscarriage on YouTube, they recognized the power of their platform.
"For the first time in our life, I saw the internet as kind of like a two-way street where I didn't know how to get over something, and all of these followers and comments were actually, like, healing me," Johnson said of the experience. "From then forward, we kind of made it our full-time job where we wanted to post fun and good-quality content that could potentially be, like, relatable to people." Years later, Johnson and East are still busy creating content. The two have over 1.6 million subscribers to their YouTube channel, a combined 5.5 million followers on their Instagram profiles, and over 2 million total followers on their TikTok accounts. They also host a podcast called "Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew."
Shawn Johnson invested in women's sports
Women's sports have seen a significant increase in popularity in recent years, and many current and former professional female athletes have been leading the charge in making sports a more equitable place. Shawn Johnson is one such female athlete. In 2022, Johnson became a part-owner of the Los Angeles' Angel City Football Club, a soccer team that's part of the National Women's Soccer League in the United States. The gymnast joined founder Natalie Portman as an investor, as well as famed female athletes Mia Hamm, Serena Williams, Abby Wambach, and Billie Jean King.
In a 2022 chat with Olympics.com, Johnson talked about how much it means to be a part of this endeavor. She also touched on how much it's meant to see fellow gymnasts not only stick up for themselves, but support one another — especially when it comes to mental health and abuse within the sport. "To see in the past five years gymnasts be able to stand up and have a voice and truly impact the entire world and saying, 'I am a human being. I do have a voice and I am able to stand up for myself and make a change for other people.' I think was a huge kind of inspiration, a launching pad for Angel City," she said.
She continued her work as an Olympics correspondent
"I'm extremely involved in the gymnastics world. I host clinics and camps and coach. I go to all the major competitions and keep in touch with everybody. It's what I lived and breathed my entire life. I think it will always run in my blood," Shawn Johnson said to Fox 6 after officially retiring from the sport. And she was right. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Johnson has stayed busy as on-air talent for the Games. In 2012, Johnson traveled to London as Today.com's Olympic gymnastics correspondent, and in 2016 and 2021 she served as Yahoo Sports' Olympic gymnastics correspondent for the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Games, respectively.
In 2024, Johnson will reprise her Olympic correspondent role for gymnastics at the Paris Olympics, and she'll bring her entire family with her. "It's such an honor to be able to return to the Olympics in 2024 with my family for the first time to be an official correspondent for Yahoo Sports. I'm excited to watch the world's best athletes compete on the biggest stage and take fans behind the scenes along the way," she said to Barrett Sports Media of her Olympics gig. Whether she's on the balance beam or offering her commentary in front of the camera, Johnson certainly sticks the landing.