Shawn Johnson East

Shawn Johnson East
Full name	Shawn Machel Johnson
Country represented	United States
Hometown	West Des Moines, Iowa
Height	143 cm (4 ft 8 in)
Discipline	Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Level	Senior International Elite
Club	Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute
Head coach(es)	Liang Meow
Assistant coach(es)	Liwen Zhuang
Music	August Rush
Medal record Gymnastics World Championships 2007 Stuttgart Team Competition 2007 Stuttgart All-around 2007 Stuttgart Floor Pan American Games Rio de Janeiro 2007 Team Competition Rio de Janeiro 2007 All-around Rio de Janeiro 2007 Uneven Bars Rio de Janeiro 2007 Balance Beam Rio de Janeiro 2007 Floor

Shawn Johnson (born January 19, 1992) is an American gymnast. She is the 2007 World All-Around Champion and the 2007 and 2008 U.S. All-Around Champion. She is a member of the United States' 2008 Olympic women's gymnastics team.

Personal life

Shawn Johnson was born in Des Moines, Iowa. She is a student at Valley High School (West Des Moines, Iowa). On August 4th 2008, Johnson was named Choice Female Athlete at the Teen Choice Awards.

Junior career

Shawn Johnson qualified to Junior International Elite status on her first attempt. She first attracted widespread attention at the 2005 U.S. Classic, where she placed 3rd in the junior division. At the 2005 U.S. National Championships, Johnson struggled on the first day of competition, falling from the beam and on the floor. She placed tenth in the All-Around.

By 2006, Johnson was ready with new skills, including a Jaeger on bars, and two top-difficulty skills: full-in beam dismount and double-twisting double back floor exercise mount. She won the 2006 U.S. Junior National All-Around Champion with a score higher than any of the senior elite competitors that year.

Senior career

2007 season

Johnson entered the senior division in 2007, and continued to showcase new skills, including a double twisting double layout dismount off the uneven bars. She competed at the 2007 Tyson American Cup, winning the All-Around title over teammate Natasha Kelley. Johnson also competed in the 2007 Pan American Games, winning four gold medals in the team finals, the individual all-around, and the balance beam and uneven bar finals, and the silver in the floor exercise final.

She won the All-Around at the 2007 Visa U.S. National Championships, beating two-time National Champion Nastia Liukin by more than 5 points, and Shayla Worley by more than 3 points.

Johnson represented the U.S. at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships with teammates Nastia Liukin, Shayla Worley, Alicia Sacramone, Ivana Hong, and Samantha Peszek. They won the team competition with a score of 184.400 points, 0.95 point ahead of the silver medalist Chinese team. Johnson competed on all four apparatus in the team competition.

In the qualification round, Johnson earned a score of 16.25 on beam, 15.15 on floor exercise, and 15.175 on vault. She fell on her uneven bars dismount and scored 14.625. The U.S. finished first in the qualifying round. Johnson's scores qualified her for the all-around finals, along with Liukin. Johnson also qualified to the beam and floor event finals.

In the team competition, Johnson scored 15.375 on uneven bars and floor exercise, and a 15.150 on vault. She fell on the beam on her handspring-handspring-layout series and scored 15.025. The U.S. team won the gold medal. It was the second team gold medal for the United States.

In the individual all-around competition, Johnson performed a double-twisting Yurchenko vault and scored 15.175. She scored 15.425 on floor exercise, 15.9 on beam, and 15.375 on uneven bars. Her total score of 61.875 earned her the gold medal. She became the fourth American woman to win the All-Around.

During event finals, Johnson first competed on the balance beam, where she fell on her standing full and on her switch side leap, earning a score of 14.475. She finished in last place. In floor exercise, she went out of bounds on her first tumbling pass and won the gold with a score of 15.25.

2008 season

Johnson competed in the American Cup on March 1, 2008 in Madison Square Garden. On vault, she fell on her Amanar vault and received a score of 15.175. She stated that her attempt to "stick" the vault caused her to stumble. She scored 15.625 on uneven bars, 16.325 on balance beam, and 15.975 on floor exercise. In the All-Around, Johnson ranked first on the vault, balance beam, and floor. Nastia Liukin, with an uneven bars score nearly a point higher than Johnson's, won the All-Around title. Johnson won the silver medal.

One week later, Johnson competed at a competition in Jesolo, Italy against Italy, Spain, and Poland, with teammates Jana Bieger, Olivia Courtney, Chelsea Davis, Bridget Sloan, and Samantha Peszek. The U.S. won the junior and senior all-around team titles, and Johnson won the individual all-around title with a score 61.7 points. Johnson also earned the highest scores on three of four events, on vault (15.2), beam (16.2), and floor (15.0.) During her floor routine, she had taken a step out of bounds on her double-double.

On June 7, 2008, Johnson won the 2008 U.S. National Championships. Johnson earned with a score of 127.5, winning the all-around title by one point ahead of Liukin. Johnson also won the floor exercise.

Two weeks later, Johnson won the All-Around Olympic Trials in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, again finishing ahead of Liukin. Johnson and Liukin were named to the 2008 U.S. Olympic gymnastics team after the Trial because they finished 1-2 in the all-around.

Skills

As of 2008, Johnson often competed the following skills, listed per apparatus.

• Vault - Amanar - 2 1/2 twisting, laid out Yurchenko

• Bars - Toe-on full pirouette; Jaeger; Gienger; bail handstand; double twisting double layout dismount.

• Floor - Double twisting double tuck; whip immediate triple full; front full punch layout rudi; double full; tucked full-in. She also changed her music for this routine from Highway Blues to the soundtrack from August Rush.

• Beam - Front Pike; standing tucked full; switch split leap to layout step out to pike back; 2 back handsprings to a back layout; full-in tuck dismount.

Competitive history

Senior career history

2008 season

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2008	U.S. Championships	Boston	All Around	1
			Floor Exercises	1
			Balance Beam	2
			Uneven Bar	5
	American Cup	New York	All Around	2

2007 season

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2007	World Championships	STUTTGART	All Around	1	61.875	3	61.200
			Balance Beam	8	14.475	3	16.250
			Floor Exercise	1	15.250	4	15.150
			Team	1	184.400	1	245.025
			Uneven Bar			41	14.625
	U.S. Championships	San Jose	All Around	1
			Balance Beam	1
			Floor Exercise	1
			Uneven Bar	3
	Pan American Games	Rio de Janeiro	Team	1
			All Around	1
			Uneven Bar	1
			Balance Beam	1
			Floor Exercise	2
	American Cup	Jacksonville	All Around	1

Junior career history

Year	Competition Description	Location	Apparatus	Rank-Final	Score-Final	Rank-Qualifying	Score-Qualifying
2006	U.S. Championships	St. Paul	All Around	1
			Vault	1
			Balance Beam	1
			Floor Exercise	1
			Uneven Bar	2
	Pan American Championships	Gatineau, Quebec	Team	1
			Balance Beam	1
			All Around	1
			Uneven Bar	2
			Floor Exercise	2
	Pacific Alliance Championships	Honolulu	All Around	1
			Team	1
			Vault	1
			Floor Exercise	1
			Balance Beam	2
2005	U.S. Championships	Indianapolis	All Around	10
			Vault	4
			Uneven Bar	9

External links

• Official site
• Shawn Johnson at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Shawn Johnson at USA Gymnastics
• Shawn Johnson at Team USA (archived)
• Shawn Johnson: Coverage from The Des Moines Register
• Shawn Johnson at About.com
• "Shawn Johnson", n°7 on Time’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"