Shawn Johnson

Shawn Johnson is reportedly in a romantic relationship with Andrew East, a football player from Vanderbilt University.

A life-size bronze statue has been dedicated to this distinguished gymnast in the Iowa Hall of Pride in Des Moines.

Shawn Machel Johnson was born on January 19, 1992, in Des Moines, Iowa, as the only child of Doug and Teri Johnson.

Her young stints of jumping off furniture persuaded her parents to put her to gymnastics classes at the young age of 3.

When she turned six, she was enrolled at a gymnastics school in West Des Moines under instructor Liang Chow.

She went to Valley High School, West Des Moines, where she was actively involved in extra-curricular activities, apart from excelling in studies.

In 2009, she quit public school and moved to Los Angeles, California, with her mother. She completed her school privately in 2010.

Shawn Johnson began her professional career at 12, by participating in the Junior Olympics National Championships, where she stood first on beam and second on floor, thereby finishing fourth in the all-around.

In 2005, she was invited to the national team training camp by Marta Karolyi, National Team Coordinator, after seeing a video sent by Chow.

She was selected for the Junior International Elite and finished third in the 2005 UC Classic. She stood tenth in all-around at the 2005 US National Championships, after accidentally falling off the beam.

She returned in 2006 with a new trick, Jaeger on bars, and two top-difficulty skills – full-in back-out dismount off beam and double-twisting double back on floor. Eventually, she won the US Junior National All-Around Championship.

She entered the senior division in 2007 by competing in the Tyson American Cup, where she bagged the all-around title.

In 2007, she was honored with the ‘Longines Prize for Elegance’ in Stuttgart, Germany. Also, after her stint at the World Championships, October 17 was declared ‘Shawn Johnson Day’ by Iowa’s Governor Chet Culver.

She was voted fifth in the ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ list by Associated Press and won the ‘Athlete – Female’ Teen Choice Award, in 2008.

In 2009, she was ranked at #27 in the ‘100 most searched females on the Internet’, and was voted as ‘America’s Most-Liked Sports Figure’ by Forbes magazine.

The ‘Des Moines Register’ voted her the ‘most famous living sports figure’ in 2010.

She was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2013, along with her teammates of the 2007 World Championships.