Biography

American gymnast Shawn Johnson was born in 1992 in Des Moines, Iowa. Shawn began training as a gymnast when she was still in elementary school, largely due to her parents’ observation that she liked to climb and jump off the family furniture. By the time she was twelve, Johnson was competing in the Junior Olympics National Championships, finishing fourth. Between 2005 and 2007, Shawn competed regularly, garnering the attention of the United States team after her win at the U.S. National Championships in 2007.

Shawn Johnson quickly set herself apart from her fellow competitors with her talents. By the time she entered the 2008 Olympics, she’d represented the country in a number of different competitions and had won the 2008 U.S. Visa Championships. At the Olympics, Shawn Johnson helped to bring the United States team to a silver medal and also earn a silver medal herself in the individual competition. Sadly, an injury prevented Shawn Johnson from competition again in the 2012 Olympics, but her achievements brought her multiple recognitions, including the Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press for 2008 and the Teen Choice Award for Best Female Athlete in 2008, and she rose to become a celebrity figure.

Shawn Johnson’s career as an athlete brought her numerous endorsements with a variety of high-profile companies, including: Nestle, Circuit City, Crest, Bounty, and the InterContinental Hotels Group. Johnson became a favorite guest on talk shows such as: The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Today Show, to name a few, and she appeared in competition on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and Whose Line is it Anyway? Most notably, Shawn Johnson competed on Dancing with the Stars in 2009 and again in 2012.

Shawn Johnson is currently enrolled as a student at Vanderbilt University. She recently competed on the reality show Celebrity Apprentice, and made it through the first six rounds before being fired.