Shawn Johnson Quotes

Retiring was scary and it was tough to give up gymnastics, but so many great opportunities have come from it that I never expected.

I don't want to be all power and muscle.

I always have someone to look up to, and I think it helps me with motivating myself.

I pay attention to my diet to be a healthier gymnast, but I'm not obsessive over it.

Injury taught me I need to learn how to face challenges.

I understand that nothing is easy.
I say everything happens for a reason.
I dream of one day the world is in peace.
I try to see the good in everything.
I am a caring girl who loves to flip.

I have a lot of expectations and a lot of goals I want to fulfill, but the biggest dream is still to make the Olympic team for London.

Stay strong. Stand up. Have a voice.

When I was younger, my coach, Liang Chow, made all the decisions. I would go to the gym for practice, do exactly what Chow told me to do, go home, come back and start all over again. If Chow told me to do 50 squat jumps, I did 50 squat jumps.

With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being say, a Muslim story or an African story, when essentially it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from.

Gymnastics is not only a good thing to live by, but it is important to understand how it does help you in life.

I love lean meats like chicken, turkey. I'm obsessed with sushi and fish in general. I eat a lot of veggies and hummus.

In 2008 I didn't take it all in enough. I was so wrapped up in just the competition that I missed what was going on around me. If I am given that opportunity again to go to the Olympics and be an athlete I want to take it all in because I feel like this is my last shot and I want to feel the team spirit. I want to really live and breathe the USA.

To finish off this whole Olympics by finally getting the gold medal, it's the best feeling in the world.

I started from zero and went back to the basics in gymnastics.

I live for Pilates reformer class. I go at least three times a week. It's a great way to lengthen your muscles, stretch, and kind of relax your mind.

I get less and less sleep these days, so when I have any down time all I want to do is sleep!

People put too much emphasis on looks.

Gymnastics is so complex.

I always feel like I'm the young one, I'm the small one.

I usually work out 4 hours a day during the week and 5 to 6 hours on Saturday, with Sundays off.

I think about my goals. There were a lot of times in gymnastics when I really didn't want to go in and train, but you can't make it to the Olympics if you don't train!

My other life keeps me calm and grounded and normal.

I didn't make it a priority, and as a result my knee didn't heal to the extent it should have.

I'm doing four hours of gymnastics training a day, six days a week and then an extra two to three hours in a fitness center as well.

Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.

Gymnastics taught me everything - life lessons, responsibility and discipline and respect.

I have a chaperone everywhere I go - my mom.

Every year I just kept going back to gymnastics, but I didn't start out training 10 hours a day. When I turned 10 or 11, I got more serious and I focused a lot on making it to the elite level, and from there I just kept going.

Well-I don't know if anyone would really ask me to prom.

I want to go to college, obviously go to London and just kind of figure out the rest of my life.

Staying healthy and consistent is paramount.

I told myself after 2008 that I was done for good. But they say you can't keep a gymnast away from her sport.

It's about putting in the hours and going through the paces.

I think it's important for girls at a young age to be involved in as many things as possible. Especially safe communities of people that teach them great life lessons like self-confidence and courage. And getting girls to go to camp especially in the summer where they can meet new friends, learn new things, and not just sit at home and watch TV.

I had a constant fear, a constant little doubt in my mind: 'OK, I'm getting ready to do my standing back full on beam and I might re-tear my ACL.'

The body is an amazing machine ... If you eat the right things your body will perform incredibly well!

Everything is about your movements and precision and timing, which is what gymnastics is about.

It might have been easier to retire, to say my knee couldn't handle it and let that be that. At the same time, the prospect of not being able to compete in gymnastics anymore was heartbreaking.

Image isn't everything, It's what comes from your heart, and what you learn and what you say and how you act that means more than anything.

I don't call them sacrifices. I call them exchanges.

When I was 3 my parents put me in gymnastics because I was a bundle of energy and they just didn't know what to do with me! They put me in a Tots class and I just fell in love with it.

I fell in love with running, and I finally have time to do it now.

I'm trying to stay as calm as possible and focus one day at a time, but when reality sets in, I feel everything: anxiety, excitement, nerves, pressure and joy.

It sounds funny, but the 2008 Olympics were something that just kind of happened, and I was lucky they came at a point when I was uninjured and well prepared. As a gymnast, you can't ask for much more.

To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have. There are times when I physically can't get myself to go for a skill because I'm thinking, 'My knee hurts really bad.'

I started taking gymnastic classes when I was 3 years old.

A typical practice consists of practicing every event for about an hour. A lot of people assume I have private coaching, but I work out with 13 other girls at the gym!

I still can't believe I'm an Olympic athlete.

I have a healthy lifestyle, but there's nothing you can really do to prevent from rolling an ankle or something like that.

It's been strange and weird watching the other girls at the U.S. Olympic trials just because I was training to be out there myself.

My coach, Liang Chow, had one rule while I was training for the 2008 Olympics: no skiing. I could do anything I wanted outside the gym, he said, except ski.