It wasn’t till not too long ago that Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson felt prepared to maneuver on from gymnastics, and whereas she’s excited to see the group compete, one of many sports activities she’s most excited to see is breakdancing.
The 2024 Summer time Olympics would be the first time athletes will compete in breakdancing. Whereas that looks as if a stunning reply, there is a connection between breakdancing and gymnastics. Sunny Choi, an athlete on the American breakdancing group, had desires of being an Olympic gymnast and was on the College of Pennsylvania gymnastics group till she tore her ACL.
“It would not shock me,” Johnson mentioned when requested in regards to the connection to gymnastics, noting the similarity between the 2.
Johnson can be excited to see certainly one of her greatest buddies, Walker Zimmerman, play on the USA soccer group, though she acknowledged it is prone to be a “arduous journey” for the American group to win gold. “However I do know It is not inconceivable,” she mentioned.
At simply 16, Johnson went to her first Olympics and received six medals, together with the gold for her flooring routine. She hoped to return to the Olympics 4 years later, however a knee harm she suffered whereas snowboarding proved to be too problematic.
For years, when the Olympics got here round, Johnson would watch and need she was again competing. However one thing modified this 12 months, and he or she mentioned she has “no curiosity” in being again within the Video games.
“I do not actually really feel that pull to be there anymore,” she mentioned.
FRANCK FIFE/AFP
Transitioning from being a star athlete to be a public individual by means of her social media presence has been a “large evolution” for Johnson. She has 4.3 million followers on Instagram, the place she shares movies of her household and tries out {couples} challenges along with her husband. When she was competing as an athlete, her total model was about being “good.” She needed to present rivals that she was “unbreakable” and “unbeatable.”
“The whole lot was so polished. It was so good,” Johnson mentioned. “Now, I might say my model is as removed from that as humanly potential. My husband and I, we purpose to simply be relatable, to indicate those that perfection, although attainable at a aggressive degree, is just not practical inside a way of life of a household.”
The aggressive athlete that Johnson wanted to be for partnerships when she was youthful is not the identical picture she portrays in the present day. When she chooses manufacturers to advertise, she mentioned, every thing has to align with the household’s values and morals, which is a part of the explanation she’s partnering with Dairy Queen. July 25 marks Miracle Deal with Day and each Blizzard offered at collaborating areas will lead to $1 being donated to youngsters’s hospitals by means of Youngsters’s Miracle Community Hospitals.
“I’ve labored with Youngsters’s Miracle Community for a few years,” Johnson mentioned. “That is simply such a simple, enjoyable, superb fundraiser for Youngsters’s Miracle Community Hospitals.”
Michael Simon
Over time, Dairy Queen has helped elevate greater than $180 million for native youngsters’s hospitals, and Johnson is hoping to take that determine to $200 million this 12 months.
Whereas Johnson has targeted on elevating cash for Youngsters’s Miracle Community Hospitals and her life after the Olympics, that does not imply she is not going to tune in to gymnastics. At this level, she feels extra like a mom to the group, questioning in the event that they’re doing OK and joking if they should go to Dairy Queen for a pick-me-up, she mentioned.
This 12 months’s Olympics group is full of some powerhouse veterans but additionally options 16-year-old Hezly Rivera, who’s making her Olympics debut.
“I feel there’s one thing so cool about the way in which the brand new group has laid themselves out,” Johnson mentioned. “You will have this assertion to the world occurring with USA gymnastics that it is brand-new and higher than ever…. To see 4, clever, skilled, repeating ladies mentoring a 16-year-old going to the Olympics, I feel it is simply essentially the most stunning factor ever, as a former gymnast. I feel Hezly is so extremely protected by these ladies.
GK Elite Sportswear)
It has been over a decade since Johnson competed within the Olympics, and the longevity of athletes wasn’t at all times a precedence. However seeing Simone Biles and the opposite athletes have “sturdy, highly effective voices” that they use to advertise the well being of rivals is an evolution that Johnson has celebrated.
Biles is making her return to the Olympics this 12 months after pulling out of a number of occasions in Tokyo due to the twisties, which made doing a few of her excessive bar strikes extraordinarily harmful. Johnson’s each stunned—and never stunned—that Biles determined to compete within the Olympics once more.
“Not stunned as a result of she’s Simone Biles however stunned as a result of she has nothing to show. She is the best of all time,” Johnson mentioned. “It is like [Michael] Jordan the place he does not need to as a result of he simply is, however he’s coming again it doesn’t matter what.”
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Newsweek is dedicated to difficult typical knowledge and discovering connections within the seek for widespread floor.
