Shawn Johnson
Shawn Johnson's father, Doug, was a carpenter, and her mother, Teri was an accounting clerk for the West Des Moines school district.
Shawn started walking before she was 9 months old.
When she was a toddler, Shawn Johnson's parents sent her to ballet and then a tumbling class as a way of burning off her excessive energy. Shawn then moved to gymnastics and when she was just 6, she began training with coach Liang Chow, a top-class competitor for China who had a gym in West Des Moines.
At the 2008 Olympic Games, Shawn Johnson was just 16, about 4ft 8in tall and 90 lbs. She won gold in the beam and 3 silvers in the team, floor exercise and individual all-around categories.
Her autobiography Shawn Johnson: Olympic Champion: Stories Behind the Smile was published in December 2008.
In 2009, Shawn Johnson and Mark Ballas won Dancing with the Stars season 8.
She was the youngest ever competitor on Dancing with the Stars.
After Dancing with the Stars, her activities included being a judge on the Miss America pageant and being featured on the milk mustache ad for the "Got Milk?" ad campaign.
Her official website has a detailed biography of Shawn Johnson.
