Shawn Johnson

Shawn Johnson East (born Shawn Machel Johnson on January 19, 1992) is an American former artistic gymnast. She is the 2008 Olympic balance beam gold medalist and a three-time Olympic silver medalist in the team, all-around, and floor exercise events. Johnson is also the 2007 World individual all-around Champion, the 2007 World floor exercise Champion, and a five-time Pan American Games gold medalist. Over her competitive career, she won three U.S. national all-around titles, once as a junior and twice as a senior.

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, to Doug and Teri Johnson, she was enrolled in gymnastics at age three. At age six, she became one of Liang Chow's first students at his gymnastics school in West Des Moines, beginning a coaching relationship that lasted nearly two decades. Johnson attended Valley High School, where she was on the honor roll while training 25 hours per week. She left public school in 2009, finished high school with a private tutor in 2010, and enrolled at Vanderbilt University in 2013, though she withdrew before classes began.

Johnson qualified as a junior elite gymnast in 2005 and won the 2006 U.S. Junior National All-Around Championship. In 2007, her rookie senior season, she won the all-around at the American Cup, the Pan American Games, and the Visa U.S. National Championships. At the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, she earned gold medals in the team event, the individual all-around, and the floor exercise.

In 2008, Johnson won the all-around titles at the U.S. Visa Championships and the U.S. Olympic Trials. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she won silver medals in the team competition, the individual all-around, and the floor exercise. She also won the gold medal on the balance beam apparatus, becoming the second American woman to earn Olympic gold on the balance beam.

After tearing her left ACL and MCL in a skiing accident in January 2010, Johnson underwent surgery and launched a comeback, rejoining the USA Senior National Team in 2011. At the 2011 Pan American Games, she won a gold medal in the team event and a silver medal on the uneven bars. On June 3, 2012, Johnson announced her retirement from competitive gymnastics due to persistent problems with her left knee.

Outside of gymnastics, Johnson won season eight of Dancing with the Stars in May 2009 and placed second in the all-star edition in November 2012. Her awards include the 2009 AAU James E. Sullivan Award, ESPY and Teen Choice awards, and the 2007 Longines Prize for Elegance. She was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2013 and the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2019, and a life-sized bronze sculpture of her stands at the Iowa Hall of Pride.

Johnson married professional football long snapper Andrew East on April 16, 2016, in Franklin, Tennessee. The couple resides in Nashville, Tennessee, and has three children, born in October 2019, July 2021, and December 2023. In February 2022, Johnson and her husband joined the ownership group of the National Women's Soccer League team Angel City FC.