Shawn Johnson just announced her retirement. Call me shocked. Personally, I thought she was sneaking in trips to AOGC during her recent trip to the Dancing With The Stars finale or that she flipped around at Chelsea Piers during her trips to NYC and all those photo shoots and commercials lately were clearly scheduled around her practice sessions...
In short, Shawn has been retired for several months. The National Team has known of this for some time. If it wasn't official, it was when her book release date was announced to be the week of VISA Championships. Releasing a book requires a big time commitment. I so believed Shawn when she told everyone reporter featuring her that she'd be there competing. I think her plan was to hop off the bars after podium training, fly to see Matt Lauer, come back for the competition after a mid-morning flight, compete, fly back for an appearance on The View and then win the second night of Nationals. It wouldn't be a distraction at all as she fought tooth and nail to make her second Olympic Team.
When exactly Shawn began being outright lying about her intention to compete this summer, but it has certainly been fun to watch and speculate over. I would like to thank Shawn Johnson and her fake smile for providing hours of entertainment in recent months. After Shawn dealt with the slap in the face of having to compete at Pan Am Games and failing to return home with an individual gold, it was clear that America's sweetheart would not allow herself to suffer the same fate at Olympic Trials. Hopefully we will see her bubbly self return to the dance floor this fall. I for one can't wait.
Shawn has informed us that she will be attending Nationals, Trials and the Olympics to soak up more attention for herself as she pretends to be close to the girls on the National Team.
It seems like she just didn't have the heart. I was one that was fooled. She point blank lied publicly for months. I don't give a rat's a$$ about corporate sponsors and fiduciary responsibility-- I will never think the same of her again.
ReplyDeleteAmen to this comment.
DeleteShe has been lying and lying and the thing that pisses me off the most is no one will call her out on it.
ReplyDeleteAnd it looks like she recovered from her 'sickness' and 'laryngitis' that prevented her from cheering on Gabby at Classics in just enough time to announce her retirement
Don't forget her fluff package at Visa's will end with a close up shot of her book
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/gymnastics/olympic-comeback-falls-short-for-shawn-johnson-announces-retirment.html
ReplyDeleteDISLIKE: Johnson told us she will attend the VISA Championships, Olympic Trials, and Olympic Games as a spectator.
“Being in London is a must. It’s not going to be easy to be there and live through it all, but I owe it to the girls to be there. We’re a family and I need to be there for them.”
Pretty sure the girls aren't going to be bothered one way or another if she isn't there cheering them on. That's such an egotistical thing for her to say.
DeleteWow, I love how in her announcement she thanks her sponsors and her agent before her friends, family, and coaches.
ReplyDeleteThe girls hate her. She will be in London to promote herself.
ReplyDeleteAll this because of a dumb skiing accident? If you are serious about your sport why go skiing? Yuna at least stayed away from bikes.
ReplyDeleteSo true. An athlete truely 'leaving the door open for a comeback' would never go skiing or cycle regularly or go clubbing! I liked 2008 Shawn, I really did, but I don't like that post-olympic media whore Shawn!
DeleteFor all you haters and trolls pieces of crap this girl has more heart and love then anyone of you losers. You are probably a bunch of overweight hypocrites who sit behind your computers. A complete reconstructive knee almost never heals completely . So take you disrespectful and retarded comments elsewhere . I would watch her anyday over any of you losers. So get your crayons and baby book and put your comments on your bathroom door. Trolls
DeleteHey Anon 3:40, you do know she lied to you right? That's not heart, that's not love that's blatant manipulation of her fans and sponsors in order to get more money and attention.
DeleteHer book comes out in a few days, I mean COME ON. She hasn't been training she's been out shopping and pimping herself to be on DWTS
She's known for sometime that she was going to retire but she continued to smile and say "Training is going good"
Anonymous @ 3:48 PM...AMEN!
DeleteYes. One of the girls PERSONALLY told me over the phone at the media summit that this was the plan all along. I hesitated to believe it, but this is confirmation. I knew a lot of fans would have been hurt by this because their hopes were reaching fever pitch. These things can backfire and fans can be a passionate bunch (See: Chellsie Memmel) but they can be fickle.
ReplyDeleteSponsorships and endorsements are all fine and dandy, but I think they should be more careful with PR stunts of this sort.
juicy....can you give us any more?
DeleteI always heard the 2008 team didn't really like her does anyone know why? Does the new generation feel the same way?
I thought it was weird how at the media summit ALL of the gymnasts were together taking pics, and Shawn was off hanging with other athletes.
I don't think they dislike her, but that question never came up.
DeleteI directly asked what is going on with Shawn and Nastia's comeback, and was told she was doing basically for promotion, sponsorships and endorsements. She didn't mention anything about the team not liking her, it was more or less a matter of fact statement. But i was told some of the girls knew for a while, it just wasn't their place to publicly say anything. I even feel weird saying anything to be honest and I'm not even on the team. :(
shawn, alicia and nastia seemed to like each other just fine
DeleteI don't mean to make you feel uncomfortable! I just have always heard these rumors so I just wanted to know if they were true.
DeleteThat must be weird for the other girls, knowing she's just doing it for publicity and getting a lot of it, while they're all actually trying to make the team.
I mean everyone outside of gymnastics only cares about Shawn and here are girls who are actually putting in the hours that nobody cares about
Nobody knows the other girls yet, they haven't proven themselves on the olympic stage yet (except nastia). After the olympics, if they do well, they too will be known like shawn. Everyone liked shawn for her personality too.
Delete@AnonymousJune 3, 2012 1:09 PM
DeleteI'm sorry. I didn't mean to suggest that you were making me uncomfortable, just saying the circumstance makes me uncomfortable and i'm not even on the team so I can imagine the position it puts the other girls in. But I get the impression that they do love her and have no problem with her as a person. I stated this as discreet as humanly possible on gymnastike the day of media summit shortly after the phone call to brace Shawn's fans so it wouldn't be such a shock in case it turned out to be true after all, which unfortunately today proved that it was indeed true.
Evan should have dated this girl instead of Nastia.
ReplyDeleteCloseted Evan dating a girl? hahahha
DeleteThe good thing: She announced her retirement before nationals and we can focus on the girls who are actually training and competing to make that olympic team.
ReplyDeleteTha bad thing:
She was asked if she would continue so many times and she was always like, yes of course I will, I'm optimistic but relistic, whatever and then she went shopping the Day of classics
Nobody knows the other girls yet, they haven't proven themselves on the olympic stage yet (except nastia). After the olympics, if they do well, they too will be known like shawn. Everyone liked shawn for her personality too.
DeleteI'm not sure the focus will be on them. I'm SURE Shawn will get her own package at nationals, a million interviews etc.
DeleteAnd she's going to London with her sponsors. I can see it now, the USA has won whatever medal in TF and the five of them are sitting there waiting to talk about their accomplishment while Shawn is standing next to them saying how proud she is of 'her' team, all while wearing a Nike jacket and holding a coca-cola in her hand.
^ sorry replied under the wrong comment
DeleteThank God we finally have some other non story to go off on now. The whole Memmel thing was so played.
ReplyDeletewho didn't see this whole cherade coming as soon as she announced her 'comeback.' cleary it was all planned out from the get-go and for money, attention, money, and attention. who could really blame her for milking it as hard as possible all the way to the end of any significant relevance, but at least she could've been interesting, spicy, or anything except a mind numbingly boring, cookie cutter brown noser, so cute smiley happy, so true to herself, so realistic and mature, so making me just want to PUKE every time i'm subjected to that cocked eyebrow and scripted, predicted crap that comes out of her mouth.
ReplyDeleteThis timing is not much different then what Nastia did, announcing her desire to make the olympic team at the world championships. I personally hope that we have a brand new olympic team. We do not need the retreads with their injuries {memmel} their laziness {sloan} or their drama {fat nastia and fat ass shawn}. Good luck, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do agree I want a team of newbies, at least Nastia is putting her money where her mouth is....at least for now. Shawn retired months ago and didn't have the balls to admit it.
DeleteNOOOOOOOOO Shawn! I wanted to believe
ReplyDeleteShawn Johnson sucks. Never was a great gymnast and never will be.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, she sucked so bad that she won three gold medals at the 2007 World Championships - team, all-around and floor exercise, and won four medals at the 2008 Olympics, 1 gold & 3 silver.
DeleteOh, and she's the 2007 American Cup all-around champion...
...and the 2007 U.S. all-around, balance beam and floor exercise champion and uneven bars bronze medalist...
...and the year after that, she was the 2008 U.S. all-around and floor exercise champion and balance beam silver medalist.
Looks to me like Shawn was actually pretty good.
Maybe you're just projecting your own feelings about yourself onto Shawn. In other words, YOU suck, YOU were never a great gymnast (or anything for that matter) and NEVER will be. Yeah, that makes A LOT more sense.
She knew she had no shot at the team. That is why she finally decided not to waste her time. She was in the gym a little over a month ago so this is a recent thing.
ReplyDeleteGive her credit for not showing up during Nationals and trying to take credit for Jordyn Wieber winning the AA. That is what Nastia would have done and did during Worlds but you fuck her up the ass every chance you get.
Nastia isn't putting her money where her mouth is. She has only been training full time for 3 months and she still gets paid to do a speech or two.
ReplyDeleteShawn had no chance making this team because Marta never wanted her to comeback. It has always been about Nastia.
Some of you people are so blinded by Nastia's lies it is pathetic.
And your hate for Nastia blinds you. Why wouldn't Marta want Shawn on the team? Having Shawn Johnson on the team would bring in way more press for USAG.
DeleteNastia has stated she is competing at Visas and as of right now she is. Who cares how long she's been training, if she can bring the routines why does it matter?
Shawn kept saying her training is going well, she has new floor choreo, awesome beam upgrades and was asked point blank if she's competing at nationals and she said 'Yes'. It seems to me that Shawn is the one who has been lying and I'm amazed that the people she lied to, her fans, will continue to stick up for her.
The conspiracy theory level on this thread is on par with the belief the US government knocked down the twin towers. Marta Karolyi and USAG want one thing, and that is a team gold medal in London. If Shawn had been able to perform, more the better. If Nastia can produce, fair enough. The notion that there are pet athletes that will get a bye over any other athlete is a pernicious belief that is very far removed from reality. I guarantee that if Rosie O'Donnell could get off the couch and come to Trials with a 7.0 start value on bars and beam, they'd figure a way to stuff her in a leotard. It is now and always has been all about who can deliver in London, full stop.
DeleteAnon 7:07 THANK YOU! The fact that people think Nastia will make the team with sub-par routines just because she's Marta's 'pet' are ludicrous. USAG wants one thing and one thing only, team gold. If Nastia can contribute than she is on the team.
DeleteWhat would be the point of putting Nastia on the team if she doesn't have the routines?
You think Shawn trained like she did last year just for money? Why bother a year in advance.
ReplyDeleteSo you're all upset that Shawn "lied" you? You can't be THAT naive, can you? Maybe you should direct your self-righteous indignation toward a system that allows a U.S. Olympic team to determined not through actual head-to-head competition, but via the whim of some old commie named "Karolyi."
ReplyDeleteI have enough spite for both, thank you.
Deletelighten up it's just gymnastics
ReplyDeleteand still not as popular as johnny weir
ReplyDeleteshawn should have just retired after 2008 instead of doing this because shes gonna lose a lot of respect from fans
ReplyDeleteTo be honest I've never liked Shawn's robotic gymnastics. Precise yes but utterly lacking in grace or artistry. That being said, I'm sorry she won't be competing at Nationals after pretending she would be for so long via Twitter and other outlets. Over on IG someone said Gabby Douglas blabbed that she hadn't seen Shawn in the gym in a month. Shawn's bullshit PR team did their job well. Too bad Douglas couldn't be forced to cooperate LOL! And I agree that Shawn is only showing up to allegedly cheer on 'her girls' at Nationals/Trials/Olympics to glom off some more of that attention for herself and her book. :D
ReplyDeleteShawn admitted in an interview about a month ago that after DWTS ended and she returned to Iowa that she missed the paparazzi. Who misses paparazzi?
ReplyDeleteHa. This article is a great example of why I love your blog so much. I was just getting ready to ask why you would be "shocked" and then read a little closer... Love the dry humor and sarcasm. :-)
ReplyDeleteNastia has told us for months she has been training with no outside distractions. That is not true. She gave a speech at my daughters gym only a month and a half ago.
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