Johnson is Little Miss Perfect

For those of you who have missed out on the excitement, here is a fun article about Shawn Johnson...

August 8, 2008

BY GREG COUCH Sun-Times Columnist

BEIJING — Shawn Johnson sat straight with her fingers clasped on the table directly in front of her, and her smile big, straight and never wavering.

"In the end," she said, "if I give everything I have, I’ll be happy."

In every Olympics, we look for some tiny sweetheart to fall in love with.

Johnson is it.

She is the American gymnast, who not only is favored to win the all-around competition, but also possibly take down China’s team in the most hotly contested U.S.-China team matchup in the Olympics.

That’s right, all 4-9 and 90 pounds of this 16-year-old, probably the toughest Olympian pound-for-pound, is set to take down the big bad guys. This is a Wheaties box cover waiting to happen.

"It’s such an honor to know that USA (gymnastics) picked me," she said.

But wait, you don’t know the half of it.

The truth about Johnson is — and remember I’m a critic for a living — she is perfect. Little Miss Perfect.

If that sounds like sarcasm, forget it.

No, I’ve been studying this, looking for the flaws to expose. If she has one at all, it’s only that perfection can be annoying. It can be fake or plastic. And Johnson does have that perfect smile.

But somehow, she makes it work.

Here’s the deal: Johnson is from West Des Moines, Iowa. She had far too much energy as a baby, and was doing pull-ups in her crib. I swear. So her mom put her in gymnastics when she was 6.

She’s a straight-A student, who, according to the Palm Beach Post, spends her free time walking dogs at a shelter and wiping off muddy footballs for her high school’s team. I swear.

Her parents? Junior high sweethearts who met at a roller rink.

She’s the one.

They are calling her the next Mary Lou Retton, and frankly, we have a tendency to label these athletes that way. Michael Phelps is the next Mark Spitz. It’s completely unfair, and pressures athletes, in this case a kid.

"It’s an honor to have someone make that comparison," she said. Smiling. Hands clasped.

Get ready. Because after Phelps and the men’s basketball team, Johnson is the American face of these Games.

Did I mention the butter statue? They made one of her at the Iowa State Fair.

If these Games evolve into something about protests of China’s human rights record, then the medal count will serve as the great scoreboard, and the biggest image fight will come from the smallest competitors.

Accusations have already come out that China is using girls who have not reached the minimum-age requirements.

"We are ready to take on any team," U.S. official Martha Karolyi said. "Over-age or underage."

Now, I’ve always liked gymnastics during the Olympics, found it amazing and one of the most courageous sports. You get your moment and you have to nail it. It’s beautiful movements mixed with incredible power.

But I don’t like to see how its made. These little girls are constantly overtrained and hurt, with plenty developing eating disorders.

"I have been remarkably injury-free my whole career," she said. "Minor sprains, yes. But anything big? No."

Her parents have said over and over how important it was that Johnson have a "normal" life, which, with prodigies can mean they’re allowed to make one phone call a day while starving themselves in the sports academy they’ve moved to away from their parents.

Johnson stayed in Des Moines and goes to public school. A typical work schedule for these kids is 40-hours a week of training. Johnson does 25, which would seem to be plenty, and might explain her lack of injuries. She also says she’s on no particular diet.

That’s all the plan of her coach, Liang Qiao, who now goes by "Chow." See, when Johnson’s mother enrolled her in gymnastics as a 6-year old, it turned out that the guy running the place was Chow, a former Chinese champion gymnast.

Now, I’m not sure how many Chinese champions can accidentally be found in Des Moines, but that’s where he was. He came to the U.S. to go to the University of Iowa, and then staying nearby to open his gymnastics school.

He hadn’t been back to China until now, but he said that was just a matter of having time in his schedule. The story goes that Chow was running his gym with worn-out equipment he had talked the University of Iowa’s coaches into giving him.

When Chow was young, China selected him as a future champ and moved him to a camp, where he trained ridiculous hours. He feels that plan was wrong.

So Johnson big competition figures to come from one Chinese gymnast, and also from her own teammate, Nastia Liukin.

Just a guess (a hope?), but Johnson despises Liukin?

"We’re just like a big family," Johnson said. "We couldn’t love each other any more."

Sometimes, things can be a little too sweet. She makes it work.

The team competition starts Tuesday, and if she wins this gold, and leads the team past China, then who knows what the people of Iowa will use to make a statue of her next.