shawn johnson - misty-may treanor - espn

For Shawn Johnson, she must do better than Michelle Kwan.

Yeah, clearly I did that. Sorry, I didn't mean to put the pressure on Shawn. And she's 17. Come on, it's got to be harder at 17 than everybody else is an adult.

Yeah, the youngest competitor and the shortest ever, which means her heels are higher.

No one has to know.

And they put me in higher heels.

See, women work. No, that's not good.

It's rigged. Everybody, this is Mason with a question from Missy.

How high is your vertical jump?

Do you want the real one or like the actual? What's in the media guide and then what's the real one? I don't know what's in the media guide. They say I'm 5'10" in the media guide and I'm like, you're only hurting my vertical by putting taller. Um, I'm not sure what my vertical is, but in the end of high school and when I played on the national team, everybody had to touch the rim except for our defensive specialist, so I could touch just over 10 foot. As I get older though, I think You know how people shrink? I think the number's decreasing, but I would say, I would say maybe about 20. I don't know, they just put boxes in front of me and plyometrics, and I just do it because I don't want to nail my shin.

All right guys, time for about maybe 2 or 3 more questions. This is Sean, go ahead.

Uh, yeah, after high school, um, do you plan on going to college? And if so, where?

Um, my number one right now is Stanford.

Oh, you—

so that's what I'm really working for. Hopefully I can help coach their gymnastics team because I gave up the eligibility to compete for gymnastics in college, and I'd really like to, like she said, pass it on and kind of help out.

So, okay, another question from Nick.

This is for Shawn. How do you keep up with the good grades and doing so well in school and doing gymnastics at the same time?

I think gymnastics really helps with the good grades because any sport teaches you responsibility and discipline and how to like self-motivate yourself. And I am a 4.0 student still. And good for you. I don't know, that's something our coach really encouraged too. He really wanted to see the good grades and, and everything. So my teachers helped a lot. They're really supportive of, supportive of all the time I would miss. And they'd help me catch up and stuff. But it's really just kind of keeping organized and staying motivated.

A gold medalist and a 4.0 student. I am such a loser.

I really am.

This is Abby. She's not. She's got a great question for both you ladies and something I really hope you'll expound upon because I don't think anybody here has a true appreciation for what you guys go through.

Go ahead, Abby.

What are your training schedules like for the Olympics?

Um, for me, I, like I said, I still attended public school, so I would go to school every morning from like 7 to 1, and then I'd go straight from there to, you know, do lunch and stuff, and then I go to the gym 2:30 to 6:30 during the week. On the Saturdays, I would go 9 to noon, we'd have lunch, I'd come back from 1 to 3. I'd then go to a fitness center and I would do running or swimming and stuff for another hour or two. Sundays are my day off from the gymnastics gym, but I would go to a fitness center and run and do extra stuff too. So it's just constantly keeping in shape and working on anything you could.

It's our— it's my job. I don't win a tournament, I don't get a paycheck, so I gotta— yeah, all right, I gotta, um, you know, it's 9 to 5, so I would leave the house sometimes 7 in the morning and not get back till 7 at night. I practice with Carrie in the morning. I'd have to drive an hour to practice first off, meet up with Carrie. We practice for about 2 and a half hours, 3 hours, get lunch in the car, head to my trainer, be with them for another 2 hours, and physical therapy after that, maybe go to the gym later. So I'm not getting back to the house till about 6 or 7 at night. It's, it's, it's, you know, a commitment. You don't sign across the dotted line, but pays off in the end.

Second to last question from Lisa.

Hi, um, I know Shawn, you said that your weakest, um, event was bars, and, um, I just wanted to know for both of you, was there ever like a, um, like a specific weakness or anything like that, and how did you overcome it? For me, it was just kind of staying in the sport in general. Because going through high school and middle school and stuff, your friends are going to movies and going to football games and stuff. And for me, it was always hard because I was the one that couldn't do that. And that was a huge thing for me back then.

And well, it's not back then, it's only like 2 years ago.

But, um, so it was hard for me to stay really motivated, but I did end up always going back and saying, I love this sport, I don't want to get out of it. But there's always times where I questioned whether I wanted to continue, and, um, I would take a day or two off, and then I'd be like, no, I'm flipping around the house now, so I need to go back to the gym. So it's just staying motivated to keep going, but it did pay off big time.

I don't know, I think in our game, like, I don't think I'm as good as everybody else. They're like, oh, you're great. I'm like, no, I have to improve. And they're like, what can you improve upon? And I I mean, sure, I want to improve on everything. Why? Because you got to stay one step ahead. I would say what I've had to work on the most is just more of the mental game, not so much the physical. I'm one of the shorter players, so I'm going to get served a lot. So how can I be hitting at the same or jumping the same at the beginning of the tournament as the end? So I've had to work on just maintaining power and getting in better, better shape. To outlast, you know, what's coming, coming at me.

Final question from the audience. It's a great one for both of you. Logan, go ahead, buddy.

How you doing, Sean? Met you yesterday. Um, just wanted to say, uh, I was curious, what was it like, um, when y'all got home, just coming back from Beijing, that mountaintop experience, how great it was for both of y'all? Uh, what was it like when you got home? And, uh, for you going to school, um, you end up going back to just regular life without all the crazy media stuff and everything. I mean, what did it feel like? Uh, did you kind of, you know, was it kind of post-Olympics depression or what?

Definitely. Um, I missed the Olympics more than anything, but we had— we went directly from the Olympics onto a 42-city gymnastics tour, and so I kind of got to transition to that and not feel sad about leaving the Olympics. But when I got home, it was just craziness, chaos. There was a welcome home party for me, which was actually held in an arena, and 10,000 people showed up, which blew my mind. I mean, I didn't understand it at all. I was like, why are these people here for me? Because it's not a job, like Misty said, and It's just something that I love, and I'm representing the US at the same time, so it's kind of different but hard to grasp. And to know that that many people watched and supported me and stuff was such an honor, and it was the best way to come back home that I could ever have imagined.

Well, I got back on the plane and we still had 4 more tournaments left. So we still had to be in competition mode, but it was hard. We came back, we lost the first two, which I could have told you was going to happen because we completely exhausted ourselves, you know, for the gold medal. Um, but after that, those, um, four weekends, I went right— or actually, right when I got home, I hopped on a plane, saw my husband for like 12 hours, came back. Competed, and then I went to Dancing with the Stars and was there for the 2 and a half weeks, 3 weeks, until I got hurt. And so, I mean, I got hurt. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. My body's just telling me I needed a break to slow down. And so, you know, it's— it wasn't much of a whirlwind as 2004. We got a lot of the media, like you said, out of the way in Beijing. So now it's just time— from the point I hurt myself, it's just been rehab, kind of kick back, relax. I got to go to Hawaii for vacation, so taking everything in. But I do miss the Olympic experience, and I say, how did we do that? Like, now that I have a chance to look back, I'm like, had it been one play or something different, it could have been a completely different outcome. We're in Greece after we came back. It was just keep going, keep going. So I didn't have the chance to really think about what had just happen. But I do miss it, but it's nice not competing for a while. All right guys, our time is up, but another round of applause for our two Olympians. Enjoy the rest of your weekend here at ESPN Weekend. If you guys like dance, I think we've got a parade coming, so we're all going to have to clear the way. Thanks everybody. Thank you.