Shawn Johnson, a 16-year-old Olympic gymnast for the US took the gold for the balance beam at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Having been the defending all around world champion, Shawn managed to keep her title on the beam. She was delighted and honored to receive such recognition, one that she so easily deserved throughout her gymnastics career.
Her coach Chow, holding over 30 International Gold metals, is the coach for the American Olympic Gymnastics Team. Growing up Chow and Li coached Shawn at Chow's Gymnastics and Dance in West Des Moines, Iowa. Shawn has received much encouragement throughout her training, and has Chow to thank for every bit of her success.
Her teammates on the American Olympic Gymnastics Team, have been striving for 13 years to gain the status at the Olympics that they so righteously deserve. Even with the Chinese Gymnastics Team being their biggest threat, heading into the final 2 routines, the ladies seemed to still have a good chance of getting gold. Team USA's strengths were also the balance beam and floor exercises, which were the remaining events. Sadly after USA team captain Sacramone slipped on her intro to the balance beam, it went down hill from there. Another tumble was made, and there were 2 team members who stepped out of bounds.
Afterwards there was talk about the Chinese gymnasts not being of age to compete. But, the USA female gymnast team took their silver medals with pride. They knew that China would be their biggest challenge, and even so, this well loved team congratulated each other with their success.
