The response was more than 20 pages of comments, many filled with vitriol, directed at Johnson for apparently taking it for granted that she’d get into either of those schools. Johnson has also said that she’s fallen so behind on her schoolwork that attending her senior year at Valley High School in West Des Moines is out of the question, and that she’s taking online classes to finish her diploma.
For this post only, I’d like to respond to some of the mean-spirited but more importantly inaccurate assumptions made by the commenters of the Des Moines Register article, and explain why Shawn Johnson indeed deserves to go to Stanford.
Olympic beam and Dancing with the Stars champion Shawn Johnson has big plans, but returning to her West Des Moines High School for her senior year no longer appears to be one of them.
The Des Moines Register reported this morning that Johnson’s goals include coaching at some point, but that she’ll pursue her high school diploma via online classes. In the midst of all the opportunities that have come her way since the Olympic Games, Johnson has been keeping up with her studies through online classes.
Johnson before an appearance on Letterman last summer.
Johnson did say after the Olympics that returning to high school for her last year was a priority, but she couldn’t have forseen the publicity and stardom that came with winning Dancing with the Stars within 12 months of four Olympic medals.
She also said she’d like to attend either UCLA or Stanford for college and may pursue coaching opportunities wherever she goes. Most schools’ gymnastics teams have volunteer student coaches, and having Johnson in that capacity would be a huge marketing bonus for any gymnastics program in the nation.
Johnson, who hinted that she has big, “entertainment-related” news, has stated that she hopes to return to gymnastics, but many are skeptical. The results of a Gymblog poll to the question “Will Shawn Johnson return to elite gymnastics?” showed that out of 269 voters, 77 percent (208 votes) believed she wouldn’t. Seven percent (18 voters) believed she would come back, while 16 percent (43 votes) thought she might make a full return to gymnastics in 2011.
Former World Team member and Georgia Gym Dog Katie Heenan is expecting a son.
2001 World team member Katie Heenan Dodson and her baseball player husband Stephen Dodson are expecting a baby boy in September.
Heenan Dodson, who trained with Ashley Postell for several years, competed on the first day of the 2004 Olympic Trials and became a star gymnast at Georgia, graduating in 2008.
In 2001, Heenan Dodson became the first U.S. woman to score an individual medal at a world championship since Dominique Dawes’s bronze on beam in 1996, breaking the American drought of the 1997-2000 quad. The 2001 World Team — Heenan, Mohini Bhardwaj, Tasha Schwikert, Ashley Miles, Rachel Tidd and Tabitha Yim – won bronze as well.
From Online Athens, in an article that catches up with each of the 2008 seniors:
Just after Heenan Dodson competed for the last time, she was awarded the 2008 Honda Award for Gymnastics and got engaged. She married in November and found out she was pregnant this past January.
“Stephen and I are so excited about our baby, and we love being married,” Heenan Dodson said. “So life is good. No complaints.”
After graduating in May when she finished her student teaching this past semester, Heenan Dodson traveled to Arizona to see her husband, who was in spring training after being drafted by the Colorado Rockies last year.
“I spent two weeks in Tucson until he got called to Asheville, N.C.,” Heenan Dodson said. “The next thing I knew I was on a plane out to Asheville.”
The couple will live in North Carolina until September when Stephen plans to finish his degree at Georgia. And Heenan Dodson is due on Sept. 24 with their son, who they plan to name Charles “Charlie” Winston Dodson.
“I’ve had a fairly easy pregnancy so far,” Heenan Dodson said. “Other than being tired in the first trimester, everything has been great.”
Katie Heenan, 2001 World Championships Event Finals, Uneven Bars (3rd):
Heenan’s best at the 2008 NCAA Championships, won by Georgia:
In an interview with Inside Gymnastics this week, the 2008 Olympic beam and Dancing with the Stars champion insisted that she’ll return to gymnastics, but also added that she’s got a big announcement in the works.
Shawn Johnson hasn’t given up on gymnastics, not by a long shot, but she might have to put her plans on hold for some big news coming soon.
“I’ve got some things I’m really excited about,” she teased Thursday in a chat with Inside, “but I’m not sure what I can release yet. I’ll let [my fans] know as soon as I can though. Promise!”
Johnson concedes the surprise project(s) are “entertainment-related, yeah,” but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to call it quits on gymnastics.
“I hired a personal trainer and I’m working out really hard right now,” she insists. “In fact, I just got back from a training session.
“I knew I needed to get back into shape, get prepared, before I get back in the gym,” she says. “That’s definitely something I’m planning on doing. Definitely.”
Johnson told one press writer that she’d been offered movie and TV deals after her DWTS win.
The ruling is in: The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee officially likes the idea of turning the Super Six into a Final Four (er, “Four on the Floor”), and implementing six-up, six-count at collegiate meets.
But only at Regionals and the NCAA Championship. And not until 2011. And not before the the rule changes flip over one more hurdle, an organization called the Championships/Sports Management Cabinet.
That’s the news at NCAA.org, which has posted a news story on its site detailing the committee’s thoughts.
The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee is recommending changes in both the championship format and the scoring system to make the sport more appealing to spectators and television.
Instead of the top six teams competing for the team title on the second day of the championship, the gymnastics committee wants the top four teams to advance to the finals (a concept the committee has dubbed “four on the floor”). The change would eliminate byes during the NCAA finals, making it easier for fans to follow the standings. The change also would shorten the competition, making it easier to broadcast live, which in turn could give college women’s gymnastics more fan appeal.
The top 12 teams would still compete to earn one of the top four spots, with the top two from each of the semifinal sessions earning their way to the finals. The top 36 teams still will compete at the regionals.
“The four-on-the-floor concept received great support from our coaches association,” said committee Chair Paul Plinske, athletics director at Wisconsin-Whitewater. “It has the potential to create a more exciting, fan-friendly and understandable championship final.”
Plinske said the committee thought it was in the best interests of the sport to explore an option that is consistent with other NCAA championship sports and that offers more appeal for live television.
Other small differences: The NCAA Championship will be held in neutral territory in Cleveland, Ohio, and be held from Friday-Sunday, rather than Thursday-Saturday. It will also be held the third week of April, after The Masters’ Golf Tournaments and NCAA basketball tournaments.
Many have done it, but few have done it as well as 2000 Olympic champion Andreea Raducan or Dominique Moceanu.
I like them for different reasons — Raducan’s routine showed just how much of a complete package gymnast she was, and Moceanu’s take is just so stylish.
Andreea Raducan, 2000 Olympic Games Team Final, Floor Exercise:
Dominique Moceanu, 1998 Goodwill Games All-Around, Floor Exercise:
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The International Olympic Committee is following developments in the case of two Chinese gymnasts suspected of being underage at the 2000 Summer Games, and says it will take “necessary measures.”
The investigation into Dong Fangxiao and Yang Yun’s eligibility has been turned over to a disciplinary commission, the International Gymnastics Federation announced Tuesday. If they are found to be underage, the commission would recommend sanctions to the FIG’s executive committee.
But it would be up to the IOC to determine what, if anything, to do about the medals China won in Sydney. The Chinese women won the team bronze medal, and Yang was the bronze medalist on the uneven bars.
“The IOC will take necessary measures upon the decision of the FIG disciplinary commission,” IOC spokeswoman Sandrine Tonge said Wednesday.
…Zhou Qiurui, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Gymnastics Association, said the association had received a notice from the FIG and was willing to cooperate, but did not have any details on how that would be done.
“Lu Shanzhen, the deputy director of our association who is in charge of the women’s team, is not in Beijing,” Zhou said.
Sounds like the IOC is willing to do something — medal-stripping, banning participation from World Championships or even Olympic Games, something – if the FIG denounces the Yang and Dong. The U.S. women, who finished fourth in the team competition, would be in line to receive the bronze if China’s team medals were to be stripped. Ukranian Viktoria Karpenko, one of the best and most luckless gymnasts of the quadrennium, would receive Yang Yun’s bronze medal on uneven bars.
A decision on the matter is expected by September at the latest.
