She may have won an Olympic gold medal back in 2008 at the age of 16, but Shawn Johnson has her share of insecurities. The now 23-year-old, 4-foot-9 gymnast has struggled with her weight for years.
“When I first went on [DWTS in 2009], I was 16, and I turned 17 on the show,” she told Yahoo Health. “Going from this strict, regimented schedule to going through puberty on national TV and gaining weight, and just being kind of a huge target for criticism, was just really difficult for me.”
Even though she went on to win the show with partner Mark Ballas and became (at the time) the youngest contestant to take home the Mirrorball Trophy, she still took the scrutiny to heart.
Johnson tried detoxes and cleanses but none of it seemed to work.
“I’ve kind of gone through the gamut when it comes to health,” she continued. “I’ve hit lows with — I don’t want to say diagnosed eating disorders — but eating disorders. And then I’ve gone the other way, where I’ve rejected fitness.”
She also suffered from a post-Olympics skiing injury, which left her inactive for a prolonged period of time. Her former gymnastics coach gave her some tough love, asking how long it had been since her last workout.
“I told him it was probably a year. And he was like, ‘I can tell. And we’re probably going to need to start over for a while,’” she said. “It was a rude awakening.”
But these days, Johnson is fit and happy, running her image positive site, The Body Department.
“[I’ve] kind of gone through the whole education system, all the nutritionists, and now I’m finally healthy,” she said. “For me, it was kind of like, what if I could build a place for these girls to go that was just as cool, but there is no negative association? It was health, and beauty, and fun, and ‘you’re perfect the way you are — but here are some workouts.’ And it kind of took off.”
