A Quote by Shawn Johnson

When I was 3 my parents put me in gymnastics because I was a bundle of energy and they just didn't know what to do with me! They put me in a Tots class and I just fell in love with it.
Because I was crazy and because my parents wanted me out of their hair, they put me in an all-day acting class... so they wouldn't have to deal with me, probably. And it just so happened there agents auditing the class, and I ended up getting signed.
My parents enrolled me in a gymnastics class when I was three years old, and I just was drawn to gymnastics. I loved it. It was my playground, and I could run around and be free there.
Put on a camera and put on some whatever, and you're an actor. Put me in a cage, I'm a fighter. Put me somewhere else - I'm in an ocean, I'm a surfer. I don't know what I am, I just do it all. And I want to be good at everything.
I may not be doing it right, but I love to get on an elliptical and put the kids on FaceTime in front of me and just get after it. They don't even have to talk to me. They just put the phone on and put it in the living room and one will walk by and be like, 'Hey!'
I can put my legs behind my head and sing 'Happy Birthday.' Because that's something that me and my friends used to do when we were in gymnastics class as kids, and I can still do it. I was doing it since I was 8 and 9. They used to call me Gumby. Very bendy.
Somebody with a huge brand like Bellator under an even huger brand like Viacom, to have them put their faith in me, to put me in so many things, to put me in commercials, send me to all these events, and just to continue to put me in the cage with great talent, it's great.
In Romania, of course, gymnastics is among the most popular sports, and my parents had a dream of escaping the Ceausescu regime and giving their child a better life. So they came to the United States and put me in gymnastics.
People have always called me Schneider Monkey just because of my energy and mass consumption of bananas. Plus, I just love monkeys, so I thought, 'Well, I love monkeys, I love my fans, why not put the two together?'
I think my mom put me in tap classes when I was three, which I never pursued. I don't know how to tap. Then we moved to Portugal when I was five, and, I think, she put me in ballet classes immediately. Then I was expelled for being too restless - I am too high energy - and was told I could go do rhythm gymnastics.
What do I think of myself? I know my worth. I know my value. I know I have to lead by example. I can't just be all over the place. I put the energy out that I want given back to me. And again, I'm true to me.
I just can't talk about things before I do them, because just for me... I give energy away before I've put energy into the job.
My parents put me in the water very early, and also had me skiing at a very early age. They put me on skis when I was one and a half. I was fortunate to have parents who understood the importance of exposing their kids to different sports, different cultures and different activities in order to discover what we liked and what we didn't like. They didn't push us, they just gave us many things to choose from.
I just want to pursue my dream. That is to fight. That is what God put me here to do. He didn't put me here to be a doctor or a lawyer. He put me here to fight.
I know that God is working through me within this sport. I know He's put me here for a purpose and it's not just to win medals. Winning is great and hopefully it gives me a platform to spread His love and spread His Word, but at the end of the day, I'm called to do what He wants me to do.
I was a gymnast when I was younger. My parents put me in gymnastics, and I was actually only good at the floor. I was terrible at everything else, especially beam. Unfortunately, you can't be a gymnast unless you're good at all of the apparatuses, so I became a competitive cheerleader. I was just the main tumbler for my squad.
The more I grow in popularity, the lonelier it gets. Because you don't really know me. You just know this part of me. You fell in love with that. But it's way more intricate than what meets the surface.
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