One of the Best Articles on Olympian Shawn Johnson and Her Bringing Home the Gold

I must say I find these girls incredible. As I mentioned earlier I can barely watch. However the net has cured that because i know the results way before they are broadcast on TV

Anyway all the USA gymnast were awesome and represented this country and their States well. By the way did you know Dallas /Plano Girl and Texan Liuki had more people watching her perform in the Dallas market by far than was watching the Dallas Cowboys preseason game? I know it is pre season but Texans know when they are on the world stage.

Anyway what a classy USA team especially Shawn Johnson from Iowa and her teammate Nastia Liuki. The stories behind both these girls , their parents and Coaches are pretty cool

Anyway Shawn Johnson brought home the gold despite it being a tough row hours before. I can't imagine being 16 and under all that pressure. I almost vomited before I took my driver license test at that age( in Louisiana it was 15 at the time but you get the point). I can't imagine performing under that pressure and like a billion people watching you

Anyway the Kansas City Star has nice story on this here and gives some detail most people will never be aware of

Also about that Plano Girl (by the way did you know they first lived in New Orleans after living Russia) this article struck me

The 1-2 punch she and Johnson, 4-9, delivered throughout these Games makes a case for this U.S. women's gymnastics team to go down as the best ever.
"I'd have to say that's a true statement," said NBC analyst Elfi Schlegel, a former gymnast for Canada who is covering her seventh Summer Olympics.
The U.S. didn't win team gold as the Magnificent Seven did in Atlanta 12 years ago, instead earning silver against host China. Yet overall this team won eight medals, tying the 1984 team silver-medal winners. The 1996 team won four.
"When I think about this team, I immediately think about Nastia and Shawn," Schlegel said. "What Nastia Liukin did, she epitomized the sport as it should be — women's artistic gymnastics."
Liukin has secured a legacy at least alongside the sport's most famous American gymnasts — Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller. Liukin tied them for most medals by an American gymnast.
Liukin's place in history could reach well beyond theirs, however, on an international scale. She has distinguished herself as a supreme artist and gymnast, rare in a sport that over the years has become more dependent on dynamic tumbling than refined execution.
"Nastia is in a class of her own," Schlegel said. "That beauty, that combination of what she has is so special. I think there are going to be a greater number of people, especially in Europe, that will remember Nastia Liukin as a great Olympic champion.
"A lot of the European judges kind of looked at her and said, 'Ah, OK, I remember when …' "

Oh by the way Texans will become more unbearable and with good cause it appears Liukin's Olympics Medals Vault Texas to Top Rung of Gymnastics