Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson down to...

College Confidential Community
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<p>Sorry for bumping this, but I went on vacation for a bit and I find this…</p>

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Ha I wish that was true… No matter how stupid my comments were (or seemed like), you shouldn’t attack me personally. </p>

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I don’t see how my statement was “ignorant”, seeing as it was my own opinion. I didn’t assume anything. I don’t think of any profession highly, and I definitely don’t think highly of anyone who does anything purely for money. </p>

<p>You on the other hand, have made many, many wrong assumptions about me. 1. As I’ve said, I don’t think highly of any “profession”. 2.

That can’t be more wrong. I am far from one of those brainwashed people who only look at rankings and average pay. 3. You assumed that I was

Although I’m not a world-class athlete like shawn johnson, I do play many sports. I swim 50m freestyle in 30 seconds. Not pro, but faster than most people for sure. I also play baseball, and have watched many games. However I don’t really find sitting in front of a TV watching others play sports satisfying.</p>

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No. I’ll address this more later.</p>

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Maybe. I don’t know. Either way, I’m pretty sure it’s not the same being an athlete yourself and teaching it to others. I mean patience and a lot of other factors come to play…</p>

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That’s not my logic. It was somewhat of a joke, but I’m sure there are a lot more people persuing acedemics than sports.</p>

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I am jealous of many things. However I am not jealous of Shawn Johnson, especially not for getting into some college when it is not confirmed. </p>

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<p>I think I wasn’t really clear in my earlier posts. </p>

<p>I have nothing against her going to stanford. Nothing. However, in my opinion, school is a place for acedemics. Furthermore, a school for a student is to learn, not to teach. She may be an increadibly good athlete and even a good coach, but that’s not the purpose of a school.</p>

<p>I’m sure many if not most of the students attending HYPS could’ve easily skipped 1 or 2 grades before attending HYPS. Missing a few months of instruction really won’t have much affect on them. </p>

<p>Anyway, even if it did, then that person is not fit to go to a top school. Again, a school is a place to learn academics. If you want to pursue something else in your life, that’s good, but you don’t need to attend a large research university for it. </p>

<p>If Shawn is able to handle the academics, I have absolutely nothing against her going to stanford. I just don’t think ECs should cover for academic flaws, because then a school would lose it’s purpose. </p>

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<p>and the guy who said something similar, </p>

<p>That isn’t exactly true. Look at all the gymnasts from every country. How many of them are over 30? I don’t think there are any (although I didn’t check). I don’t think many are over 25. Sports is not like academics.</p>

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<p>I think you forgot the Chinese gymnasts.</p>

<p>:D</p>

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<p>GammaGrozza, you hit it on the mark.</p>

<p>I live near a specialty school for athletes (IMG Academies; most famously the Bolleteri Tennis Academy). Some of those kids take all of their classes on an online high school program because they’re focusing so intensely on their goals. I want to see you try to balance training to be an Olympian and normal highschool life. I imagine it’s rough! </p>

<p>Pre-Olympics she only trained 25 hours a week, which meant she could still go to normal school without private tutors or “extra help”. She was on the A honor roll, so obviously she is a smart girl. This is all before she was famous, so it is unlikely that he grades were given the normal athlete boost. </p>

<p>IMHO, she comes off very intelligently. I’ve heard her speak (both in interviews and live) and she presents herself very well and seems likes a smart girl. </p>

<p>I think you’re being bitter for attacking her just because she’s applying to a well-known school.</p>

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<p>^^ look. no one is doubting the dedication it takes to train for the olympics. they are doubting whether she is academically up to snuff. </p>

<p>yeah, yeah, i know, having a celebrity on campus brings more publicity to a school, yada yada yada. i know why schools accept them. i just don’t like their reasons. what i argue (and i think username as well) is that colleges’ focusing less on academics is a bad thing. you can argue for the whole “college experience” but the point remains: without the academics, college just is a rich kids’ club.</p>

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<p>christ. this accusation is getting really tired.</p>

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<p>Fine, I’ll drop it.</p>

<p>But, do you really think it’s fair that we doubt her academic preparation for college any more than the average admit? We don’t even know her grades from the online program? How can we say she didn’t do well, and she didn’t take the hardest classes provided to her. In FL, you can take AP classes not offered at your school on FLVS (Florida Virtual School) and still maintain AP credit. She potentially could have done something of that caliber. I’m not saying that she did, I’m just saying that I think it’s unfair that you guys are criticizing her choice to apply when in fact you have no idea of her academic talent.</p>

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<p>Yeah, it is a bit unfair for me to assume that she isn’t competitive academically with the rest of the student body at those two schools. I don’t know personally if she is or is not.</p>

<p>However, I don’t think it is a terrible assumption to make. She must spend a lot of time on gymnastics and training and probably can’t dedicate the same amount of time to school as typical students. It would make a lot of sense that she wouldn’t be as qualified academically.</p>

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<p>^^ Eh. Another friend logs about 40+ hours a week at the gym, competes at a national level (could’ve gone to the olympics), and still manages to keep a 4.0 GPA. She didn’t take “dumb” classes either. </p>

<p>IDK if you can say the same for Shawn Johnson, but it would be wrong to say she couldn’t do the same thing. Then again she hasn’t gotten in yet, so why are we complaining already lol?</p>

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<p>Certain schools won’t let you miss x amount of days of school without failing classes. </p>

<p>I totally agree, she’s still going to be waiting to find out just like the rest of us!</p>

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<p>She deserves it for sure. Spending that many hours in the gym from ages 3 to 17 requires insane dedication and determination–and sacrifice. I remember crying when I watched one of her and the other Olympians’ interviews and hearing about the amount of time they spent training for the Olympics. You can retake the SAT’s multiple times to improve your score; in Shawn Johnson’s case, at the Olympics, there is only one shot–and the result impacts the entire world.</p>

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<p>This topic has been discussed in my gym over and over (I coach). Here is my take:</p>

<p>Shawn Johnson is NOT going to be recruited as an athlete. She gave up her athletic eligibility to go “Pro” which in gymnastics means that you get paid and can receive a sponsor. </p>

<p>Yes she’s sacrificed–but nowhere NEAR the majority of Elite gymnasts (and there are only about 200-300 in the world at any given moment, with about a third being injured so that whittles down the numbers even more). Most gymnasts don’t have much free time, and have put their bodies through hell with surgeries and torn ligaments. Shawn is built very compactly and strongly genetically and doesn’t need to spend hours getting the six pack they needs to propel themselves on the bars (it’s all ab work!) or the endurance, OR the correct form and technique because she has power. Either you have power and can train waaaaay less, or u don’t and have to learnt he technique rite (physics)</p>

<p>She also trains 20-24 hours a week, whereas most elite gymnasts train 40. She gets by with MUCH less training because she was born with an extremely high muscle to body ratio, and especially quick-reflex muscles. She has drawn criticism up and down the gymnastics world becuase of that. She uses pure power to get through her skills, which is why she can train less. Her vault is cheated because she twists before even popping off the horse, yet the judges can’t deduct her b/c she is so quick and powerful that she is pretty much the only person who can pull it off. She also has very little artistry even though the sport is called “artistic gynmnasts.” So how does she win? she uses her innate muscular build (which is RARE) to power through tumbling. If you study her floor routines there is little to no dance, becuase that takes years to train and instead she just does poses and power tumbling. </p>

<p>Many gymnasts have dedication in education. They maintain high gpa’s and are extremely focused people with little time to waste lying around. Shawn hasn’t shown any commitment to education recently, with internet classes. Even though she trained half as much as other elite level people, she took only four courses while they took five to six AND trained 40+ hours a week. Instead, she does publicity events and acts as extras in tv shows. Recently she has booked an agent and won 365,000 dollars for dancing with the stars, and 2.5 million for her sponsors (mcdonalds, coca cola, has her own line of gymnastics apparel/equipment). None of her teammates congratulated her on her win in dancing with the stars b/c she was the only one that quit the sport as soon as she was done with the olympics. Everybody else is coming back (even Chellsie Memmel, who’s had 4 surgeries and lives on a diet of fruit and protein b/c otherwise it’s difficult to compete with her 21 year old body) She never really had a commitment to education to begin with. She can’t get in soley becuase of gymnastics: They either get recruited on a gymnasts scholarship (and yes, UCLA and Stanford both have one) but Shawn is INELIGIBLE due to her pro status. past olympians have gotton law and medical degrees. If you look at the national team’s statistics, the majority are on the honor roll in high school, although they do take a maximum of 5 or 6 classes. Honestly, I doubt she’ll get in as a coach. Her fundamental skills in gymnasts were rushed (she trains half the hours everybody else trains) and her fundamentals aren’t good at all. Anybody who does gymnasts can see that she uses muscle power to power through rather than spend hours carefully learning the correct form that will allow for such moves in the air. Just look at her leaps and poor bar form–because training bars takes forever. I doubt she can just jump in and be a coach when she doesn’t even truly understand the basics, having used muscle power. She is an exception and most gymnasts won’t really be able to learn many skills from the way she learned them–especially highly ranked college gymnastics programs like Stanford and UCLA. </p>

<p>If anything, she’ll get in as a celebrity
And no, she’s NOT coming back for 2012. Her body type is not the type that will let her do this sport successfully after her late teenage years. The new code is emphasizing artistry (which one actually needs to spend hours training and can’t bypass with just pure muscle power) There are different body types in Gymnastics, and they all peak at different times. Shawn’s gymnastics days are over.</p>

<p>I know it sounds like I’m bashing her, but in reality although she’s invested time and effort, it’s pretty much half the amount that almost all other (actually, ALL successful gymnastics Olympians last year) endured, with NONE of the injuries. She got it easy because of her genes. If anything, it would be her parents, who don’t make much (elite gymnastics is 10-15 k/year!) and had to mortgage their house three times over.</p>

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<p>We all realize that Shawn’s fundamentals are nowhere near as good as Nastia’s. However, I’m not sure if her parents can afford 40 hours a week of training with a private coach AND private school (her parents sacrificed a lot for her, but they can only do so much). She could not fund herself until after the Olympics because she was not a pro gymnast. I don’t think it’s her fault she doesn’t invest more time with gymnastics (money and time were out of her control) I think, to get to where she is given the circumstances, she did a more than great job. And to her credit, her power routines on the b-beam, the vault, and the floor stand out against those flimsy, girly routines. Her bars are another story.</p>

<p>Shawn had only recently been a pro. I don’t blame her either, her parents aren’t the richest of people. I think Shawn personally did Dancing with the Stars as a way to indirectly strengthen her core and improve her dance element on the floor routines while earning money to fund her future endeavors. Don’t look down on her because of it; many gymnasts do ballet.</p>

<p>Of course, I would like to see her train a bit more and refine her technique now since she has the money to fund herself. If she does, she’ll be a contender for 2012. As for academics, she is focused on her academics and I don’t think she’s average at all. She could definitely get into Stanford and UCLA on celebrity status alone. Her as a coach, I’m not sure about, because she is a unique case in gymnastics.</p>

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<p>thanks for the necro…</p>

<p>anyway why is everyone so sure she’ll get in?? I don’t get it</p>

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<p>Not sure? lol</p>

<p>Let’s chance Shawn Johnson, then…</p>

<p>Chance me pleaz:</p>

<p>GPA: A Honor Roll student (presumably above average to stellar GPA).</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: random stories published, winning Gold and Silver at the Olympics (and several other awards on the national and international level for gymnastics), appearing on several TV shows, being a well-known icon, endorsing several products, winning Dancing With the Stars, being a spokesperson for several charity events and organizations, random other crap students do at schools.</p>

<p>Hook: working as an assistant coach.</p>

<p>Even with sub-2000 SAT scores, she would still be a shoo-in.</p>

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<p>You didn’t hear? She broke her and leg and had to be euthanized. It’s all over The Onion.</p>

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<p>Question:
Why aren’t world-class mathematicians or physicists who medal at the IMO or IPhO instant shoo-ins to any college ?
Is that achievement not comparable to a gold medal at the Olympics?</p>

<p>I don’t see why academic all stars are put to a higher standard that sport/entertainment/whatnot stars.</p>

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<p>I think IMO and IPhO are youth competitions, where the Olympics are for everyone and are much more selective, also since when is Math and Physics harder than sports?</p>

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<p>Lol. Not harder. Comparable, certainly.
There are like 20 gold medalists in each discipline, pulling from a total set of about a billion students across the world. I’d say that’s an achievement.</p>

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<p>I don’t even think there are a billion students in the world total, yet alone students who have heard of those things, yet alone students who compete in them. :)</p>

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<p>Do nationally-ranked athletes automatically get A’s in their classes, even if they don’t even show up everyday?</p>

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<p>Heck no. (And btw, you can’t argue that, b/c most IMO/IPhO gold medalists get into their first choice or go to another prestigious university).</p>

<p>Don’t get me wrong, I am a math geek myself, but Olympic sports are MUCH tougher than IMO/IPhO. Firstly, you do not get career-ending injuries by doing math problems. Elite athletes are at a much higher risk of ending their careers permanently/dying in sports than elite mathletes (look at Michelle Kwan). Secondly, the Olympics are one in four years, not once a year (and one gold medal versus twenty). That makes the chances of getting an Olympic gold much less than the chances of getting an IMO. Plus, the Olympics are being watched by everyone in the stadium and across the world, while no one watches IMO or IPhO (I’m not sure it’s even covered on TV). The stress of messing up in front of the world just amplifies on the Olympic stage. There should be absolutely no doubt that Olympic gold medalists (especially in a competitive and dangerous sport like gymnastics) are held at a much higher level than IMO/IPhO/etc. gold medalists. Let’s not forget all the other national/international awards she has won which are almost as good.</p>

<p>Not only does she succeed in gymnastics, but she succeeds in other aspects too. Shawn also succeeds academically, has published works, won Dancing With the Stars, organized/spoke for several charity organizations, and makes a load of money while doing so. IMO, no IMO gold medalist can hold a candle to Shawn in terms of her extracurricular activities.</p>

<p>Why are we accusing Shawn of using her celebrity status to give her a major edge? She definitely earned it with dedication and integrity (it’s not like she’s Paris Hilton, here). She’s clearly great at what she does (gymnastics), but she also shows her well-roundedness by doing well in class and pursuing other endeavors.</p>