Shawn Johnson

I have a chaperone everywhere I go - my mom.

I have a healthy lifestyle, but there's nothing you can really do to prevent from rolling an ankle or something like that.

I think about my goals. There were a lot of times in gymnastics when I really didn't want to go in and train, but you can't make it to the Olympics if you don't train!

I get less and less sleep these days, so when I have any down time all I want to do is sleep!

Every year I just kept going back to gymnastics, but I didn't start out training 10 hours a day. When I turned 10 or 11, I got more serious and I focused a lot on making it to the elite level, and from there I just kept going.

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.

I usually work out 4 hours a day during the week and 5 to 6 hours on Saturday, with Sundays off.

I started taking gymnastic classes when I was 3 years old.

I don't want to be all power and muscle.

I missed being considered an athlete and having that competitive drive, and missed having something to work for every day. I'd taken two and a half years away from the sport and was out of shape. I wanted to get back to where I was in 2008.

Staying healthy and consistent is paramount.

My approach to gymnastics in Beijing was heavily based on the amount of difficulty I could do.

It sounds funny, but the 2008 Olympics were something that just kind of happened, and I was lucky they came at a point when I was uninjured and well prepared. As a gymnast, you can't ask for much more.

When I was younger, my coach, Liang Chow, made all the decisions. I would go to the gym for practice, do exactly what Chow told me to do, go home, come back and start all over again. If Chow told me to do 50 squat jumps, I did 50 squat jumps.

My coach, Liang Chow, had one rule while I was training for the 2008 Olympics: no skiing. I could do anything I wanted outside the gym, he said, except ski.

We're taught at such a young age that you can always be better and that you're never perfect and that you're never good enough.

People put too much emphasis on looks.

My parents- they've been my biggest influences and supporters since day one. They teach me every day that happiness comes from within and not from something outside of your heart.

I live for Pilates reformer class. I go at least three times a week. It's a great way to lengthen your muscles, stretch, and kind of relax your mind.

I've never had a teammate competing with me my whole life.