Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Shawn to possibly not compete at Championships...

Property of Brad Penner
So today, the wonderful folks at GymNewstics posted a link from the Des Moines Register stating that Shawn Johnson may not be ready to compete at Championships.

The reason that Chow gives is that she's still recovering from a knee injury. Which, honestly, she's been recovering from for two years! So I don't really get it. I can't say I'm surprised since she seemed to be the only girl at the media summit refusing to be seen who we didn't see in a leotard.

I'm confused. What do you have to lose by competing in a meet that you've already qualified for that could possibly qualify you for Trials AND comes out right around when your book does? Even if she were to do a Make it or Break it-esque beam routine, they'd still show it on TV, likely mention her book and BAM, sales go up. But if she doesn't even compete, from a marketing standpoint, she's not even relevant. So I don't get why she wouldn't at least go and try, unless her leg is falling off or she is having legitimately scary weight issues. I'm not saying that either of those are the case and I certainly hope that they aren't. But, how does someone go from Marta declared "#8" in the country a year after an injury to being possibly unready to even compete a year after that? I don't know. I just hope we get to see her fight for a spot. She's talented and I'd love to see her at least be an alternate. 

Based on her recent tweets though, she seems more excited about the possibility of returning to Dancing with the Stars. Bummer. 

12 comments:

  1. How do you know she refused to be seen in a leo?

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    1. That was poor phrasing on my part, she's the only one that we didn't see any pictures/footage of in a leo

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  2. The article could be incorrect. I see that all the time; some of the journalists don't know much about gymnastics and they don't research anything. Or maybe the reporter just misunderstood Chow.

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  3. Anonymous, that's the rumor going around. I don't know how anyone would verify it other than every other gymnast at the summit posed for photos in leotard EXCEPT Shawn. Seems really odd, if you ask.

    Bekah, after this bit of news I've officially given up on Shawn. I don't get all the secrecy about her training this year. How hard is it to give any sort of update on how things are?? I accepted her not being at Classics, but if Chow isn't sure if she'll be ready for Nationals now, then just stop the charade already. Shawn has said numerous times that she's retiring after the Olympics, so why not just go for broke at this point and compete at Classics?! If she gets re-injured, oh well, it's not like it matters. She has all the time and money in the world to sit around and do nothing but re-recover again...

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  4. She said all along last year that she wasn't competing in Classics and then she did!! Also I believe she will compete at Nationals (she said herself at the Media Summit that she was)

    I still have faith in her and that she can make Olympic Trials probably won't make the team but she should make trials!!

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  5. I have a feeling that Chow's comment was misunderstood and/or taken out of context. Shawn has said recently that things are going well and she was excited to show her upgrades. I'm still being hopeful!

    About not being in a leo during the Media summit - Do you think it's because she has a deal with Nike and can only wear Nike Leo's?

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    1. Possibly because the team leos are addidas

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  6. I think you're getting your meets mixed up. Other people have said for awhile that she's not competing at Classics. She doesn't need to b/c she's already qualified for Visas. She has said that she will be there. Who cares whether she was in a leotard or not. I didn't see any pics of Bross in a leo either.

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    1. Yeah, click the links before you try to correct me, please.

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    2. Wow. Snarky. Shouldn't you appreciate people commenting on your blog post?

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  7. I read somewhere that she didn't want to wear a leo because of her sponsorship deal GK. But that doesn't really hold when Nastia is also with GK and she posed in the Adidas leo at the Summit. Maybe Shawn's just acting like she's in the olympic race to sell her book (suspicious timing...) and get back on DWTS. Whatever!

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  8. GK distributes Adidas leos, so it doesn't seem likely that Shawn not appearing in one would be a sponsorship issue.

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