Shawn Johnson quotes:

Gymnastics taught me everything - life lessons, responsibility and discipline and respect.

I'm trying to stay as calm as possible and focus one day at a time, but when reality sets in, I feel everything: anxiety, excitement, nerves, pressure and joy.

I had surgery to repair the ACL in February 2010 and was back in the gym by June, but rushed things too quickly and ended up re-tearing my MCL in September.

I have a lot of expectations and a lot of goals I want to fulfill, but the biggest dream is still to make the Olympic team for London.

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

Stay strong. Stand up. Have a voice.

I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That's sad.

It might have been easier to retire, to say my knee couldn't handle it and let that be that. At the same time, the prospect of not being able to compete in gymnastics anymore was heartbreaking.

I'm doing four hours of gymnastics training a day, six days a week and then an extra two to three hours in a fitness center as well.

I was able to do Classics, the U.S. national championships and the Pan American Games and feel like I improved with each meet, but I was still struggling with a lot of residual pain from the two surgeries.

Of course, when you're training your whole life to get to the Olympics, you train for gold.

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

My knee is almost back to normal. I am back in training.

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.

The body is an amazing machine... If you eat the right things your body will perform incredibly well!

Staying healthy and consistent is paramount.

I fell in love with running, and I finally have time to do it now.

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 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.

I had a constant fear, a constant little doubt in my mind: 'OK, I'm getting ready to do my standing back full on beam and I might re-tear my ACL.'

It's been strange and weird watching the other girls at the U.S. Olympic trials just because I was training to be out there myself.

In some ways the ACL tear was a blessing. I had hesitated to return to elite gymnastics after the 2008 Olympics. I told myself I had already accomplished so much, and the road was just going to get harder if I continued.

I started from zero and went back to the basics in gymnastics.

To finish off this whole Olympics by finally getting the gold medal, it's the best feeling in the world.

Something my mom taught me when I was little is that everything happens for a reason.

My other life keeps me calm and grounded and normal.

I pay attention to my diet to be a healthier gymnast, but I'm not obsessive over it.

To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have. There are times when I physically can't get myself to go for a skill because I'm thinking, 'My knee hurts really bad.'

With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being say, a Muslim story or an African story, when essentially it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from.

I always have someone to look up to, and I think it helps me with motivating myself.

I have a chaperone everywhere I go - my mom.

I think it's important for girls at a young age to be involved in as many things as possible. Especially safe communities of people that teach them great life lessons like self-confidence and courage. And getting girls to go to camp especially in the summer where they can meet new friends, learn new things, and not just sit at home and watch TV.

As long as you've done your best, making mistakes doesn't matter. You and I are human; we will mess up. What counts is learning from your mistakes and getting back up when life has knocked you down.

Gymnastics is so complex.

People only see gymnastics on TV and in the Olympics at such an extreme. So it can be intimidating.

Everything is about your movements and precision and timing, which is what gymnastics is about.

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

Hot yoga is the best. When you're in [class], there are no cell phones, no talking, no distractions. You're taking a leave from reality for an hour or so.

I love lean meats like chicken, turkey. I'm obsessed with sushi and fish in general. I eat a lot of veggies and hummus.

Gymnastics has made me strong. I feel like it broke me down to my lowest point, but at the same time, it has given me the greatest strength anyone could ask for.

Were taught at such a young age that you can always be better and that youre never perfect and that youre never good enough.

I still can't believe I'm an Olympic athlete.

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.

I set my phone with motivational quotes to go off on random days and times. Like, 'You're stronger than you think you are.' I'll forget about it, then one will pop up and it'll give me a little boost.

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 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 always feel like I'm the young one, I'm the small one.

I told myself after 2008 that I was done for good. But they say you can't keep a gymnast away from her sport.

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.

Retiring was scary and it was tough to give up gymnastics, but so many great opportunities have come from it that I never expected.

A typical practice consists of practicing every event for about an hour. A lot of people assume I have private coaching, but I work out with 13 other girls at the gym!

I don't feel like a star; I never have. I don't feel like a star; I never have. I always feel like I'm the young one, I'm the small one. I always have someone to look up to, and I think it helps me with motivating myself.

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

A comeback in gymnastics is almost impossible in itself.

After 13 years of hard landings in gymnastics, one ski run had delivered the biggest injury of my career.

Critique the performance, and respect the hard work put in.

Don't force anything. Find what you love and stick with it.

Everybody sacrifices something in an attempt to reach what they think society wants.

Everything for me started with my love of the sport. In society we're losing the fun with kids and pushing success on them too hard. Success comes from fun.

Gymnastics is not only a good thing to live by, but it is important to understand how it does help you in life.

I don't call them sacrifices. I call them exchanges.

I don't think I've ever not gotten nervous. When you work so hard for one special day or routine, you want to perform it better than you ever have. We always say at our gym, If you lose the nerves, you lose the sport.

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

I feel like if you compare the commentary, what's covered with female athletics, as with men. On any given day, if a guy competes, you're going to critique his technique and his performance, training. With a girl, you don't do the same thing. You might mention a little bit of that, but you're also going to get what she was wearing, how she performed, what she looked like. I feel like it should be the same.

I feel like when there's so much conversation about women's athletics right now, we need to focus on their performance and their skill.

I fell in love with gymnastics. I love what I do now. I work with people that I love to be around. Success comes from that.

I know how much more I need to do to be where I want.

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

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 was always known as that stocky, muscular, powerful, short, athlete. People always wondered if I was on steroids, and it was because I wasn't that long and lean, flexible, artistic gymnast. It didn't affect me too much but it got to the point where I tried to be that long and lean gymnast, and it just wasn't possible.

I was always trying to be leaner and thinner to fit the standard and the mold.

I was under pressure because of what people were saying about my physique.

If you lose the nerves, you lose the sport.

Image isn't everything, It's what comes from your heart, and what you learn and what you say and how you act that means more than anything.

In 2008 I didn't take it all in enough. I was so wrapped up in just the competition that I missed what was going on around me. If I am given that opportunity again to go to the Olympics and be an athlete I want to take it all in because I feel like this is my last shot and I want to feel the team spirit. I want to really live and breathe the USA.

Injury taught me I need to learn how to face challenges.

It's nearly every country's tactic to keep their greatest competitors a secret.

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

People put too much emphasis on looks.

Something my mom taught me when I was little is that everything happens for a reason. Retiring was scary and it was tough to give up gymnastics, but so many great opportunities have come from it that I never expected. And those wouldn't have happened had I not accepted my injury as a way to try something new.

That's the drama of our sport. Our margin of error is so small that anything can happen.

There's always a chance. Anything can happen.

To have any doubt in your body is the biggest weakness an athlete can have.

Well-I don't know if anyone would really ask me to prom.

When it comes to gymnastics, you can be 30 points ahead going into that competition, but on that day, it's all about luck. It's about who has a good day, who stays healthy, it's how happy the judges are that day, there are so many different factors.

With literature, sometimes a book is presented in the media as being say, a Muslim story or an African story, when essentially it's a universal story which we can all relate to it, no matter what race or social background we come from