[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Page 19898]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   COMMENDING OLYMPIAN SHAWN JOHNSON

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I am going to address two things 
today. First, I wish to address an Iowan I am very proud of, a person 
whom, if you watched the Olympics, you saw on television recently. So I 
am here today as a proud Iowan and American to tell other Americans 
just how proud I am of this Iowan.
  Millions of Americans tuned in to the Olympics this past August and 
witnessed phenomenal performances by American athletes. I am proud of 
all the athletes who competed in the Olympics but especially the 11-
member Team USA with Iowa ties who represented our country in Beijing.
  One of those exceptional athletes was a fellow Iowan named Shawn 
Johnson. Shawn was a member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team who 
brought home the silver in the team competition. She went on to win 
individual honors too. She won the Silver Medal both in all-around 
competition in the floor exercise, and she also received the Gold Medal 
for the balance beam. And that was her favorite event. All Americans 
were proud to see Shawn's success, but Iowans are overwhelmingly proud 
of the self-described--and these are not my words, but other people 
described her as the daredevil with a big smile.
  At this year's Iowa State Fair, the famous butter sculpture, which 
has been a part of the State fair for the last 45 years--a sculpture 
made out of butter, usually a cow--this year featured a cow but also a 
sculpture of Shawn Johnson.
  Shawn is the reigning women's world gymnastics All-Around Champion, 
but she is also a teenager from West Des Moines who presently attends 
Valley High School when she is not competing around the world. She 
attends football games and school dances and tries to live the life of 
a typical teen. She goes to class 5 hours each day and then trains at 
Chow's Gymnastics in her hometown. With all of this on her plate, she 
still manages to get straight As.
  Her talent is anything but typical. As a baby, Shawn skipped the 
crawling and went right to walking. She climbed out of her crib before 
she was a year old. As a toddler, she would build a ladder out of toys, 
scale the entertainment center, and jump onto the couch.
  After seeing their daughter's abundant energy and fearlessness, 
Shawn's parents Terri and Doug enrolled her in a tumbling class at age 
3, and she showed promise early on. Her coach at Chows Gymnastics in 
West Des Moines, Liang Chow, noticed her talents and honed those 
talents. He even submitted a tape of Shawn to the U.S. women's 
gymnastics team coach Marta Karolyi because it is tough for a gymnast 
training in Iowa to get noticed by a national team.
  Training as an elite athlete did not come cheap, though. Shawn's 
parents eventually mortgaged the family home three times so that their 
daughter could achieve her Olympic dream, and they managed to travel 
with Shawn to her international competitions.
  In June of this year, the disastrous floods hit much of Iowa. Shawn 
was training with the national team, but her heart was with her fellow 
Iowans who were suffering, especially her coach. You see, Chow's 
Gymnastics, which is Shawn's second home, is located near the Raccoon 
River in West Des Moines, and the facility suffered a great deal of 
damage from the flood. Shawn, knowing what this sort of damage could 
mean for her coach continuing to run her business, wrote a $12,000 
check from her endorsements to help get Chows Gymnastics back up and 
running.
  Iowans have all known about Shawn and her extraordinary talent--and, 
of course, her big smile--for a few years now, and Iowa knew she would 
make them proud. But the world did not really get to know Shawn until 
these recent Olympics.
  Despite losing the all-around competition to her U.S. teammate and 
close friend Nastia Luikin, Shawn handled herself with grace, poise, 
and genuine happiness. And when Shawn finally won the coveted Gold 
Medal on the incredibly difficult balance beam, her joy was written all 
over her face.
  So I take this opportunity for my colleagues and everybody in this 
country to commend Shawn on her extraordinary performance in the 
Beijing Olympics, not only for medals that she won but for her hard 
work, her composure, and maturity. I compliment her. She did Iowa and 
America proud.

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