Champion Johnson has day on the dais (The Des Moines Register) Life has been kind of crazy for the West Des Moines 15-year-old since she won the world gymnastics championship last month. Wednesday, she was... Publish Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:15:38 GMT Read more...

Sports Illustrated photo shoot: [quote]When a Sports Illustrated photographer arrived for a shoot, they headed for a cornfield - of course. But the shot won't be all cliche. "He put a (balance) beam in the cornfield," Johnson said. "It was stacked on a bunch of crates until it was 11 feet high." Up went Johnson, balancing high above the stalks. "My dad had to stand underneath," she said, "in case I fell." Appearing on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" was a different kind of scary. "I was so nervous," Johnson said. "Ellen is one of my favorites. I think I was a little star-struck." DeGeneres got Johnson to admit that she had broken training to eat a Krispy Kreme doughnut.[/quote] (video of Shawn Johnson on the Ellen show is posted under the Videos forum) Getting ready for the Olympics: [quote]In Los Angeles, she made time to work out at UCLA. "Any gymnast right about now is starting to freak out about training," she said. "Next year isn't that far away." And she promised to be ready for the Beijing Olympics. "I'll put in 100 times more effort and hopefully come back with another gold," she said.[/quote]

They're probably going to photoshop Shawn's dad out of the photo right? So why not photoshop the beam 11 ft. off the cornfield? Guess they didn't just photoshop the beam scene in the gym into a cornfield to get the shadows, lighting, surrounding, etc. easier, but the 11 ft. off the ground is more easier photoshopable. Like how on the Ellen show Shawn didn't do the hard hard moves on her bars routine without her coach there. Nice backflip full on the mat.