313 | Was Becoming an Olympian Worth It? Shawn Gets Honest

Couple Things with Shawn and Andrew

Shawn Johnson + Andrew East

Society & Culture

5.0 • 39.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2026

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We absolutely loved this interview with Shawn's parents where they open up like never before about Shawn's journey from small-town kid to Olympic gold medalist- and now, mother herself. In this conversation, Shawn and her parents share what her childhood was really like, the parenting style that shaped her competitive drive, the sacrifices her family made, and what it felt like growing up under pressure. We also talk about how that's affected our current parenting style, what they would have changed if they could, and if they had any regrets with her early on career. ALSO we are going on TOUR!! please come meet us and pre-order our book if you haven't already! We love you guys!Love, Shawn & Andrewif you want to preorder, meet us or get access to all the bonus content before launch day, head to https://thecouragetocommit.com/ NOBL gives you real travel peace of mind — security, design, and convenience all in one. Head to https://NOBLTravel.com for up to 46% off your entire order. for more details, head to https://goodwipes.com/EASTFAM to snag a free pack of goodwipes from Walmart. (00:00:00) book, tour, and more (00:01:18) how to raise an olympian (00:02:22) can you hack your way into your kid's success? (00:05:00) the "sacrifices" (00:08:50) can you skip? can you quit? (00:12:30) to push vs. to love and the dance of that with your kid's passions (00:15:20) athletics should help form a kid, not define a kid (00:18:20) "here's our next olympic champion" (00:22:00) it's the kid's sport, not the parent's sport (00:29:20) why shawn was slowed down (00:33:50) committing to the child, not the sport (00:37:40) you can't guarantee success (00:41:10) chow's coaching style (00:45:15) shawn's parenting style (00:47:47) the temptation of success (00:53:55) "i want to quit gymnastics" and the pressure that comes with it (01:06:00) would you do it again? (01:10:19) this or that game (01:15:10) "is she consuming enough?" (01:18:30) in-law dynamics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What's up, everybody? Welcome back to a couple things. With Sean and Andrew. Today, I'm so excited for this interview. It is probably one of my favorites, and I think you guys will love it. We actually interview my parents. It's so cool. I saw a video about someone discussing how their parents raised them, and I thought it would be fascinating to get Sean and her parents sat down to discuss how do you raise an Olympian? So it's going to be a fascinating
0:21.8	conversation and we hope you enjoy it. Also, our book is coming out June 9th. So if you're
0:27.3	listening to this before then, please pre-order it. We're doing a bunch of fun things before launch.
0:32.9	We're doing Zoom calls with y'all. We have a bunch of extra content that we're doing early
0:36.7	access to chapters. And that's for people who pre-order it. If you're thinking about ordering the book ever, please order it now. It actually really helps us out if you pre-order it rather than wait until the launch day. Don't ask me why. It's very complicated. Just the way it works. If you pre-order, it really helps us. And also as part of the book launch,
0:54.6	we're out here in Los Angeles doing a bunch of press, which has been fun, I think, for both of us. And we're also doing a book tour. We're going to be in four cities. We're going to be in Philadelphia, Nashville, Chicago, and New York City, not in that order. But if you want to learn more, then we'll link it down below. It's the courage to commit.com. You can find a tour button.
1:13.7	And without further ado, in New York City, not in that order. But if you want to learn more, then we'll link it down below.
1:11.2	It's the Courage to Commit.com.
1:12.3	You can find a tour button.
1:13.8	And without further ado.
1:16.0	My parents.
1:16.9	Doug and Terry Johnson, aka Mama and Papa Jay.
1:21.1	This is a highly requested episode.
1:23.1	It is.
1:24.0	For those listening, we actually did an interview with you guys a couple years ago.
1:28.4	And then that interview got lost from the cyberspace.
1:32.5	Kind of. We're taking a different angle. We have to redo the interview that got lost, which is how you guys met, your marriage story, all the lovey, mushy, gushy stuff because you got married at 16.
1:45.4	But this one, everybody wants to know how to raise an Olympic athlete.
1:53.2	All the hacks, the tricks and tips.
1:56.3	Yeah.
1:56.6	What do you feed?
1:57.3	What do you feed a baby to make him an Olympian?
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 19 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Shawn Johnson + Andrew East, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Shawn Johnson + Andrew East and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.