#618 - Shawn Johnson East on DWTS at 17, Olympic Pressure, Why She Retired Young & Life After Gymnastics
Bobby Bones Presents: The BobbyCast
Nashville Podcast Network
4.8 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Shawn Johnson East joins Bobby to look back on her life as an Olympic gymnast and the pressure that came with competing at the highest level from such a young age. She shares what it was like doing Dancing with the Stars at 17, why Olympic trials felt even harder than the actual Olympics, and how the constant need to win affected her mentally. Shawn also opens up about why she retired young, learning to separate her identity from gymnastics, and what life has looked like after stepping away from the sport that defined so much of her childhood.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:10.9 | I had to act like a professional USA flag bearer, basically. |
| 0:16.0 | And I also had to balance being a 12-year-old. |
| 0:17.8 | I traveled to 20-some different countries by myself at 12. I just knew |
| 0:23.0 | by the time I was done with the Olympics that I was just done. |
| 0:27.5 | Hey everybody today on the Bobbycast, Sean Johnson East. She's a four-time Olympic medalist, |
| 0:33.1 | gold medalist. One of the most recognizable names in gymnastics history, we talk about it all. Her doing it, |
| 0:39.2 | her retiring at 16, why she chose to go on dancing with the stars. She is a bestselling author. |
| 0:44.7 | She is a podcast host. She's an entrepreneur. She's a mom of three. I just really like her too. |
| 0:52.1 | And she did special forces on Fox where she lasted the whole thing and basically won the show. |
| 0:57.7 | And she came away with a new mission. |
| 0:59.3 | This book right here. |
| 1:00.7 | There you go. |
| 1:01.7 | It's called The Courage to Commit. |
| 1:04.1 | Embrace the radical power of sticking with something. |
| 1:06.7 | And it comes out June 9th. |
| 1:08.2 | And so here she is. |
| 1:09.6 | Really, somebody that inspires me, one of my favorite people, Sean Johnson East. |
| 1:14.5 | Sean, good to see you? |
| 1:15.6 | Good to see you. |
| 1:16.6 | I have a lot of stuff. |
... |
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