May 16, 2012
03:53 PM
Health
By Lindsay Hock

Tagged

WSF Trustee Shawn Johnson talks weight, body image issues in USA Today

Shawn Johnson competes on the balance beam during day two of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for gymnastics at the Wachovia Center on June 20, 2008 in Philadelphia, Pennsyvania. (Photo by: Nick Laham/Getty Images)

A new USA Today article focuses on WSF Board of Trustees member and Olympic gold medal winner Shawn Johnson. Read as the gymnast opens up about her struggle with weight and body image after post-Olympic and "normal" teenage life began to take effect.

"We're taught at such a young age that you can always be better and that you're never perfect and that you're never good enough," Shawn says in the piece. "You find your worth in someone else and what they say just from having looked at you. It's hard. I was at the Olympic Games winning medals and I still doubted my image. I doubted what I looked like. That's sad. Girls should be taught different than that. I think everyone should be taught different than that."

Read the full article here.

But Shawn isn't the only superstar athlete to struggle with these issues. Both Dara Torres and Brandi Chastain share their stories in our award-winning GoGirlGo! curriculum. Read their stories and learn more here.

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