Shawn Johnson’s retirement from gymnastics didn’t just result in Olympic medals. As her husband, Andrew East, revealed how the sport has shaped their marital life as well.

4 years after her gold medal run at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, a 20-year-old Johnson retired from the sport. But as she began a different chapter with the former NFL player, gymnastics became a teacher to Andrew East, too.

“She had to do 16,000 reps to stick this certain movement on a balance beam… There's this try-fail-try-fail,” East stated recently in Jefferson Fisher’s podcast. “I started applying that concept to how we had conversations. This is just a rep… (when we have) the same conversation 200 times.”

The goal is to get it right after the 200^th time, just as Johnson did with her backflip on a balance beam. Despite the failed attempts, a tweak in her movements in each rep ultimately led to the desired outcome.

“Next time, when we have this conversation… we'll maybe tweak that one next time,” he added. “By committing to something for an extended period of time and not just like one date, one rep trying to do a backflip, it really allows you to see the change.”

While this shed light on East’s takeout, the same went for Johnson, who also revealed how gymnastics shaped her life beyond the mats.

Shawn Johnson Uses Gymnastics Lessons in the Present Day

Surely the sport gave her the chance to compete at the Olympics and win 3 silver and a gold. But for Johnson, who used the lessons off the mats too, it was never about medals and the scores alone.

“I think my husband is probably exhausted by how many like gymnastics life lessons I throw at him on a weekly basis,” she shared in a 2025 interview with the Dear Media Studio. “But I truly believe gymnastics taught me everything I use in today's life, how I parent with failure.”

Be it gaining balance on the beam, going over the vault or building a steady communication through trials and failures, to both Johnson and East, gymnastics is clearly more than just a sport.

What is the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt from gymnastics? Let us know in the comments.

Follow Gymnastics Digest for more.

Written by

Deblina Roy