Walking away from the sport after a prolific career was undoubtedly a hard decision for Olympic medalist Shawn Johnson. But the former gymnast revealed one bright side to it.

After clinching one gold and three silvers at the 2008 Beijing Games, Johnson retired at 20, right before the 2012 London Olympics. But shortly, she got together with NFL star Andrew East, which wouldn’t have been possible had she remained a gymnast.

"I think we met at the time we were supposed to meet," she told Yahoo Canada during a recent interview. "I was so intense in my competitive world that I don't think a relationship would have worked… Back when I did gymnastics, I did not have the capacity to have a relationship.”

Amidst the intense practice and a sole goal of being a decorated gymnast, Johnson stated that her nature was pretty “obsessive.” She’d even deem it the cause of her being a good gymnast. But that was pretty much her world.

“(I was) obsessed over one thing… I got so lost that I ended up going back to gymnastics. Because I didn't know what else to do,” she spoke of her life after gymnastics. "I didn't know how to find an identity elsewhere."

But as she met East, life took a different turn. And it didn’t take long for Johnson to realize how much the relationship meant to her.

How Andrew East Became Shawn Johnson's Anchor

Johnson and East met in 2012 through the former NFL star’s brother, Guy East. Soon they moved from a Twitter connection to meeting in person and finally tying the knot in 2016. And Johnson, now 34, shared why East stood out from the very beginning.

“From the day I met (Andrew), he only saw me as me. He could not have cared less about the gymnast," she said. "He was my anchor throughout that whole rebuilding phase because he celebrated failure. He celebrated me being very normal, and that allowed me to find myself.”

To put it better, Johnson would say that East “held (her) hand through that whole process,” where she transitioned from a gymnast struggling with post-retirement issues into an individual of her own. The couple now share a daughter, Drew (6), and two sons, Jett (4) and Bear (2).

Can you name another couple like Shawn and Andrew? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Deblina Roy