Did ’Special Forces’ Star Shawn Johnson Have an Eating Disorder? Everything She’s Said

Shawn Johnson is no stranger to putting her body through the most rigorous challenges, which is why she’s a top contender on Season 4 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. As a retired Olympic gymnast, Johnson knows what it takes to compete at the most elite levels.

But having that pressure hasn’t come without its complications. In the past, Johnson has opened up about her struggle with body image amid her gymnastics career, and has admitted that these issues have made it tough for her to look back on that time in her life. Scroll down for everything we know.

Did Shawn Johnson have an eating disorder?

Johnson, who was just 16 years old when she competed in the 2008 Olympic Games,  first revealed her struggles with body image in 2015. She admitted to restricting her diet to 700 calories a day until the Olympics in order to maintain the slim figure that she felt the judges desired from gymnasts.

“As a 12-year-old, the only way I really understood how to achieve that [body] was to eat less and restrict myself. I remember kind of obsessing over it,” she admitted to People. “I went as far as literally not eating any carbs. I wouldn’t allow myself to eat a single noodle of soup. It got to the point where my body was like, shutting down.”

In a 2020 YouTube video, she detailed just how bad things got during that time. “I would pass out during practice or after practice,” Johnson shared. “My body would cramp. I didn’t have energy. I was unable to have a period. I wasn’t maturing.”

The pro athlete said she was never formally diagnosed as anorexic because she never saw a doctor or psychologist, but added, “I was definitely obsessive and had very unhealthy habits. I’m sure I would have been diagnosed with something, but I just never got to that point.”

After the Olympics, Johnson competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2009 and said she “gave up” on staying in shape after reading criticism from viewers about her weight gain. “I just seemed to be the perfect target. Being 4’11” and putting on 20 pounds. looks like a lot, and people had no problem voicing their opinions. I took it really hard,” she shared.

At that point, Johnson began trying quick fixes, including diet pills and juice cleanses, to take off the weight. She credited her now-husband, Andrew East, in addition to working with a therapist and nutritionist, with helping her become confident in her body. “Before him, I didn’t voice any of this to anybody,” she admitted. “I knew I had unhealthy habits, but I don’t think most people knew. There was an open honesty with him. I felt like I could just be me, and I knew he was still going to love me.”

Why did Shawn Johnson retire?

Johnson retired from gymnastics ahead of the 2012 Olympics. She announced her decision in June 2012, shortly before the Olympic trials. At that point, she had spent months training for a return to the Olympics after suffering an injury on the ski slopes in 2010.

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On the January 2010 trip, Johnson tore her ACL, MCL, and meniscus. She had to have surgery on her left knee and was out of commission in the gym. By May, she had announced her return to gymnastics and intention to compete at the 2012 Olympics.

However, the lingering effects of the injury took a toll. “It just little by little gets worse and worse,” Johnson explained at the time of her retirement. “My body is to the point where I need time to rest and retire, so I can be healthy for the rest of my life. It’s hard to wrap my mind around. Gymnastics has been my entire life, and now it’s no more.”

Johnson said she was looking at the “bigger picture,” though, noting that she wanted to be able to run around with her kids one day.

During a 2022 appearance on The Players’ Pod, Johnson admitted that her heart was no longer in the sport while she was training for her comeback. “More than anything, I just lost the heart for it. I tried to fight that feeling for so long, but day in and day out, going to practice, I just hated it,” she shared.

Johnson also noted that she’d started “butting heads” with a lot of people in the Team USA gymnastics organization. “Gymnastics has come a very, very long way, but especially back then, it was still this mindset of survival of the fittest, and they would just run us into the ground, and my body at that time was not able to train that way anymore,” she explained.  “I could perform really well if I had that freedom to do it as I needed, and that’s just not how the program operated. So I butted heads with the leaders of that organization a lot, and it got to a point where I was just fighting them so much that it just wasn’t worth it. I knew that if I went under their guidelines that I was going to break, and I knew it just wasn’t my time anymore.”’

Did Shawn Johnson bury her Olympic medals?

Back in 2023, Johnson told Us Weekly that she “buried [her] Olympic medals in [her] backyard.” However, she later clarified that this is not the case.

The rumor began during an Instagram Q&A, during which Johnson said she was repeatedly asked about what she did with the medals. “In a very impulsive thought, I was like, ‘Buried them in the backyard, period,’ and sent it. Completely joking,” Johnson explained to The List. “My medals are in a safety deposit box somewhere in a bank.”

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The DWTS said she gave the “most ridiculous” response she could to the question, but noted that “people were so livid” about her answer. “I was like, ‘We got to run with this,'” she continued. “Someone days later was saying, ‘Did you actually do it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ Then I did an Us Weekly interview about the medals, and I was like, “Got to commit to this. Buried them in the backyard.'”

Johnson said she understands what the Olympic medals represent, but explained, “For me, the experience outweighs any material item I ever could have been given. If I were to lose that medal, would it probably be a bummer? Yes. But it’ll never replace that experience for me. To me, it truly is just a materialistic item, and I don’t put that much weight behind it. So it was a dumb thought that I ran with.”

At the 2008 Games, Johnson won a gold medal for balance beam and silver medals for the team event, all-around, and floor.

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Season 4, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox

If you or someone you know has an eating disorder, contact the National Eating Disorders Association at 1-800-931-2237 or text NEDA to 741-741.