LITTLE ROCK — Shawn Johnson has done everything right this year. She even got hurt at the perfect time.
The world gymnastics champion has a stress reaction in her right shin, but the minor injury was discovered in her off-season and won't affect her plans for next summer's Beijing Olympics. She's sporting a walking boot fortwo weeks, and is laying off hard tumbling until the boot comes off.
Had the injury not been treated, it could have turned into a stress fracture.
"I could do everything normally right now," Johnson said Saturday. "We have time to back off, so I should."
Johnson has a few months torelax after wrapping up a spectacular season. She swept the all-around titles at the American Cup, Pan American Games and U.S. championships, then became only the fourth U.S. woman to win the world all-around title. She added two more golds at last month's world championships in Stuttgart, Germany, one on floor exercise and one with the U.S.team.
Oh, and the 15-year-old did all that in her very first year at the senior level.
Johnson never has been injured before. But she's been plagued by shin splints, and noticed recently that one side of her right shin was hurting a little more.
"I could tumble. I could doeverything normally," she said. "It was just kind of like a nagging something that stuck with me."
She asked a trainer to look at it while the U.S. team was at the Karolyi ranch outside Houston last week, and the trainer recommended further examinations. She was put in a cast Monday as a precaution, but she was out ofit the next day after another doctor decided it was only a stress reaction and could be treated with a walking boot and physical therapy.
Though Johnson won't be holding on to her bulky, black boot any longer than she has to, she did keep her cast.
"Yeah, because I had the whole team sign it," she said.
Sports, Pages 46 on 10/28/2007