Shawn Johnson Wins the Sullivan Award
Wednesday April 15, 2009
 Shawn Johnson Photo © Stephen Lovekin / Getty Images |
Johnson is the first female gymnast to win; Paul Hamm (2004) and Kurt Thomas (1979) have also been honored. Olympic teammate Nastia Liukin was also a finalist for this year's award, an impressive acknowledgment of the duo's incredible success in Beijing. My guess is that Johnson cleaned up on the online fan voting portion -- she is incredibly popular among US fans, and for good reason. She and Liukin are great personalities for the sport.
Updated (4/16): According to The Des Moines Register, Johnson came in second in the online fan voting, with 27%. Stanford volleyball player Cynthia Barboza had the highest with 31%, while Liukin garnered 7% of the vote.
Also, I found the clip of Shawn's acceptance speech for anyone interested.
Comments
Congrats to Shawn! She really deserved this award!
BTW, can you please choose a better pic of Shawn? Thanks.
I love SJ as much as any gym fan, but Nastia really deserved this one. She won the biggest prize in the sport, and is as classy as they come too. Nastia is just not as popular with the non-gym fans. Both deserve lots of accolades, but Nastia should have won this one IMO.
nancy, you must have mixed up this award with some others that are simply based on the number of medals or the color of them. But AAU Sullivan Award is well-known for being different. Based on the qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship, and the ideals of amateurism, it goes far beyond athletic accomplishments and honors those who have shown strong moral character. So big prize or not it’s not that important over here.
You are right that “Nastia is just not as popular with the non-gym fans”. But you may not know that even with gym fans, Shawn is still way more popular, which can be seen from some polls results right here on this website. Also Shawn’s win is not based on one person or one group of people’s opinions. She was chosen by votes cast by AAU officials, U.S. Olympic Committee members and college sports information directors, with fan votes cast online counting one-third toward the final tally. Given all these factors, IMO, the award just goes to the right person who deserves it most.
I have to say I agree with Nancy on this one. Both young ladies exemplify all of those characteristics, and I would have gone with Nastia on this vote.
Though you could argue neither are amateurs, I think Nastia is more determined to give back to the sport than Shawn. She is sticking with it, determined to contribute more, while Shawn has gone on to pursue other avenues.
There’s nothing wrong at all with pursuing those avenues, and they both deserve all the money and fame they can get because they’ve worked so hard. But Nastia has also won more over time, and contributed to the sport more over time — she’s been around since 2004. I think that should count for something too.
A disclaimer: I understand the credentials that the award looks at, no need to review them for me. I agree, Nastia should have gotten it, for the reasons others stated above. I think Dancing gave Shawn the boost she needed, plus she always has that sunny look on her face.
Plus I should say that I personally prefer Shawn to Nastia, too, both in gymnastics and from the little I know about them.
I think the biggest testament to the fact that Nastia clearly deserved the award is that she’s back in the gym while Shawn is retired and on a reality TV show a la Carly Paterson.
I like Shawn, but it’s hands down Nastia who deserves this from the point of view of accomplishments as well as dedication to the sport.
Nastia will likely be the most accomplished U.S. female gymnast ever by the end of her career (she and Shannon right now top the list) while Shawn will likely have been a flash in the pan for one, or even just part of one, Olympic cycle.
Greg, who told you Shawn is retired?? Keep your bias against Shawn to yourself!! Apparently you would be one of those 7% who prefer Nastia, but unfortunately to you, 27% think Shawn is a better choice. Shawn won and you just need to get over it!
She’s definitely retired, maybe she could pull a Mag 7-esque comeback later in the quad but she is definitely not competing this year. There were mandatory training camps for national team members who wanted to compete this year, even if you weren’t back in full workout mode yet…Nastia went, Shawn did not.
Again, nothing against Shawn as a person or gymnast–she’s a total rock star competitor– but Nastia is much more dedicated to the sport.
Greg, again, who told you she’s definitely retired? also, have you read the selection criteria for the award? Shawn won, get over it. That will make your life easier.
Greg, maggie and rich are right on. And the cleveland paper agrees too: http://www.cleveland.com/dman/index.ssf/2009/04/latest_sullivan_award_makes_li.html
They awarded it to the wrong girl. Both girls are great, as everyone says, but it’s not fair to award it based on an online voting system that was flawed. People could vote many times by clearing their cookies and they did! that’s called cheating in my book.
Wow, Nastia fans really showed bad sportsmanship! LOL