American coverage of women’s gymnastics falls squarely into one of two camps: tales of plucky, lovable teens wearing their perma-smiles to the winners’ podium, or exposés of the sport’s seedy underbelly, of eating disorders, abusive training methods, of cruel coaches and broken bodies. …
Not long ago, a pair of gymnast memoirs hit bookshelves and dutifully took up their positions at either end of the sport’s narrative spectrum: Shawn Johnson’s Winning Balance: What I’ve Learned So Far about Love, Faith and Living Your Dreams and Dominique Moceanu’s Off Balance. You can learn a little about gymnastics from the books. You can learn a lot about American culture from the distance between the two. …
read more – Happy Girl, Sad Girl: Shawn Johnson And Dominique Moceanu Tell The Two Stories People Want From Their Sport
Shawn’s going to Dancing with the Stars, by the way.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 