Shawn Johnson trains ONLY 25hrs / week

So says an article on the topic of the “cost” of high performance sport.

Big Expenses for Small Athletes

Shawn Johnson is on a six-day-aweek workout schedule. The 14- year-old gymnast from West Des Moines trains 25 hours a week at Chow’s Gymnastics & Dance with her coaches, Liang and Li Chow. She already competes on the national team, and now she is hoping to earn a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic team.

Big Expenses for Small Athletes – Health – RedOrbit

I would be very impressed if an Olympic medal contender like Shawn trained that few hours. It would be a brave and confident decision by her coaches who are aware the rest of the National team train well over 30hrs / week.

(Shawn said in a 2006 interview that she trains 4hrs / day after school. Leave a comment below if you know Shawn’s exact training hours over the past number of years.)

Courtesy of Jason Harris – Sports Illustrated

I’d expect Shawn to be the favourite at the upcoming Pan-Am Games.

More discussion on the Gym Chat forum: What it means to be elite