Mr/Madam President, I am here today as a proud Iowan and American. Millions of Americans tuned into the Olympics this past August to witness phenomenal performances by American athletes. I am proud of all the athletes who competed at the Olympics, especially the eleven members of Team USA with Iowa ties who represented our country in Beijing. One of those exceptional athletes is a fellow Iowan named Shawn Johnson.
Shawn was a member of the US Women's Gymnastics team who brought home the silver in the team competition. She went on to win individual honors, too. She won the silver medal both the All-Around competition and the floor exercise. And she also received the gold-medal on the balance beam, her favorite event.
All Americans were proud to see Shawn's success. But Iowans are overwhelmingly proud of the self-described "daredevil with the big smile". At this year's Iowa State Fair, the famous butter sculpture was of Shawn.
Shawn is the reigning Women's World Gymnastics All-Around Champion. But she's also a teenager from West Des Moines, Iowa who attends Valley High School when she is not competing around the world. She attends football games and school dances and tries to live the life of a typical teen. She goes to class 5 hours each day and then trains at Chow's Gymnastics in her hometown. With all of this on her plate, she still manages to get straight A's.
Her talent is anything but typical. As a baby, Shawn skipped the crawling and went right to walking. She climbed out of her crib before she was one year old. As a toddler, she would build a ladder out of toys, scale the entertainment center and jump onto the couch.
After seeing their daughter's abundant energy and fearlessness, Shawn's parents, Terri and Doug, enrolled her in tumbling classes at age 3. And she showed promise early on. Her coach at Chow's Gymnastics in West Des Moines, Liang Chow, noticed her talents and honed them. He even submitted a tape of Shawn to US Women's Gymnastics team coach Marta Karolyi because it's tough for a gymnast training in Iowa to get noticed by the National Team.
Training as an elite athlete did not come cheap, though. Shawn's parents eventually mortgaged the family home three times so their daughter could achieve her Olympic dream. And they managed to travel with Shawn to her international competitions.
In June of this year, the disastrous floods hit much of Iowa. Shawn was training with the national team, but her heart was with her fellow Iowans who were suffering, especially her coach. Chow's Gymnastics, Shawn's "second home", is located on the Raccoon River in West Des Moines and the facility suffered a great deal of damage.
Shawn, knowing what this sort of damage could mean for her coach continuing to run his business, wrote a $12,000 check from her endorsement earnings to help get Chow's Gymnastics back up and running.
Iowans have known about Shawn and her extraordinary talent and big smile for a few years now. And Iowa knew that she would make them proud. But the world did not really get to know Shawn until the Olympics. Despite losing the all-around competition to her US teammate and close friend Nastia Liukin, Shawn handled herself with grace, poise and genuine happiness. And when Shawn finally won that coveted gold medal on the incredibly difficult balance beam, her joy was written all over her face.
I want to commend Shawn on an extraordinary performance at the Beijing Olympics. Not only for the medals that she won, but for her hard work, composure and maturity. She did Iowa and America proud.