Shawn Johnson's arms reached over her outstretched legs until her hands finally grabbed hold of the top of her feet.
Her neck craned to her left, toward the 13 visitors from Los Angeles to Chicago to New York who were in Nashville for her "Balancing Act Brunch" at The Cast Collective on 16th Avenue South in early June.
"I kind of fear my daughter will be an ice skater," the Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast and Nashville resident said as she led the group in a pre-exercise warmup during an event for Barilla.
"Not a gymnast?" one woman asked.
Johnson, the balance beam champion at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, smiled and went on to share a story about how she had booked private ice skating lessons for her daughter, Drew, only to show up and find out the reservation hadn't gone through.
In the midst of Johnson's embarrassment, an Olympic figure skating coach offered to give Drew private lessons, an offer Johnson could neither believe nor refuse.
No matter which sport 4-year-old Drew settles on, one thing is for sure: She's going to her first Olympic Games this summer in Paris with her family.
Johnson and her husband, former Vanderbilt football player Andrew East, decided to bring their three children to the Games as part of a working vacation for Johnson, who will serve as a correspondent for Yahoo Sports.
How did Shawn Johnson end up living in Nashville?
An Olympic cyclist named Guy East set up an Olympic gymnast and future "Dancing with the Stars" winner named Shawn Johnson with his brother, a future NFL player named Andrew.
Their first date, a blind date, was spent at The Grove in Los Angeles.
"It's equivalent to the Gulch," Johnson said.
Their second date had a "little more Nashville" flavor: CMA Fest.
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Andrew, a long snapper who played three games with Washington in 2018, moved to Nashville in 2010 when he was a freshman at Vanderbilt. Johnson followed in 2012, and enrolled at Vanderbilt in 2013 but never attended.
"It just felt like home," Johnson said. "It's just been home ever since we moved here."
Andrew proposed at Wrigley Field on July 24, 2015, after Johnson had thrown out the ceremonial first pitch.
"He came walking out and I got mad at him," she said. "I was like, 'You're not supposed to be out here. What are you doing?' . . . Then he got down on one knee in the middle of the field."
The two were married less than a year later in Franklin.
Shawn Johnson fell in love with a trampoline
Shawn Johnson wasn't born with balance beam in her blood. Her path to an Olympic gold medal and three silvers came with its share of bumps and bruises.
"I was a wild 2- and 3-year-old," she said. "I was climbing on entertainment centers and I thought I could fly. I put my teeth through my lip and cracked my head open a lot."
Her parents, desperate for an outlet for all of Johnson's energy, signed her up for dance lessons.
She got kicked out because "I wouldn't listen."
That's when she and gymnastics met. Her parents introduced them.
"I fell in love with a trampoline and the rest is history," Johnson said. "I fell in love with the adrenaline rush of it."
Shawn Johnson: 'Just immature'
Rest is history these days for Johnson, who had her youngest, Barrett, in December. Her kids and her career keep her calendar crammed.
Johnson said Drew "loves ice skating" and called Jett "a little daredevil who loves motorcycles."
Trips to the hospital aren't out of the ordinary.
"I understand now because I have one myself," Johnson said while reflecting on how her parents must have felt when she was a toddler.
Johnson was 16 when she won Olympic gold and helped the U.S. team to a silver.
"I felt like I was a grown adult at the time, and my mom thinks I acted the same way," Johnson said. "Just immature.
"My mom said I was a 16-year-old who was in my 30s, to her demise."
Shawn Johnson on making Olympics: 'It's what I breathed'
Johnson retired from gymnastics just before the 2012 Olympic Games because of a left knee injury.
Soon after, she settled in Nashville.
Soon, she'll be back at the Olympics.
Along the way, she'll be reminded about that summer 16 years ago. When she was the "most nervous I've ever felt" at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials.
"It was the last thing that stood in the way of my dream coming true," Johnson said. "It's all I wanted. It's what I breathed on a daily basis, was making the Olympics.
"When I made the team, it kind of felt like I could relax a little bit, because if I bombed at the Olympics, I still made the Olympics."
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina. Follow his work here.
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