Shawn Johnson arrived in Beijing as gymnastics’ “it” girl, the reigning world champion who had lost only one event in the past two years. It wasn’t so much a question of whether should would be able to bring home gold for the US, but just how many and in which competition but last night she won gold on the balancing beam event and well deserved.

It’s a shame that gymnastics and swimming, two of the sports that I religiously watched in these olympics, generally don’t get the attention and acclaimed they deserve. Hopefully great athletes like Shawn and Phelps have awoken the curiosity of viewers in wanting to know and see more of these events, especially know that the olympics are coming to an end.