She's really doing it. World & Olympic Champion Shawn Johnson will leave tomorrow for Texas and make her first appearance at the National Team Training Camp at the Karolyi Ranch since just before the Beijing Olympics in 2008. 

In a recent story by AP, Johnson talked about her return to camp, "It's been so long and I'm completely out of the loop. I don't remember what it's like or if I'm up to par with everyone," said Johnson, who leaves Thursday for her first national team training camp since Beijing. "It'll probably be fine. I'm probably making way too big of deal about it. But it is (nerve-racking). It's foreign territory for me right now."

Since her last training camp more than 2 years ago, Shawn has retired from the sport, won Dancing with the Stars, made numerous appearances, blew out her knee while skiing, announced a comeback, and followed through on the comeback when few expected it. 

She's even released a couple training videos. This was the latest:



Shawn's original plan was to be ready for a January training camp and start competing next year, but after sending recent training footage to Martha Karolyi, she was impressed enough to want to see Shawn in person. Shawn told AP she isn't doing full routines yet, and estimates she's got about 50 percent of her skills back. She also shows a few new skills in the above video. 

The major concern right now for both Shawn and coach Liang Chow is Shawn's knee. She had surgery on February 16th and it generally takes about 12 months to fully recover from an ACL tear. It sounds like they're being extremely cautious with her training and Shawn is struggling to be patient. She is, however, training more hours now than she did before the Olympics. According to AP, "Johnson trains four hours every afternoon Monday through Friday, with additional morning sessions on Tuesday and Thursday. She also trains twice on Saturday. It's more hours than in the lead-up to Beijing, but Chow said they need the extra time because they can't push as hard and risk a setback with Johnson's knee. 



photo by AP

This week's training camp this week will mostly be juniors, as the World team has this camp off so there will be a lot of new faces for Shawn. However, she'll be accompanied by her new teammates at Chow's, junior National Team members Keeley McNeer and Gabrielle Douglas (who recently moved from Excalibur). 

Read the full AP story