Shawn to possibly not compete at Championships...

Property of Brad Penner

So today, the wonderful folks at GymNewstics posted a link from the Des Moines Register stating that Shawn Johnson may not be ready to compete at Championships.

The reason that Chow gives is that she's still recovering from a knee injury. Which, honestly, she's been recovering from for two years! So I don't really get it. I can't say I'm surprised since she seemed to be the only girl at the media summit refusing to be seen who we didn't see in a leotard.

I'm confused. What do you have to lose by competing in a meet that you've already qualified for that could possibly qualify you for Trials AND comes out right around when your book does? Even if she were to do a Make it or Break it-esque beam routine, they'd still show it on TV, likely mention her book and BAM, sales go up. But if she doesn't even compete, from a marketing standpoint, she's not even relevant. So I don't get why she wouldn't at least go and try, unless her leg is falling off or she is having legitimately scary weight issues. I'm not saying that either of those are the case and I certainly hope that they aren't. But, how does someone go from Marta declared "#8" in the country a year after an injury to being possibly unready to even compete a year after that? I don't know. I just hope we get to see her fight for a spot. She's talented and I'd love to see her at least be an alternate. 

Based on her recent tweets though, she seems more excited about the possibility of returning to Dancing with the Stars. Bummer.