US Olympic hero Shawn Johnson opens up on virus that hospitalized her son

Shawn Johnson remembers the night she took her infant son to an emergency room. 

The American gymnastics hero who won Olympic gold on the balance beam at the 2008 Beijing games was suddenly the mother of a very young patient. 

“He was 1. It took a turn for the worst very quickly. We ended up in the ER. He was struggling with his breathing,” Johnson told Fox News Digital. 

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The United States’ Shawn Johnson, left, and compatriot Nastia Liukin stand on the podium after the women’s balance beam final of the artistic gymnastics event of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing Aug. 19, 2008.   (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)

Her son, Jett James East, had respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a highly contagious virus that infects the lungs and breathing passages. Her first-born, daughter Drew Hazel East, caught a lighter version of it at a young age but never needed to go to the hospital.

Then, when Johnson got pregnant with her third child, she learned of a troubling timeline.

“I found out that he was due in peak RSV season around the holidays. I still had two babies at home, a lot of people coming over for the holidays,” she said. 

Johnson was staring down an urgent mission to address the virus plaguing her children.

A friend she had met on social media, Dr. Mona Amin, became a source of guidance alongside her family’s normal pediatrician. 

“RSV can look so different in everyone. … It presented very differently in her two different children,” Amin told Fox News Digital. 

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USA’s Shawn Johnson in action during a gold medal win in the women’s balance beam final at National Indoor Stadium in Beijing, China. (Al Tielemans/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

“We first met last year, and we just really connected over business, motherhood, asking me questions on the side about the medical stuff.”

Johnson says Amin gave her advice that was similar to her pediatrician’s.

One of the solutions that came out of meetings with both was the use of a drug called Beyfortus, an antibody injection given to newborns and young children to help treat RSV. It was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration July 17, 2023. 

Johnson’s message to any other parents concerned about RSV affecting their child is to “talk to your pediatrician.”

“Education is so much better than none at all,” she added.

The former gymnastics star has come out of her family’s battle against RSV with a new obsession for fighting off illnesses in her children. It has even changed her reading habits.

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Former Olympic gymnast and 2008 gold medalist Shawn Johnson (Courtesy of Shawn Johnson)

“I used to read ‘Harry Potter’ novels, now I read parenting novels. I read all about viruses and psychiatry. The biggest lifestyle adjustment for me is that it’s my job to protect them. And I need to arm myself with knowledge,” Johnson said. 

“The amount of attention if you were a pro athlete or an athlete that you put into your body in your career is the same amount of attention that you should put toward your children. No child is the same. We’ve talked about this a lot. Every single child has different needs. … I think it’s our job as parents to really find what those are.”

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