With the Olympic trials only days away, rising floodwaters forced world gymnastics champion Shawn Johnson from her gym.
There was a foot of water inside Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute on Friday, with fish swimming in the parking lot. So Johnson moved to Iowa State, about 30 miles north of her hometown, until she leaves Monday for the trials.
Chow's gym is in an industrial park a few blocks from the Raccoon River, which is rising after heavy rain this week. About 100 volunteers helped evacuate the gym Thursday night, moving equipment to a balcony and putting sandbags around the building, but the gymnastics floor was ruined and will have to be replaced once the water recedes.
Iowa State allows the gold medal contender to stay at home, but it's still a disruption in her training.
At Chow's, Johnson trains on Janssen-Fritsen equipment, which will be used at the Beijing Olympics. But Janssen-Fritsen is a European manufacturer, and few U.S. gyms have its equipment.
The Olympic trials are set for June 19-22 in Philadelphia. The top two - expected to be Johnson and Nastia Liukin
- automatically qualify for the Beijing squad, with the remaining four members named after a July 20 selection camp.
