Shawn’s ready for her closeup

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PHILADELPHIA -- Shawn Johnson, the leader after the first phase of the women’s trials, has already attracted advertisers’ attention. She is one of six U.S. athletes to be featured on Coca-Cola cans and is appearing on McDonald’s packaging.

Johnson had seen her image on Coke cans at home in Iowa but was startled to see them on cans in Boston during the U.S. championships. ‘It was so weird because I see them in Des Moines and think it’s only Des Moines,’ she said. ‘They actually have it in Boston -- why would they do it? It didn’t hit me that everybody gets to see it. it was really shocking.’

She has also seen her face on McDonald’s cups -- and yes, unlike 2004 Olympic champion Carly Patterson, who was also depicted on cups but said she had never eaten at the fast-food outlet, Johnson has visited the golden arches.

‘I eat some stuff,’ she said. ‘They’ve got some healthy stuff, their yogurts and their salads.’

Johnson also said her gym in West Des Moines, which was damaged during the floods that have ravaged parts of the Midwest, reopened on Friday. ‘It’s completely back to normal,’ she said. ‘Of course we have no drywall but we have all our equipment.

‘We had fountains coming out of the bottom of our [tumbling] pit. That was a little interesting. They got it fixed but I don’t think our pit will be usable. But we saved the mats, which we put upstairs. We lost all the floors but bars, vault, beam -- we saved all of that.’

--Helene Elliott