Shawn Johnson, Lawrence Taylor are “Dancing With the Stars”

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Again athletes are getting top billing for ‘Dancing With the Stars’ (‘DWTS’). The new season of the ABC show begins March 9 and on the website the first two stars listed are former NFL great Lawrence Taylor and gymnastics gold-medalist Shawn Johnson. The third athlete on the new show is rodeo legend Ty Murray.

One of the first things that the 17-year-old gymnast said after winning her gold medal on the balance beam in Beijing was that she wanted to be on ‘DWTS.’

Misty May-Treanor, a beach volleyball gold medalist, was on last fall’s season, though she had to withdraw after rupturing her Achilles tendon.

Johnson and her mother, Teri, will be relocating from West Des Moines, Iowa, to Los Angeles for as long as Johnson’s stay on the show lasts.

Johnson will be the youngest-ever competitor on the show. She had said in Beijing that she was postponing her junior year of high school at least for the first semester while she traveled on a post-Olympics gymnastics tour but it seems high school attendance isn’t feasible for the second semester as well.

According to her agent, Sheryl Shade, Johnson is going to take correspondence courses so she can graduate with her class next year.

-- Diane Pucin