By Michaela Gordoni
Olympian Shawn Johnson East and her husband, Andrew East, had a blast on SPECIAL FORCES: WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST Season 4.
The competition show puts celebrities through grueling exercises based on the Special Forces selection process.
“Well my athletic career…had a lot of accomplishments there,” Andrew said of how they were asked to join the show. “So they were like really itching, like, ‘We want a football superstar,'” he joked while Shawn gave him the side-eye.
“No, actually, they wanted Shawn, and then I was the bargaining chip, I think,” he said.
Shawn clarified that they asked both of them, and it was “awesome.”
Related: Christian Olympian Takes on WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST
“It was also awesome because the Deckers are really good friends of ours. So we showed up and got to see them, and then Randall Cobb is from Nashville as well, and Robbie Patel,” Shawn said. “It was like a whole family…We all flew in together.”
Shawn told TV Insider the mental part of the competition was tough for them.
“We’re very used to, I don’t want to say physical pain, but coming from elite athletics, we know how to deal with that,” Shawn said. “It’s an expectation. The mental side was way different than anything I think Andrew or I had ever dealt with before, so that was new.”
Andrew added, “I thought it was going to be all physical challenges, so I was like, ‘Let’s make sure we’re in good shape and our cardio’s good and our strength’s good,’ but there was so many different types of challenges beyond just the physical challenges that you can’t prepare for. It’s like, how do you face your biggest fear?”
Shawn told Swooon that the test gave them the opportunity to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses. She believes it strengthened their marriage.
“With all of these once-in-a-lifetime experiences, you kind of just see elements of each other that you otherwise wouldn’t, naturally,” Andrew added. “So I feel like I understand Shawn and what makes her so wonderfully and beautifully unique in a totally different light now.”
The couple are mom and dad to Drew, 5, Jett, 4, and Bear, 1. For now they say their kids are a little too young to watch them do intense stuff.
“They’re 5, 4, ad 1, so I think we’ll watch it first,” Shawn laughed. “But yes, they really want to see us jump out of a helicopter and do the adrenaline stuff.”
SPECIAL FORCES: THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST TEST is available on Fox at 8 p.m. every Thursday.
Read Next: Savannah Chrisley Learned This Life Lesson on SPECIAL FORCES
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
– Content: +1Share:
– Content: +2