Shawn Johnson gets to know the athlete side of fellow Olympian Bruce Jenner.

I've had a lot of awesome experiences in London, from live-blogging the women's gymnastics final to joining TODAY.com as a special Olympic correspondent. I've also gotten to hang with some really cool people along the way. Here's a little name-drop of some of my favorites so far:

Bruce Jenner: I never thought I would meet Kim Kardashian’s dad, least of all at the Olympics! I was talking to a true athlete. And that's not what I expected: He’s put on such a Hollywood pedestal. I always saw him as an entertainer in the tabloids, not an athlete. Talking to him, he’s incredibly humble, and respects athletes more than anybody. He gained my respect, hearing about his story and where the games took him. 

Anthony Quintano / NBC News

Who'll win at a "Dancing with the Stars" rematch? Shawn smack-talks Apolo Anton Ohno.

Apolo Anton Ohno: I haven’t seen Apolo since Vancouver. The first thing I said to him was, “I’m going to beat you on ‘Dancing with the Stars.’” He said, “I have to get to the gym.” I told him I’ve been training here every day in London, and he got super motivated, and competitive, almost mad. He’s a phenomenal athlete.

Venus Williams: Before meeting her, I was intimidated. She and her sister Serena seem so intense, especially on TV and in their sport. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but she was very quiet, almost reserved and extremely sweet. She couldn’t be prouder of her sister and everything she’d accomplished. It was shocking to meet someone who has a  competitive demeanor, comes off as very aggressive and see that in person, her personality and character is so quiet.

Anthony Quintano / NBC News

Shawn with Ryan Lochte, who she says is "very humble" in person.

The Lochte family: I first met the Lochtes on TODAY a couple of months ago. I love Ryan’s family. Ike is the mom everybody wants. She never stops smiling and giggling; she’s adorable. They are extremely supportive and proud and not afraid to show it. It comes across in his performance. He’s showy on TV but he’s very humble in person. His style is...very different. He’s very sweet. He’s worked really hard for what he’s done. He’s devoted a lot of time and effort, and he’s got true class the way he does everything.

@shawnjohnson/Instagram

Shawn Johnson tweeted this pic with Shaun White, at the women's gymnastics finals.

Shaun White: He’s one of the biggest athletes in the world. And still, he walked into the women’s gymnastics all-around competition, wearing a suit, walked straight into my aisle, hugged me, and sat down like he belonged there. He had a sincere interest in the sport and wanted to know about the scoring. He knew the girls from watching the 2008 team, and he was jumping up and down screaming when Gabby won. He related his sport to ours; we talked about how we warmed up.

Michelle Obama: She remembers every face, everyone she meets. At the Let’s Move events, she spends time with every kid, makes a point to engage people. What surprised me the first time I met her is how tall she is! She had watched me in 2008, and was honored to have me as part of the campaign. She was so proud of me — sad that I had retired, but happy that I was doing something that loved and not beating myself up anymore. That's crazy, because it meant the first lady of the United States followed my story. (At the last Let’s Move event), she beat me at tennis. If I had to play her again, I would win at arm wrestling. I've got guns.

Anthony Quintano / NBC News

Shawn with Savannah, jumping for TODAY.

Savannah Guthrie: She’s genuinely interested in every athlete that’s come on the show. From my view backstage it looks like she works her butt off. She’s humble and smiling and knows every story, does her homework, and knows every face and name. I idolize the role that she’s in. I hope to have a job like hers!

Gymnast Shawn Johnson, TODAY.com's special correspondent, won a gold and a silver medal in Beijing. 

More: Check out all of TODAY.com's Olympic coverage!
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Shawn Johnson: Athletes 'should censor themselves' at the Olympics 
Bruce Jenner: Ashton Eaton is greatest US decathlete ever 
Video: Venus Williams: 'Awesome' to win gold with sister 
Video: Michelle Obama: Olympics 'awe-inspiring' for me 

TODAY

Millions watch the Olympics from home, but only a select few experience the Games the way I did in Beijing. Here are six secrets from an athlete's perspective:

1. Meeting Team USA is a revealing affair.
Every U.S. athlete heads to the same connecting city for a "process" day before shipping off to the Games. That's where competitors are credentialed, drug-tested, provided Team USA apparel and debriefed about the dos and don'ts in representing America. 

The best part is going from room to room filling up a HUGE shopping cart with free gear. It's quite a way to meet the other Team USA members; athletes strip to their skivvies for a mad dash to find the best-fitting sizes. Gymnasts are lucky: We're left with the extra-smalls. 

2. Olympians don't fly first class.
Oh yes, Olympians sit in the back by the toilets just like everyone else. But it's not all fun and games: Halfway through the flight some gymnasts actually do small workouts down the aisles. It's a fun ride as the majority of the passengers are sporting the red, white and blue.

3. Athletes can be tested for drugs at ANY time.
You could be sleeping, eating, competing or chatting with Matt Lauer — and the World Anti-Doping Agency officials will just show up for a drug test. It's all chosen by a random draw, but I swear some people's names — like mine! — seem to pop up a few more times than others. It's quite a process, too. You have NO privacy during the testing process, and stage fright is the worst (I speak from experience). You can be stuck in the testing process for hours.

4. Dorms are nice, if a little plain.
Olympian housing is divided by countries. There's a cool tradition that you hang your nation's flag outside your room, making the village a neat place as everywhere you look there are different colors flying high. It's a different story inside the dorms, which are stark white when you arrive. Many athletes decorate them so they feel more like home. The apartments also include game rooms, salons and massage tables. There's also a media center to keep you connected to loved ones.

5. Cultures mix in the cafeteria.
Country barriers break down in the commissary. It's an awesome place. Picture an eatery that's as big as a football field with catered food that can accommodate every athlete. The most popular place in Beijing? McDonald's. The line spanned the entire cafeteria front to back every single day! 

6. Gold isn't the only metal you compete to win.
Forget the events! There's a more prestigious competition happening between athletes and spectators: pin trading. You are constantly bargaining, bartering and begging for these coveted metals. And the stakes are high: Your rank among international athletes seemingly has nothing to do with your medal haul — but by your pins! And you're treated like royalty if you have a rare one.

Gymnast Shawn Johnson, TODAY.com's special correspondent, won a gold and a silver medal in Beijing. 

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Shawn Johnson's dare: On your marks, get set... jump for TODAY!
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Shawn Johnson: 'Going to London is bittersweet'

Al Roker / Twitter

Al admits that TODAY staffer Sarah Dunham and Olympian Shawn Johnson wear the salmon pants better.

This is why you should ALWAYS call Al Roker before you go out.

Al, fellow TODAY staffer Sarah Dunham and Olympian Shawn Johnson all showed up this morning wearing pants that were verrrrrrry similar.

Apparently Nantucket Red is popular over in London, so the matching outfits happened because they're all "on trend" and not because of any kind of "Mean Girls" prank situation. Al went as far as to call it "The Sisterhood of the Salmon Pants."

Shawn, a TODAY.com special correspondent for the Olympics, had nothing but nice things to say of Al and his fancy slacks. “Considering he’s so stylish every day it’s an honor to feel like I was finally fashion forward,” she said graciously. She told TODAY.com that she bought hers at British trouser shop Harvey Nichols after noticing the bright fad around town. “Everyone is wearing patterned, printed and colored. I just liked the color.”

Sarah wanted to point out that she was not, repeat, NOT copying Al's style. “Not for nothing," she said, "but I came to work first. I think I may be rubbing off on him.”

Al knows when he's beaten, tweeting, "Ok, so Sarah and Shawn wear these pants better." Gentlemanly! But would you expect anything less from a guy in salmon pants?

Julieanne Smolinski is a TODAY.com contributor. Her favorite Edgar Allen Poe short story is "The Salmon Pants."

More on TODAY.com: 
Al Roker rocks a plaid, salmon-colored jacket
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TODAY tries Olympic racewalking (and things get awkward)

TODAY.com fans don't shy away from a dare! 

Hundreds — including athletes and anchors — responded to TODAY.com special correspondent Shawn Johnson's challenge: Send us your jumping pictures. 

You can still join in on the fun. Jump for joy and tweet your pic using the hashtag #OlympicsTODAY. We'll include it in our gallery — and potentially on the broadcast! 

Here are 11 of our favorite Olympians and TODAY staffers getting some air: 

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American gymnast Gabby Douglas picked up the gold in the women's all-around finals.

Russian Viktoria Komova placed second. Aly Raisman, the other American in competition, placed fourth. Due to a tie-breaking rule, she narrowly missed out on a bronze medal despite receiving the same point score as Russia's Aliya Mustafina. Read the full story on NBCOlympics.com.

TODAY.com special correspondent Shawn Johnson, who won silver in the event in Beijing, live-blogged her analysis; follow it below.

Questions? Tweet @ShawnJohnson by using the hashtag #OlympicsTODAY.

More on TODAY.com: 
Let them live their dream: Parents of 'Fab Five' offer advice 
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Daniel Garcia / AFP/Getty Images

Gymnast Shannon Miller, back in the '90s, rocked gloriously fluffy scrunchies.

Shannon Lee Miller isn’t only the most decorated gymnast in U.S. history, winning nearly 20 world championships and earning 7 Olympic medals. She is also known for her hair scrunchies.

The hair scrunchie seems to have endured in the gymnastic world even as it has been mostly abandoned by the masses. 

Jamie Squire / Getty Images

Team USA's Kyla Ross hugs coach Jenny Zhang on Tuesday in London, sporting the much-maligned '80s accessory.

Amateur gymnast Lindsey Green remembers Miller’s scrunchies well, back when she was a young gymnast just coming up in the world.  “Look back to Shannon Miller’s huge fluffy white scrunchies," she told TODAY.com. "We even made fun of them in the nineties when we were gymnasts. They were so epic.” Green is a staunch scrunchie wearer and one of the few gymnasts who will admit it. 
 
Not to say they haven't been found on the mat during the 2012 Olympics. When the U.S. women's gymnastics team took the gold in London, 2 of the 7 team members were sporting scrunchies. Other countries have wrapped their hair in the plush holders, including Russia, Romania and China.

Watch TODAY video: Mary Lou Retton: U.S. gymnastics 'spanked' Russians

Ronald Martinez / Getty Images

McKayla Maroney celebrates her performance on the vault on Tuesday.

“In today’s fashion forward world, I don’t know why they’re OK,” said Shawn Johnson, gold medal gymnast and TODAY.com special correspondent. “I never wore them in competition. I wore ribbons. A rubber band covered in glittery fabric sticking out of your head — what is that?”

Viewers noticed the scrunchies as well and many took to Twitter to discuss it. ESPN broadcaster Samantha Steele said, "I've noticed many things while watching late night gymnastics. Most notable: the scrunchie is alive and well." Another user tweeted, "Gymnastics: single-handedly keeping scrunchie manufacturers in business."

There are several theories from the gymnasts themselves about why they wear them. Johnson maintains it’s all about letting your individual fashion sense show on the mat. “Gymnastics doesn’t give much leniency in terms of what you can wear: can’t wear nail polish, jewelry, can’t have tattoos. So people come up with glitter clips, hairdos.”

Watch TODAY video: Gabby Douglas: Calm down, I'm going to catch the bar 

Emmanuel Dunand / AFP/Getty Images

Russia's Victoria Komova performs on the beam on Tuesday in London, her hair held back with a scrunchie.

Gymnast Alicia Sacramone told Fashionista.com she is against scrunchies, and not because they are lacking the fashion factor but because she thinks of them as bad omens. “I honestly think they’re bad luck and I hate them. I don’t know why people think they’re so great and why they’re still a trend." She said that some girls must think scrunchies are good luck. “I think each competitor has a superstitious thing that works for them,” she said.

Green maintains that it isn’t the aesthetic, but function that are key to their popularity. "I don’t know what they make these things out of but they just hold your hair so much better than a regular elastic," she said. "It’s so solid and you could literally do 100 back-flips and your hair would really not come out of the scrunchie. If your hair is in your face and you’re trying to balance on a beam you’ve got a big problem in front of you.”

Still, Green does harbor some scrunchie-related insecurities. "I only use black ones because they match my hair and I don’t want anyone to see it,” she said. "I have some scrunchie shame. I would prefer that no one saw.”

Shawn Johnson is calling for an even more extreme approach. “I think something needs to change,” she told TODAY.com. “It’s like Hammer pants. It’s something that’s never been good that won’t go away.”

TODAY.com contributor Jillian Eugenios has scrunchies hidden in her desk drawer. Don't tell anybody.

More: Click here for all of TODAY.com's Olympics coverage! 
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Join Shawn Johnson, swimmers jumping for TODAY! 

Shawn Johnson, Olympic gold medalist and TODAY.com special correspondent, dared viewers to show us their spirit by jumping for joy! See the best responses below, and show us yours with the hashtag #OlympicsTODAY!

Reading this on a mobile device? Click here to view the pictures.

Shawn Johnson has a message to Olympians who get the urge to jump on social media: Be careful.

The London Olympics are being called the first ‘social media Games,’ where more fans than ever before will flock to Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere to follow the action.

Johnson, TODAY.com’s special correspondent and 2008 gymnastics gold medalist, warned against athletes getting too wrapped up in social media at the expense of their primary focus. Johnson has 189,000 Twitter followers, so she is well aware of the impact it can make.

“I think it can (be a distraction) if they allow it,’’ Johnson told Al Roker on TODAY in London Friday. “I think they need to almost censor it themselves. There’s going to be a lot of critics, a lot of opinions, a lot of competitors on social media that are going to say and do what they want, and if they read that, it can get to them, but it can also connect the world.’’

The dangers of social media for athletes during the Games came into focus this week when a Greek triple-jumper was removed from the team when a tweet about African immigrants was deemed racist. Voula Papachristou was dismissed by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, which announced that she was placed “outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement.’’

After winning three medals in Beijing in 2008, including a gold in the balance beam, Johnson, 20, is adjusting to life on the other side of the spectacle as a member of the media. She retired in June, three weeks before the Olympic trials, because of a nagging knee injury she suffered while skiing.

“It’s a little bittersweet,’’ she said. “I would give anything to be on the team, but coming up a little short and having to retire was the best decision to me. Now getting to interview athletes and have fun with it, it’s going to be interesting.’’

She plans on taking in Friday’s Opening Ceremony as a spectator, four years after she entered as part of the American team in Beijing.

“It’s going to be weird,’’ she said. “I would love to be walking through it. I’ll probably get a little emotional even, but it’s going to be cool seeing my teammates walk through, and I’m very proud of them.’’

More:

Shawn Johnson: 'Going to London is bittersweet' 
Gold star: Medalist Shawn Johnson joins TODAY.com Olympic team 
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London eyes: Behind the scenes with TODAY staffers

Gold-winning gymnast and TODAY.com special correspondent Shawn Johnson reflects on attending her first Olympic Games since retiring in June. 

I couldn't be more excited to be in London covering the Olympics. Still, attending my first Opening Ceremony in London as a non-athlete is bittersweet. Here's what happens when you retire from Olympic competition: The first week is awful. It’s like hitting a brick wall. Every decision you’ve ever made pretty much your entire life has been based on your sport and getting to the Olympics: what you eat, what you drink, when you go to sleep. It’s everything. And when you no longer have that, you kind of feel lost.

Within a few weeks, you start thinking about what you want to do and where you want to go. You kind of get separation anxiety, and wonder what you’re going to end up doing. You start missing it.

But for me, opportunities started coming right off the bat, which made the transition a lot easier. In London, I'm going to be the first-ever TODAY.com special correspondent. That means I'll be blogging for TODAY in London, doing behind-the-scenes reporting and sharing my unique perspective on the Games.

It's a good thing I'll be busy, because it's going go be hard sitting in the stands! I'm still the kind of person that wants to be active and down there competing. 

I think it’s going to be the little things that’ll get to me the most.

Wearing a credential that says "media" instead of "athlete," for example. Trying to get into the Olympic village, and having to get a guest pass. I'll be like, "No, I’m an athlete!" and they'll say, "No, you were." I’ll forever be an athlete. But it’s kind of having that dreaded word “former” or “ex” before my name that makes me cringe. I never thought that day was going to come.

Ryan Towe Photography

One thing that's been fun: Packing. I'm bringing nice clothes, like heels for events, and running shoes. As a competitor, I wouldn’t have packed any of that — just leotards, tennis shoes and warm-ups. Street clothes take up a lot more room! A leotard takes up nothing, and we weren't allowed to bring more than one bag anyway. Now, I've got two: one for my shoes and one for my clothes. 

For the first time ever, I'll be able to check out other events that we weren’t allowed to watch when we were competing. I'll be at opening and closing ceremonies, in the audience, watching the gymnastics, of course, and I’ve got tickets to the gold medal basketball game and women’s volleyball.

This will also be my first time in London! I want to see the London Eye, and get a Buckingham palace guard to smile. I’m kind of a nerd that way; I love visiting touristy sites. Any free minute I get, I’m going to be walking around.

And if I meet Will and Kate, I'm going to ask: Where's her favorite place to shop? And what's the queen like? Is she really intense? 

But most of all, I'm going to be watching all of my Olympian friends — even if it's just on TV — and I'll be the one cheering the loudest.

Tell me: What do you want to know about the Olympics? Ask me your questions in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them! 

More: Gold star: Medalist Shawn Johnson joins TODAY.com Olympic team 
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TODAY

We've got a ringer! Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson has been named TODAY.com's special correspondent covering the Olympics. 

The gymnast will join Matt, Savannah, Al, Natalie, Meredith, Ryan Seacrest and a slew of producers in London giving readers behind-the-scenes access to the athletes and life at the Games.

"Participating in the Olympics holds such special memories for me," Shawn said. "TODAY has a huge online audience, and I can't wait to share the Olympic experience from an athlete’s point of view with all of them."

Shawn won one gold and three silver medals in Beijing's 2008 Games.

She showed off her fancy footwork a year later, picking up the "Dancing with the Stars” Mirror Ball Trophy. Shawn retired from gymnastics in June after injuring her knee.

"Shawn is uniquely positioned to explain what it’s like to perform on the biggest stage in the world," said TODAY.com general manager Jen Brown. "We’re thrilled to have Shawn join us in London."

Follow Shawn on Twitter as she tweets using the hashtag #OlympicsTODAY.  

Welcome her to the team in the comments!

More on TODAY.com:
Shawn Johnson on her new book, 'Winning Balance'
London eyes: Behind the scenes with TODAY staffers
Seacrest: If Kim Kardashian was an Olympian, she'd play...