Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson East is opening up about a pivotal moment in her life — the point when she decided to embrace faith instead of skepticism.

In a recent appearance on the Off the Vine podcast, Johnson East reflected on her journey from doubt to belief, admitting that there was a time when she struggled deeply with understanding who God was.

“For a long time, I felt like since I couldn’t truly understand who God was,” she said, “I found myself at a place where I was either like, ‘There’s no way this can be true,’ and I can either go that direction, or I can try and figure it out some more.”

Choosing curiosity over cynicism, she said, became a defining moment.

“It would be so much easier to go down the path of ‘it doesn’t make sense,'” Johnson East shared. “But that felt a lot scarier than going down the curious route of ‘maybe I should just start asking more questions and seeing if I can find more answers.’ And when I went down that path, this overwhelming sense — energy, vibe, whatever-of peace kept building with everything that I learned, that I just got hooked by it.”

Johnson East, who won Olympic gold in 2008 at just 16 years old, has often been candid about how her early success didn’t bring the fulfillment she expected. In a previous interview with Jesus Calling, she recalled the emptiness she felt even at the height of her career.

“I remember going to the Olympics, winning an Olympic gold medal, standing on the medal podium with a gold medal around my neck and feeling almost empty,” she said. “I had given up my whole life for this moment. But I still felt empty, and I felt like I should have felt fulfilled — and I didn’t.”

After retiring from gymnastics, Johnson East said she began a journey of rediscovering her purpose through faith — one that eventually led her to embrace her role as a wife, mother, and believer.

“So after gymnastics, I went on this journey of trying to strengthen my faith and strengthen where my purpose in life was laid,” she said. “I found my purpose of serving a greater purpose, and now I feel like my purpose is probably being a mom.”

Speaking to Business Insider, she explained how motherhood helped her redefine success:

“Success isn’t an Olympic gold medal, an NFL contract, or a big paycheck — it’s finding what makes you fulfilled in life.”