Gymnast reignites Olympic fever at Bloomingdale mall

It was supposed to be the first flicker of Olympic fever, but champion gymnast Shawn Johnson's visit to Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale Saturday served more as a whiff of what could have been.

More than 1,000 people registered to meet the silver medalist a day after Chicago lost its bid to host the 2016 Summer Games to Rio de Janeiro. Many people in the line that stretched outside the mall and into the rain were still talking about Chicago's lost opportunity, but remained grateful for the chance to meet Johnson.

"She just seems nice," said 12-year-old Hannah Montgomery of Wheaton. "I like gymnastics a lot and she's really good."

A small contingent of the crowd was there to have Johnson sign items related to her season eight victory on "Dancing With the Stars," but the overwhelming majority was made up of young gymnasts who admired her athletic prowess.

"She's my favorite gymnast probably because I've learned more about her," said 11-year-old Daniella Pellegrino of Bloomingdale.

Daniella's 14-year-old brother Sammy and 8-year-old brother Anthony also waited in line for nearly four hours for Johnson's autograph.

"This was cool, but we were mainly doing it for our sister," Sammy explained.

When asked what they thought of the Olympian when they met her, they all replied in unison: "She's short."

Johnson bounded into the storefront signing booth at the mall just after 2 p.m. waving at the fans lined up to see her, but at 4 feet, 9 inches tall, the 17-year-old gymnast was hard to spot from deep within the line.

Johnson signed just about any item that was handed to her, but she also distributed glossy photos of herself to sign for anyone who didn't bring something with them.

"The entire event was free," said Nicole Woods, the mall's marketing director. "We thought this would be a good way to promote us and with Chicago being a candidate to host the Olympics we thought it would be a good idea to give local people something with the Olympics."

Stratford is also hosting autograph-signing sessions for former Chicago Bear and Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive tackle Dan Hampton on Nov. 21 as well as "American Idol" season seven finalist Michael Johns on Dec. 12.