NEW YORK — Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson has won the 79th Sullivan Award as the nation's top amateur athlete.

Johnson, the gold medalist on the balance beam at the Beijing Olympics, beat out teammate Nastia Liukin, the all-around champion at the 2008 Games. She is the third gymnast to win the award, joining Kurt Thomas (1979) and Paul Hamm (2004). Hamm won the all-around at the Athens Olympics that year.

Other finalists were the U.S. Olympic men's 400-meter freestyle relay swim team; volleyball player Cynthia Barboza of Stanford; and North Carolina basketball player Tyler Hansbrough.