Dominique Dawes

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Dominique Margaux Dawes (born November 20, 1976, in Silver Spring, Maryland) is a United States gymnast. In 1996, she was a member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, which won Olympic gold, known as the Magnificent 7. She also won an individual bronze medal on the floor exercise.

Dawes was also a member of the 1992 bronze-medal-winning women's gymnastics team, and along with Betty Okino was the first black female to win an Olympic gymnastics medal in Barcelona in 1992. In 2000, she made her third Olympic team, which traveled to Sydney and finished fourth in the team competition. In 1994, she was the National All-Around Champion, and won all four individual events. Dominique is unfortunately as renowned for her inconsistency as her success. She was ahead in the all-around in the 1993 and 1994 World Championships, and the 1996 Olympics until falls on moves she usually executed without problem took her out of the running.

Dawes holds the record for most times to the Olympics (1992, 1996, and 2000) of any female US gymnast. Her explosive tumbling and energetic style earned her the nickname "Awesome Dawesome." She graduated with her Bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002.

Dawes joined the Advisory Board of Sesame Workshop's "Healthy Habits for Life" program and serves as President of the Women's Sports Federation.

Skills

Vault: 1.5 twisting Yurchenko
Balance Beam: Backflip followed by 3 Layout stepouts, Two backflips to Full-in dismount
Floor Exercise: Double layout, Piked Full-in Back Out

As of 2005, Dawes gives private lessons on Sundays at her home gym, Hill's Gymnastics.

Dawes is featured in Missy Elliott's 2006 video "We run this" as Missy's gymnastics coach.

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