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Dominique Margaux Dawes (born November 20, 1976) is a retired American artistic gymnast. Known in the gymnastics community as 'Awesome Dawesome', she was a 10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, the 1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion, a three-time Olympian, a World Championship silver and bronze medalist, and a member of the gold-medal-winning "Magnificent Seven" team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She is also the Olympic bronze medalist on floor exercise from the Atlanta games.
She is also one of only four female American gymnasts, along with Muriel Grossfeld, Linda Metheny, and Simone Biles, to compete in three Olympics and was part of their medal-winning teams: Barcelona 1992 (bronze), Atlanta 1996 (gold), and Sydney 2000 (bronze). Dawes is the first female gymnast to be a part of three Olympic-medal-winning teams since Ludmilla Tourischeva won gold in Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), and Montreal (1976). Since Dawes, Svetlana Khorkina and Simone Biles are the only gymnasts to accomplish this feat. Svetlana winning silver in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000), and bronze in Athens (2004) and Simone winning gold in Rio (2016), silver in Tokyo (2020) and gold in Paris (2024).
At the 1992 USA vs. Japan dual meet, the 15-year-old Dawes received a standing ovation, after an energetic floor routine in which she revived the back-to-back tumbling revolutionized by Soviet star Oksana Omelianchik. The judges were equally impressed, and gave her a perfect 10. Though she was not part of the 1991 World Championship team, Dawes continued to move up on the national and international scene throughout 1991 and 1992.
Dawes only competed in the team competition in 1992, not breaking through as an all-around gymnast until 1993. She is probably best known for her performances at the 1993 and 1994 World Championships. In 1993, Dawes led the competition after three events, even beating her more famous teammate Shannon Miller. However, she decided to try her harder vault (1½ twisting layout Yurchenko) worth a 10.00 instead of simply a full-twisting layout Yurchenko, which had been devalued to a 9.8. She made the first vault, but slipped and fell on the second, immediately bursting into tears. With the new rule that both vaults were averaged in all-around competition, her fall dropped her to 4th overall while Miller won the title. Famously, after the vault fall Dawes's coach Kelli Hill exhorted her to be proud of her performance anyway, stating: "When did you ever think you would be in that position? You have to be happy with yourself. Come on. Be happy. Stand up and wave". Dawes did so and earned a standing ovation from the crowd.Eurosport coverage of the 1993 World Championships After this disappointment she rebounded in the event finals, winning two silver medals on bars and beam.
The same fate befell her in at the 1994 Worlds. Leading after three events, she again came to vault with a chance of winning the title. This time her mistake came on the first vault where Dawes over-rotated and hurled forward into a somersault. Her low score dropped her to 5th. Her mistakes continued throughout the event finals and left the championships without winning a single medal.
Dawes would finish her year on a positive note, however. She dominated the National Championships placing first in the all-around and all four event finals at the expense of rival Shannon Miller. It was the first year since 1969 that a gymnast had swept the competition. She went on to lead the American team to a silver medal at the World Team Championships in Dortmund, Germany posting the third highest all-around score in the process.
Later in the week, however, Dawes lost yet another opportunity to win a major all-around title. Going into the competition, she was considered one of the heavy favorites to medal. She was ranked sixth overall among all competitors after the team event, and her scores from team optionals were the highest on the American team and the second highest overall. Scores by gymnast for the team optionals at the 1996 Olympics Gymn-Forum Women's all-around qualifiers Gymn-Forum Dawes led the competition after two rotations, with Shannon Miller right behind her. Both gymnasts were on Floor Exercise for the 3rd rotation. Miller had a substantial mistake in her routine, knocking her out of the medals. On the middle tumbling pass of Dawes's floor routine, she under-rotated for fear that she might step out of bounds; she sat down the tumbling pass (and went out of bounds anyway) causing her position to plummet in the standings. NBC cameras zoomed in on Dawes, sitting in tears as her score from floor exercise was announced (it was an even 9.000), which led to numerous boos from the audience. She managed to pull out a decent Vault score, but finished 17th overall. In the Event Finals, she placed sixth on Vault and just out of the medals on Uneven Bars, but redeemed herself by winning Bronze in Floor Exercise finals, her first World Championship or Olympic medal in what had long been considered her best event. Event finals notes USA Gymnastics, 1996
In team preliminaries at the Sydney Olympics, Dawes posted the second highest score of the American team on uneven bars but the lowest on beam. Scores by gymnast for team prelims at the 2000 Olympics Gymn-Forum In the team finals, she performed well on three events, contributing their highest beam score and 3rd highest bars score (a very high 9.7), and contributed to the team's bronze medal awarded April 28, 2010 when the International Olympic Committee stripped China of its 2000 team medal for an underage competitor. IOC strips 2000 Games bronze medal from China Yahoo! Sports News, April 28, 2010
Dawes served as president of the Women's Sports Foundation from 2004 to 2006; she was the youngest president in the Foundation's history. "Ex-Gymnast's Next Routine Is Getting Girls Off Couch" Frank Litsky, The New York Times, May 21, 2004 She was the first spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of the USA's "Uniquely Me" self-esteem campaign in 2002. "Olympic Champion Dominique Dawes Teams Up With Girl Scouts & Unilever To Empower Girls Through Progressive New Self-Esteem Program" Market Wire, September 2002 Dawes, whose younger brother is autism, has also supported events for autism awareness, such as the 2001 Power of One rally in Washington, D.C. "The Power of One" 2001 She is presently on the Advisory Board of Sesame Workshop's "Healthy Habits for Life" program and also works as a motivational speaker, concentrating on youth issues. Speaker profile at The American Program Bureau In June 2010, President Obama appointed Dawes to be co-chair of the newly renamed President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition, along with New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees. "Michelle Obama jumps rope, emphasizes nutrition", USA Today, June 24, 2010.
She provided commentary for Yahoo's coverage of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
On October 28, 2010, Dawes was working for Yahoo Weekend News when she met with Center for Inquiry (CFI)'s investigative partner IIG to test Power Balance Bracelets for their claim that they improve balance, flexibility and strength. She states "The fact is, all athletes know that nothing can replace good old-fashioned hard work – practice, practice, practice...Can a silicone wristband with a hologram sticker really give you an added edge?" In the trial four bracelets were taped so no participant knew if the bracelet they were wearing contained the Power Balance hologram. One bracelet was the control with no hologram, another contained only a PEZ candy. From Wendy Hughes report "The claim was that if the hologram worked, the speed of the participants would increase, and it would show on the graph. But it didn't. Out of 64 heats, 16 participants using 4 bracelets in 4 random heats, the results were almost flat. The main result was that if there was any change, the familiarity with the course caused a slight increase in efficiency. The Pez didn't make a difference either." Dawes's conclusion is that superstition makes the Power Bracelet work.
Dawes appeared with gymnasts Nadia Comăneci and Simone Biles in a commercial for Tide called "The Evolution of Power" prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics. Dominique Dawes, Nadia Comaneci Share Advice for Olympic Hopefuls: ‘Enjoy the Journey’ Olympic Gymnasts Simone Biles, Dominique Dawes, And Nadia Comaneci Partner In ‘The Evolution of Power’ Video
She is set to guest star as herself with Gabby Douglas and Laurie Hernandez in the episode "A Perfect 10" of the second season of the Disney+ animated series , judging a gymnastics competition.
Her music for floor routines:
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