Dominique Dawes

About Dominique Dawes

Dominique Margaux Dawes (born November 20, 1976, in Silver Spring, Maryland) is a retired United States artistic gymnast. She was 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 Championships silver medalist and a member of the gold-medal winning "Magnificent Seven" at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Dawes is also notable as being the first African-American to win an individual Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics. She is also one of only three female American gymnasts, along with Muriel Grossfeld and Linda Metheny-Mulvihill, to compete in three Olympics.

Dominique Margaux Dawes was born in Silver Spring, Maryland on November 20, 1976 to Don and Loretta Dawes. She has an older sister, Danielle and a younger brother, Don Jr. She was first introduced to gymnastics at age six, when she signed up for a tumbling class. When she showed up, the class was canceled, and someone suggested to her parents that she try a local gymnastics club called Hill's Angels. Dawes signed up for classes at Hill's and began working with Kelli Hill, who would coach her for her entire career.

Dawes was competing as a junior elite by the age of 10. She placed 17th in the all-around in the junior division at her first U.S. National Championships in 1988. In 1989, at the age of 12, she was sent to Australia to compete in her first international meet, the Konica Grand Prix. By the early 1990s, Dawes was achieving success both nationally and internationally. She placed 3rd in the all-around in the junior division at the 1990 U.S. National Championships.