44 Facts About Dominique Dawes

1.

Dominique Margaux Dawes was born on November 20,1976 and is a retired American artistic gymnast.

2.

Dominique Dawes is the Olympic bronze medalist on floor exercise from the Atlanta games.

3.

Dominique Dawes is one of only three female American gymnasts, along with Muriel Grossfeld and Linda Metheny-Mulvihill, to compete in three Olympics and was part of their medal-winning teams: Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, and Sydney 2000.

4.

Dominique Dawes is the first female gymnast to be a part of three Olympic-medal-winning teams since Ludmilla Tourischeva won gold in Mexico City, Munich, and Montreal.

5.

Dominique Dawes was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, on November 20,1976, to Don and Loretta Dominique Dawes of Takoma Park, Maryland.

6.

Dominique Dawes enrolled in gymnastics at age 6 with coach Kelli Hill and won her first competition at age 9.

7.

Dominique Dawes was competing as a junior elite by the age of 10.

8.

Dominique Dawes placed 17th in the all-around junior division at her first US National Championships in 1988.

9.

Dominique Dawes placed 3rd in the all-around in the junior division at the 1990 US National Championships.

10.

At the 1992 USA vs Japan dual meet, the 15-year-old Dominique 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.

11.

Dominique Dawes won over the crowd with a solid optional floor exercise routine and, with a mark of 9.925, tied with Kim Zmeskal for the highest score for the American team on the event.

12.

Dominique Dawes only competed in the team competition in 1992, not breaking through as an all-around gymnast until 1993.

13.

Dominique Dawes is probably best known for her performances at the 1993 and 1994 World Championships.

14.

In 1993, Dominique Dawes led the competition after three events, even beating her more famous teammate Shannon Miller.

15.

Dominique Dawes made the first vault, but slipped and fell on the second, immediately bursting into tears.

16.

Dominique Dawes did so and earned a standing ovation from the crowd.

17.

Dominique Dawes's mistakes continued throughout the event finals and left the championships without winning a single medal.

18.

Dominique Dawes dominated the National Championships placing first in the all-around and all four event finals at the expense of rival Shannon Miller.

19.

Dominique Dawes 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.

20.

Dominique Dawes struggled through a difficult 1995 riddled by wrist and ankle injuries.

21.

Dominique Dawes finished fourth at nationals and was forced to sit out the World Championships that year.

22.

At the 1996 World Championships, Dominique Dawes missed out on a medal on the uneven bars but tied Liu Xuan for a bronze medal on the balance beam.

23.

At the 1996 US National Championships Dominique Dawes swept all four event finals for the second time in her career making her the only gymnast ever to accomplish this feat twice.

24.

Dominique Dawes finished first at the Olympic trials, earning a berth on the 1996 Olympic team at the age of 19.

25.

Dominique Dawes planned to attend Stanford University in fall 1995 but could not receive an athletic scholarship as she turned pro to train for the 1996 Olympics.

26.

Later in the week Dominique Dawes lost yet another opportunity to win a major all-around title.

27.

Dominique Dawes 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.

28.

Dominique Dawes led the competition after two rotations, with Shannon Miller right behind her.

29.

NBC cameras zoomed in on Dominique Dawes, sitting in tears as her score from floor exercise was announced, which led to numerous boos from the audience.

30.

Dominique Dawes managed to pull out a decent Vault score, but finished 17th overall.

31.

Between 1996 and 1998 Dominique Dawes competed in various professional meets but retreated from elite competition.

32.

Dominique Dawes returned briefly in 1998 to participate in the Goodwill Games where she placed 19th in the Mixed Pairs event with Chainey Umphrey.

33.

In team preliminaries at the Sydney Olympics, Dominique Dawes posted the second highest score of the American team on uneven bars but the lowest on beam.

34.

Dominique Dawes attended Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland and Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she was the 1994 prom queen.

35.

Dominique Dawes graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002.

36.

Dominique Dawes briefly appeared on Broadway in a revival of the musical Grease, playing cheerleader Patty Simcox.

37.

Dominique Dawes was the first spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of the USA's "Uniquely Me" self-esteem campaign in 2002.

38.

In June 2010, President Obama appointed Dominique 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.

39.

Dominique Dawes provided commentary for Yahoo's coverage of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

40.

Dominique Dawes appeared with gymnasts Nadia Comaneci and Simone Biles in a commercial for Tide called "The Evolution of Power" prior to the 2016 Summer Olympics.

41.

Dominique Dawes 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 The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, judging a gymnastics competition.

42.

Dominique Dawes became engaged in December 2012 to teacher Jeff Thompson.

43.

Dominique Dawes converted to Catholicism, and they married on May 25,2013.

44.

Dominique Dawes shared that she suffered a near fatal miscarriage prior to becoming pregnant with her twins.