The MOCOShow
The first gymnast in the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame (MDSAHOF), Montgomery County native Dominique Dawes, 46, won 15 U.S. Championships between 1991 and 1996.
Per the MDSAHOF: Born in Silver Spring, MD, she also broke ground as the first African-American gymnast to ever qualify for and compete in an Olympics and in 1996 became the first African-American to win an individual medal in Olympic gymnastics with a bronze medal in the floor exercises. A three-time Olympian, Dawes was a member of the “Magnificent Seven,” the first American team to win gold in women’s gymnastics at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. “Awesome Dawesome” retired after the Sydney Games in 2000 (team bronze) and graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002, appeared on Broadway in a revival of “Grease” and became an advocate for young women in sports.
She served as president of the Women’s Sports Federation from 2004 to 2006, was appointed by President Obama to join football star Drew Brees as co-chair of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition in 2010 and in 2020 opened the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy in Montgomery County, MD, to create a healthy and nurturing environment for all children, including her four children, two of them twins. She has two locations- in Clarksburg and in Rockville.
Dawes is a member of the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame (2009) and USA Olympic Hall of Fame (with the Magnificent Seven in 2008). She became the first woman to be inducted into the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame this past week.