page_title: Dominique Dawes
section_title: Education and life after gymnastics
hierarchical_section_title: Dominique Dawes / Education and life after gymnastics
caption_attribution_description: English: Olympic Gymnast Dominique Dawes at Olympic Day.
context_page_description: Dominique Margaux Dawes 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. Dawes is also notable as being the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics, and the first black person of any nationality or gender to win an Olympic-gold-medal in gymnastics. She is also 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. She is also the Olympic bronze medalist on floor exercise from the Atlanta games. 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.
context_section_description: Dawes attended Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland and Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she was the 1994 prom queen. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2002.
  Pursuing a career in acting, modeling, and television production, she has appeared in Prince's music video "Betcha By Golly Wow" and Missy Elliott's 2006 video "We Run This" in the role of Missy's gymnastics coach. Dawes also briefly appeared on Broadway in a revival of the musical Grease, playing cheerleader Patty Simcox.
  Dawes served as President of the Women's Sports Federation from 2004–2006; she was the youngest President in the Foundation's history. She was the first spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of the USA's "Uniquely Me" self-esteem campaign in 2002. Dawes, whose younger brother has autism, has also supported events for autism awareness, such as the 2001 Power of One rally in Washington D.C.. 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.  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.
  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.
caption: Dawes speaking at a physical fitness rally
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