Dominique Dawes

Dominique Dawes-Thompson
— Gymnast —
Dawes at a fitness and nutrition event on the White House's South Lawn in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Dominique Margaux Dawes-Thompson
Country represented	United States
Born	(1976-11-20) November 20, 1976 (age 40) Silver Spring, Maryland
Height	5 ft 2 in (157 cm)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior International
Years on national team	10 (1989–1998; 2000)
Club	Hill's Angels
Former coach(es)	Kelli Hill
Co-Chair of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition
Incumbent
Assumed office 2010 Serving with Drew Brees
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	John Burke
Personal details
Occupation	Gymnast, Actress, Singer
Website	DominiqueDawes.com

Medal record
Women's gymnastics
Representing the  United States
Olympic Games
	1996 Atlanta	Team
	1992 Barcelona	Team
	1996 Atlanta	Floor
	2000 Sydney	Team
World Championships
	1993 Birmingham	Balance Beam
	1993 Birmingham	Uneven Bars
	1994 Dortmund	Team
	1996 Puerto Rico	Balance Beam
American Cup
	1994 Orlando	All-around
U.S. Senior Nationals
	1991 Cincinnati	Floor
	1992 Columbus	Uneven Bars
	1993 Salt Lake City	Vault
	1993 Salt Lake City	Balance Beam
	1994 Nashville	All-Around
	1994 Nashville	Vault
	1994 Nashville	Uneven Bars
	1994 Nashville	Balance Beam
	1994 Nashville	Floor
	1995 New Orleans	Uneven Bars
	1995 New Orleans	Floor
	1996 Knoxville	Vault
	1996 Knoxville	Uneven Bars
	1996 Knoxville	Balance Beam
	1996 Knoxville	Floor
	1993 Salt Lake City	All-Around
	1993 Salt Lake City	Floor
	1993 Salt Lake City	Uneven Bars
	1995 New Orleans	Balance Beam

Dominique Margaux Dawes-Thompson (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 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 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 three Olympic 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 Lyudmila Turischeva won gold in Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), and Montreal (1976). Since Dawes, Svetlana Khorkina is the only gymnast to accomplish this feat, winning silver in Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000) and bronze in Athens (2004).

Dawes was born in Silver Spring, Maryland on November 20, 1976 to Don and Loretta Dawes. She has two siblings; an older sister, Danielle, and a younger brother, Don, Jr. Dawes participated in the Olympic games.

Dawes 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 Marva Teens. Dawes signed up for classes at Hill's and began working with Kelli Hill, who would coach her for her entire career.

Dawes became engaged in December 2012, to Catholic school teacher Jeff Thompson. Dawes converted to Catholicism and they married on May 25, 2013. She had her first child, a daughter, in March 2014.

Dawes was competing as a junior elite by the age of 10. She placed 17th in the all-around 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.