Dominique Dawes

Dominique Dawes was born in 1976 in Silver Spring, Maryland. From an early age, she displayed the energy required to be a future gymnast. At six years old she had made a hobby of cart wheeling around the house. Her parents were impressed by her talent but also wanted to give her an outlet to express herself away from their more delicate items. "I had a lot of energy around the house, so my parents thought it would be good to put me in a gym," she told CBS Sportsline. They found a trainer with a good reputation in nearby Gaithersburg, Maryland at Hill's Gymnastics. Kelli Hill, the owner, immediately spotted talent. "There are other people with God-given ability, but it takes a very special person to pursue it day after day," Hill told People. Dawes didn't know a thing about the sport of gymnastics but she immediately took to the discipline and hard work. While other children bowed out, she stuck with it.

When Dawes began to compete in local meets at the age of nine, she would write the word "determination" on the mirror in shaving cream. "[At that age] I was amazed she even knew how to spell it," her father told People, "but it worked." She began her amateur career as a gymnast in 1991 at the age of fifteen when she joined the U.S. Senior National team. By the end of the year she was ranked ninth in the nation, making a distinct impression

Dominique Dawes

for a young girl from a small town and an unknown gym.

With a strong performance at the Olympic trials and a blossoming reputation for unusual strength and poise, Dawes became a member of the Olympic team in Barcelona's 1992 games. This is noteworthy because she became the very first African American woman to represent the U.S. Gymnastics Team. When asked about her place in history by Susan Stamberg, Dawes was humble but showed the wisdom of a young woman who had seen racism up close. "I think [my attitude] has to do with having a good outlook on things … And, you know, that's what I constantly try to tell young kids.… You know there's going to be negative things there and they're going to get you down.… But you need to think positive and think that there's a brighter side to everything." Hopes were high for the 1992 team and they managed to take home the bronze medal. But there were even more incredible accomplishments ahead for the young talent.

The following year proved to be as successful when Dawes pulled off a solid performance at the 1993 World Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, Great Britain. Her two silver medals in the uneven bars and balance beam were a personal best and a first for a black gymnast in a world championship competition. Dawes's reputation was being built on solid and risky performances across all different gymnastic events. USA Gymnastics named Dawes the 1993 Athlete of the Year.