Dominique Dawes

Dawes retired from amateur gymnastics at the end of 1996 and found a number of outlets for her talents. She appeared in the Broadway production of Grease and also danced for a Prince video. She attended college at University of Maryland where she considered a career in medicine as well as law enforcement. But competitive gymnastics beckoned. Only a few months before the 2000 Olympic trials she began to train for a third appearance in the Games. The comeback was primarily due to a discomfort with life outside the sport. "It was very boring having a non-gymnastics life," she told Paula Parrish of the Gazette. "I would wake up and I wouldn't be nervous and I didn't have to go and do anything. I just kind of made up my schedule as I went along." She might have woken up nervous on the morning of the 2000 trials, but she didn't show it. Dawes stunned everyone with a seventh place finish, proving her veteran ability to stay calm under pressure.

Her climb back to the top was not without controversy. The Selection Committee, which decides who will attend the Olympics, changed an old policy and based their decisions on a gymnast's specific abilities, instead of overall performance. However, they allotted two spots for strong performers. Considering this criterion and her stunning performance in the trials, Dawes was chosen to go to her third Olympics; even though she was picked over Vanessa Atler, who finished one spot ahead in the trials. The controversy that followed could have been huge, but Atler exited gracefully. "I wasn't having fun," she told the Cincinnati Enquirer. "When my name wasn't called, I almost had a sense of relief because deep down, I knew I shouldn't be going."