Dominique Dawes and her gymnastics team won gold in the 1996 Olympics.
Dominique Dawes
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| Dominique Dawes First African American to Win Olympic Medals Individual Bronze, Olympic Team Gold 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta |
With all that gold being earned by African American women at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, we should remember the first African American women to win Olympic medals, lest we forget that Dominique Dawes helped lay the groundwork for black female gymnastics gold medalists in the 2016 Summer Olympic in Rio.
Dominique Dawes won an individual bronze medal, becoming the first African American to win an individual Olympic medal in women's gymnastics in 1996 and won Olympic team gold. Dawes remained the only black American female to win an Olympic medals until the 2012 London Olympics, in which Gabby Douglas, became the first African American gymnast to win the individual all-around Olympic gold medal.
Dominique Dawes |
Dominique Dawes sported the nickname, Awesome Dawesome, while she was a 10-year member of the medal-winning U.S. national gymnastics team.
- Barcelona 1992 (bronze)
- Atlanta 1996 (gold)
- Sydney 2000 (bronze)
In 2000 for the Olympic Games in Sydney, Dawes earned a spot on the U.S. women's gymnastics team a third time. They placed fourth. When a Chinese gymnast was found to be underage, however, China lost their medal. Dawes was the first U.S. gymnast in history to be a member of three medal-winning gymnastics team. Dawes retired from gymnastics for good after the 2000 Games.
Dominique Dawes 1996 Olympics Event Finals Floor
Dominique Dawes Grows Up!
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| Dominique Dawes, Spokesperson |
Dominique Dawes, born in 1976 in Silver Spring, Maryland, was the first black person of any nationality or gender to win an Olympic gold medal in gymnastics, winning an individual Olympic gold medal in artistic gymnastics. The youngest President in the history of the Women's Sports Federation, Dawes served from 2004–2006. In 2002, she was the first spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of America's Uniquely Me self-esteem program, supports events for autism awareness, such as the 2001 Power of One rally in Washington D.C., and serves on the Advisory Board of Sesame Workshop's Healthy Habits for Life program.
