During her teenage years, in the mid 1990’s, Dominique Dawes captured the Olympic spotlight, becoming 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 noted 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.
After devoting 18 years to gymnastics, she retired, and then worked on Broadway and for TV news.
In 2010, President Obama appointed her as co-chair of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition where she now focuses on combating something that First Lady Michelle Obama is passionate about: childhood obesity and educating women on cardiovascular disease. She recently partnered with