Dominique Dawes champions diversity and longevity in Olympic gymnastics
"You’re representing your country and your race," said Dominique Dawes, the first Black gymnast to win Olympic gold.
When Dominique Dawes competed in the Olympic trials for the 1992 Barcelona Games, she was the first Black gymnast to ever qualify.
Three decades later, 80% of the U.S. women’s Olympic gymnastics team competing in Paris are women of color, making it the most racially diverse in the team’s history.
“To see now, 32 years later, women of color dominating the sport of gymnastics definitely gives me reason to at least know that the sport is becoming a little bit more inclusive,” Dawes said.
She went on to compete in three consecutive Olympic Games and win four Olympic medals, including a historic team gold medal with the “Magnificent Seven” at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
The financial and social hurdles that have long shut out Black athletes from gymnastics are beginning to come down. And now, women of color occupy gymnastics’ rarest air.
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