Dominique Dawes is taking a web page from Issa Rae’s declaration on the 2017 Emmy Awards ceremony: She’s rooting for everyone Black at Olympic Video games Paris 2024.
“I really like watching observe and area. I am trying ahead to Sha’Carri Richardson dominating there and Simone Manuel within the pool (who received silver for Staff USA within the Girls’s 4×100 freestyle relay). We do not get within the pool that usually. So I believe it is vital for younger girls of shade to be impressed by the variety that you simply see in predominantly white-dominated sports activities,” says the four-time Olympic medalist.
“After I competed in gymnastics, there have been only a few of us. Now there’s Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles and Shilese Jones, so we’re seeing quite a lot of range. I really like watching all of the sports activities. I cheer on Staff USA as a result of that is my favourite staff.”
Dawes, who received gold within the 1996 Gymnastics staff occasion, cherishes her position now as an Olympic spectator.
“I really like being on the opposite aspect now and never carrying a leotard anymore. I am not feeling the strain, so I really like being a fan. And I get to share it with my 4 stunning children.”
She additionally enjoys sharing in different folks’s recollections of her time on the mat. “They’ll recall precisely the place they had been when my staff received gold in 1996. To know that I am constructing these enjoyable recollections with my children as we cheer on Staff USA, I’m trying ahead to it.”
Dawes bought a possibility to greet a few of her followers on the grand opening of Medal Bar: The Summer season Video games Pop Up Expertise at 1927 Lounge inside Ocean On line casino Resort in Atlantic Metropolis, New Jersey. “There are gold medals hanging from the chandeliers and photographs of different summer time Olympic sports activities,” she says. “It is numerous enjoyable and an amazing ambiance, and it is open all summer time lengthy.”
It’s been 32 years since her first Olympic video games: Dawes competed for Staff USA in 1992, 1996 and 2000. She displays, “It’s loopy to consider it. Now having 4 youngsters, three of them are at considered one of my gymnastics academies in Maryland, it’s simply coming collectively full circle.”
Though her children are learning the artwork kind, Dawes has no want for her youngsters to comply with in her Olympic desires. “I received’t allow them to,” she declares. “I would like them to have enjoyable. I believe they need to find out about working exhausting and persevering and setting objectives, however not on the expense of sacrificing their childhood.”
Her youngsters’s love of sports activities isn’t restricted to gymnastics. “They play golf and soccer; my son performs baseball and basketball, you identify it. They’re having fun with the journey alongside the way in which and they’ll look again and be smiling.”
For Biles, Richardson, Manuel and all of the younger Black girls competing on Staff USA, Dawes advises, “These athletes have to take this expertise at some point, one second at a time. The competitors might be very a lot a grind bodily, emotionally and mentally, so simply attempt to benefit from the journey it doesn’t matter what the end result is.”
Recognizing the worldwide tragedies and hardships of the previous 12 months, Dawes realizes simply how vital these summer time video games are to world unity as a possibility to embrace and have a good time males’s and ladies’s achievements. “We get to cheer on folks and create recollections that make us smile, chortle and perhaps cry if folks do not attain their full potential within the sport. I fell, so belief me, I used to be crying at 19 years previous within the 1996 Olympic Video games,” she says. “I’ve additionally heard that in the course of the Olympic Video games, wars cease, and God keen, the wars in our world proper now will cease to have a good time.”
It is also the proper time to have a good time her medals, so long as nobody disturbs her submitting system.
“I preserve my Olympic gold medal in my junk drawer as a result of I do know precisely the place to place it after I get residence, and nobody takes something out of the junk drawer,” she exclaims with a chuckle. “It is subsequent to the duck sauce, the spare keys and the batteries. There’s an Apple air tag on it as a result of I’ve misplaced my Olympic gold medal a few instances. So, with mommy’s mind today, that is the place I retailer it.”
Watch the 2024 Olympics on NBC and Peacock.
