Before we got to know the grace and accomplishments of world-class gymnast Dominique Dawes, there was the pain she suffered at the hands of trusted trainers who often crossed the line.
Dawes, 49, remembers that trauma all too well. It has been one of the driving forces in the mother of four’s decision to develop Dominique Dawes Academies across the country.
“My whole career was full of abuse,” Dawes said to the Defender while sitting in her Jersey Village facility the day before its grand opening. “That’s why we are doing what we are doing. I don’t want my kids to go through what I went through, and I don’t want the thousands of kids out there and the parents out there for their kids to go through what I went through.”
And I love the fact that now it’s such a diverse sport that every young kid of color will look at the sport of gymnastics and see this as an opportunity for them, not just to go to the Olympic Games but to have fun, to develop important fundamentals that will maybe help them in other sports. That’s what I love about gymnastics.
Dominique Dawes
Twenty years after her last Olympic appearance, the Olympic gold medalist opened the first of her academies in her home state of Maryland in 2020 in the midst of a pandemic. Her goal was to create a safe space for kids as young as 12 months through high school to discover and explore the sport of gymnastics.
No pressure. No expectations. And definitely no abuse.
“I want every boy or girl who walks through our door to recognize how important they are,” said Dawes, who has plans to open Houston-area locations in Spring and Katy. “That really starts with us building an amazing team of people. Each and every one of our coaches is passionate about working with kids.
“It’s not about developing the next Dominique Dawes or Simone Biles. It’s about planting seeds of inspiration and empowerment in every kid who walks through our doors.”
The Dominique Dawes Academy, which now has seven locations around the country after last month’s opening on the edge of Jersey Village, provides a fun environment for families to be exposed to gymnastics and to decide if the sport is right for them.
Dawes’ husband, Jeff Thompson, planted the seeds for the academies. He suggested for her to “be a part of the positive, forward-thinking way of the sport of gymnastics and pay it forward.”
From that conversation came the idea to create the first Dominique Dawes Academy with the goal that the three-time Olympian and first Black woman to win gold in gymnastics would eventually open up facilities across the country.
She enlisted Adam Zeitsiff to help bring her vision to life.
“She has been fantastic to work with because of her beliefs that kids should be happy, they should be healthy,” said Zeitsiff, who is the CEO of the Dominique Dawes Academies. “We would love to say that a kid is going to become an Olympic gymnast, but that’s probably not going to happen here. That’s not why we are here.
“She and I believe firmly that we want to develop healthy and happy kids, and there is not enough places you can do that without the pressure.”
SLIDE SHOW
Dawes wants her gyms to be welcoming to all, to be very diverse and inclusive, and to reflect the sport as it is today, with such African American stars as Gabby Douglas, Jordan Chiles, and Biles leading the pack. It wasn’t quite that way when she was coming up in the sport in the 1980s and 1990s.
Dawes remembers not always feeling embraced in the sport she first fell in love with at six.
“I felt embraced by the fans,” Dawes said in an exclusive conversation with the Defender. “The audience was elated to see Dominique Dawes perform, I think, because I was unique, I was dynamic, I was something different on the scene. I loved tumbling.
When I first met her, I was a little intimidated. I watched her on TV for three Olympics, we met during lunch with her husband, and he was a great guy. Very quickly it got to easy. She was easy to chat with, just realized she is a regular person.
Adam Zeitsiff, CEO of The Dominique Dawes Academy
“So, I felt embraced by the audience. I didn’t necessarily feel that by the judges or by the federation. However, today I love the fact that it is so diverse, and no one can stop these young athletes from excelling.”
Still, she does feel conflicted by the sport that, in recent years, has generated more conversation about the abusive culture perpetrated by some of the coaches, trainers, and medical staff than about the tremendous growth of gymnastics.
Dawes has gone to great lengths to ensure that culture never reaches her academies.
“It might be for some, but for most it’s not the right way to go down,” Dawes said of the culture that now exists in gymnastics. “At our facilities, we’re kind, we’re encouraging, we’re compassionate. We are going to get the most out of your kid; we want them to work hard, but we don’t want them to lose themselves. We really don’t want them to lose their childhood in the process.”
It’s also important to her that her own children don’t get lost in the process and have the freedom to explore gymnastics and other sports. Dawes and Jeff have a 14-year-old daughter, a 10-year-old daughter, and 8-year-old boy and girl twins.
“They took classes all the time. They loved it,” Dawes said of her children. “But I wanted them to break free from being in my shadow. I wanted them to explore and play different sports. So they play soccer, they are baseball players, they love golf … or they are getting into golf. I’m not going to say they love it yet.
“So they are really having a fun time exploring and experiencing different sports than gymnastics.”
And these days, in addition to having an ownership stake in the National Women’s Soccer League’s Washington Spirit, being a limited partner with the Atlanta Falcons, and being the founder and owner of Dominique Dawes Academy, Dawes says her biggest and most enjoyable work is being a mom.
“They are my everything,” said Dawes, who was once appointed by President Barack Obama as the co-chair of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition. “I think I have a passion for being a mom because I recognize it’s up to me to nurture them, protect them, and to really set them up in life to be successful and to help them find what success is, and it’s not opening gymnastics facilities, it’s not speaking engagements, it’s not becoming a limited partner.
“Really, success is something that is more fulfilling and about giving back and about impacting and loving others and yourself.”
