Gold-Medalist to Speak at Mason

By Connect2Mason Breaking News Director Matt Todd

Former Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes of the “Magnificent Seven” will be coming to George Mason University on Feb. 10. She is the Black Heritage Month’s 2009 Keynote Address speaker, visiting both the Prince William and Fairfax campuses. First, she will visit the Prince William campus in Manassas at 12:30 p.m. in the Verizon Auditorium before making her way to Fairfax where she will be speaking in Harris Theatre at 6 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public for both.

Dawes was one of the veteran members of the women’s gymnastics team at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ga. having also competed in the 1992 Barcelona Games. Team U.S.A. became known as the “Magnificent Seven” after beating the heavily-favored Russians for gold. Russia, in tears, took silver while Romania quietly and disappointedly took bronze. Dawes also became the first African-American to win an individual medal on the floor exercise event final.

According to the ODPS website, after the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney Dawes earned a communications degree at the University of Maryland. Following her Olympic career, she went on to become a “motivational speaker, broadcaster, national spokeswoman, Broadway performer, part-time coach and gymnastics clinician who also conducts self-esteem and fitness workshops.”

According to the ODPS website, Dawes says, “I try to impress in young people that it’s not about the glamour of the gold, or the endorsements or reaching a certain salary, but it’s more important to make a difference in someone else’s life. That’s what I think makes you a more fulfilled person.”