MOM LIFE
Dominique Dawes
Dominique Dawes may be best known as an
Olympic gymnast—she and her teammates,
the “Magnificant Seven,” won gold at the
1996 games—but she’s always considered
herself a businesswoman. Her latest venture
is a gymnastics and ninja academy where she
hopes to inspire young girls and boys.

What do you love about being a mom,
and what do you find challenging?
I was home with my kids for quite a few years,
and I was still doing some work and travel
and motivational speaking outside the house.

But the majority of my time was spent with
the little ones, and I will say it’s just a daily
grind. It exhausting physically, emotionally,
in all different ways. But it’s worth it because
you see those little successes when a kid says
the first word or a kid crawls or you realize
they’re recognizing the boundaries and not
always trying to push the limits.

Owner and
founder of Dominique
Dawes Gymnastics
Academy & Ninja
OCCUPATION: WORKS:
Clarksburg, MD
Husband, Jeff; and
children, Kateri, 6; Quinn,
almost 5; and Lincoln and
Dakota, 2 1/2
FAMILY: Do you know a local parent who juggles
multiple priorities while making a
positive impact in their community?
Nominate them as a subject of
DAVID STUCK
our Mom/Dad Life column by emailing
editor@washingtonFAMILY.com. How much do your four children know
about your gymnastics career?
My two oldest … know about my career
because my husband actually likes to show
them YouTube videos of me performing back
in the day because I refuse to do any gymnas-
tics today. However, both those young girls,
they love it when I do a cartwheel. They love
it when I do a back handspring. They light up.

Why did you feel like now was
a good time to open your own
academy? What motivated me … was everything that
came out in the sport of gymnastics, the dark
cloud that was truly revealed in 2016 when
the Larry Nassar scandal became center stage.

… There are too many amazing women that
have so many gifts … and they’re still question-
ing themselves. They have a low self-esteem.

Maybe they don’t make the wisest decisions in
life because of the way they were treated. And
that’s what I do not want for my kids. That’s
when the seed was planted for me to start a
gymnastics academy.

What’s something that makes
juggling motherhood and your new
career easier?
I think the only reason why I can juggle this
right now is because it’s a family affair—
because my husband’s involved, because the
kids are here. ... I mean, [my husband] was
a teacher for 18 years, one of the favorite
teachers in this Maryland area, and now he’s
getting back in the sports world as a (for-
mer) college athlete himself. It was honestly
a no brainer. But if he couldn’t be involved,
if my kids weren’t involved, I will guaran-
tee you this would not be something that I
would be pursuing.

Besides gymnastics, what else do
you and family like to do together?
We love doing family walks. I think everyone
and their brother, when we were in quarantine,
everyone started hiking and bike riding and
being outside and experiencing the beauty of
nature. We’re a Catholic family, so we enjoy
going to mass. … We’re a big sports family too,
always watching sports, always talking about
sports, wanting to go to sports events and
hoping to put our kids in not just the sport of
gymnastics and ninja but other sports as well.

How do you take care of your mental
and physical health right now?
A little bit of silence is always a good thing.

And it’s hard to get—any mother out there
knows what I’m talking about. So I do
embrace the times when I’m driving to the
gym, and there’s not one kid or two kids or
three or four kids in the car screaming at me.

Those moments where I can just embrace the
silence and be centered and not have a lot of
noise from the world distract me and truly be
led by Christ.

What are five things you always
carry in your purse?
A rosary. Literally 50 masks because if you
don’t have a mask on these days you can’t
go anywhere. A journal—I always journaled
as an athlete. My kids’ hair bands are always
in my purse or on my fingers. And I would
say lip gloss, but being that I wear a mask
nearly 24/7, I don’t have to worry about that
anymore! n
Visit WashingtonFAMILY.com to watch a
Q&A between Dominique Dawes and our editor,
PJ Feinstein.

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