Dominique Dawes was a member of the 1996 gold medal Olympic Team and she is the first African-American to win an individual event medal with her bronze on floor exercise. She and her teammates appeared on the Wheaties cereal box and have also appeared on numerous television shows since their win.

Dawes won the 1996 Olympic Trials and all four events at the 1996 Coca-Cola National Championships. A 1992 Olympic bronze medalist and a four-time World Championships medalist, she has won more national championships (15) since 1963 than any other athlete, male or female. She swept the 1994 Coca-Cola National Championships, winning the all-around and all four event titles, the first gymnast to accomplish this feat since Joyce Tanac Schroeder at the 1969 AAU National Championships.

Dawes won the 1995 Arch McDonald Award, presented by the Touchdown Club of Washington, D.C. She also won the 1995 Henry P. Iba Citizen Athlete Award, presented annually to two outstanding athletes who have demonstrated good citizenship. In 1994, she was named "Sportsperson of the Year" by USA Gymnastics and was a finalist for the AAU Sullivan Award, which recognizes the America's top amateur athlete. Her coach and teammates call her "Awesome Dawesome."

After the 1996 Olympics, Dawes decided to attend the University of Maryland. She is also pursuing a career in acting, modeling and television production. She has appeared in the Broadway hit Grease, the Disney television show The Jersey and Prince's music video  "Betcha By Golly Wow."

Dawes returned to gymnastics in April 2000, in an attempt to make her third U.S. Olympic Team with longtime coach Kelli Hill. The team placed 4th.