Thirty years ago this summer, Dominique Dawes beamed atop an Olympic podium in Atlanta, clutching a bouquet and waving to the crowd that had packed inside the Georgia Dome.
She was celebrating a first: The 19-year-old from Maryland had just helped the U.S. women's gymnastics team win a gold medal, a feat never achieved before. Dawes also became the first Black American woman to take home an individual Olympic medal in the sport.
Since then, Dawes, 49, has sought to remake the culture of the sport that turned her into a household name. Through her network of Dominique Dawes Academies in Georgia, Maryland, Texas, and Virginia, she's trying to establish a new vision of gymnastics: one that prizes health, community, and joy as much as excellence and competition.
As Atlanta gears up to host another global sporting spectacle with the World Cup beginning this month, Dawes reflects on how the 1996 medal also was a reminder of the harsh culture she had endured to earn it.