This is gold. Thanks, Lauren for posting this link.
We already know that Dawes is a bitter person over the attention she thinks she deserves vs what she gets but this interview where she implies her teammates were lying, just takes the cake.
The quotes from Dominique Dawes below will be prefaced by the factual errors in her reasoning. Enjoy 🙂 I have an extra day off this week and have spent that day sleeping until 5, then doing laundry. #Adulting
Dawes on the 96 Olympic Trials…..
Talking about Moceanu and Miller…
“I’m in pain as well, like every other athlete out there, and at that time, Shannon Miller, my Olympic teammate, and Dominique Moceanu were sitting in the stands and they were,
“Technically injured”
and so they were told that they didn’t have to compete and that they would be petitioned to be, on the team. And I remember at one point, having a conversation with my coach, at the time and saying, Hey, I’m in pain as well. Kelli told her that there wasn’t any guarantee she would be picked.
“Didn’t I already, “Earn my way? If you’re going to say that these two athletes, earned their way, then why wouldn’t I be, kind of, lumped or clumped into that same scenario” She then talks about what happened to Dianne Durham, so she competed. “And I won the AA, but it really wasn’t satisfying, because you do feel, how the sport of gymnastics can really be unfair at times.”
FACT A:
Miller and Moceanu weren’t just “In pain” as she claims. Shannon had a broken wrist and Moceanu allegedly had a stress fracture.
FACT B:
They weren’t “petitioned” onto the team. Their scores from Nationals were brought into play so if those scores didn’t hold up, they would have been left at home. (96 Trials scores) Remember what you did at the 96 Nationals Dominique Dawes? Yeah, I do. You finished 6th after tanking compulsories. Guess she can’t see the difference between actually HAVING A, BROKEN WRIST or STRESS FRACTURE than, normal pain from being an athlete but hey, anything to make you be the victim
FACT C: Remember when Dawes lied and told the media that Shannon told reporters that she deserved to be on the team in 2000 because of her past accomplishments. (Shannon never said it. It was never printed anywhere) Yet here we have Dawes literally saying she deserved to make the team without earning it. This is classic. I love when people are contradicted on their past quotes and prove that they are truly the biggest hypocrite around.
** Dawes’s mention of Durham being black, to me makes it sound like she is implying she wasn’t allowed to petition because of her color. Not the fact that she finished 6th at the meet, a few weeks earlier.
AND DON’T TELL ME THE WORDS, “TECHNICALLY INJURED” Is not implying they were lying because it very much does.
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2000 Olympic Trials
Visser now brings up Dominque knowing there was abuse in the sport after 96 and she is corrected by Dawes that it was 2000 when she knew for sure. (Research Visser)
“When I was 23 years old. Coming back for a third Olympics, and after my initial day of competing, I knew, that I really wasn’t wanted on that team. It’s not something that was said to me, but you just feel it, and you know it, and, it’s very clear who they were going to select, and I, made a decision that I didn’t want to do it, and I backed down, and I don’t feel if it was me being a loser or quitting or anything along those lines… You just don’t want to be in a circle, with individuals, um, that are unfair. And so I was forced to compete” (Talks about family coming to trials to support her because they knew how devastating it was for her emotionally. **** Just curious. Is this the same family that refused to drive her to practice which is why she moved in with Hill in the first place? #Askingforafriend) “And you just knew it was unfair, but you didn’t know who to tell or who to communicate it to…” She thinks she was picked….
“Mainly because I believe the individual they wanted on that team got injured at those Olympic trials. “
FACT A : (Again thanks to Lauren for her comments because they make sense) But what part of the scores, 9.287 and 9.162 makes anyone think that Shannon was wanted on that team? How does Dawes come to those conclusions when Elise Ray was scoring in the 9.8’s and everyone else scoring in the 9.6 range and above or around? Sounds to me like she is picking and choosing which of Hill’s “facts” to believe 22 years later
***** damn straight it’s the Fleetcenter and will “never be the Garden Points for Dawes for not calling the building it’s current name
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The rest…. Never suspected Nassar. Then claims being afraid she wouldn’t make a team if she complained??? No one ever came to her about Nassar. Visser wants to know if it was because she considered her teammate’s competition… More Nassar talk….. Says more about what she thinks the victims were thinking…
On Kelli Hill…..
She says her parents let her go because they were overwhelmed with dealing with their life… “That individual dug her claws in… She saw that her parents were, removed from the situation, and she pretty much controlled me, 24-7… On Emotional abuse…. ” Culture of silence, where you can’t speak out. You can’t let people know how you’re feeling. The culture of fear. Where you’re constantly on eggshells, that everything you do is never enough. ” She felt like she didn’t have the option to leave…. Talks about getting up at 4.45 am to be at training… Now she is complaining about being judged and overanalyzed… (ME:Pick a sport without judges) Kelli threatened to send her to Bela for not doing something she wanted her to do. ” She remembers ” being scared because she was afraid there would be more abuse there than what she was dealing with at Hills)
Dawes was 19 in 1996. (Almost 20) I kind of find it hard to believe she felt like she couldn’t leave. I realize everyone deals with stuff differently but when I was 14 I played sports. I stood up for myself. It’s a lot different when you live with someone and feel like you have no place to go. I get that, but it doesn’t sound like her parents kicked her out. They came to support her in 2000 because they knew how ” devastating it was emotionally ” for her. She was 24 then. Lots of contradictions in this interview.
IMO: As for Hill, she sounds like a 90’s typical gymnastics coach, and I do feel bad for 16-year-old Dominique because she was a kid, and even though she could have gone home, I can see why she felt she couldn’t but 24-year-old Dawes, and even hell, 19-year-old Dawes. They had choices. And before you start with the, “In someone else’s shoes,” I realize I was never training for an Olympic dream but I played sports. When I was 14, I walked off a field because my coach was screaming at everyone. I had a soccer coach throw a shirt at me (I threw it back at her) Maybe not everyone in the world has my strong will but I also didn’t have a support system to go back to. My parents were never the supportive type. In fact, mine would have told me to get a job if gymnastics started costing as much as it did. They would never give up their lives for me to support a dream.
On the 1992 Olympics….
“I remember, at the 1992 Olympic games, Lesley. In Baltimore Maryland. ( Um????. fraudulent slip. I won’t call it out:) Making it in my mind, I made it. And I was forth, all around, and, I’m thinking, oh, I made the Olympics. Nope. You didn’t. You, no, you have to go back to this, this selection committee, training camp, process, and then we will decide who will make it. And I’m thinking to myself, like.. I knew that they were talking about this but, this is how they’re going to select the team, but then I’m thinking, Why have Olympic trials? Why have a ranking? Why have a photo op of people that you’re claiming are gonna be on this team? (Maryland blah. Being proud… ) but then I’m back to, ut oh, Nope, I’m gonna take it away from you because we want to let you know, that we’re in full control over you. And we’re going to now, scrutinize and ridicule every single one of your workouts. And so you go as a team… They bring extra girls, that hadn’t competed for over a year, because of injuries. They bring other people, so you know, Ut oh, she wants your spot. You’re training… If you fall off the beam, you’re thinking to yourself, oh, I’m not going to be selected now. If you actually have an attitude towards your coach, which many times I didn’t. I would shut down. I would look away because I couldn’t have a personality of my own. Heaven forbid I was, speaking up for myself. That you know if you speak up or you seem bold. You know it will be used against you. And so it was just constant criticism. And you’re on eggshells. And I remember, I got that knock on the door. I believe it was in the morning. And it was my coach telling me that you made the team. Like in, like for 1992, and I remember crying. But it wasn’t tears of joy. It was tears of, this is going to have to continue. That now I’m gonna have to go to Barcelona. I think we went to maybe, um, somewhere in France first to train. And now I’m going to be criticized each and every day because they will bring more girls, to let you know, that you’re still not on the team yet. And you truly never feel as if you made it, until the day of the competition, where they submitted all the names, days before, and then you know that you’re marched out in the lineup. So there was really never this feeling of, you know, adulation. Or joy. At all. You know you get to the Olympics and, you’re thinking, oh, okay. this is it? Okay. You never get to really enjoy it. You know. Just too much control”
ME: 1992 was a mess. That we can all agree on but I find it interesting she hated the sport so much that she came back for 3 chances. My question is, who did they bring in to make her think her spot on the team was in jeopardy? Betty competed at the 92 Worlds. She won a silver medal. Dawes had to know she was in the running for this team? Michelle Campi was third at Nationals in 1992. Less than a tenth behind, Kerri Strug (Zmeskal won. Miller pulled out) Campi also competed at Worlds in 91. The year before the Olympics. Those were the final gymnasts. Betty won a silver medal on bars so she clearly wasn’t brought in after being injured. Dawes needed to do some re-search before babbling a bunch of lies in this interview. She’s completely misinformed.
Now she is talking about Gabby, so…… ( Should be bringing up how obnoxious Dawes was towards Jordyn in 2012 because I remember 🙂 THEY CRITICIZED EVERYONE HAIR IN 2012. And yes, grammar issues galore but guess what? This isn’t fucking Harvard. Feel free to send me my corrections 🙂
Legacy of the Mag 7….
” Oh goodness… I think… That’s a very good question. I mean, those girls were, they were my competitors my whole life. I remember having a, an, image of Shannon Miller up on my locker, and I was thinking, when I wanna quit, I know she’s not quitting because she was the hardest working gymnast out there and just deceitfully so strong, like she didn’t seem like she would be strong but she was extremely strong and she, you know, never, never gave up. Um but, great girls. Amazing teammates. We put our egos aside, um, to do what we needed to do to make history and it was uh, it was an interesting ride, um to do that, you know, but I can’t, you know, ungrateful to be part of that team,and very humbled and honored to know we inspired a whole generation of athletes”
This is why she wants a change in the sport. More positive stuff…. She thinks some people should not be on the floor coaching. Former teammates are still depressed. Former teammate is still struggling. thinks these coaches are still not healthy and should be out of the sport.
That quote by Dawes about the magnificent 7 is filled with such two-sided praise it literally just made me tear up with laughter. They were competitors. No mention of friends. And she did the same thing during her Hall of Fame speech concerning Shannon Miller. A bunch of praise that just seems like a bunch of babble so she can pretend she actually admired her when we all know she didn’t.
