Dominique Dawes - 1996 Olympics Team Compulsories - Floor Exercise

[metsdudenj]

She had to rush the last pass to finish on time, thats where she lost .1

[q162551]

Wow. she is great. I live in Maryland so Ive meet Dominique Dawes about a million times. She has held mutliple clinics at my gym. She is really nice

[dmann3g]

Dom may not have had the lines that ppl crave, but she def had sum1 there telling her how to sell a fx routine..the presentation she showed was tuly wonderful..

[Eliz279009]

I know absolutely nothing about the sport of gymnastics, but this appears to be more "dancey" than the routines I see now at the Olympics.

[Mikizzle15]

That's because this is a compulsory routine. They got rid of them after this Olympics. Compulsory meant that everyone did the exact same routine to really see the correct form amplitude with leaps and such. That's why the moves were pretty simple compared to optionals.

[chrissyjoy08]

@Mikizzle15 Did every single team (every country) have to do the same one, or could each team choreograph their own, and of course each girl on that team has to do it the same?

[Mikizzle15]

@chrissyjoy08 No, every country did the same exact routine. So this routine right here that Dom is doing every female gymnast at the Olympics did.

[Mikizzle15]

1:07 - 1:08 is the coolest shit I've ever seen. That's a bomb ass move. I could never do it because I don't have the upper body strength, but if I had it, I would surely try to do that move!!! LOVE YOU DOMINIQUE!!!

[icarrus4u]

@Mikizzle15 Yeah that little cartwheel thing? You should try it!

[Mikizzle15]

@icarrus4u Yeah right. And bust my ass in the process. hahaha.

[garyj79]

@Mikizzle15 - errrrrr thats not really using upper body strength Mikizzle.......im sure you could do it !

[Zagarspupil]

Did she go out of bounds at 57 seconds???

[omegalavender]

She almost went out of bounds, but she saw it so she caught it...

[dominicanaqt1]

OMG u r so awesome i only know how to do half of wat u can do

[Kulpa71]

I really enjoyed watching this beautiful routine, intelligently executed

[Prophecy2fulfill]

Man, what the hell is she doing these days. I use to love watching her and her team back then.

[Mikizzle15]

After this she did some acting and modeling and college. She's a motivational speaker, and does private lessons and gymnastics clinics. She's really into giving back to the community and is always doing something to help young people become empowered and be comfortable with themselves and set goals to live by. She's a real positive person, and you can go on her website and look at some of the stuff she's done by just typing her name altogether no hyphens or anything and then adding a com to it.

[Prophecy2fulfill]

Thanks for the info :-)

[Mikizzle15]

No problem. :)

[WOP1967]

I <3 HER!!!

[htownhomie06]

u compare this 2 her 1992 exercise in barcelona and u really see how she's matured & improved her technique. the judges are doing 2day's athlete's a disservice by eliminating compulsory exercises and allowing them 2 get by on optionals only with bad technique.

[mmoran3]

@htownhomie06 i agree ,,,  the comp seperates the hard workers from the flashers

[Mikizzle15]

@mmoran3 Totally agree. If the gymnasts now a days had compulsory, they would struggle so bad. I miss compulsories personally.

[willsbob123]

I would have scored this routine: 9.725.

[twilliger123]

Oh, I see you're 15 and have nothing better to do, that's why you did this...what a waste of your time and ours....

[Nike5221]

This rountine was underscored because Dawes had great tumbling in this exercise and I do see elegance in this performance and gracefullness. The only problem with Dominique is that fact that she is bowlegged which creates sometimes Technical erros, but its not her fault and she deserved better than a 9.687....

[iceisverynice]

I agree with those who are in favor of compulsories.

Being 'visualy shown' what the international gymnastics 'standard' is ( or should be) is much more effective than listening to commentators and coaches attempt to 'verbally describe ' what it should be. I remember at first believing that compulsories were monotonous and boring, but later after learning their purpose, i greatly appreciated and enjoyed them.

[Imaginary114]

Can someone please tell me the difference between the Compulsories and the type of floor excersise we have today?...

They seem different...have they changed it up since 96?

Sorry...I'm just haven't been informed on the subject...

[Chuckie1028]

The difference is in the difficulty. Compulseries were not difficult compared to the optional routines or what we see in today's regular floor exercise. They were meant to allow the judges to really compare the gymnast and seperate the good from the great. They emphasized on the basics and foundation of gymnastics. The moves were compulsery because everyone did the exact same routine whereas in today's world of gymnastics everyone does their own difficult routine with very lil basic. I miss it!

[dmann3g]

As the heads of the sport obv realized, the comps are completely void of purpose. Gymn is not a night at the ballet, no matter how great of a dancer anyone THOUGHT Lilia was. Gymnasts have no turn out, and their idea of 'graceful' is hyper-extended wrists in every pose. These people are athletes. In 2008 when the sport's trying 2 remain relevant (at least in the US) outside of Olympic yrs, get over expecting every1 2 have the same body. No 1 cares if Paul Hamm has a ballet line (equal rights?)

[audie83]

Well then they should call it "Power Gymnastics" because I see nothing today or hardly anything that would suggest it is "Artistic Gymnastics" as the official name of the sport implies. I disagree-ballet gives a very sound training not just in gymnastics, but sports like figure skating (where the Russian carriage was visibly superior to most), and even sports like diving. I read about a football player who said his game improved by taking BOTH gymnastics and ballet.

[mzmissa]

Audie, there are pros and cons with today's gymnastics. I'm mostly against today's code of points, but the good thing is that it rewards athletes who perform harder and more daring skills.

[audie83]

The heads of the sport-the F.I.G-did not remove compulsory exercises because they 'realized, the comps are void of purpose'. The F.I.G. removed them from the gymnastic program because they were not COST EFFECTIVE television-wise. And also it was more expensive for gymnasts' parents in many countries-especially the poorer countries. Otherwise-compulsories would still be around. And the sport has suffered for it aesthetically.

[dmann3g]

@audie83

I was just paraphrasing the bottom line that they don't exist anymore.I think the comps didnt make sense becus it's a sport.Its bad enuf that the results are so subjective, but designing routines based on partic skills doesn't serve them as indiv athletes.If the code valued dance it'd bring more variety and comp 2 gymn.A dancer and a power tumbler could both vie for the gold, w/o comps. Good dance isn't nice lines.Pavlova @ euros is great dance.Even if she had bad feet it'd b great.

[audie83]

We will have to disagree on comps. To me they made ALOT of sense and truly showed which gymnasts had superb basics-and who did not. Gymnastics imo has suffered in aesthetics since the loss of compulsories. The great Soviets and Romanians in their day had superb basics AND awesome power tumbling combined with great dance, beautiful lines, etc. And great dance btw is not just ballet or balletic-I never said so. Camelia Voinea showed she could breakdance AND tumble and she rightly scored 10.00's.

[fruityliciousrhubarb]

I totally agree. They should have never cut out the compulsories.

Back in the day even the gymnasts in the lower end of the ranks would have excellent form all-around (even if their routines weren't as polished as the top athletes), and I think the compulsories had a lot to do with that.

These days a lot of the top gymnasts have horrible form (Nistor and Ferrari come to mind) which just makes gymnastics horrible to watch, and annoyingly bad form seems to be largely ignored by the judges.

[fruityliciousrhubarb]

Oh and on the issue of Dominique's score, I think 9.687 is fair. Having watched a couple of other compulsory floor exercises from the same games, Dawes' movements seem rather rushed and choppy. If anything I think she should have scored lower because of that.

[audie83]

Camelia Voinea also had excellent technique as most of the Romanians at that time did-her form was always good AND she could do compulsories. Sorry-I disagree. The 'artistic' side of Artistic Gymnastics has gone down the tube. Gymnasts are clearly not being taught to perform basics properly with good technique and it shows. And btw-dancing is not just ballet. But an hour or so at the barre is the reason the Soviets-and gymnasts like Liukin and Pavlova-look good on dance elements.

[iceisverynice]

co-sign

[LMA629]

@audie83 why was it more expensive for gymnasts' parents? 

[gemarno]

Dawes and Strug as we say in french "même combat... same ugly gymn...

[audie83]

I concur. Ballet was just not their strength and this routine just made it glaringly obvious for as far as gymnasts without a sound dance or ballet training. Amanar, Gogean, and Milosovic were right up there.

[gemarno]

If you think gymn is just an athletic sport... ok Dames is a gymn...

But it used to be an artistic sport...

Watch Podkopayeva's floor compulsories routine and you will see a FANTASTIC routine

OliverPenn1... Dawes ignore what graceful means 9.687 is overscored

[svetaswan]

This is obviously a subjective area- b/c I do see gracefulness in Dawes' compulsory routine.

Dawes had the goods to qualify for the FX event-finals outright- it's just a matter of others being given better lineup positions.

If you thought Dawes' 9.687 was too high - what did you think about Kerri Strug's big score? (Gymn-forum is down, so I couldn't get the exact score. But Wikipedia says that Kerri got the 2nd highest compulsory floor score in the whole meet- only Lilia scored higher!)

[dmann3g]

You're right! Dawes was no ballerina, but had excellent presentation by this point in her career. Her upper body was always very well presented (see 0:58). She happened to be bow-legged, so even though her leaps were 180+, ppl oculd never see past the bows; something you can't change, no matter how much ballet you do.

[audie83]

I think bowed-legs can be corrected with braces if it's done early in enough in a child's development. A shame this was not done for Dawes but she had a great athletic career just the same.

[dmann3g]

@audie83 - ur right, but most people aren't judged for having bowed legs, so most parents don't feel the need to have their kids who can walk perfectly fine, walk around in uncomfortable braces.

[audie83]

I don't know-I remember a kid in my 4th grade class who was teased for being bow-legged (although his was much more severe). It eventually was corrected over time and was much less pronounced by the time he was in high school Perhaps for him it gave him back problems? I don't know. It's very minor in Dominique and she certainly had no trouble doing high level gymnastics-her tumbling was enormous.

[svetaswan]

A lot of bowlegged people seem to be excellent athletes. O.J. Simpson is one of the better-known examples - he had Rickets as a child. He might have worn braces (I'm not sure), but he was still bowlegged after he developed into a world-class athlete.  Man, he could run like the wind (he even ran from the law - for a while, at least...).

[svetaswan]

@audie83 - I'm not sure that Dawes was bowlegged earlier in her life. If you look at her early in her career (like, 1991 or even 1992) - she doesn't seem to be that bowlegged, IIRC. I think it was an issue that developed as she grew into her late teens. It's a bit unusual b/c it's usually the other way around in a kid (kids get less bowlegged as they get older b/c of corrective braces, etc.).

[dmann3g]

@svetaswan No she was just smaller so the bow was less pronounced..but it's always been there

[svetaswan]

It's always amused me whenever I see her barely manage to stay in bounds @ 0:57/0:58. But she has an exquisite feel for where the out-of-bounds line is - she demonstrated this "knack" when she didn't lower her heel to the ground as she landed her last tumbling pass in team optionals. (If she had lowered her heel, her heel would have landed out-of-bounds.)

But this is a well-performed exercise - underrated and underscored.

[peddy79]

I remember watching this when i was in my teens! lol. I was a big fan. She's deadly.

[antcam08]

wow. i remember watching all this. i was 6

[sirgio]

Underscored. A 9.687 for a routine that had the complete package. Atleast a score in the high 9.7's would have been better.

[cleanblue0713]

Yeah, you're right! 9.687 was really low for this routine! I know that Dominique Moceanu did an excellent vault, and ended up scoring a 9.662! Man, those judges are really nitpicky about the scores during compulsories, all-arounds, and event finals!

[svetaswan]

I agree - underscored! She did *at least* as well as the gymnasts who went later in the lineup and got higher scores.

[stingstungme]

She is such an elite athlete! She has always been my favorite in gymnastics. I was watching her back when Kim Zymeskal was in the biz along with Shannon Miller. She obviously had more staying power.:)

[OliverPenn1]

Fantastic combo of graceful ballet and tumbling. I love this lady!