Dominique Dawes - 2000 Olympics Team Prelims - Balance Beam

[dovebar76]

Dominique is still one of the BEST gymnasts ever!

[chikako8395]

2000 was an off olympic year for everybody (women's) in gymnastics

[iamborghini1]

she is kinda fat

[Mikizzle15]

@iamborghini1 No she isn't. She just looks like it in comparison to all of the anorexic-looking girls in the sport. Also, she was 23 years old so she had already gone through puberty at this point. Her body was purely muscle. If you watched gymnastics, then you would know that their bodies are purely muscle, so what may look like fat is actually muscle. If you look at pictures of Dominique now, she's probably the same weight she is here and her body is in very good shape. She's not fat.

[CaicedoDaBunny]

@iamborghini1 wtf???? fat where????

[hatelizwebber]

@iamborghini1

I cannot believe you are actually calling this girl fat. If anything, she is one of the few gymnasts who has managed to stay very slim so long after she retired. Her body has always been very slim and muscular. She looked great there. Personally I prefer to watch gymnasts with womanly figures than those little 4' girls.

[iamborghini1]

@hatelizwebber u prefer watching womanly figures? ooookay creeper... u are a freak.... u just admitted that you have a preference in body shape in gymnast..... its creepers like you that give this sport a bad name... get a life u piece of garbage...

[svetaswan]

@iamborghini- Dawes looks "kinda fat" for HER, but she is still nowhere near chunky. Dawes had such a light & lean look in her younger years - & here she had a "thicker" look by comparison. I think a lot of it may be her hair- very short hair like that sometimes makes someone look bigger. Just picture her here w/ that bun she wore earlier - & she automatically "loses" some inches, lol.

Like someone else said, she's probably the exact same size today. She's always maintained phenominal shape.

[MCJMALONEY]

go and go

[mar0289]

I love Dawes but she shouldn't have been on this team. The only apparatus she could really contribute a solid score was bars. Her vaults were valued at 9.8 and 9.5 I believe. Her beam routine wasn't strong and they didn't use her on floor in the finals.

[tcseeme]

Remember the results. Dawes beat Atler and Beckerman at trials AA and put up four solid routines on bars at Nats and Trials. If they had put both A and B on the team at trials, the US might've had to count a low bars scores in prelims and not make team finals because of it. If they had put one or the other on the team at trials (I'd say Atler was the better choice) when M. White got hurt they would've called Dawes anyway.

[boytoyville]

@tcseeme Actually Atler placed ahead of Dawes at trials. Atler was 6th and Dawes 7th.

[tcseeme]

@boytoyville That was combine results for Nationals and Trials. At Trials, Dawes beat Atler since Atler had a lot of problems there..

[brittshitdinklburgha]

I don't think her series are very clean her legs are separated and bent on her back handsprings and layouts

[Sublue]

thats just the way her legs are.

[brittshitdinklburgha]

@Sublue yeahhhhh... i dont think so. unless you know her personally im not gonna buy that.

[benrobinson77]

@brittshitdinklburgha yeah same thing with Kerri Strug's knees also, they apways appear bent

[Rynryn99]

Yeah Atler wuld have posted higher scores if her head was in it on that given day, but if she wasn't then it would have been worse. You just can't put a person on an olympic team with a bunch of ifs. That is why Shannon was not on the team either. She would have been a huge contributor if everything was okay on that given day, but if not and if her knee was still injured her performances would have been as good as Dawes.

[largec]

Your an idiot, Shannon Miller is considered to be one of the best gymnast in the world. Only issue that held her back from competing in the 2000olympics, were injuries. For you to even question Shannons abilities with a bunch of what if's to her not competing in Sydney is absolutely absurd had it not been for her injured knee she would definitely be on that team hands down point blank period.

[Rynryn99]

I don't appreciate you calling me an idiot. Yes Shannon Miller was one of the bestgymnast in the world, but her last regular full competition was in 1996 and 4 years later you can't just assume she is great. Yes,had it not been for her knee she would have been on the team, but her knee was injured and it would not have been a smart move to put her on the team not knowing what she was capable of under THAT point system. Calling me an idiot is just uncalled for when Im simply stating the facts.

[largec]

Take your clueless ass somewhere else you don't know shit.

[htownhomie06]

a shell of her former self in 2000. gr8 she made it this far but probably would've been better had she come out of retirement sooner. she was placed on the team 4 veteran status & giving a big name the international judges respected. though i always felt atler deserved this spot more.

[svetaswan]

@htownhomie06- I agree with you in that I wish Dawes had started her comeback for this meet sooner, but I don't think Atler was in much shape to truly deserve the spot over Dawes. Atler's gymnastics may have been more difficult, but she was a headcase & deteriorating by the day. I think Bela envisioned Atler not making it through the pre-Olympic training, & being a downer on team chemistry/morale.

Atler's heart wasn't in it, either. Since the story wasn't ending as she hoped, she just gave up.

[lilcharlicheese]

what the hell is that?

0:11 to 0:16

loll

[noecz]

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[cicero212]

@lilcharlicheese the neutron dance by the pointer sisters

[boytoyville]

@lilcharlicheese choreography.

[justinmjb]

@lilcharlicheese a dead cat pose

[mortella23]

@lilcharlicheese it's her choreo....

[YouBetterRRRecognize]

Dom was nearly 5'4" at this time (which is tall for gymnastic standards), it's harder for them to be as fluid in their routines than when they were smaller, that could have been the case too, I give her props, she came back in at 23 years old-which is "GERIATRIC" in the Women's gymnastic world~ She gave it her all~AND looked fantastic, too. She is now a college grad and a motivational speaker for the youth.

[svetaswan]

@YouBetterRRRecognize - did Dawes grow to 5'4"? That's my height - hard to think of this tiny sprite growing up to be as tall as I am, lol. Let's just say that I was nowhere near as tiny as she was at 15 when I was that same age - heck, I was bigger than that when I was 9.

Last I heard, she had grown to be nearly 5'3" - I never knew she grew an extra inch after that.

[chargeNkill]

hmm why is it that there's always some white guy or girl that finds it necessary to add their two cents in that is either factually incorrect or racist at best? please give the woman her props and leave it at that...

[metsdudenj]

I still think Atler could have outscored her on beam and vault and floor

[metsdudenj]

She couldnt offer any points on the vault or floor exercise, and on bars, the entire team was strong. I still think the team should have gone with the TOP 6 scorers.

[dcumr]

Know your facts before you speak please. Dominique was in the top 6. She beat Atler in the AA that night. She only made one mistake the entire games.

[metsdudenj]

Um, I think you should check your facts. I believe Atler was sixth at the end of the trials and Dawes was seventh.  She didnt have an overall two day total over that of Atler. Thank you.

[dcumr]

NO, your wrong. Dawes was 7th overall after the 40/60 counted. In the meet itself Dawes was the 6th best athlete.... Look it up. Dominique came with it.. just out of retirement and all...

[creegordon]

dcumr is correct...even Tasha Schwikert and Rachel Tidd out scored Atler at the Olympic Trials...Atler was 9th...

[zx101]

Dominique Filled her role on the 2000 team on Bars and Vault...She posted one of the highest scores on Bars for the team and in the Team finals posted the 2nd highest on Beam...to say that dawes didn't have a purpose is false...overall the 2000 team had mistakes...it takes a TEAM to win...

[lostlyrarose]

Atler may have been overscored, and by no means should have been in this all-around, but they needed her on 3 events at this olympics.

[dAnThEmAn178987]

ya i mean i love her too but she should have been done after 1996 so she ended on a good olympics

[Yuri92001]

the olympics was bad all around that year in gymnastics.. There was ALOt more going on. i thnk for all it is worth that she did VERY well considering the performances of her other teammates.

HEY it DOESN'T MATTEr if Atler may have been better....she didn't do well at the trials. Period. If you can't shine there how can you EVEN expect to do well at the olympics.

[metsdudenj]

Love her, but really dont see what purpose she served on this team? I think Atler could have posted some higher scores on beam, floor and vault.

[FireDannyAinge]

Atler couldn't stand up her best events. Why would she make this team? If she wasn't so over scored her whole career (Atler) she never would have been in the mix. She won Nationals with a fall because they over scored her in every other event.

[zx101]

Dominique Filled her role on the 2000 team with Bars and Vault...one of the highest scores on Bars and in the team finals Dawes score on Beam was the 2nd highest...so to say Dawes didn't contribute is false...overall the Team had mistakes...it takes a team to win...

[Yuri92001]

Compared to some of the OTHER girls performances (barring Ray's on vault because it wasn't her fault) I'd say she did MUCH better than some of the other girls put out!

[largec]

Yea she contributed to the teams fourth place finish.

[mydogwearsacape]

zx101, she "filled her role" on vault? she scored a 9.243, the lowest american score in team finals. also, she wasn't "one of the highest scores on bars," she tied for second-lowest with dantzscher...and she didn't even do floor in team finals. they just really needed someone other than/in addition kristen maloney to do the power events...bars wasn't what that team needed help on

[gymgyal]

she was a brave black women doing the sport she loves and nobody cares if she sucked