Olympic vet Dominique Dawes is thrilled that gymnastics has finally stuck the landing when it comes to prioritizing athlete health.
For starters, "There is a discussion now about mental health, whereas back in the 80s and 90s, there was no discussion about it," the gymnast, who last stepped on the mat for Team USA at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, told E! News in an exclusive interview. "If you did have issues, like mental blocks, or if you had emotional breakdowns, you were considered mental and it was talked about in a very negative way."
So add finding ways to deal with the almost unbearable pressure of making the podium to the long list of skills the U.S. national team vet displayed en route to collecting three bronze medals throughout her career, plus team gold with the Magnificent Seven at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
"It is a part of life that you're going to go through emotional and mental rollercoasters," explained the athlete, whose back-to-back tumbling passes earned her that Awesome Dawesome nickname, "and you need to be able to have support systems that are safe individuals where you can open up to them and also tell yourself to take a break."
The 47-year-old, who now runs the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academy in her native Maryland, was inspired to see the sport's undisputed leader Simone Biles do just that, a debilitating case of the "twisties" causing the seven-time medalist to pull herself out of several events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Though it upended an admittedly lofty goal of nabbing six gold medals (one each for the team finals, all-around competition, beam, floor, vault and even the dreaded uneven bars) Biles "did what was best for her at that time," stressed Dawes, "and that probably not only saved her mental and emotional health, but also her physical health as well."
When Dawes competed at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, then in Atlanta and Sydney, "There were two-hour morning practices and then also five hours of practice in the evenings," she recounted of the grueling agenda. "It's a typical schedule for an Olympic training athlete. There's a lot of focus on repetitions and conditioning and flexibility work. There was not a lot of focus on mental health."
She suspects she may have fared a bit better emotionally "if it was a kinder, more compassionate culture."
Which is why if she could alter one aspect of her time in the gym, "I think it would be changing the environment that I was in to have a better support system, to have coaches that actually cared about my mental and emotional health, that saw me as an individual and not just as a commodity for their business."
The upside, though, is that along with becoming the first Black woman to win a gold medal in Olympic gymnastics, she gained all the skills necessary to win at life.
"It taught me never to give up," she said of her journey, that included a particularly painful stress fracture that forced her to withdraw from the 1995 World Championships, "that the road in life is not always going to be a easy one, but put one foot in front of the other, keep moving, and it's going to make you stronger."
With the right mix of hardwork and determination, she continued, "You'll learn from mistakes, you'll learn from hardships. That's something that I want to teach others."
As for what else she'd like to pass along, Dawes joked that Biles "does not need advice from me" as she heads into her third Olympics. But the co-chair of the President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition does have a few tips for all of Team USA's athletes, Biles joined by fellow vets Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee and newcomer Hezley Rivera.
For starters, don't forget to fuel up, Dawes' go-to involving a scoop of Skippy peanut butter, the official spread of USA Gymnastics. Not only does she enjoy the "wonderful, healthy protein snack," but she's often serving it up to her and husband Jeff Thompson's daughters Kateri, 10, and Quinn, 8, and 6-year-old twin sons Lincoln and Dakota: "They are very high energy kids, very athletic kids, and it's a great way to make sure that their energy stays up."
And to keep spirits equally high, she advises that competitors prioritize their mental well-being as much as their training sessions.
"Take deep breaths," she recommended. "Either go to your meditation or affirmations or pray or find out what works well for you so that you take your mind off the Olympic Games and just put one foot in front of the other."
It can be so easy to flip into a place of feeling overwhelmed, "to get ahead of yourself and to think about marching out at the Olympic, the opening ceremonies and the games beginning," she continued, "but you really want to take one practice at a time because you never know what could happen."
Of course she, and the other athletes who have tumbled their way to the top for Team USA know this better than most. Check out what your favorite gymnasts have been up to since they put down the chalk.
—Reporting by Nikaline McCarley
A pioneer in the sport, she was among the first female athletes to help popularize gymnastics in the nation, thanks to her strong performance at the 1968 Mexico City Games, although she never medaled. Rigby retired after the 1972 Olympics and is perhaps best known for playing the title role in the theatrical musical Peter Pan, which earned her a Tony Award nomination in 1991.
She has been a familiar face to not only theatre fans but also TV viewers, due to serving for many years as an ABC Sports commentator, in addition to appearing on the series The Six Million Dollar Man. Rigby has also been open throughout the years about her previous battle with disordered eating.
The star and husband Tom McCoy share two children, and she has two children from a previous marriage.
A defining cultural figure of the 1980s before retiring in 1986, she won five medals at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Among those prizes was gold in the all-around, making her the first American woman to achieve this feat in the sport. She shares four children with her ex-husband, former University of Houston quarterback Shannon Kelley, who she split from in 2018.
Outside of athletics, she became vocal in politics, supporting President Ronald Reagan along his 1984 reelection campaign trail and later speaking at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Retton made cameos in the films Scrooged and Naked Gun 33+1⁄3, and more recently, she became the first woman inducted into the Houston Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.
The retired athlete was hospitalized for severe pneumonia in 2023.
Shannon Miller
With a total of seven medals, won during the 1992 Barcelona Games and 1996 Atlanta Games, she became the most-awarded female Olympic gymnast in history. After failing to qualify for the 2020 Sydney Games, Miller turned her focus to her schooling, earning a business degree and later a law degree, although she never took the Bar Exam.
Miller went on to appear in fitness videos, published the 2015 autobiography It's Not About Perfect and is an advocate for preventing childhood obesity. She and second husband John Falconetti share two children.
Kerri Strug
She is a two-time medalist best known for competing on the vault despite an ankle injury at the 1996 Atlanta Games and later being carried to the podium by coach Béla Károlyi. The memorable feat led to a whirlwind of media moments, including appearances on SNL and Beverly Hills, 90210, plus a visit with President Bill Clinton, and she retired shortly thereafter.
Strug went on to become a schoolteacher and also got involved in politics, including speaking at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Her memoir, Landing On My Feet, A Diary Of Dreams, is in development as a feature film from director Olivia Wilde, with Thomasin McKenzie attached to play the athlete.
She and husband Robert Fischer share two children.
She competed in the 1992 Barcelona Games, 1996 Atlanta Games and 2000 Sydney Games, winning four medals. This includes the team gold in 1996, making her the first Black gymnast of any nationality to win a gold medal.
Dawes retired after the Sydney Games. She has appeared in multiple music videos, including Missy Elliott's "We Run This" in 2006, and played Patty Simcox in a 1990s Broadway revival of Grease.
The athlete was named co-chair of President Barack Obama's President's Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition in 2010, and she is also an advocate for autism awareness. Dawes and husband Jeff Thompson share four children.
She was among the stars of the 2008 Beijing Games, thanks to her four medals, including gold in the balance beam. Shawn retired just before the 2012 London Games, having already become a pop-culture personality due to winning Dancing With the Stars in 2009.
She has remained a media mainstay ever since 2008, notching appearances on a long list of shows that includes The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Celebrity Apprentice, The Challenge: Champs vs. Stars, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Family Feud. The star also led the Pledge of Allegiance at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and has authored several books, including the 2016 YA novel The Flip Side.
Johnson shares three kids with NFL player Andrew East, who she married in 2016. The Olympian has been open about her previous struggles with disordered eating.
Nastia Liukin
The gymnast nabbed five medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, including gold in the all-around. She retired just before the 2012 London Games and has appeared on such shows as Gossip Girl, Make It or Break It and Hellcats, in addition to making a cameo in the film Stick It. Nastia also competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2015 and released the memoir Finding My Shine in 2015.
In 2018, she and hockey player Matt Lombardi called off their engagement.
She went Instagram official with Ben Weyand, the operations vice president at Trive Capital, in 2022.
McKayla Maroney
Her two Olympic medals from the 2012 London Games include team gold. After winning silver in the vault that summer, she became a meme when her expression on the podium made her appear to be unimpressed.
Maroney, who announced her retirement in 2016, has since transitioned into both acting and singing. She has appeared on a range of TV shows including Hart of Dixie, Bones and Superstore, and she released her first single, "Wake Up Call," in 2020.
In 2021, she appeared in a Geico ad, during which she gave her infamous "not impressed" look.
She was part of the gold-winning teams at both the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. She also won gold in the gymnastics all-around in 2016, becoming the first African American to do so.
Douglas stepped away from the mat after the Rio Games and has become a prominent TV and media fixture. She published her 2012 memoir Grace, Gold, and Glory, was the subject of the 2014 Lifetime movie The Gabby Douglas Story and starred with her family in the Oxygen unscripted series Douglas Family Gold.
Other TV appearances include Kickin It and Undercover Boss, along with winning The Masked Dancer in 2020.
In 2024, she announced her comeback to the sport, sharing her hopes to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she was forced to pull out of the U.S. gymnastics championships in May due to an ankle injury.
The second-most-awarded American Olympic female gymnast behind Miller, Raisman picked up six medals between the 2012 London Games and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, including the floor competition gold in 2012, along with consecutive team golds.
Raisman, who retired after the Rio Games, released her memoir Fierce in 2017 and made a cameo in the 2019 Charlie's Angels film. She placed fourth on Dancing With the Stars in 2013 and appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in both 2017 and 2018. She has also released two books: 2017's Fierce and the 2024 children's book From My Head to My Toes.
Her dating life has included a high-profile relationship with Colton Underwood that ended in 2017, prior to him appearing on The Bachelorette and later leading The Bachelor.
The two-time medalist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games was part of the U.S. gold-winning team. Though she retired from gymnastics in 2021, Hernandez will be in Paris as an NBC correspondent for women’s gymnastics.
Aside from athletics, Hernandez won season 23 of Dancing With the Stars, becoming the youngest-ever champion at age 16, and served as a reporter on American Ninja Warrior Junior. She also voiced a character on Nickelodeon's Middle School Moguls, which aired in 2019, and released memoir I Got This in 2017.
A student at New York University, the athlete has been dating photographer and Olympic trampoline gymnast Charlotte Drury since December 2020.