Editing Dominique Dawes (section)

===1996 Olympic Games===
The team, later nicknamed [[Magnificent Seven (gymnastics)|Magnificent Seven]], dominated the team competition. A key member of the team, Dawes performed without serious error and was the only team member to have all eight of her scores count towards the total. Along with [[Shannon Miller]], [[Jaycie Phelps]], [[Dominique Moceanu]], [[Amanda Borden]], [[Amy Chow]] and [[Kerri Strug]], Dawes claimed her gold medal as part of the first American team to take the Olympic title.

Later in the week, however, Dawes lost yet another opportunity to win a major all-around title. Going into the competition, she was considered one of the heavy favorites to medal. She was ranked sixth overall among all competitors after the team event, and her scores from team optionals were the highest on the American team and the second highest overall.<ref>[http://www.gymn-forum.net/Results/Olympics/1996_Atlanta/1996_women_team_USA_RUS_ROM.html Scores by gymnast for the team optionals at the 1996 Olympics] Gymn-Forum</ref><ref>[http://www.gymn-forum.net/Results/Olympics/1996_Atlanta/1996_women_aa_qualifiers.html Women's all-around qualifiers] Gymn-Forum</ref> Dawes led the competition after two rotations, with Shannon Miller right behind her. Both gymnasts were on Floor Exercise for the 3rd rotation.  Miller had a substantial mistake in her routine, knocking her out of the medals.  On the middle tumbling pass of Dawes's floor routine, she under-rotated for fear that she might step out of bounds; she sat down the tumbling pass (and went out of bounds anyway) causing her position to plummet in the standings. NBC cameras zoomed in on Dawes, sitting in tears as her score from floor exercise was announced (it was an even 9.000), which led to numerous boos from the audience. She managed to pull out a decent Vault score, but finished 17th overall. In the Event Finals, she placed sixth on Vault and just out of the medals on Uneven Bars, but redeemed herself by winning Bronze in Floor Exercise finals, her first World Championship or Olympic medal in what had long been considered her best event.<ref name=nyt1 /><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/19971109035234/http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/1996/olympics/event2.html Event finals notes] USA Gymnastics, 1996</ref>