Olympic gold medal winner and Silver Spring native Domnique Dawes is one of four additions to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons ownership group, according to an announcement Tuesday by team owner and chairman Arthur Blank.
“The unique opportunity Mr. Blank has provided enables me to further my positive impact on those in the Atlanta community, a place I hold near and dear to my heart,” Dawes, 47, said in a statement released on the Falcons’ website. “Having been a global ambassador for the United States, I hope that my platform and influence as one of the few African American women to be a limited partner in the National Football League has [a] broad impact throughout the NFL community and beyond.”
Dawes is the owner and CEO of the Dominique Dawes Gymnastics & Ninja Academies in Clarksburg and Rockville, with a third location expected to open in Columbia this year, according to the business’s website.
In creating her training academies, Dawes was focused on changing the sometimes toxic culture in which athletes such as herself had trained—and which has been the subject of controversy in recent years.
“What we are preaching here is what we are teaching here, in that it’s about empowering your child,” Dawes told Bethesda Magazine in 2022. “We’re not about tearing down your child to lift them up, so that you as a parent have to pick up the pieces later on. It is not about getting your child to the top of a podium. It’s all about building that healthy culture and helping parents recognize the value of being in [an] empowering and positive environment.”
Dawes joins the Falcons’ ownership group as a limited partner. She is a three-time Olympic gymnast, who competed in Barcelona in 1992, Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. In addition to being part of the gold medal-winning “Magnificent Seven” team in 1996, Dawes earned two team bronze medals in 1992 and 2000 and an individual bronze in 1996.
“What I accomplished in 1996, winning America’s first Team Gold Medal in gymnastics and as the first African American to win Gold, in the city of Atlanta, has given me, to this day, the greatest platform to continually inspire others,” she said in her statement.
Her role as a member of the Falcons’ ownership group was approved by the NFL’s 32 owners on Tuesday during league meetings in Nashville, according to the Falcons. In addition to Dawes, former Walgreens CEO Rosalind Brewer, film and television producer Will Packer and venture capitalist Rashaun Williams also joined the Falcons’ ownership group as limited partners, pending final closing on the agreements.
“Roz, Dominique, Will and Rashaun are impressive leaders who have made an impact in a variety of enterprises, while also building histories of success making a difference in the world around them and positively impacting people in ways that align very well with our Core Values,” Blank said in a Falcons news release.
Dawes attended Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring before transferring to and graduating from Gaithersburg High School. She earned a degree from the University of Maryland and was inducted into the university’s Hall of Fame in 2022. Last fall, she was elected to the Maryland State Athletic Hall of Fame, according to the Dawes academies website.
She married her husband, Jeff Thompson, in 2013 and the pair have four children, the website said.
