Dominique Dawes

Gymnastics

Dominique Dawes has removed the motivational epigrams that once decorated her room. No longer will her eyes be drawn to statements like, “I wake up with a burst of energy and optimism.”

The epigrams were her psychologist Carolyn Silby’s idea, and they were part of efforts to help Dawes conquer her demons and finally perform her best in a major, all-around gymnastics competition.

Dawes wrote out the phrases and affixed them to lamps, walls and mirrors in her room in Knoxville, Tenn., during the national championships. She did the same in Boston at the Olympic trials. But the demons resurfaced at approximately 6 p.m. Thursday in the Georgia Dome, and, by Friday afternoon, the messages were gone. So were the congratulatory cards and balloons. “Nothing left,” she said.

Dawes, like every member of the American women’s gymnastics team, has her gold medal. She played a major role in winning it last week, contributing more points to the final American total than everyone except Shannon Miller. But that was only part of what she had hoped to accomplish in Atlanta, only part of the reason she had deferred admittance twice to Stanford and put her still-growing body through four more years of intense training and effort after 1992.

“I don’t think the all-around competition mattered more than team, but it was just as high as team,” said Kelli Hill, who has coached and mentored Dawes since she walked into her Maryland gym at age 6. “She knew this was her shot. She hung in for four years to go after it. It was a heartbreak.”

The Olympic all-around title is gone, but Dawes will have at least two, and probably three, more chances at an individual Olympic gold medal. After a 48-hour break, gymnastics competition resumes tonight with two women’s event finals. Competition concludes Monday with the remaining finals.