United States Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes opened her first gymnastics and ninja academy in Clarksburg in the summer of 2020. Dawes recently announced that she’ll be opening a second location in Rockville/North Bethesda. It will be located in the upper level of the Montrose Shopping Center, next to KPot. The buildout of the gym is set to begin in the next two weeks and open in early 2023. It will be located at
Dominique was a 10-year member of the U.S. national gymnastics team, the 1994 U.S. all-around senior National Champion, a three-time Olympian, a World Championship silver and bronze medalist, and a member of the gold-medal-winning team “Magnificent Seven” at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Dawes is also notable as being the first African-American woman to win an individual Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics, and the first black person of any nationality or gender to win an Olympic-gold-medal in gymnastics.