SILVER SPRING -- "Amerikaanse turntalent steelt show in Houtrust."
Loretta Dawes doesn't need a foreign language dictionary to understand the Dutch headline about her 14-year-old daughter. The large photo of young Dominique on the front page of the newspaper's sports section, the crowds who stood on their seats at last spring's Dutch Open to cheer the Maryland teen and the medal she brought home told the story.
"American gymnastic talent steals show in Houtrust."
Last April's international competition in the Netherlands wasn't the first time the tiny, 74-pound package of muscles, dynamite and personality had won over the crowd -- and the judges. At the U.S. Gymnastics Championships last month in Cincinnati, Dominique won a gold medal for her dazzling floor exercise, tying with the country's top-ranked gymnast, Kim Zmeskal, and mesmerizing the audience as she flipped, soared and tumbled to "Jump, Shout and Boogie."
"Just a little girl on a playground!" exclaimed one TV commentator about the powerful, but seemingly effortless performance.
"This is the most enthusiastic response we've had to anroutine!" beamed another.
The gold medal she brought home from that competition nohangs in the living room of the Dawes' modest home in Silver Spring -- along with 60 or 70 other medals and ribbons, photos, newsclips and trophies, some as tall as the young gymnast, now ranked ninth in the nation, who has been back-flipping and front-vaulting since age 6.
She's said to have the power of Mary Lou Retton, the long-limbed body of Julie McNamara, the playful, effervescent style of Olga Korbut -- and discipline all her own.
"There are not many kids like this one," says Kelli Hill of Gaithersburg, Dominique's coach. "She's a once-in-a-lifetime kid."
And her sights are now set on once-in-a-lifetime events -- the World Championships coming up this September and the Olympics looming in 1992.
"I know it's in the back of her mind," says Ms. Hill of next year's Olympic Games in Barcelona for which only six girls will be chosen for the U.S. team. "It's her ultimate goal."
And it shows.
One of three children of Loretta and Don Dawes, Dominique is so serious, so single-minded, so disciplined and intense, it's hard to find any trace of a carefree teen-ager there.
Most of the movies she sees are the ones she watches in hotel rooms when out of town for a competition. There are no friends outside of her gymnastics colleagues. No boyfriends and no sweets and no interest in either.
