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These days, she speaks to those striving to go where she’s already been. As a public speaker, Dawes tours the country speaking to a variety of audiences, ranging from athletes to corporations, youths to grandparents and everything in between. Today, she’s addressing the D.C. Wave, a swim team practicing for the last time before it competes in ‘‘Be The Water”, an annual Black History Invitational swim meet. Dozens of youths hop out of the water to listen as Dawes speaks about her athletic career, non-athletic career, and pursuing whatever dreams they might have.

Some of the kids know her, some don’t. But they all respond to her approvingly — much like Olympic judges did years ago — begging for pictures and hugs afterward. Though she’s been giving these kinds of speeches for over 12 years, the reactions still bring a smile to her face.

‘‘Oh absolutely, that’s why I have such a passion for this,” says Dawes, 31, ‘‘and I admire them too. They’re in the pool at 3, 4 in the morning, honestly it makes me feel like I was a slacker. But what I want them to know is that at the end of day, it’s not always about ‘Oh, I didn’t win. I’m a loser.’ Even as adults, we do that too if we fail at something, myself definitely included. My whole thing is, you’ve got to pick yourself up.

‘‘That can apply to anyone, whether it’s swimmers waking up at a God-awful 3:30 in the morning, or a businessman, or a doctor or a parent.”

The basic theme of Dawes’ speech revolves around a motto she created at 11 years old, D-3: Determination, Dedication, Desire. As described on her Web site, dominiquedawes.com, she stresses D-3 to ‘‘reformulate negative situations into positive ones and turn obstacles into victories – all while clearly demonstrating that success is a journey, not just a destination.”

For Dawes, who grew up in Silver Spring, the journey has included more than spreading her message.

Her gymnastics career ended after the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, capping 18 years in the sport. During her three Olympics, she won two bronze medals — for the team competition at Barcelona in 1992 and the individual floor exercise at Atlanta in 1996 — and a gold for the team competition, also at the 1996 Games.

Dawes graduated from University of Maryland in 2002 with a degree in, not surprisingly, communications. Since then, she’s been involved in too many endeavors to count. She’s done color-commentary at national and international gymnastic competitions for CBS, Comcast Sports, Fox Sports and TNT. She’s also been a spokesperson for, among others, Dove, Girl Scouts of the USA, and even served as president of the Women’s Sports Foundation — an organization established by former professional tennis star Billie Jean King — for two years. She even caught the acting bug before her athletic career ended, starring as peppy cheerleader Patty Simcox in the Broadway musical, ‘‘Grease,” for several months.

‘‘It was interesting because I never really acted in school and didn’t have the personality for it,” said Dawes. ‘‘I was very shy — it’s amazing that I’m actually a public speaker yet I’m terrified to speak up in front of my parents. When I had that opportunity, I originally was terrified. But my longtime coach [Kelli Hill] is a great motivator herself and told me ‘Don’t let this pass you by, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ So I listened.”

It wasn’t the first bit of advice Hill, 48, had passed on to her protégé. A two-time USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year, she’s the only gymnastics coach Dawes ever had, from the time the 6-year-old walked into the Hill’s Angels gym (now called Hill’s Gymnastics Training Center) in Gaithersburg through the 2000 Olympics.

Theirs will always be a special relationship. They grew personally and professionally together — Dawes as her coach’s first elite-level athlete, Hill not only as a mentor but a second maternal figure. In fact, after Dawes spent her ninth-grade year at Blair High in Silver Spring, she moved in with Hill to maximize practice time together, transferring to Gaithersburg High for her final three years of high school. For five days a week, teacher trained pupil from 6 to 8 a.m. and 3 to 8 p.m.

They don’t see each other quite as much these days, certainly not as frequently as during Dawes’ 18 years in competition. But when they talk about each other, you can feel the nostalgia in their voices.

‘‘There are many memories — I can still picture when she qualified for her first Olympics in ’92, she finished her dismount on the floor, saluted to the judges, and ran into my arms,” said Hill. ‘‘She’s very busy and I coach evenings, but I still feel very close to her. We still do all the holidays, Christmas and birthdays and all that, go out to dinner when we can and just talk about life in general. She’s a very special young lady.”

Both are still very much involved in the sport. Hill trains over 140 youths per year, and has coached two other U.S. Olympians: 2000 team member Elise Ray (from Columbia) and Courtney Kupets (2005 Magruder High graduate), who won a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics on the uneven bars. Meanwhile, Dawes does some coaching of her own. She gives private lessons on weekends at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, and also provides gymnastics clinics for larger groups.

But her calling now emanates through in her voice, not her body. Dawes recently recorded a motivational CD entitled ‘‘Envision — Reaching Your Full Potential,” in which she discusses her own successes and failures, and how listeners can learn to handle both as well. Her audience extends past gender and race - she was the first African-American gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal — and she feels that her message is universal. And those that hear it tend to agree, even if it’s swimmers who weren’t even alive when Dawes was competing.

‘‘You can tell what Ms. Dawes was explaining to the younger kids was really motivating for them,” said D.C. Wave swim coach Rodger McCoy, 59, who also serves as the coordinator of the swimming program for the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. ‘‘I’m training kids to go as far as they can go, and when they see someone like her who’s made it, they get hope.”

And if someday, those swimmers are the ones standing on podiums, maybe they’ll remember her words. That’s all Dawes wants.

‘‘When I set my alarm for 4:30 in the morning and I woke up today,” Dawes addressed the crowd, ‘‘I was thrilled to get the opportunity to speak to each and every one of you. I really am.”