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Next Event for Dawes and Lynch: The Future

ATLANTA, July 30—Dominique Dawes and Jair Lynch had little time to savor their historic gymnastics medals. In the hectic pace of these Olympics, where every day and every event can feel like the 100-meter dash, the only time to reflect is while waiting for the next shuttle bus.

At 6 a.m today, about eight hours after he won the silver medal on the parallel bars, Lynch woke up to do an appearance on "Good Morning America." Later this afternoon, he and Dawes took part in the Gymnastics Gala, a performance exhibition at the Georgia Dome.

Lynch and Dawes, who was part of the gold medal-winning women's team, are the first African Americans to win gymnastics medals in the Olympics.

"I hope there's a lot of kids who are out there right now who are going to be looking at this and making some decisions and saying that they want to move into a sport that's been uncharted territory for a lot of minority groups," Lynch said, "and realize they can make a splash in these sports."

As they hope to start a trend, Lynch and Dawes also must contemplate the next steps for themselves, which probably means the end of competitive gymnastics.

Dawes has been accepted to Stanford but she has stayed in Silver Spring the past year while training for the Olympics, and she might put her trip west on hold a little longer while she makes a professional exhibition tour. She already has licensing agreements with Kodak, Champion, AT&T and the U.S. Postal Service, and her agent, David Carrodine, said he has had conversations with a makeup company and a facial cream company about an endorsement.

Lynch, who is from the District, graduated from Stanford in 1994 with degrees in urban design and civil engineering. He stayed in Northern California and works at Silicon Graphics, a computer systems company. Lynch also is thinking about applying for a Rhodes Scholarship. But he might not be finished twisting and tumbling.

"There are a lot of things on my plate," Lynch said. "With the success that's going on now, there's going to be a lot of potential for things like this, for the professional side of gymnastics. That's a possibility. My coach is trying to trick me into keep training as well.

"I know USA Gymnastics hasn't been blessed with a lot of guys who have medaled and continued. We've always had guys who have medaled and stepped away from the sport. It may be beneficial for someone to move forward and try to keep the momentum going. I have to keep that in consideration."

For Dawes, there is plenty to think about from the week that just passed. Last Tuesday, she helped lead the United States to the team gold. In the individual all-around competition Thursday she landed badly on a tumbling run in the floor exercise, an error that dropped her from first place to out of medal contention. She came back to win the bronze medal on the individual floor exercise Monday night.

"There have been quite a bit of ups and downs," Dawes said. "The team doing so well was definitely a high for all of us. Coming back and falling on one of my stronger events, on the floor, was kind of disappointing. But I'm glad that I was able to redeem myself on the last day.

"I can appreciate [the bronze] now. I think if I would have gotten it in the beginning, I couldn't. But I got fourth on bars, so I appreciate it. It's better than nothing. I think I would have been proud no matter what, because I did the set that I went out to do."