“For me personally, I feel like this competition is probably the hardest,”: just imagine that you entered a competition by making those comments and now you are leaving with that platform with something in your bag. Imagine what immense joy you may have from those earnings! Perhaps Donnell Whittenburg felt the same joy when he left the Target Center in Minneapolis after day 2 in the US Olympic gymnastics trials.

A direct entry in the top five or the men’s gymnastics team for the Paris Olympics did not come to his fate. But the 29-year-old did not lose the battle. After contesting fiercely, Donnell earned the qualification for Paris, being the non-touring alternate for the men’s team. And that’s where Donnell Whittenburg’s specialty lies, as Kathy Johnson Clarke thinks. 

In the Flipping Out podcast with Bridget Sloan, the veteran gymnast gave an ovation to Donnell Whittenburg’s resilience, mentioning his undying attitude in the trials. Notably, Donnell appeared in the trials with lots of questions from the outsiders and from his side also, and a lion’s share of those pointed to his age and falling performance.

Yet, he flouted all those ifs and buts and scored 165.700 at the end of day 2 of the trials, gaining the seventh position on the leaderboard. That left Kathy Johnson Clarke speechless in awe as she mentioned the expression, “USA Gymnastics put out their heart of a lion that I cried because heart of a lion is a gift to this sport”. Through that, she was drawing attention to a special laurel that the Baltimore native had achieved after his show in the US Olympic trials. 

On July 2, the USA Gymnastics’ X-handle shared a snippet from Donnell Whittenburg’s much-celebrated floor exercise on day 2. While posting that visual, the X-handle captioned the fiery performance as “the heart of a lion”. The 37-second show of resilience and perfection amused many, including the judges in the trials. In fact, after the day-1 competition in the men’s trial, Donnell failed to enter the top 8 on the leaderboard. But his floor exercise points from day 2 lifted him to the seventh position. Nevertheless, that floor exercise filled with bounce-back-ability impressed Kathy’s masterful eyes. 

Serving a view on that in the same podcast, she claimed, “His resilience his never giving up, his continuing to push the envelope of his personal ability, talent like when use every ounce of your talent, your discipline, your hard work, your resilience like every ounce and you leave it out on the floor and people feel you- that’s special.” Those words might feel more comforting to Donnell Whittenburg, as his primary objective in the trial was to make a mark in the audience’s hearts. 

Counting effort Donnell Whittenburg does not care about the prize 

Eight years ago, Donnell Whittenburg claimed the position of being an alternative in the US Olympic men’s team. However, in the Game, he never found a call-up. In the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, he couldn’t cross the trial barrier. But now he is again on that route, earning his nomination in the alternate bunch in the men’s team. The only difference is his wisdom that comes healthy in pointing out mistakes in all those previous endeavors. 

Eventually, that led him to focus on the mistakes he made 8 years ago, in the Rio Olympics. “I got humbled pretty hard at that moment, so I think having that happen kind of reset my mind to be like, ‘Oh, even if you were one of the best in the country…anything can happen,” his boastful admittance answered on that matter. Now, his performance in the trials proves that he stands in a very opposite state compared to his showcasing on the eve of the Rio Olympics. 

Furthermore, now Donnell knows that his undying feature makes him unparalleled among the current gymnasts. “I already know there’s never going to be anyone like me in the sport,” as he quoted in March this year. Additionally, Kathy Johnson Clarke’s certificate put a stamp on that. Therefore, combining all these aspects, Donnell Whittenburg can take pride in that his list of achievements in 2024 is not thin.