Donnell Whittenburg

Donnell Whittenburg

Whittenburg at the 2024 Winter Cup
Personal information
Full name	Donnell Whittenburg
Born	(1994-08-18) August 18, 1994 (age 31) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Height	5 ft 4 in (163 cm)
Gymnastics career
Sport	Men's artistic gymnastics
Country represented	United States (2013–present)
Gym	EVO Gymnastics Salto Gymnastics Center USOTC Team Hilton
Head coach	Anthony Ingrelli
Former coach(es)	Vitaly Marinich, Abdul Mammeri
Eponymous skills	Whittenburg (still rings)
Medal record Men's artistic gymnastics Representing   United States Event 1st 2nd 3rd World Championships 1 0 2 Pan American Games 3 3 1 Pacific Rim Championships 3 2 0 Pan American Championships 0 1 0 Total 7 6 3 World Championships 2025 Jakarta Rings 2014 Nanning Team 2015 Glasgow Vault Pan American Games 2015 Toronto Team 2023 Santiago Team 2023 Santiago Rings 2015 Toronto Floor 2015 Toronto Rings 2015 Toronto Vault 2023 Santiago All-around Pan American Championships 2021 Rio de Janeiro Team Pacific Rim Championships 2016 Everett Team 2016 Everett Rings 2016 Everett Parallel bars 2016 Everett All-around 2016 Everett Vault FIG World Cup Event 1st 2nd 3rd All-Around World Cup 0 2 0 World Challenge Cup 1 2 2 Total 1 4 2

Donnell Whittenburg (born August 18, 1994) is an American artistic gymnast. He is the 2025 World Champion on rings and is a member of the United States men's national artistic gymnastics team.

Early life and education

Whittenburg was born on August 18, 1994, in Baltimore, Maryland. ^[1] He attended Edgewood High School and later a local community college and DeVry University. ^[2] He was coached as a youth by Abdul Mammeri. ^[2] He decided to pursue gymnastics and moved to Colorado to attend the United States Olympic Training Center under Vitaly Marinich. ^[2]

Gymnastics career

Whittenburg's strongest events are rings, vault, and floor. ^[3]

2014–2016

Whittenburg was the 2014 U.S. national champion on vault and silver medalist on rings. He won a bronze medal with the team at the 2014 World Championships. ^[4]

Whittenburg competed at the 2015 Pan American Games where he won gold with the team. Individually he won silver on floor exericse, rings, and vault. The following month he competed at the 2015 National Championships where he won the national title on rings. ^{[5] [6]} At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Whittenburg won his first individual World Championships medal, a bronze on vault, with an average combined score of 15.350 behind Ri Se Gwang of North Korea (15.450) and Marian Drăgulescu of Romania (15.400). He also qualified for the still rings final but finished eighth with a score of 15.300. ^[7]

At the 2016 American Cup Whittenburg placed second behind Ryōhei Katō. He retained his national title on rings at the 2016 National Championships. At the 2016 Olympic trials he placed second on rings and vault and third on parallel bars and horizontal bar. Whittenburg was named as an alternate for the 2016 Olympic team. ^[8]

2017–2021

Whittenburg won silver at the 2017 London World Cup behind Oleg Verniaiev. At the 2017 Koper World Challenge Cup he won gold on parallel bars and silver on floor exercise and vault. At the 2017 World Championships he placed sixth on floor exercise. ^[9]

At the 2021 Pan American Championships Whittenburg won a silver medal with the team. ^[10] He competed at the postponed 2020 Olympic trials but was ultimately not named to the Olympic team. ^[11] Whittenburg competed at the 2021 World Championships but did not qualify to any event finals.

2022–2024

In 2022, Whittenburg placed second at the United States National Championships behind Brody Malone, scoring highest on rings and second highest on vault. ^{[12] [3]} At the 2022 Paris World Challenge Cup, he won a bronze medal on parallel bars and rings. ^[13] He competed at the 2022 World Championships where he helped the United States finish fifth. Individually he finished eighth on rings.

Whittenburg competed at the 2023 Pan American Games where he helped the United States win team gold. Individually he won gold on rings and bronze in the all-around behind Félix Dolci and Diogo Soares.

In 2024, Whittenburg placed seventh in the all-around at the 2024 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships and 2024 United States Olympic trials and was named as a non-traveling replacement athlete for the 2024 Olympic team. ^[14]

2025

Whittenburg changed gyms to EVO Gymnastics in 2025 and was a member of their delegation at the 2025 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships. ^[15] There he won bronze on rings and parallel bars. After the competition, he was selected to compete at the 2025 World Championships alongside Brandon Dang, Asher Hong, Patrick Hoopes, Brody Malone, and Kameron Nelson. ^[16]

At the World Championships, Whittenburg qualified for the rings and parallel bars finals. ^[17] During the rings final, Whittenburg won gold ahead of 2022 World Champion Adem Asil and 2021 World Champion Lan Xingyu. In doing so, Whittenburg became the first American to win the World title on rings. ^[18] At age 31 and 61 days, Whittenburg also became the oldest American man to win a World title, surpassing Kurt Thomas, who won two golds in 1979 at age 23 and 254 days, as well as the oldest American man to win a World Championships medal, surpassing Paul O'Neill (28 years and 354 days in 1994). ^[19]

Eponymous skills

Whittenburg has one named element on the rings. ^{[20] [21]}

Gymnastics elements named after Donnell Whittenburg

Apparatus	Name	Description	Difficulty [a]	Added to Code of Points
Rings	Whittenburg	"Triple salto backward piked."	I, 0.9	Newsletter 32, 2017. Performed at the 2017 World Challenge Cup in Koper [22]

1. Valid for the 2025–2028 Code of Points

Competitive history

Competitive history of Donnell Whittenburg at the junior level ^[5]

Year	Event	Team	AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
2010	U.S. Championships (14–15)		10	11	20	6		12	5
2011	U.S. Championships (16–18)		6	11	17		4	6	4
2012	Winter Cup		21	9	35	13	25	32	28
	U.S. Championships (16–18)			5	6
	Mexican Open		6

Competitive history of Donnell Whittenburg at the senior level ^[5]

Year	Event	Team	AA	FX	PH	SR	VT	PB	HB
2013	Winter Cup		11	17	30	7	6	16	25
	National Qualifier						11		7
	U.S. Championships		13	24	17	6	7	8	24
	DTB Pokal Team Cup	5
2014	Winter Cup			6	20		4	7	10
	Doha World Challenge Cup							4
	National Qualifier				5			21	13
	U.S. Championships		4	7	14			6	11
	World Championships		17					7
	Stuttgart World Cup
2015	Winter Cup			5	21	4	14		13
	American Cup
	Pan American Games		4
	U.S. Championships				8			9	26
	World Championships	5	8			8
2016	Winter Cup		6	32	17			10	12
	American Cup
	Pacific Rim Championships								6
	U.S. Championships		5	11	25		4	5	12
	Olympic Trials		4	8	14				12
2017	Winter Cup		4	4	14		13	5	7
	London World Cup
	Koper World Challenge Cup					4
	U.S. Championships			11	10				1
	World Championships			6		R2		R1
2018	U.S. Championships					5		9
2019	National Qualifier				12			6	22
	U.S. Championships		7	7	14		7	11	16
2021	Winter Cup		11	4	21		11	10
	Pan American Championships
	Olympic Trials			14
	World Championships			30			12
2022	U.S. Classic				20			13	23
	U.S. Championships			5	14			10	8
	Paris World Challenge Cup
	World Championships	5				8
2023	U.S. Classic		7	10	65		13	9	16
	U.S. Championships		7		25			18	13
	Pan American Games			6
2024	Winter Cup		5	4	19			6	16
	U.S. Championships		7	7	13	4		8	22
	Olympic Trials		7	5	15			11	12
2025	U.S. National Championships								8
	World Championships	—						5

References

1. "Donnell Whittenburg closes in on stardom, one vault at a time" . Retrieved October 12, 2022.
2. Cheng, Brittany (August 19, 2019). "Gymnast Donnell Whittenburg's tough call helps him to international stage". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved August 11, 2024.
3. "Donnell Whittenburg, still chasing an Olympic spot, in hunt at nationals" . Retrieved October 12, 2022.
4. Nick; Zaccardi (October 7, 2014). "China stuns Japan at World Gymnastics Championships; U.S. wins bronze (video)". NBC Sports. NBC. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
5. "Donnell Whittenburg". USA Gymnastics. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
6. Graves, Will (June 25, 2021). "Whittenburg making one last stand at US gymnastics trials". Associated Press.
7. "Biles wins record 10th gold medal at World Championships". USA Gymnastics . November 1, 2015.
8. "Leyva, Modi, Whittenburg named replacement athletes for 2016 U.S. Olympic Men's Gymnastics Team". USA Gymnastics . June 26, 2016.
9. "USA wins two event medals at 2017 World Championships". USA Gymnastics . October 7, 2017.
10. "Juda finishes second all-around at 2021 Senior Pan American Championships, earns additional quota spot for U.S. men at Tokyo Olympic Games". USA Gymnastics . June 5, 2021.
11. "USA Gymnastics announces men's Olympic team roster for artistic gymnastics". USA Gymnastics . June 27, 2021.
12. "Donnell Whittenburg wins second at 2022 U.S. Gymnastics Championships". August 21, 2022. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
13. "U.S. gymnasts capture 10 medals, including four gold, as Paris World Challenge Cup concludes". USA Gymnastics. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
14. Crumlish, John (July 3, 2024). "Frederick Richard on topping U.S. Olympic Trials: 'I was pretty cool on the inside'". International Gymnast Magazine . Retrieved July 10, 2024.
15. Campbell, Dylan (August 7, 2025). "EVO Gymnastics Sends Team Members to U.S. Championships". srqmagazine.com. Retrieved August 8, 2025.
16. "Hong commands all-around; Senior National Team and World Champs roster named at Xfinity U.S. Championships". USA Gymnastics . August 9, 2025.
17. "Quartet of American men advance to Artistic World Championships finals". USA Gymnastics . October 20, 2025.
18. "Donnell Whittenburg claims first gymnastics world title on 3-medal day for U.S." NBC . October 24, 2025.
19. "Whittenburg wins first-ever U.S. rings gold; Hoopes, Roberson take bronze on pommel horse and vault at 2025 Artistic Worlds". USA Gymnastics . October 24, 2025.
20. "Table of Named Elements Men's Artistic Gymnastics" (PDF). gymnastics.sport. December 2023. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
21. "Men's Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points 2025–2028" (PDF). gymnastics.sport. July 3, 2024. Retrieved August 13, 2024.
22. "FIG Men's Technical Committee approves 'The Whittenburg'". gymnastics.sport. June 2, 2017. Retrieved August 14, 2024.

External links

• Donnell Whittenburg at the International Gymnastics Federation
• Donnell Whittenburg at USA Gymnastics