Donnell Whittenburg

Donnell Whittenburg (born August 18, 1994) is an American artistic gymnast. He 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. He attended Edgewood High School and later a local community college and DeVry University. He was coached as a youth by Abdul Mammeri. He decided to pursue gymnastics and moved to Colorado to attend the United States Olympic Training Center under Vitaly Marinich.

Gymnastics career

Whittenburg's strongest events are rings, vault, and floor. He won a bronze medal at the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. He was the 2014 U.S. National champion on Vault and is the 2015 U.S. national champion on rings. At the 2014 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Whittenburg won the bronze medal in the team event with the Americans, and contributed scored on floor exercise (15.300), still rings (14.766), vault (14.966) and parallel bars (14.633). At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, he won the individual bronze medal 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 individual still rings event final but finished in eighth place with 15.300. At the 2017 London World Cup, Whittenburg won gold in that all-around competition, and at the 2017 Koper World Challenge Cup, the individual apparatus competition, in Slovenia, Whittenburg won gold on parallel bars, and silvers on floor and vault.

In 2022 he placed second in the United States men's all-around behind Brody Malone, scoring highest in rings and second highest on vault. At the 2022 World Challenge Cup in Paris he won bronze medal on parallel bars and rings.

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 Summer Olympics.