Donnell Whittenburg


Donnell Whittenburg is an American artistic gymnast who 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, still rings, vault and parallel bars. 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 and Marian Drăgulescu of Romania. He also qualified for the individual still rings event final but finished in eight 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.
Whittenburg currently has one skill in gymnastics named after him. It is the Whittenburg or a triple-piked dismount on still rings. The Whittenburg dismount has been awarded the second-highest difficulty score in gymnastics and highest in still rings H, by the FIG in their most current 2017–2020 Code of Points. An H score has been awarded to only four skills across all apparatuses, for men's artistic gymnastics. The other three H skills are the Shirai 3 or triple-twisting double layout on floor, Liukin or the triple back somersault on floor, and Bretschneider or double-twisting Kovac on high bar. Only one other skill, the Miyachi or double-twisting straight Kovac on high bar, in gymnastics has been awarded a higher D-score, the highest of I.