American Men’s Gymnast Donnell Whittenburg Finally Earned Gold Medal In Still Rings
It takes an incredible amount of strength to participate in the still rings gymnastic event. The sport is one of the events for the men’s gymnastics. This year the 2025 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships is being held in Jakarta, Indonesia from October 19, 2025 – October 25, 2025. The trip to Jakarta marked his sixth appearance at worlds. And this time American Men’s gymnast Donnell Whittenburg finally earned the gold medal in the still rings. Thus becoming the first-ever still rings World Champion from Team USA.
That’s quite an accomplishment and one that the 31-year old has been working toward for a long time. Whittenburg has been a fixture in the U.S. men’s elite program for well over a decade. He helped the American men capture the bronze in Japan in 2014 as well as the bronze he claimed on vault in 2015. Longevity is definitely the word to describe his career in gymnastics. And to come back and win a gold medal at his age in this sport is practically a miracle.
And yet somehow Whittenburg has yet to make an Olympic team as a competing athlete. He has twice been named an alternate (2016, 2024). Especially since he is known for his extreme level of strength and highly difficult dismount. The dismount is a triple-backward somersault in pike position named after him in the sport’s code of points. Nevertheless Whittenburg couldn’t believe it when the judges posted his score (14.700) to confirm gold. He edged out fellow competitors Adem Asil (Turkey) 14.566 and Lan Xingyu (China) 14.500.
When speaking about his victory, Whittenburg had this to say:
“It doesn’t feel real,” said Whittenburg afterwards of his first ever world medal on rings. “It definitely wasn’t on my radar, but once you get opportunities like this, you just have to appreciate it for what it is, and I couldn’t be more happy.”
American Men’s Gymnast Donnell Whittenburg Finally Earned Gold Medal In Still Rings
Thus far Whittenburg is the only American man to have won a gold medal in any of the events. However, the last day of the 2025 World Gymnastics Championships takes place tomorrow, Saturday (25 October), with men’s vault, parallel bars, and high bar while the women finish up on uneven bars and beam. On a side note, like other world championships held in the year after the Olympics, there will be no team competition.
But in the meantime we wish a hearty congratulations to Donnell! He turned in his best performance of his 12-year career in gymnastics. I guess he was saving his best for last, unless of course he plans on competing for another decade.
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