Olympic dreams part of routine

Baltimore’s Whittenburg working through slow recovery from injuries

Donnell Whittenburg was hurting. Aloft on the parallel bars, he had glided through the first couple moves of his routine somewhat cleanly. He had picked a challenging one, rated a 6.300. There was none tougher in the 30-man field at the U.S. gymnastics championships on the opening Thursday night in August at Boston’s TD Garden.

But when he moved into the handstand, his muscle-thick arms began to stiffen. He swayed forward.

“I just tried to shift my hand up a little bit so like I could catch my balance, but my hand literally wouldn’t come up the bar,” Whittenburg said. “It felt like it was like stuck. My hands were super tired. That’s just an endurance thing. It’s good that I have one p-bar set out of the way.”

He notched a 13.150. Earlier in the night, he’d scored a 14.150 on the still rings. He would score slightly better Saturday with a 13.800 and 14.400, respectively.

“I’m definitely not where I want to be at this point,” he said at the time.

Walking away from judging area, Whittenburg gripped his collarbone. He had tweaked it the Sunday before — just what he needed, after months of rehabilitation and training.

“Right now, I feel like I’m just testing the waters again,” Whittenburg said. “This is nowhere near the comeback I would like to have. This is not my comeback at all.”

The past 12 months have tossed the Baltimore native off course. An alternate at the Rio Olympics, Whittenburg was working on securing a roster spot for Tokyo. But after major shoulder surgery in November 2017, he’s slowly inching back to where he wants to be.

“Patience has been a key role,” USA men’s gymnastics high-performance director Brett McClure said, “because he has not been able to push the recovery process as quickly as we’d hoped.” See GYMNAST, page 9