Santiago 2023 Pan American Games: Meet Team USA’s male artistic gymnasts
After taking the gold at the Pan American Championships earlier this year, Team USA’s men return to the multi-sport continental games to avenge their second place finish in 2019
Artistic Gymnastics
The Pan American Games are a continental multi-sport event in the Americas that will be held in Chile from 20 October - 5 November. They are held every four years in the year ahead of the Olympic Games and, this time, Santiago 2023 will host nearly 7,000 athletes, 41 nations and 423 events in 39 sports.
Lima 2019 saw the United States men win silver, so their aim for 2023 will be to land themselves on top of that podium.
In May of 2023, Team USA’s men dominated the Pan American Championships in Medellín, Colombia, taking team gold and 10 individual medals.
Stephen Nedoroscik, Donnell Whittenburg, Curran Phillips, Cameron Bock and Colt Walker are looking to put their best foot forward in Santiago with the U.S. Olympic Team Trials approaching quickly, just nine months away.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Shane Wiskus was originally named to the team, but withdrew 7 October due to injury. Phillips was his replacement.
Get to know the team:
Stephen Nedoroscik
2021 world champion and two-time NCAA champion on the pommel horse, you may know Stephen Nedoroscik as the pommel specialist who is always wearing goggles in competition. They’re not prescription, but rather purely superstition. It all started with a Secret Santa gift that Nedoroscik received during his freshman year at Penn State nearly seven years ago. At his next competition, he wore them “as a joke,” only to do really well and start believing in ‘the magic of the goggles.’ He still wears them today.
In 2020, he received the Nissen Emery Award — the highest honor in men’s collegiate gymnastics that signifies excellence inside the gym as well as in sportsmanship, fair play, and high scholastic standards. He clinched his spot on Team USA’s Santiago team with victory in the pommel horse at the U.S. National Championships, later writing on Instagram: “To not make the [national team] early in 2023 hurt. But it rekindled a fire in me and gave me time to upgrade and perfect.”
Colt Walker
Having served at the World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp as the traveling alternate, Colt Walker is a three-time NCAA team champion and senior on the Stanford men’s gymnastics team.
In 2022, he became an NCAA All-American on the parallel bars and competed as a member of Team USA at the World Championships. He was also on the gold medal team at the Pan American Championships in Rio that year, winning individual silver on the parallel bars.
At the U.S. National Gymnastics Championships in August of 2023, he just missed the all-around podium to come in 4th behind Asher Hong, Khoi Young and Fred Richard, all of whom have just helped Team USA secure their spot at the Paris 2024 Games while in Antwerp**.**
Colt Walker competes inthe pommel horse during Day Three of the U.S. Gymnastics Championships at SAP Center on August 26, 2023 in San Jose, California.
Curran Phillips
Curran Phillips took the high bar gold at the 2023 Pan American Championships and is now the most recent addition to Team USA’s Santiago roster after it was announced that Shane Wiskus withdrew due to injury.
He is a Stanford men’s gymnastics alum, having graduated in 2022 as a five-time All-American and three-time NCAA team champion. His first international gold came in 2022 at the DTB Pokal Mixed Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, followed by the team and high bar gold in Medellín earlier this year.
As Phillips looks to make the cut for Team USA in Paris, he has made strides this year as the 2023 Winter Cup champion on the parallel bars and high bar, as well as taking the silver medal on parallel bars at the U.S. Championships in August.
Donnell Whittenburg
Whittenburg has set his sights on finally making his Olympic dreams a reality in Paris after serving as the Team USA alternate for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and falling short of the Tokyo 2020 roster.
At 29 years old, Donnell Whittenburg already has one gold and three silver medals from the Pan American Games, as well as two World Championships bronzes. In 2022, he made the podium at the U.S. Championships for the first time in five years, finishing in second, just short of Tokyo 2020 Olympian Brody Malone. This year, he took the gold on rings and bronze on floor.
In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, Whitternburg shared that he still wants to ‘officially’ make the Olympics, and his mother always told him “as long as you’re healthy and you can still do it, you might as well keep going as long as you can” — something he really took to heart.
He will be returning to his first Pan American Games since 2015, where the U.S. men took first place in Toronto.
Donnell Whittenburg competes during the Men's Still Rings Final at the 2022 Gymnastics World Championships
Cameron Bock
An NCAA All-American and three-time Big Ten Champion, Cameron Bock will be looking to add to his Pan American Games medal count in Santiago.
At the Lima 2019 Games, the Michigan native claimed bronze on the parallel bars as well as winning team silver, before serving as the alternate for Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He was team captain for three of his five years on the University of Michigan men’s gymnastics team and in his final year took the all-around title at the 2021 Winter Cup over four-time NCAA Championship gold medalist Riley Loos. He called the win his “first step in the Olympic process” as he tries to make Team USA’s Paris 2024 roster.
Most recently, Bock scored a 14.950 on parallel bars during the second day of the senior men’s competition at the U.S. Championships, landing him a spot on the Pan American Games team. He will be returning to Santiago for his second consecutive Pan Ams.
Cameron Bock competes on the parallel bars during day one of the Men's 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials on June 24, 2021 in St Louis, Missouri.