Whitney Bjerken

Whitney Michelle Bjerken was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 4, 2005. She was a speedy delivery and has not slowed down since. Whitney has two brothers and one sister, Sterling (18), Braxton (13), and Blakely (11). She also has a dog named Houston. Whitney played soccer and took ballet like everybody else when she was 3 and 4 years old, and then her mom put her into cheerleading. Whitney loved cheerleading and found out she was pretty good at doing cartwheels and the splits. As a result, Whitney decided to try gymnastics after the cheerleading season was over...and she has never looked back. Whitney is now a level 10 gymnast at Georgia Elite Gymnastics and is in the gym 5 days a week. Whitney loves gymnastics and she has always been a hard worker. These two facts combined with excellent coaching has led Whitney to great success in the sport to date. Whitney has won the All-Around Georgia State Championship 4 times and has won the Region 8 All-Around Championship twice. When Whitney was just 5 years old, her family started uploading videos of her gymnastics meets on YouTube so that her grandparents, who live in Minnesota, could watch her compete. Whitney’s videos were discovered on the internet and some of her videos started to go viral. Whitney continued to make videos and now her YouTube channel has more than 1.24 million subscribers with over 465 million views. Whitney tries to make videos that will help girls understand the world of gymnastics, or at least her experience in it. Whitney is also a talented musician who plays the piano, guitar, and writes her own songs. She released her debut album in December, 2019 entitled Disappear. Like almost every competitive gymnast, Whitney has had her share of injuries through the years. Unfortunately, she acquired osteochondritis dissecans of the capitellum in her right elbow in 2018 which eventually let to surgery. She missed the 2018 competition season and had to endure a year long recovery from the surgery. She fought back and returned to form just in time for the 2019 competition season. Whitney had an incredible year winning the All-Around at The Gala, her first meet back. In fact, she hit every routine of the entire season, until her final bar routine at JO Nationals where she overshot her pak. Unfortunately, Whitney’s osteochondritis dissecans returned in her right elbow and she had reconstructive surgery in December of 2019. Whitney was presented with the option to retire from the sport, but laughed at the thought of it and plans to be back and better than ever in 2020. "You may see me struggle, but, you will NEVER see me QUIT."