Dreaming about a gold medal or a world championship and then actually achieving it is a road traveled by a select few.
Whitney DeSalvo, an Arkansas cowgirl who just wanted to be like her mom, found herself on that road, fighting through setbacks and obstacles with relentless determination.
She looked at roadblocks as a way to sharpen her focus on her way to challenging and beating the best in the world.
“She wanted to give up so many times.” Whitney’s mother Deb DeSalvo said, recalling her daughter’s early days when she competed in rodeo with a focus on breakaway calf roping.
But even though Whitney may have said she wanted to give up, no one believed she would. She was the little girl with a rope.
“I grew up in it. Everybody tells me funny stories,” Whitney said. “They remember me walking around rodeos with a rope in my hand. Always had a rope in my hand, always wanted to rope.”