Kaylin Whitney announced on her 17th birthday that she was signing with Nike and has been working full-time on Beijing and the road to Rio since that day with Dennis Mitchell and her Star Athletics club. Last year, Whitney was a triple medalist at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene. Now, one year later, she is a member of Team USA's 4x100m relay team in Beijing, serving as an alternate. At the USA Championships she just missed out making the team in the 200m clocking a world youth best mark of 22.47 and followed that up with two gold medals at the Pan Am Games in Toronto. She has experience as the anchor for the red, white, and blue on the senior level, bringing home the gold at the Penn Relays, World Relays in the Bahamas, and most recently in Monaco setting a world leading time of 41.96. Kaylin, the youngest member of Team USA, says Monaco went really well and set the tone for what is to come.
"It made this team stronger and more comfortable with each other. My training is going well, it has been pretty intense at home. Once we got to training camp we transition from grinding it out to fine tuning things."
Knowing Whitney only has one event lined up if need be makes her more relaxed.
"It does take pressure off me knowing I'm only here for the relay. My job here is to be on deck just incase something doesn't go as planned. I am only comfortable as the anchor, but I am planning on becoming more versatile in the future. I love being here with my teammates and coach. It's nice being in such a big stage with people who have been there before. It's comforting."