By ALINE BEHAR KADO
Courtesy of Isabella Whittaker
Laurel resident Isabella Whittaker was scheduled to run in the women’s 4×400-meter track race at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The morning of the competition, another runner was tagged to run in her place.
“A dream was just ripped away for me,” Whittaker, 22, said. “So obviously I was … really emotional.”
Whittaker still went to the race as an alternate in the U.S.Women’s relay pool.
“I was just like, stare at the track,” Whittaker said. “The really vivid moment where I was staring at this track, and I’ll never be able to run on it,”
But she is still dreaming big.
“I think, honestly, the unfortunate reality that was my first Olympic experience [is] definitely fueling me for more Olympic experiences because I just, I don’t count that.”
After years of competitive swimming, Whittaker started running in high school. She felt naturally drawn to it, she said, as.everyone in her family runs.
Her father, Paul Whittaker, ran the 800 meters, and her mother, Jill Pellicoro, ran the 400-meter hurdles at Georgetown University. Her brother, Alex, ran track and cross country at Yale, and her sister, Juliette, is on the track team at Stanford. Juliette also ran at the Olympics.
“I honestly think that it was a really good thing when I started as late as I did, just because I really loved it,” Whittaker said. “I’m still really passionate about it. I still do it because I love it.”
Following a very impressive freshman year on the track team at the University of Pennsylvania, Whittaker suffered a back injury that left her on the sidelines. It did not stop her from dreaming of victory.
“I remember being out that indoor season my sophomore year, and I remember thinking, like, I was looking at the Ivy League record book, and I was like, ‘bruh, … I should be running these times, when I get the opportunity to run again, I will break the Ivy League records,’” Whittaker said.
She went on to break five Ivy League all-meet records, including two that had stood since 1990. After she broke her own personal record her senior year, Whittaker knew her Olympic dream was within reach. She then placed sixth at the Women’s 400-meter Olympic trial in June.
“It was always kind of a dream of mine was to make the team at swimming, which is funny, because obviously that didn’t happen,” Whittaker joked. Instead, she made the relay pool for women’s track.
Chené Townsend, associate women’s head coach at the University of Pennsylvania, reflected on Whittaker’s accomplishments. “I think, as a coach, we all have big dreams and big goals, and when you work at this level, you know the Olympic Games is the highest level of competing. … seeing someone that I’ve worked with for the past four years, at that point, be at the world, global stage, at the highest pinnacle for track and field,” she said. “It was really a surreal moment for me personally.“
Whittaker and her sister were roommates in the Olympic Village. Juliette would go on to run the women’s 800-meter — she placed seventh.
The sisters went to the 4×400 meter race together.
“We just kind of sat there, and it was just nice to have her there because I probably would have been a mess if I had to kind of go and put on a face for that very difficult day, that was, that was terrible,” Whittaker said.
Some of Whittaker’s family attended the race, too. Whittaker recalled seeing them cry with her.
“Everyone’s crying, and I’m like, damn,” Whittaker said. “That’s, like, very powerful to me, because … when I hurt, they hurt. And so that’s like, everything to me.”
“I told myself that … the next Olympic year, like, I’m going to make sure that it’s not a question of, like, having me run,” Whittaker said.
In an interview, Townsend echoed Whittaker’s aim.
“I do think that she has the talent to be a multiple-time Olympian, for sure,” Townsend said. “And you know, I’ll support her in whatever way that I can or in whatever way she allows me to.”
Under National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations, Whittaker is eligible to compete for a university scholarship for one more year.. She transferred to the University of Arkansas, where she will compete on the women’s track and field team while she pursues a master’s degree in marketing.
“I would just encourage someone to always, always remember that you’re there for a reason,” Whittaker said. “Obviously, I qualified for the team. I was still picked for the team. Understand that it took a lot to get there, and that you’re there for a reason.”