University of Minnesota Athletics
Wittenberg's NCAA Address
4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
University of Minnesota men's gymnastics sophomore, Alex Wittenberg, was chosen as the student-athlete representative for the 2016 Men's gymnastics NCAA Championships. On Thurs. April 14, Wittenberg delivered the following speech at the banquet and awards ceremony.
I would like to start by thanking the NCAA for providing me with the opportunity to give this speech. It is truly an honor to address such a talented group of individuals. Congratulations to you all for your achievement, one of the greatest achievements in men's gymnastics, competing at an NCAA championships.
We can all agree that one of gymnastics' best attributes is its uniqueness. At the collegiate level, the sport is even more special. Being a member of a college team means turning the individual performance that gymnastics was at the junior level into a collaborative effort. There's no other sport that relies so heavily on individual performance to determine the team's success. And that's such a significant change from competing in juniors. It's truly a paradigm shift. What makes it so special, though, is although single performances make up the total score, it's not a solo, independent effort by any means. The strength of one routine is wholly dependent on its empowerment from the team.
The NCAA championships is truly the total culmination of the joint efforts of a team. Without its dependency on each member and its complementary strengths, no team in this room would be able to achieve the success that they have.
Success in this sport is elusive, and a high degree of tenacity and commitment is essential. I commend all of you for being able to juggle the numerous and varied obligations that come with being a college student while still achieving an incredibly high level of mastery in this sport. Gymnastics undoubtedly lends itself to the greatest student-athlete experience of any collegiate sport.
Through all of the highs and lows that come with being a gymnast-we all know there are many-the network of camaraderie that exists within the sport makes it so you are never alone during the times of success or of hardship. Another one of gymnastics' unique qualities is its ability to foster friendships and brotherhoods that extend well beyond the boundaries of single teams, states and countries. When we walk in to the gym on meet day, we stop and say hi to our past teammates, or regional friends, or just to give props to someone who posted an Instagram video of themselves doing a new skill. We can kick the ball around before a meet starts and invite other teams to join in, the same teams we are set to compete against that day. We can maintain our longtime friends from club while welcoming 19 new guys into our network that quite possibly were our rivals growing up. And that's the thing about our sport-it doesn't matter where you are from or where you go, gymnastics is a universal language that we all understand and having that commonality makes for an athletic experience like no other.
Although we most often see this mutuality during positive times, it is perhaps even stronger when things go wrong. When I was in club, one of my teammates at the time took his own life. It was a shock to my entire team and to our entire gymnastics community. I still remember the confusion I felt after our coach sat us down at practice to give us the horrible news. It sent shockwaves through the fabric of the Western New York gymnastics community. It did teach me, though, the power of the camaraderie that gymnastics cultivates. Through such a horrible thing, the people of the gymnastics community proved to be the motivation to heal the scars that were created. Sometimes it takes something grave to understand the nature of greatness within the brotherhood and friendship inherent to gymnastics.
Gymnastics gave us all an opportunity, one that we have fulfilled sitting here today; an opportunity that has opened so many doors and offered a magnitude of possibilities. I'm from a small gym in a small town outside of Buffalo, NY, but gymnastics brought me to Minnesota-and I can promise that without it, there is no way that I would have even considered going to school in the frozen tundra of Minnesota.
Tonight is a celebration of these opportunities, and tomorrow is our time to live them out. It is truly humbling to know how amazing a journey each one of us has had to get to this point, and I am beyond grateful for the opportunity in life that I have had due solely to gymnastics.
So I would like to extend another congratulations to you all. Choosing this sport has meant that you all have taken the path less trodden, and being here means it has paid off.
Good luck to all of you tomorrow.
Thank you.
Players Mentioned
