Siblings feel love, support at raucous Olympic send-off at Maryland Catholic high school

CATONSVILLE, Md. (OSV News) -- Paul Whittaker expects to feel the stress when he watches his daughters, Juliette and Isabella Whittaker, run during this summer's Olympic Games.

"I almost passed out at the trials," said Paul, a former Georgetown University runner who is now the indoor track-and-field coach at Mount de Sales Academy. "Literally, I got up and was light-headed. We were screaming so much. 'Wow, they just made it to the Olympic team.' Everybody else was running to congratulate them and I just had to sit down."

Juliette and Isabella Whittaker, a pair of Mount de Sales alums, received a raucous send-off rally in front of about 250 people at the all-girls high school in the Baltimore suburb of Catonsville July 18 as they prepared to fly to Paris July 24. Track-and-field events are scheduled to begin Aug. 1.

Juliette Whittaker, a 2022 Mount de Sales graduate and Stanford University student-athlete, is the reigning NCAA Champion in the women's 800-meter run. She secured her spot in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games with a third-place finish (1 minute, 58.45 seconds) at the U.S. Olympic trials June 21-30 in Eugene, Oregon.

Isabella Whittaker, who graduated from Mount de Sales in 2020 and the University of Pennsylvania this spring, qualified for the relay pool of the 4x400 relay team for Paris, finishing sixth in her 400-meter leg (50.68) at the U.S. Olympic trials.

"It's very nice to feel so much love and support," Isabel said about the reception at the school. "It's coming from all the people we've met through the years. It's coming from swimming friends we met, teammates and classmates, and current track runners. It feels good," she told the Catholic Review, the news outlet of the Baltimore Archdiocese.

Juliette, who will be a junior next fall, becomes the first current Stanford track-and-field athlete to make a U.S. team since Erica McLain in the triple jump in 2008, her senior season.

She ran past the pack and finished third in the final in 1:58.45, a Stanford record. Whittaker's time was the 11th-fastest all-time performance by a collegian and Whittaker became the sixth-fastest performer.

In 2021, Julliette was a rising senior at Mount de Sales when she competed at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene. She recorded the 10th-fastest time in the 800-meter run semifinals, the first woman to miss the cutoff for the final race.

"I think growing up in the sport I feel like we were always saying 'I want to go to the Olympics.' Obviously, Bella and I were always saying that," said Juliette, who lives with her family in Laurel and attends St. Joseph Church in Odenton. "For a while, it was more so in the swimming world and we wanted to become Olympic swimmers. It wasn't until more recently that the goals were in the track world. I feel like we always kind of set it, but it never sunk in that we could do it together at the same time."

Isabella graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024. Last season, Whittaker earned first-team All-America honors with a fifth-place finish in the 400 at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships.

She followed that up by finishing sixth in the 400 at the U.S. Olympic Trials and earning a spot on Team USA's women's 4x400 and mixed 4x400 relay squads.

Isabella graduated from Penn holding four individual records and as a part of four record-setting relay teams. She made history this past season when she broke Ivy League indoor and outdoor 400 marks originally set in 1990.

In addition, Isabella was a co-recipient of the university's prestigious Association of Alumnae Fathers' Trophy.

Isabella has one year remaining of athletic eligibility and will compete next season for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, one of the premier programs in the nation.

Mount de Sales Athletic Director Eric Dummann knew that both Juliette and Isabella were going to go far in their track careers. Therefore, he is not surprised they are competing in the Olympics.

"The term I keep using is that they are generational athletes," Dummann said. "They are not just all-stars or girls you see here and there making all-state. They are truly generational talents."

Dominican Sister Mary Raymond Thye, principal of Mount de Sales, made Juliette and Isabella rosaries to take with them to Paris. The rosaries have an anchor insignia that represents the school mascot, the Sailors.

"This is really something historic for something like this at Mount de Sales," Sister Mary Raymond said.

In addition to Mount de Sales, the Whittaker sisters attended the School of the Incarnation in Gambrills, live in Laurel and are parishioners of St. Joseph in Odenton.