Arkansas cowgirl overcomes obstacles to become world championship calf roper

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.”

Deb was often in her little cowgirl’s sights

“I couldn’t walk anywhere with her roping my feet, she took a little rope to school she just started to it,” Deb said.

In fact, Whitney never let her mom out of her sight, and it made sense as Deb DeSalvo was a roper to look up to.

“My mom roped really good, won the Arkansas Rodeo Cowboy Association five times a piece in Breakaway,” Whitney said.

But for a single mom, work, rodeo and raising a little girl was exactly what you’d think it be.

“It’s been tough, but I would not change it for anything in the world,” Deb said.

Early on it was clear to Whitney that she was not on this journey alone.

“My mom just made it work,” Whitney said. “My grandparents were big, they helped me and my mom a bunch.”

Eventually, the time came when Deb knew she just couldn’t make it work…for both of them.

“My mom gave up so much. Whenever it was time for me to start roping, she quit on the spot,” Whitney said. “Sold her horses. She sold her horses to get me some and that’s what we did.”

In a saddle and roping before she was a teenager Whitney had the drive, she had the talent, but the titles weren’t coming, and competing in rodeo week in and week out comes at a cost.

I didn’t have a ton of money, or great horses, or the best resources growing up.” Whitney remembers.

But she was rich with one resource money cannot buy: a mom’s support.

“I’d be like, ‘Whitney all your hard work is going to pay off,’” Deb said. “She’d be like, ‘When mom? When?’ ‘Just keep working at it never give up,’ I told her.”

In time the buckles came, and so did championships and invitations to rope with the best in pro rodeo.

Today, Whitney DeSalvo is firmly seated as one of the top ropers in the world and 2024 has been good to her.

“It’s been my best year to date,” she said. “If I do my job, that’s what we are going to do is win. I’m excited but that’s what we went there to do, I just did my job and everything worked in our favor.”

Whitney did her job this spring taking the title in team roping with Kenna Francis at the Women’s Rodeo World Championship at AT&T Stadium in Texas.

“It’s awesome,” she said. “One of the biggest wins in my life.”

The fact she has come a long way is not lost on this Arkansas cowgirl.

“The dream of it was when I started, it definitely is a blessing,” Whitney said. “I’m really living the dream.”

But as high as she climbs the rankings DeSalvo’s boots are firmly on the ground.

“Nobody cares about what you did yesterday,” she said. “We gotta worry about what we are doing tomorrow.”

She puts her rope down between rodeos to teach other girls how to pick one up. She makes time for each and every one.

“Girls come up to me and I always try to give them encouragement, ’cause if I can do it I’m telling you anybody can do it,” Whitney said.

Key to her advice, she said once you pick up a rope, you better learn how to pick yourself up.

“Just go do your job. If it works it works, if it doesn’t, we’re gonna lose a lot more than we are going to win at these things,” Whitney said. “It’s what fuels us to win and keep going.”

It all comes full circle to her mom who offers a few words more valuable than a world title

“I’m very very proud of her,” Deb said. “Very proud of her.”

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