Washington — Steve Whelpley is near the top among elite rowers in the United States, but like many other impressive athletes around the world, he narrowly missed qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games.

It has not been easy to face the disappointment of being cut from an Olympic-bound lineup, Whelpley said, but the chance to try out for the Olympics comes to only a few people, and he still believes it has been worth the long hours of training and other sacrifices.

“Seize the opportunity to have such an experience, no matter how difficult and trying it is some days,” he said in an email interview.

Whelpley, 29, rowed in secondary school and college and then trained for seven years post-college, primarily at the Penn Athletic Club Rowing Association in Philadelphia. He said he has worked out nearly three times the amount he did as a competitive college rower, and as he prepared for Olympic tryouts he did not make a single decision about how to spend his time, what to eat or where to go without asking himself, “How will this affect my rowing?”

“That is what I personally needed to do to go from where I was to where I am,” he said.

Early this year, Whelpley and his sculling partner Willy Cowles, a rower with the Potomac Boat Club in Washington, headed to California to prepare for national qualifying trials for the U.S. Olympic team. They came in a close second in the men’s double scull.

“It was the most exciting race of the day,” according to the Potomac Boat Club, which sponsored the duo. “Whelpley and Cowles established themselves as two of the top elite scullers in the U.S.”

But only the winning double, Sam Stitt and Warren Anderson, earned the right to compete in the final Olympic qualifying trials in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Whelpley admitted he is still wrestling with disappointment. “To be honest, I do not have complete resolution on this point,” he said. “I know I will.”

”The lessons I’ve learned and the attributes I’ve gained from this period in my life will be indelible,” he added.

Whelpley believes the work he has put into competitive rowing and even his disappointment at not making the Olympic team will help him in “tackling life’s more challenging and blurry goals.”

“The rest of life will be filled with grayer areas and harder questions,” he said. “Am I a good father? Am I successful at what I do for a living? Am I leading a fruitful life? Pursuing an athletic endeavor was as black and white as anything could be.”

He sent a gracious letter to the Potomac Boat Club, praising Cowles and other rowers, and especially his coach, Reilly Dampeer. “Despite the outcome, I have absolutely no regrets about this year,” he said.