Norah Flatley
Norah Irene Flatley (born March 10, 2000, in San Diego, California) is an American artistic gymnast. A prodigious junior, she retired from elite gymnastics before her senior debut. Early life. Norah Irene Flatley was born on March 10, 2000, in San Diego to Terrence P. Flatley and Ann McKenzie. The youngest of four children, Norah has an older brother, Jake; a United States Marine and she has two sisters, Kyla and Anna; an Elementary Education major at Iowa State University. One of Norah's sisters, Anna, was a competitive gymnast, and at the age of four, Norah wanted  to join her. Thus, she enrolled in gymnastics classes at Salto Gymnastics in Wisconsin. Naturally gifted, Flatley made both the 2007 and 2009 National TOPs teams. In 2010, Flatley was both Level 8 State (WI) and Regional (4) champion for her age category. In the summer of 2010, her family relocated to Cumming, Iowa, in order for Norah to train under the tutelage of Liang Chow, the former coach of 2008 Olympic balance beam champion Shawn Johnson. A year later, in 2011, she was crowned Level 9 Regional Champion. At her first Level 9 Western Championships – at the age of  eleven, Flatley was crowned the individual champion in the all-around, on beam and floor. Gymnastics career. 2012: Level 10 career. Flatley moved up to Level 10 for the 2012 competitive season. She was State champion, and was second at Regionals. In May, she participated in her first ever J.O. Nationals – held in Hampton, Virginia. She tied for third in the all-around with Chow's club teammate Alexis Vasquez, and Southeastern gymnast Grace Glenn. However, she won the balance beam title with a score of 9.725. 2013–present: Junior International Elite career. 2013. Flatley qualified to Junior International Elite  status with no previous Hopes or Pre-Elite experience. She qualified to the U.S. Classic in Chicago, IL taking home 4th place all-around and a beam gold, her all-around score being 56.500. Flatley accumulated the highest beam score (15.2) of the meet within both senior and junior divisions. At the National Championships, Norah accumulated a two-day all-around score of 112.400, managing 5th place all-around. She won a silver on beam and posted the highest all around score of a first year junior for the meet. Following her impressive performance, Flatley was named to the U.S  Junior national team. 2014. Flatley made her international debut at the City of Jesolo Trophy competition in Jesolo, Italy. She took home 2 gold and 1 bronze. She competed at the Pacific Rim Championships in April in Richmond, Canada, and she won two gold medals. At the 2014 Secret US Classic, Flatley placed third in the all-around, tied with Deanne Soza. She won bars at junior national championships. 2015. Flatley competed her last year as a Junior International Elite in the 2015 season. At the 2015 City of Jesolo Trophy, she took home 2 gold (Team and Balance Beam ) and 2 silver (All Around and Uneven Bars). Due to a foot injury, Flatley missed the U.S. Classic and the U.S. National Championships. On October 7, 2015, she announced her verbal commitment to the UCLA Bruins gymnastics program, through her Instagram account. She had previously visited the school. 2016–2017: Retirement from elite and Level 10. Flatley was set for her Senior International debut in 2016 but withdrew from all competitions for reason of injury. On July 21, 2017, she announced her retirement from elite gymnastics and announced plans to move down to Level 10 for the 2018 season. College. In  the fall of 2018, Flatley began attending the University of California, Los Angeles, joining the gymnastics programme. 2019. Flatley competed on uneven bars and balance beam in every meet of her freshman season. She was named the Pac-12 Freshman of the Week on February 26. She helped her team to a third-place finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships, contributing scores on beam and bars of 9.8875 and 9.9 respectively. 2020. Flatley regularly contributed to the uneven bars, balance beam, and floor exercise lineups before the season got cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021. While warming up for  UCLA's season-opening meet against Arizona State, Flatley suffered an ankle injury that kept her out of competition until the postseason. She returned to the uneven bars lineup at the Pac-12 Championship, scoring 9.875. She competed uneven bars and balance beam at the regional championships, but UCLA failed to qualify to nationals. 2022. Fully recovered from the previous season's ankle injury, Flatley competed in at least three events during every meet of the regular season, including six times in the all-around. At the regional finals, Flatley competed only on the vault and uneven bars, citing mental health  reasons. UCLA again failed to qualify to the national championships as a team, finishing just 0.025 points behind the second-place qualifying Missouri Tigers. However, Flatley's all-around score of 39.575 from the regional semifinals qualified her to nationals as an individual in the all-around. At the national championships, Flatley placed seventh in the all-around with a score of 39.6 and fourth on the balance beam with a score of 9.9375. 2023. Following the 2022 national championships it was reported by gymnastics podcast GymCastic that Flatley, who has a fifth year of NCAA eligibility due to the  COVID-19 pandemic, had entered the transfer portal. Personal life. Flatley has been in a relationship with Atlanta United FC soccer player Justin Garces since November 2018.