Sophomore Nora Terhaar is this year’s uneven bars State champion. Her IHSA victory happened on February 23, 2025 with a winning score of 9.575. She also placed ninth on vault at the State meet. For her accomplishments, Nora was nominated for Northwest Herald’s Athlete of the Week!
Wolf Prints reporter Conor Cook sat down with Nora recently to talk about being a high school gymnast.
How long have you been doing gymnastics? What did you like about it as a child?
My mom put me in the kindergarten classes at 18 months old and haven’t stopped since. I got to make a ton of friends and have fun during the day.
Which events do you prefer?
Anything but beam. Everything else is good, but beam
Who is your favorite gymnast? Why?
Jordan Chiles. I like watching her do the floor. She is enthusiastic and happy.
What is practice like in season?
We do rotations, vault and floor combined. I go to practice 4 hours every day. Will rotate from vault and floor to bars and then to beam. Then we condition for an hour.
How often did you have gymnastics meets?
I do club and high school meets. We had a total of 8 meets besides State Series for the high school meets. I only got to 2 club meets this year because I was involved in high school gymnastics more this year
Tell us about going to State – What was it like?
Going to State was really exciting because the whole team went instead of just as an individual. We had a bigger support system and our family and friends were there.
What is the difference between high school gymnastics and club gymnastics?
The only noticeable difference between club gymnastics and high school gymnastics is the timing of the rotation. You warm up before every event and then do it immediately in the club meets. In high school there is a lot of waiting between warm ups and performing. So it was a difficult adjustment at first. High school meets are a lot longer than club meets last about 5-6 hours, depending on how many schools there were. Club meets are usually around 3-4 hours.
How far do you need to travel to go to your gymnastics meets?
For high school meets I’m never leaving Illinois but since there aren’t a lot of high schools that do gymnastics we have to travel around to Chicago. For club meets, we’re pretty close, 45 minutes to an hour away again, besides for Florida once a year.
How do you personally balance school, gymnastics and other activities?
I try to use my free time pretty wisely. I usually get home around 7:20 and get ready for bed, doing my homework. I’ll usually go to bed around 10:30-11 depending on how much I have.
Switching to your student life, what classes have you liked this year?
I’m starting to like Chemistry, my teacher is pretty fun. I have Mrs. Brockland. I also like Honors English with Mrs. Wads. She is really down to earth and fun to talk to.
What are you looking forward to about summer?
Well, there’s no school. Practices are in the morning instead of 3-7. I get to have the rest of the day to myself and see family and friends more.
Do you plan on continuing gymnastics after high school?
I would really like to continue gymnastics after high school but I’m not sure because I think I want to pursue a medical degree so it would be difficult but as of now, yes.
If you could go back and give advice to your younger self in gymnastics, what would it be?
To not be so self critical and hard on myself. Always try to be uplifting and motivating.
