SAN JOSE – In 2016, Nora Matthews attended the U.S. Olympic Trials at SAP Center and was fascinated by her favorite gymnasts vying for a spot on the U.S. team for the Rio de Janeiro Games.
Matthews was further inspired that week when several former Olympians, including 2004 gold medalist Carly Patterson, watched her practice at Airborne Gymnastics Arena in Santa Clara.
“One day I want to do what they're doing at the Olympic Trials,” Matthews, who was 9 years old at the time, told her mother.
Seven years later, Matthews will be back at SAP Center this weekend, but this time she'll be on the floor instead of taking photos from the stands. The Gilroy native is competing in the USA Gymnastics Championships in San Jose this week and is one of the top gymnasts in the country.
“It's really amazing,” Matthews, now 16, said of the opportunity to compete on the same field that ignited her Olympic dreams. “It's taken a long time, and I know it's taken a lot of hard work to get to this point, but it really feels like I've come full circle and am back where I started.”
The men's senior and junior divisions, featuring 11 Stanford gymnasts, begin Thursday, while the women's competition runs from Friday through Sunday.
It will be tough competition for Matthews, who finished fourth all-around at the U.S. Classic earlier this month, which features the highly anticipated return of Olympic gold medalists Simone Biles and Sunisa Li. They will be in action this week, along with Olympic medalists Jade Carey and Jordan Childs, as well as several other world championship medalists.
With just one year until the 2024 Olympics, these gymnasts are competing for a chance to represent the United States in upcoming international competitions, including the Paris Games next July.
“This is going to be a tough year,” said Chelsea Memmel, high performance leader for USA Gymnastics.
But Matthews sees it as an opportunity to once again showcase her growing confidence, new floor exercise and upgraded balance beam routine as she prepares for the ultimate goal of making the five-person Olympic team.
Matthews has continued to improve as an all-around gymnast over the past few years, and plans to upgrade her vault and increase the difficulty of her other events while minimizing deductions from her routines, but the balance beam remains her strongest and favorite event.
“That feeling of catching the release and flying through the air,” she says, “is exactly what I crave.” And she does it with ease.
Matthews was born with a love of bars and was drawn to the playground bars, which is one of the reasons her mother, Cali Bertrand, signed her up for a “Mommy and Me” class at USA Sports, a closed gym in Gilroy.
Bertrand never imagined gymnastics would lead her daughter to where she is today.
Matthews has been selected to three national teams and competed for the United States at the 2023 Pan American Championships in Medellin, Colombia, where he helped the U.S. take first place all-around, win the individual title on uneven bars and place fourth in the individual all-around. He also competed twice in the DTB Pokal Mixed Cup in Germany.
“I'm really proud of her,” said Beltran, who competed at the 1996 Olympic Track and Field Trials and then in the marathon in 2004. “I really admire her dedication to the sport.”
However, it has been an extremely difficult journey to get to this point.
Matthews' talents showed earlier than most, so much so that by the time she was 7, a coach at her gym in Gilroy encouraged her parents to find a more advanced facility that could help her develop her talents.
After struggling with the decision to leave her friends behind, she decided to take the plunge and join Airborne Gym, an hour's drive from her home. Soon, the gym's owner, Melanie Ruggiero, saw her potential, too.
“I remember telling her mom that uneven bars would be her big thing because at such a young age she had the natural talent to swing hard on the uneven bars,” Ruggiero says, “but the best thing about Nora is her drive to keep working.”
That decision included home-schooling from his senior year onwards so he could focus more on training, spending 30 hours a week working on his craft.
“Nora is willing to work harder than anyone I know to achieve her dreams and accomplish her goals,” Ruggiero said.
Matthews, who finished 13th at last year's U.S. championships, seems to be adapting better to the bright lights, and a big reason for that is a change in her mental approach.
Every time Matthews completes a turn or tumbling pass, she will likely be asked the same question by coach Cleo Washington.
“How does it feel?”
When Washington first asked the question, Matthews didn't know how to respond; she was looking for whatever answer she thought Washington wanted to hear. But Washington encouraged Matthews to find her own voice. Finding balance between Matthews' mind and body is as delicate an act as her new balance beam combo: a back handspring-backflip sequence.
“What I'm most proud of since she moved to Airborne four years ago is how much she's grown as a person in terms of communication, confidence and feeling good and comfortable with herself,” said Washington, who previously coached world champion gymnast Morgan Hurd.
Washington knew Matthews was a bartender before moving to California and also knew that he suffered from anxiety, which made him sick before competitions.
“Basically, she just needed some confidence,” says Washington, who accompanies Matthews on camps and overseas assignments. “It seemed like she was trying to make herself small, so when I came in, my first goal was to get her to trust me.”
Matthews says taking a deep breath before soaring through the air keeps him grounded. He also revealed he has a lot of superstitions, including only wearing black bandages in competitions and using a blue spray bottle on bars. He said he lost his spray bottle during podium training this week and had to ask his mom to run to Target and get him a new one.
“[The superstitions] “It doesn't make sense,” she said, “but it helps me mentally.”
Matthews has competed on the world stage many times before, but this time he will do so in front of his family and friends.
What does that feel like?
“Oh, we'll have to wait and see,” she said, laughing. “I know a lot of people. [coming.] I'm excited.”
