At the age of six, she was diving into the pool from her blocks. By eleven, she was making her way through winding paths and running down the track. Now, at fifteen, she’s a varsity athlete with a desire to succeed everywhere she competes.

A dedicated competitor, sophomore Norah Mathes can do it all. Making her a triathlete, Mathes competes on not only the school’s swim team, but also with the Miller cross country and track teams. 

“I started swimming when I was very young. I just kind of stuck with it. It was a lot of fun,” Mathes said. 

Similar to her start in the pool, Mathes also picked up her running skills on a whim. After realizing her love for running on rough terrain, she joined cross country to see if she’d enjoy it. The sport stayed with her, and she is now in her fifth year of competing in both track and cross country. 

“So in cross country, everyone runs a 5K. In track, I do 3200 and 1600 meter dash. In swimming, I do 200 meter individual medley, 100 meter butterfly and last year I did 500 meter freestyle,” Mathes said.

Mathes specializes in endurance events. She uses most of her year to build up the stamina for these sports, never giving herself much of a break. 

“A lot of times other people are in off-season training whereas I’m in-season training all the time,” Mathes said. “I try to talk to my coaches. They understand that I [sometimes] have to miss this practice because of this [other] practice.”

For many athletes, competing in one school sport can feel overwhelming. However, with Mathes involved in not just one sport but three, she believes in trying to handle all the pressure with both grace and a positive attitude. 

“Especially running distance events, I think you need to keep a positive mental attitude during races,” Mathes said.

Her teammates and coaches appreciate the effort Mathes makes daily. Girls cross country head coach Aaron Becker notices how she not only tries to improve her own mentality, but also boosts everyone else around her.

“Norah is vivacious and positive. She is excited to push herself and is adept at raising the spirits of her teammates when workouts are hard or the conditions are less than favorable,” Becker said.

While Mathes trains to her highest potential and has had great success, she says competing at varsity level for two out of the three of her sports has not come without struggle. Mathes suffers from Vocal Cord Dysfunction, also known as VCD. This is a condition where instead of opening during inhalation as they should, Mathes’ vocal cords close up and make breathing something almost impossible during exercise. 

“It just happened this year so I didn’t really choose to do sports with it. It kind of just showed up because of my sports,” Mathes said.

While her condition has been a hurdle that could’ve been career ending, Maths didn’t let the setback stop her. Along with VCD, she also struggles with allowing herself to rest and self comparison. 

“Sometimes I feel like, especially in swim season, I have to run just to stay on top of things and I don’t really realize that other people, when they have a Saturday off, they just take it off,” Mathes said. “I almost feel like I’m constantly behind, so I have to keep working to stick with the people.” 

Mathes says she pushes herself to the max to maintain her position in every sport because she finds it more rewarding to take the more difficult route. The majority of her life revolves around these athletics, her days often run from before sunrise to after sunset. 

“We have afternoon practice so a lot of times, people after school do their homework ,but we don’t really get that time because we go home and then go to sleep, because the next morning, we have practice again,” swim teammate Ava Parrish said.

With no off-season, and days filled with running, training, and pushing her limits, Mathes says she has finally found her balance. Taking Sundays to do absolutely nothing, this athlete can be found diving into a new show or sleeping off the week behind her.

I just make sure to try and not overwork myself,” Mathes said. “It’s not as satisfactory if it’s easy.”