“Wish I could laugh with you just one more time. Wish I could hug you one more time. Wish I could just see you one more time…” A mere phone call in August 2024 left Sierra Brooks heartbroken. Her friend, her gymnastics partner, and the one without whom her days at the Aspite club wouldn’t have been the same was now gone. Shot dead. And all Sierra could do was wonder then, “I can’t even wrap my head around how someone could do this, let alone to such a beautiful person.” But today, almost 7 months later, she’s announced a soul-stirring tribute for her friend.

We’re talking about the late Wisconsin-Whitewater gymnast, Kara Welsh. Both Kara and Sierra grew up learning gymnastics on the same mats at the Aspire club. They’d tumbled down together, stepped on podiums together, and thrived through their gymnastics careers together. But after Kara Welsh lost her life in 2024, shot in an off-campus apartment, as reported by ABC7 Chicago, all Sierra was left with were the memories. But she’s now turning those into actions and stepping up to give Kara a heartfelt tribute.

On March 17, Sierra Brooks, Michigan’s ex-gymnastics star, announced her decision to run the Chicago Marathon in October as a tribute to her late friend, Kara Welsh. Sierra writes Kara was “One of my kindest, funniest, and most supportive friends lost her life last year from an act of domestic violence. I want to continue to honor her in every way I can and this is the start.”  Thus, she says, “Running this race in her honor is one way to continue sharing her story and the impact she had on so many.” 

In fact, Sierra’s even teamed up with The Network, a non-profit dedicated to supporting survivors and ending domestic violence. She even started a fundraiser to support the impacted people, which has already raised $1250 towards the target of $2500. And to connect more and more people with this initiative, she requests others to chime in with help by donating or even spreading the word. After all,  she misses Kara every day. Be it on her birthday, gymnastics senior nights, season starts, Welsh is never out of her mind.

Naturally, running the long and strenuous 26.2-mile Chicago Marathon course isn’t going to be easy. It’s going to demand great endurance from Sierra. But given that she is a gymnast, that should be an easy task with a slight bit of training. And she’s clearly not worried. All she has is love and excitement in her heart, as she wrote, “Excited to run for one of the most joyful and supportive people I’ve ever met.”

Here’s what this individual’s stories on the mats look like.

Sierra and Kara were both gymnastics aces

Starting with Brooks, she is a Michigan gymnastics alumna who was a senior in the 2021 Michigan NCAA title-winning team. Next year, she was the 2022 Big Ten Gymnast of the Year and has been a 13x All-American. The same honor came to her as a graduate student in 2024, which happened to be her third consecutive Big Ten honor. In fact, Brooks had recorded 28 scores of 9.900 or better in her final season and had one perfect 10.0 on floor exercise, while also scoring six 9.975s. That’s how good a gymnast she is.

Coming to Kara Welsh, the gymnast was equally skilled. She was a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater national champion gymnast and two-time All-American, who passed away tragically in August 2024. But during her career, she was a certain master in the vault. No wonder, she holds four of the top eight scores recorded by a gymnast in the college’s program history on the apparatus.

And yes, she was a fighter too.  In 2024, Welsh battled her way through an illness to compete in the WIAC Championship meet—where she had just opened her season but still set a new program record on the vault and claimed her second back-to-back title. But when it comes to Sierra giving her a tribute at the Chicago Marathon, this one’s truly a display of great love and strength. What do you think? Let us know below!