Sarah Elizabeth Shire was born on January 19, 1988 in Lake St. Louis, Missouri to parents David and Robyn. She began gymnastics at the age of three on a bus program with Jeff and Kathy Conner. Sarah’s original gym was Tiger Academy with coaches Dawn, Kim, and Kellie. Afterward, Sarah transferred to Jefferson City Gymnastics.

While at Jefferson City Gymnastics, Sarah reached level 10, the highest level before elite. Since transferring to the successful Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE) in Blue Springs, Missouri, Sarah qualified to the highest echelon of the sport, the elite level. She trained under coaches Al Fong, Armine Barutyan, and Rodney Gust. Armine also choreographed Sarah’s floor routines. In pursuit of her dreams, Sarah used to put in 34-36 hours per week at the gym living by the quotes “Go big or go home!” and “Attitude is everything!"

In her first year as a junior international elite gymnast in 2002, Sarah qualified to compete in the US National Championships after placing 20th in the all-around at the US Classic. At the US National Championships, Sarah proved that she has what it takes to be at the top by finishing 10th in the all-around and qualifying to be on the Junior US National Team. This hard-earned national team status enabled Sarah to be eligible to represent the United States internationally. Sarah considered this one of the biggest highlights of her career thus far. Sarah had been selected to go to DeHypotheekshop meet with Nicole Harris where she earned a bronze medal on floor exercise.

Sarah moved up as a senior international elite in 2003. She placed 3rd in the all-around and 2nd on vault in her age division at Parkette Invitational as her first meet of the year. A few weeks later, Sarah competed at her club's invitational, the "Dragon Invitational," where she easily won the meet with all first places on vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. After a successful finish at the US Classic, Sarah qualified to the US National Championships and the Pacific Alliance Championships, where she competed against another USA team, Australia, and Canada. Sarah's team won the silver medal and Sarah placed 18th in the all-around as well as 4th place on vault. At the US National Championships, Sarah placed 16th in the all-around and made the US National Team for the second time. At the end of year, she went to Karolyi's camp and was selected to go to DTB Cup in Stuttgart, Germany with Ashley Postell and Katie Heenan. Unfortunately, Sarah was not age-eligible to compete at the DTB Cup. She performed exhibition routines but she was ineligible for awards.

During 2004, Sarah began the year by going to Hawaii with her Dragon team. After returning from Hawaii, she went to a training camp where she was chosen to go to the Cottbus Cup in Germany with Melanie Sinclair. At the Cottbus Cup, Sarah qualified to event finals in vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. On vault, she made it to the super finals with Osana Chusovitina where she earned a silver medal. She also placed 4th on balance beam and 5th on uneven bars. At the 2004 National Championships in Nashville, Sarah was a little disappointed with her 15th place finish, just missing the national team by .05 points. Because of injuries to other gymnasts, Sarah was allowed to go to the Olympic Trials as the first alternate. Of course, she did not want anyone else to get hurt, however she was hoping for a chance to compete. Training with the team was a great learning experience. Sarah and Kassi Price were selected to go to Japan for the Chunichi Cup. Sarah placed 6th in the all-around and qualified to all four event finals. Sarah went home with a silver medal on vault.

Sarah started off her 2005 season at a few invitionals, such as Coaches Cup and Dragon Invitational. She swept goal medals except for uneven bars at both meets. One week after the Dragon Invitational, Sarah was selected to another international assignment at the USA vs Mexico and Canada. She earned the gold medal with her team. She also placed third on vault and uneven bars. In the beginning of March, Sarah verbally committed to the University of Utah where she was planning on attend during 2006-2007 school year. Sarah placed 6th in the all-around at the US Classic. After a shaky meet at US Classic, Sarah did extremely well at the VISA Championships. She placed 9th in the all-around and made the US National Team for the 4th time.

After the 2005 season, Sarah decided to end her elite career and competed in a few invitationals in the beginning of 2006 season. She traveled to New York for the Manhattan Classic where she placed first in the all-around. She then won another all-around title at her last Dragon Invitational.

Sarah was struggling and rehabbing with an elbow injury when she arrived to the University of Utah. However, she did learn a few neat new routines with one-arm only. Sarah got to compete at her first college meet at Minnesota where she helped the team to defeat the Minnesota team and placed 4th on balance beam. Throughout the season, Sarah helped the Utah Utes to win eight competitions where she specialized on the balance beam and vault tallying career highs of 9.95 in both events. Sarah also helped the Utah Utes to finish second at the NCAA Championships. Soon after the season was over, Sarah transferred to University of Missouri so she can be closer to home.

After she left Utah in summer of 2007, Sarah debated if she wanted to continue gymnastics or not at Mizzou. She eventually joined the Mizzou gymnastics team. In 2008, Sarah helped the Tigers to win seven out of thirteen competitions. Sarah won three all-around titles as well as four balance beam and six floor exercise titles. Sarah also earned Big 12 Gymnast of the week, All-Big 12 Conference Team on vault, and Big-12 Newcomer of the Year.