Claire began gymnastics at the age of two and a half and quickly progressed in the sport. She took her first gymnastics lessons at the Great American Gymnastics Express (GAGE), home of 2004 Olympians Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool, before moving to Diamond Gymnastics. In 2004, she followed her coaches to Oklahoma City and began training at Dynamo Gymnastics, the gym where Shannon Miller, America's most decorated gymnast, trained throughout her career. In the end of March 2008, Claire moved to GAGE to train with Al Fong and Armine Barutyan-Fong. On March 1, 2010, Claire moved to Coppell, Texas to train at Texas Dreams Gymnastics under coaches Kim Zmeskal-Burdette and Chris Burdette.