The Kaylia Nemour story: An Olympic gold medal forged through perseverance, and a missed opportunity for France

It was lined up to be the “perfect” moment – the kind of moment that usually is so perfect it only happens in the movies: French-born Kaylia Nemour becomes age-eligible for her first Olympics the same quad that France is hosting the Games and brings home the gold at home.

And then a twist: Nemour did win gold on uneven bars – but for Algeria.

The opportunity for an athlete or team to win a medal in their home country is rare and has happened few times in gymnastics history, like when Mary Lou Retton became the first American woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in gymnastics at LA 1984, or when the Chinese women won their first Olympic team gold during the Beijing Games.

That moment wasn’t to be for Nemour and France though. Nemour now competes for Algeria after a fallout with the French Gymnastics Federation.

One country turned its back, another opened its arms

Before she was making history for Algeria, Nemour was born in Saint-Benoit-la-Foret, France, to a French mother and Algerian father (her paternal grandparents were from Algeria, making her and her father dual citizens of the two nations).

Nemour rose through the junior elite ranks while competing for France. She became the French junior national champion for her age division in 2019 and later helped France finish second as a team at the junior Swiss Cup later that year.

Nemour’s prospects changed when she underwent two surgeries in her knees for osteochondritis in 2021. She was cleared by her doctor to return to competition in 2022, but the French national team doctor was unwilling to clear Nemour, making her unable to compete for France even though she was age-eligible for senior elite. The French national team also wanted Nemour to leave her club gym to train with the rest of the team in Paris, but Nemour didn’t want to. Nemour’s mother, Stephanie Nemour, maintains that the French national team doctor never even “examined” her daughter.

As a result, Nemour opted to switch her nationality to represent Algeria, but the French Gymnastics Federation (FFG) blocked her request to switch despite the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) approving the change.

The FFG blocking the request meant that Nemour would be unable to compete for Algeria in international competition until July 2023 – a year after the FIG approved the change. She would then miss the African Championships, an event she needed to compete at to qualify for the World Championships. Had she missed the African Championships and World Championships, she would have been unable to qualify for the Olympic Games through the World Championships and would have had to qualify through an alternative route.

France changed their stance following a report from French journalist Thierry Vildary that uncovered abuse from the FFG toward several other athletes. The report from Vildary and an online petition in support of Nemour led to the FFG allowing Nemour to represent Algeria and compete at the African Championships two weeks later. She won the all-around competition at African Championships, qualifying her to the World Championships. At Worlds, she qualified to the Olympic Games by placing 13th in the all-around competition during qualification.

Nemour herself holds mixed feelings about the Olympic Games taking place in Paris.

“Yes, I’m going to have a Games at home, but [I feel] torn inside. When I think about Paris 2024, I say to myself, it’s home, but not quite home,” Nemour told TSA.

Nemour still trains with Avoine Beaumont in France, but she is now supported by Algeria. While Nemour is Algerian, she had never been to the country growing up.

Despite the turmoil she’s overcome, Nemour headed into the Olympic Games with momentum after winning uneven bars gold at all three World Cup events she competed at this year. She has also picked up World Cup medals on balance beam and floor exercise – a testament to her budding strength as an all-arounder.

Gold for Nemour and nothing for France

For the French national team, this is a missed opportunity that will be talked about for years to come.

Hosting their first Olympic Games since 1924, France came into this Olympic Games with high hopes to win medals in the women’s artistic gymnastics events. France was coming off a bronze medal finish at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium – their first medal in a team final at the world championships since 1950. They were in contention to win another medal in Paris but finished outside of the top eight in qualifying after several of their top gymnasts fell, dashing hopes of another team medal or any individual medals.

France has had limited success historically in women’s gymnastics. The nation holds one gold medal from either the world championships or Olympic Games. It belongs to Emilie Le Pennec, who won the uneven bars gold in Athens at the 2004 Olympic Games. France’s strongest individual contender in Paris was Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, but she failed to qualify for individual finals after a devastating qualifying meet that saw her make major errors on three of four events.

It’s a game of what ifs, but it’s hard not to think that the outcome would be different if the federation hadn’t ostracized Nemour.

Nemour competed a 7.2 difficulty routine in the uneven bars final – tied for the hardest routine in the world with Olympic silver medalist Qiu Qiyuan of China.

She competes jarringly difficult release skills in combination with other incredibly challenging releases and pirouettes, yet makes all of the skills appear easy with her effortless swing and flow.

The 17-year-old opened up her routine with an inbar 1/1 to Nemour (an inbar laid-out Tkachev that bears her name and carries a “G” difficulty value). She connected the Nemour to a Pak salto, Komova II, stalder 1/1, Ricna 1/2, Ezhova, and Chow half. To connect two or even three release moves and pirouettes is difficult for many high-level gymnasts. Nemour connected eight such skills in a row and finished with a toe 1/1 to double layout – a dismount that most gymnasts can’t do in connection, let alone without multiple giants preceding it.

The result in Paris? A 15.700.

Nemour became Algeria’s – and Africa’s – first Olympic medalist in gymnastics with her win, adding to the history she’s already made as the first Algerian gymnast and first gymnast from Africa to win a medal at the world championships.