Kaylia Nemour Wins Africa's First Olympic Gymnastics Gold
Between Kaylia Nemour and boxer Imane Khelif, Algeria’s women continue to make their country proud at the Paris Olympics.
On August 4, 2024, French Algerian gymnast Kaylia Nemour won gold in the artistic gymnastics - women's uneven bars final in Paris, making history by bringing home the first Olympic gymnastics medal to Africa.
The 17-year-old dual national previously competed for France, becoming the country’s national champion for uneven bars in 2021. Around that time, the French gymnastics federation decided that all aspiring Olympians must train full-time under the umbrella of the National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance either in Vincennes, a suburb of Paris, or in Saint-Étienne, in Southeastern France.
Nemour was born and raised in Saint-Benoît-la-Forêt, Central France, where she lives and trains; she did not want to leave her home and her coaches Marc and Gina Chirilcenco. At that time, she had also been diagnosed with advanced osteochondritis in both knees, an inflammation linked to repeated stress to the joints, and needed surgery. The French gymnastics federation raised concerns that she was overtraining.
The athlete’s refusal to change location and her health condition were conflated into a debate that ended in a stalemate, with the federation stripping Nemour’s coach of his position as national coach and blocking the athlete from competing, even after her doctor had cleared her following a successful surgery.
But Nemour wanted to compete, and so she turned to the Algerian gymnastics team and decided to represent her father’s country instead. France was not happy to let her go and delayed the issuance of a letter every athlete requires when switching to another country, confirming the release from their former federation.
Eventually, one year and social media campaign later, the French minister for sport released her in time to qualify for the 2023 World Championships where she became the first African gymnast to win a medal, taking home silver in the uneven bars discipline. Nemour followed up on this achievement by winning the African all-around championship.
With her stunning, perfectly executed routine — 26 seconds of complex release-and-catch maneuvers — Nemour scored 15.7, tied for the highest score of the meet in any event. Nemour also competed in the women's all-around final, finishing fifth in a star-studded field.For France, Nemour’s switch turned out to be a major loss as the country rarely wins medals in gymnastics. Her performance earned Algeria its sixth Olympic gold medal in history.
North African social media users praised the young athlete’s resilience and talent on Instagram, pointing out the significance of Algerians competing in France and having their national anthem played, in light of France’s colonization and the long anti-colonial war between the two countries.
“I am very, very, very happy with what I was able to do today,” Nemour said. “I am still a little shocked because I do not believe that I am an Olympic champion on the uneven bars. It was my ultimate dream, years of work and hard work, details. I think it is really crazy and I am really honored to have been able to win this medal, first for me and for Algeria too.”