Overcoming Past Struggles, Simone Biles’ Small Help During Paris Olympics Helped Algerian Gymnast Create History

Not everyone has the zeal to turn a debacle into a triumph. Algerian gymnast Kaylia Nemour definitely belongs to that exceptional pack. At the end of an ugly standoff with the French Gymnastics Federation. Kaylia earned the chance to represent her father’s birthplace, Algeria, in the Paris Olympics. The tug of war that kept the chances of her Olympic qualification hanging on the threads till the last moment could not crack her grit.

The 17-year-old stood atop the podium for her bar routine to bring Algeria its first-ever Olympic gold. “I am still a little shocked … 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, its a first for me and for Algeria too. I hope I made them proud,” Kaylia had gleefully said. And surprisingly, Simone Biles played a role in her success.

In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, Kaylia Nemour credited a pep talk from none other than 7-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles for helping her keep the pressure at bay. “Before each move, she’d say to me ‘You can do it, let’s go!'” Nemour said, recalling her time at the Bercy Arena, where the Olympic gymnastics competitions took place. Although she secured the fifth spot in the all-around competition, she seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed her time there.

“She’d encourage me during and as soon as I’d finished, she’d give me a check and say ‘good job’. Frankly, the all-around was a great experience with all the great gymnasts, and I really enjoyed myself,” Nemour said. Not only behind the scenes, Simone was cheering for Nemour even during the uneven bars final. and why not? Look how flawless her routine was!

Nemour’s fluid routine had release move and transition after release move and transition, directly connected, and a skill named after her. The eponymous skill, dubbed as the ‘The Nemour’, is commonly known as an ‘inbar Nabieva’, which is a variation of the incredibly difficult ‘Nabieva’. It is a release move where her legs are piked between the arms. She had debuted the skill in the 2023 African Championships. In the Olympic uneven bars final, the routine brought her a whopping 15.7 with an incredible difficulty value of 7.2.

As Nemour stuck her landing on the mat, Simone, present at the Bercy Arena, was seen sporting a wide smile on her face while applauding her. Nemour’s performance was enough to make the reigning world champion on the bars Qiu Qiyuan of China settle for a silver (15,500) while the Tokyo Olympics bars bronze medalist Suni Lee for the third position (14.800) once again. However, just because she won a gold medal doesn’t mean Nemour is going to rest on her laurels.

Speaking about her plans, the Saint-Benoît-la-Forêt native revealed that her break was coming to an end. “I’m going to start training again, continue competing for my club and Algeria, hoping to go all the way to 2028,” the gymnast said in the interview. However, the uneven bar specialist hopes to improve by leaps and bounds in the next four years.

The upcoming LA Olympics may give Simone Biles and company the home advantage, but Nemour has plans of her own. “I can do something on the beam and in the all-around too,” revealed the France-born Algerian gymnast. Biles won gold in both the all-around and the balance beam in Paris, but Nemour evidently will aim to overturn the picture at LA 2028. Although Kaylia only envisions her rise from here, a little over a year ago, the picture was diagonally opposite, threatening even her participation in Paris.

France’s loss was Africa’s gain: Kaylia Nemour’s journey of defying the odds

Kaylia Nemour’s hiatus with the French Gymnastics Federation started back in 2021. Nemour was already making waves in the French gymnastics scenario by that time. In 2020 and 2021, Nemour beat her senior peers at several French events, while still a junior. In 2021, she won the national championship in the uneven bars. Around the same time, a directive from the French Gymnastics Federation came as a bolt from the blues for Nemour.

It said that all Olympic hopefuls had to train full-time under the umbrella of the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance either in Vincennes, a suburb of Paris or in St.-Étienne, in southeastern France. For Nemour, this meant leaving her hometown and her gym, the Avoine Beaumont Gymnastique, conveniently located just within a mile of her residence. She was happily training there under the watchful eyes of Marc and Gina Chirilcenco, who have churned out top gymnasts for nearly 30 years. So Nemour refused to adhere to it.

“My home is within walking distance from the gym. I’m really happy with my coaches. Why would I leave?” she argued. This planted the seed of the confrontation with the Federation. Amid this, one more incident made the matter worse.

In 2021, Nemour was diagnosed with advanced osteochondritis, an inflammation often linked to repetitive stress of a joint. Nemour had to undergo bone grafting on her knees “to give her the best chance” to make a comeback, her mother Stéphanie Nemour said. The condition has been widely reported in gymnasts across the realm. But in this case, the Federation took it with a grain of salt. They claimed the condition developed from overtraining, an allegation that was already there against the Chirilcenco couple.

Although Chirilcenco refuted the claim, the two issues combined to blow the situation out of proportion. In 2022, while Nemour’s personal doctors cleared her to return to the mats, Federation’s doctors were not on the same page. This stalemate first made Nemour think of competing for Algeria. Since her father had an Algerian passport, she was eligible for that. This, however, gave rise to the second part of the battle.

As per international rules, to change their allegiance, gymnasts have to obtain a letter of release from their former federation or face a holding period of one year. Exploiting this, France refused to release Nemour. This would have made her ineligible to compete till July 2023. Eventually, that meant not competing in the African Championships in May 2023, a stepping stone for qualifying for the World Championships of that year, that would secure the Olympic berth.

After much back and forth, and widespread online rage, French Minister for Sport and the Olympic & Paralympic Games, Amelie Oudea-Castera intervened to release Nemour, just two weeks ahead of the African Championships. While, the French authorities were widely slammed for their handling of the matter and losing out a gold medal prospect, for Nemour, there was no looking back.

After conquering the African Championships, she won a silver on the uneven bars at the 2023 World Championships in the Sportpaleis arena in Antwerp, becoming the first African gymnast to win a world medal. And the rest is history. “The Olympics were a goal I had for myself. Whether it’s for France or Algeria, it will still be me, Kaylia, on the floor,” she had said before the Olympics. The world will indeed wait to see that spark on the mats over and over again!