Kaylia Nemour won world silver on the uneven bars this Saturday in conflict with the French Gymnastics Federation. A medal gleaned with the colors of Algeria for which she has been competing since May.
It was with a leotard in the colors of Algeria that Kaylia Nemour, 16, became vice-world champion on the uneven bars in Antwerp (Belgium) with a superb score of 15.033 points. The first medal at the world championships for the African continent was won by a gymnast born in France and trained at the Avoine club, in Indre-et-Loire.
This performance could well have been French if a conflict had not led the young woman to compete since May under the banner of Algeria, her father’s country. “Since she has always trained in France and has always lived here, I would have preferred that she was with us in the French team, but that is not the case,” regretted to the AFP the president of the French Gymnastics Federation (FFG) James Blateau before the competition.
In 2021, the then 14-year-old gymnast underwent surgery on both knees before a long rehabilitation phase. If the doctor of his club had authorized him to resume competition after several months, that of the federation opposed it. As a result, Kaylia Nemour slammed the door of the FFG to join Algeria.
“A desire to harm” for his mother
The French Federation has long blocked the gymnast’s change of sporting nationality, which could have deprived her of participating in the African Championships and the World Championships. In our columns, the mother of the young woman Stéphanie Nemour denounced in March “a desire to cause harm” on the part of the leaders of the FFG.
She explained at the time that she had refused “a federal project which the gymnasts and parents did not support”. The FFG wanted Kaylia Nemour to join INSEP in Paris. Something that the gymnast and her family refused, Stéphanie Nemour being the president of the Avoine club. The Minister of Sports ultimately had to intervene in this matter to allow the gymnast to participate in the African Championships in May 2023, with Algeria.
Before these Worlds, James Blateau declared to AFP that “everyone will accept” Kaylia’s choice to compete under the Algerian banner. The president of the FFG also returned to the heart of this conflict: the state of health of the young woman and the decision not to allow her to resume competition. “Someone whose body is in danger, we considered it necessary to do that. It’s not against the young girl, nor against the club or against I don’t know what, it’s for her health.
Comments that made Kaylia Nemour’s mother react on X (formerly Twitter). “I knew you couldn’t own up to your mistakes, but continuing to spout lies is enough. (…) You blocked Kaylia from the start. You could not stand that Kaylia was not followed by your medical team because obviously, you could no longer have control over my daughter! (sic),” she wrote this Sunday morning.
At the Paris Games, it is under the colors of Algeria that Kaylia Nemour will compete, but without a team around her. “What is hard for her is being all alone,” reacted her coach Marc Chirilcenco, since released by the FFG and who also joined the Algerian federation.
