great hope of the French gym, Kaylia Nemour finally got the right to compete for Algeria

She was at the center of a showdown: 16-year-old French-Algerian gymnast Kaylia Nemour was one of the great hopes of French gymnastics. She finally just got the right to repeat the international competition, but with the colors of Algeria.

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And again, theThe case seemed particularly complicated. Kayla Nemour had been deprived of competing with the Bleues for more than two years, in the midst of an imbroglio between her club at Avoine-Beaumont Gymnastique, in Indre-et-Loire, and the French Gymnastics Federation.

In question: in 2021, the young champion underwent knee surgery. After eight months of rehab, his surgeon allows him to go back to the gym. But not the FFGym doctor, who in March 2022 forbade this hopeful of tricolor gymnastics from resuming training and competitions. A situation that had left the club and the teenager’s family in the greatest turmoil.

A solution is then offered: Kaylia, benefiting from a dual nationality, asks to integrate the Algerian national team. Lhe International Federation gives the green light… but not the French Federation, forcing the gymnast to wait several more months to compete again in international competitions with the Algerian colors and also postponing her preparation for Paris 2024 Olympics.

A meeting at the ministry

Finally, at the end of May 2023, the light is all green: Kaylia Nemour has been able to join the Algerian team and will participate in these first African championships, which will begin on May 26, 2023 in South Africa. Apart from the strong mobilization of his family and his club – where he had continued to train as a foreign athlete – as well as many insurgent athletes and former athletes who we are depriving ourselves of such a nugget for political bickering, it was a meeting in mid-May at the Ministry of Sport which made it possible to unblock the situation.

The French Gymnastics Federation has been convened after revelations by France Télévisions about the violence suffered by the young gymnasts of the French national team. The opportunity for Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera to address the imbroglio around Kaylia… and to resolve it: the FFGym must let the gymnast go. Kaylia Nemour can therefore dream of qualifying for the Paris Olympics, and it’s not a crazy dream: the young woman is one of the best in the world on uneven bars and she can aim for the Olympic peaks.