Days After Visiting Simone Biles, Kaylia Nemour Reveals the Day She Chose Herself Over Fear

Kaylia Nemour doesn’t talk much, but when she does, she really means what she says. The current Olympic champion on the uneven bars recently left her longstanding club, Avoine-Beaumont. This caused a lot of talk in the gymnastics world. Most articles talked about her training with Simone Biles’ team in Texas, but not many people stopped to think about why one of Algeria’s best athletes needed a sabbatical in the first place.

For Nemour, the shift was not driven by logistics or a fleeting opportunity. It came after a prolonged stretch of personal discomfort. She described a steady emotional decline in the final months before her departure, marked by mounting strain and diminishing support. “I was emotionally exhausted,” she explained in a recent interview with SpotGym. “I was training in conditions I no longer felt comfortable in, and at one point I said, ‘Stop!’” The moment did not arrive suddenly. It had built over time, quietly eroding her well-being, until it became clear that remaining in that environment would cost more than it gave.

Only from the outside did the story look simple. Internally, Nemour was confronting pressures few others could see. While she expected criticism, it comes with the territory, she said, what unsettled her was the personal nature of what followed. “What I don’t understand,” she said, “is the criticism of my mother to begin with and then of my father. Smearing my parents’ reputation is, in my opinion, particularly malicious.” Her tone was controlled, but the message cut deep. This was not about performance critiques or tactical disagreements. It was about respect, and the lack of it.

Since leaving Avoine-Beaumont, Nemour has found fresh energy alongside coach Nadia Massé at the World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas. There, she has blended technical work with cultural exchange, sharpening her skills with an eye toward the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. For now, the results are evident more in tone than in medals. She looks steadier, more at ease. And while she has not said much about what lies ahead, the clarity in her reflections suggests she knows exactly what she walked away from. And precisely what she intends to build next.

Cast out by France, Kaylia Nemour wins Olympic gold for Algeria in Paris

In a moment full of irony and redemption, Kaylia Nemour, who had been pushed aside by the country where she was born, ascended to a historic peak not in French colors, but in the flag of Algeria. Her win on the uneven bars at the Paris Olympics was Algeria’s first gymnastics medal and, even more impressively, the first gold medal in gymnastics for any African athlete. She didn’t just put on a winning show at 17. She fought against the system that had thrown her away and won inside its own confines.

Nemour’s road to Paris gold was not easy or normal. The French gymnastics federation wouldn’t let her compete because of medical reasons that were in dispute. So she went to her father’s country. At first, the move was seen as a reluctant detour, but it quickly turned into a determined stride. On Sunday at the Bercy Arena, Nemour fought back against Qiu Qiyuan’s 15.500 with a high-difficulty sequence that was both precise and defiant. It wasn’t only a score for her 15.700. “In qualifying I had 15.600, when I saw her 15.500, I said, I really had to fight and gave the performance of my life,” she reflected.

As the final standings confirmed her victory, Nemour stood motionless for a moment before emotion overtook her. With tears and a flag in hand, she acknowledged the weight of what had transpired. “It’s crazy. I’m honoured to have this medal after all that has happened. It’s a relief,” she said, gesturing to a journey shaped by resistance and resilience. In a hall that once might have cheered her as a native champion, she stood instead as a guest who rewrote the script.