The public support, a new element and her life goals. Kaylia Nemour shares her story in an interview with Ginnasticando.it following the African championships.
The gymnast of French-Algerian origin, who is certainly already well known to gymnastics fans – considering the media hype that had been created around her possible participation in these very championships – was given the green light just a few weeks ago. Thereafter, with her considerable difficulties on beam and parallel bars, she was crowned AA champion.
I am extremely happy that I was given the chance to participate in time and that I succeeded. In addition, I qualified for the world championships!
As we had already explained some time ago, the gymnast was in danger of not being able to represent Algeria at these championships due to bureaucratic problems. And consequently to miss out on the biggest goal of her career:
I want to take part in the Olympics and achieve the best possible result.
Growing up in France, she won numerous medals as a child, then a physical problem compromised her training. Therefore she decided to change national teams and the bureaucracy involved generated a real media case. Gymnastics fans even created a petition that collected more than 6,500 signatures to help her. This contributed to speeding up the bureaucratic process that granted Kaylia the necessary clearance. When I asked her if she expected all this hype and help, she replied:
No, I did not expect all this support. It warmed my heart, made me very happy and honoured!
Kaylia Nemour is not 17 yet, but her plans for the future are already very clear. Apart from the Olympics, the big goal of her career was to introduce an element named after her in the score code. Despite her young age, she has already succeeded. It was precisely at the African championships that she presented an element of difficulty G (0.7) on the parallel bars, an inbar Nabieva. That’s why I asked her about the process behind the creation of this very difficult element:
I performed this element with the body pike in 2021. My coach, who knows men’s gymnastics well, was inspired by the Tkachev stretched, in particular that of Thierry Aymes (ed. French gymnast), who performed this element on the high bar about 20 years ago. My coach adapted it because I am comfortable with the inbar stalder.
The French-Algerian gymnast presented herself to the Senior gymnastic world in the best possible way. And she will now have the chance to showcase herself on one of the most illustrious international stages: the World Championships qualifier in Antwerp.
We would like once again to thank Kaylia for taking the time out of her busy schedule to carry out this interview. And we would like to wish her the best of luck not only for this world championship, but especially for what the future holds.
