The best gymnasts at the Olympics perform three times, first for the team medals, then for the all-around medals, then for medals on each individual apparatus. Last night, Kaylia Nemour of Algeria performed a near-perfect routine on the uneven bars to win the gold medal. It was Algeria's, and indeed Africa's, first Olympic gymnastics medal. But when they raised the flags at the medal ceremony and played the Algerian national anthem, Nemour did not sing along, because she doesn't know the lyrics. She doesn't speak Arabic.
Kaylia Nemour was born in France, and has always lived in France. She competed for France as a junior, but switched her nationality to Algeria, where her paternal grandparents are from, in 2022. While the international gymnastics federation approved, the French federation blocked it, the media got involved, and Nemour was only approved to compete for Algeria just in time for the African championships in May, which she had to participate in to qualify for the 2024 Olympics. Read the convoluted story of how Kaylia Nemour ended up competing for Algeria at Sports Illustrated. French fans cheered for her anyway, as no one on the French gymnastics team qualified for a final.