Uneven Bars, Women

The Tokyo 2020 champion, Belgium’s Nina Derwael, had struggled with knee and shoulder injuries since her gold medal. In 2022, she had managed a bronze at the World Championships, but she had missed the 2023 edition in front of a home crowd in Antwerp. The world titles of 2021 and 2022 were taken by China’s Wei Xiaoyuan, but she did not qualify for the Chinese team in Paris. The 2023 champion, her compatriot Qiu Qiyuan, did make the team.

Qualifying was led by Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour. She was born in France to an Algerian father and French mother and had competed for France as a junior. A dispute with the French federation, however, led Nemour to change nationality to Algeria, a move that was delayed by the French federation. This made qualifying for the 2023 World Championships (and eventually the Paris Olympics) impossible, and an unsuccessful petition was made to try to persuade the federation. When other gymnasts came out detailing abuse they suffered under the federation, the French minister for sports started an investigation. Among others consequences, this led to the release of Nemour, who qualified for the 2023 Worlds, where she ultimately won a bronze in the uneven bars.

Behind Nemour, Qiu had been second in qualifying, followed by Tokyo all-around champion Suni Lee and Derwael. Simone Biles narrowly missed the final on her “worst” apparatus, placing ninth. The four qualifying leaders would occupy the same positions after the final. Nemour had her best exercise of the tournament, improving on her qualifying score to 15.700, and the score was greeted with great enthusiasm from the French crowd. Qiu had a similarly difficult exercise (7.2), but scored narrowly lower with 15.500, while the rest of the finalists were almost a point behind the Algerian. As the last gymnast, Lee narrowly beat defending champion Derwael for the bronze in 14.800. Nemour’s gold was the first ever Olympic gymnastics medal for Algeria, and the first gold for the country since Taoufik Makhloufi in 2012. It was also the first ever gymnastics medal won by an athlete representing an African NOC.