“Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour won her country’s first gold medal in gymnastics (Suni Lee) Sunday while American Sunisa Lee added a third Paris medal with bronze in the uneven bars final”
Nemour combined a exhilarating routine to defeat China’s Qiu Qiyuan.
It was the sixth medal of her Olympic career for Lee. She also won uneven bars bronze in Tokyo three years ago.
“One more and go,” said Lee, who drew the last starting position Sunday It means so much more because last Olympics, I kept saying that I wanted to come back and do bars better for myself. I was just trying to put in a good, clean run. If I simply repeated what I had been doing the last few days, then medaling was ensured. I wanted to go up there, see if I can rise and grind.
Although French, Nuria Nemour still trains in France but now competes for Algeria after a row with the French gymnastics’ federation and her club of Avoine Beaumont, which has seen the 18 year old embrace her father’s Algerian nationality.
Those included 17-year-old Nemour, who had a series of bar changes with releases and intricate hand movements that were both acrobatically as well as technically challenging. Qiu’s 15.5 thrilled the crowd and she covered her mouth when it was announced, then hugged coaches after finishing with a little hop off of beam that drained from an already depleted emotional tank even more.
While Nemour was essentially racing under a different flag — she held the Algerian banner behind her right after winning–she may well have felt at home. She roused a roar of emotion in becoming Algeria’s first ever medalist on the gymnastics arena.
Hunter Lee has fought kidney diseases for a majority of the last 15 months, which put restrictions on training. It was not until December that she started to truly prepare for Paris. And seven months later she busted out of retirement with the Simone Biles-led U.S. women to grab team gold last Tuesday.
When it’s just me, I feel like all the pressure is fine,” Lee said. I LOATHE team final. It’s so nerve-wracking. Being that I am having to compete for the team and my score counts, its not just me out there. If I gaff-too it is very hard on myself.
Lee has now won six medals, including the bronze in all-around, which ranks her second to Shannon Miller for most by an American gymnast. Lee could equal Miller in the balance beam final on Sunday.
“Six medals — and I can’t believe it,” said Lee. And this Olympics has certainly been much more impactful. It’s such a cool experience her and I are getting to do together, so Im trying to milk it all.
The Filipino’s two-vault average of 15.116 clipped the better efforts of Artur Davtyan (Armenia) and Harry Hepworth (Britain).
China’s Liu Yang had earlier retained his Olympic gymnastics title on still rings with a score of 15.300 to pip compatriot Zou Jingyuan in the final sinus (access the finals here).
The 29-year-old Liu, whose event demands extraordinary strength and perfect body control, is the third man to win more than one Olympic title in any apparatus behind Albert Azaryan of Russia and Akinori Nakayama of Japan.
