00:00She was on track to win an Olympic gold medal, but when her own home country tried to force her
00:05away from the people she trusted and loved just for a chance to compete in the Olympics,
00:10Kalia Namor refused to comply, and she thought she'd never again have a chance to compete on
00:15the world stage. At just 14 years old, Kalia was already proving herself as the best gymnast in
00:21France, and she was on track to be the best in the world. She was winning competition after
00:26competition, consistently getting the highest scores in every discipline. But in 2021, after
00:31the bone and cartilage in her knees broke down in a condition called osteochondritis, she needed to
00:37get two knee surgeries if she was going to have a chance of competing again. Thankfully, the surgeries
00:42were successful, and after six months of recovery, her doctor cleared her to compete again. However,
00:48the doctor from the French Gymnastics Federation, also known as FF Gym, refused to give Kalia the
00:54green light to compete, barring her from any event sanctioned by the International Gymnastics
00:59Federation. But why? Well, it all started when the FF Gym declared that in the lead-up to the Paris
01:052024 Olympics, all gymnasts who had the potential to compete must relocate to Paris to train directly
01:12under the FF Gym's guidance. For Kalia, that would mean leaving behind her home, her parents, and the
01:18coaches at her gym, Avon Beaumont, whom she'd trained with for years and grown to love and trust. Kalia
01:24and Avon Beaumont refused, and the FF Gym stripped the centre of its funding and its status as a state
01:30training centre. As a result, Kalia would not be allowed to represent France at the 2024 Paris
01:36Olympics. But that didn't necessarily mean that she wouldn't be able to compete. See, Kalia's father
01:42was Algerian, which meant she had the option to switch her nationality. So she did. And before
01:47long, her Algerian passport was in the mail. However, when French athletes do change their
01:52nationality, there's a one-year holding period, where the athlete can't compete under a new flag
01:57unless the holding period is waived. When the FF Gym discovered what Kalia had done, they weren't
02:02happy, and they refused to waive the holding period. When the French media and public got wind of this,
02:07they were absolutely outraged. They exposed the FF Gym's shady practices, and they forced the
02:12Federation to release Kalia, allowing her just enough time to compete in the events she needed
02:17to qualify for the Olympics. The Algerian Federation welcomed Kalia with open arms, allowing her to
02:23continue training in her hometown with the coaches that she trusted. And before long, Kalia was on
02:29her way to Paris 2024, whether the FF Gym liked it or not. On the day of the uneven bars,
02:35Kalia represented
02:36the Algerian flag, her story being featured in just about every French publication. By that point,
02:42nearly everyone in the stadium knew what she had been through. So, even though the French
02:46Gymnastics Federation weren't supporting her, the French people certainly were. Kalia performed her
02:52heart out, and she won. And to the FF Gym's dismay, the French flag didn't even appear on the podium.
