Now that she has mastered it, the uneven bars routine that the gymnast Kaylia Nemour has prepared for the Paris Olympics is a sight to behold: a fluid yet treacherous 30 seconds, so tightly woven with difficulty that it has made her a medal favorite in the event. When Nemour performed it in competition last month, it produced the highest score recorded on the bars since the Tokyo Olympics. But while she may wow fans in her home country at these Games, she won’t be doing it under the French flag. Instead, Nemour, 17, is competing for Algeria, the result of a nationality switch last year that followed a protracted dispute with the French gymnastics federation — one that has seen the host nation lose out on perhaps its best chance for a medal on one of the most high-profile stages of the Games. The conflict that drove a wedge between Nemour and the French federation began with a power struggle over training sites ahead of the Games but has since devolved into accusations of overtraining, caustic exchanges and an 18-month administrative inquiry that concluded last December that the federation was “hounding” Nemour’s home gym in Avoine, a village in western France.

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Persons: Kaylia Nemour, Nemour, won’t, ” Organizations: Paris, Games, French Locations: Tokyo, Algeria, French, Avoine, France