The young Catalan gymnast who shines in the heart of Africa

BarcelonaIt was during the pandemic, when Tokyo organized strange Olympic Games. Without spectators, with masks and safety distances. In Catalonia, a nine-year-old girl watched the artistic gymnastics competition on television, focused on Simone Biles, the great American star who, at that event, decided that her health was a priority over the pursuit of medals. And in front of the screen, Cora Noguer Muñoz asked her parents why there were no gymnasts from Mali. And with that question, everything changed.

Five years later, Cora has made history at the XIX African Artistic Gymnastics Championships recently held in Yaoundé (Cameroon). At fourteen years old, Cora represents Mali, the country where she was born. A country that had never had gymnasts in a tournament and has now won a medal thanks to this young athlete. “We adopted both children in Mali. Cora’s adoption process was very complicated, it almost seemed like it couldn’t be finalized, as unfortunately political instability affected everything. Mali is a country that suffers from violence and terrorism. And while the adoption of the first child was relatively easy, with Cora it was very difficult, even though we were doing it with the Catalan Adoption Institute. But it ended well, and she has found in gymnastics a sport that makes her happy. When she asked us why there were no Malian gymnasts, everything changed,” says David Noguer, her father.

“At six years old, she started doing gymnastics in Vic. Then she moved to Granollers,” recall the parents, who live in l’Ametlla del Vallès. Doing gymnastics makes Cora happy, although she has already learned that it is a very tough sport. “She spent a whole year almost without competing because she injured both her elbows, an injury you can get when you do uneven bars and don’t fall well.” Quickly, Cora caught the attention of coaches, who saw her achieving good results in lower category championships, especially in vault. What the parents didn’t expect then was that question about the absence of Malian athletes in the Games. “We saw that there was a Malian federation willing to do things despite the lack of resources. We contacted them by email, and the response was very good. The president came to meet us and invited us to an exhibition in Bamako,” explains the father.

Obtaining dual nationality

lived an escalation just as she was at the championships.

This year, the athlete from Club Natació Granollers was debuting at a major event and the results were surprising. “It was hard to imagine it could happen. There is little information about the junior world championships, as there is a lot of gymnast rotation and in one year, everything changes. You only compete for two years as a junior”, explains David. But Cora was optimistic, partly because she could go with her coach, Elisabet Valle, technical director of Club Natació Granollers, former international gymnast and Olympian at the Atlanta 1996 Games. Her technical direction and advice have improved Cora, who arrived at a tournament with important names like Algeria's Kaylia Nemour (Algeria), considered one of the best world specialists on uneven bars and an Olympic gymnast in Paris 2024. Mali, on the other hand, was debuting in a championship where “almost all the gymnasts are from North Africa. Algerians or Tunisians have many athletes born in France. Egypt works well with the support of Eastern European countries and there were also the South Africans”, says David. In some African championships, there were few black gymnasts. So the local crowd started cheering for Cora, who finished among the top seven gymnasts in all of Africa in the junior classification. In addition, she qualified for the finals of all four apparatus: vault, uneven bars, beam, and floor. And she won the silver medal in the beam final. “She almost won a second medal in the floor exercise. In the last vault, she got injured and finished fourth, one step away from a medal”, explains David.

Cora returned injured, but happy. Next year the World Championships are in Morocco and with luck, maybe she will also go to the Youth Olympic Games next October, which for the first time will be held in Africa, in Dakar. For now, she will continue training in Granollers, but pending what happens in her country of birth, where violence experienced an escalation just as she was at the championships. “The president of the Federation was with us and you could see them suffering. Ministers and many people were murdered. Who knows what will happen, but if the Islamists take power, what is certain is that they will not bet on women's sports”, says David. If that happens, young Malian girls will no longer be able to dream of being like Cora.