Alexei Nemov

Biography

Aleksei Nemov was born May 28, 1976 in Barashevo, Russia, but lived with his single mother in a small town on the Volga called Tollyati. He started gymnastics at age 5, was quickly judged to be a remarkable talent, and invited to live at the Round Lake training center outside Moscow, where he has been ever since. He made his worlds debut in 93, qualifying first on floor before falling to 5th in finals, then in Brisbane in 94, was first in his qualifying session before crumbling in the AA to come on 12th. But his big breakthrough was at the 1994 Goodwill Games, where he destroyed the competition, won the AA by a huge margin, as well as four event finals. By European Cup in 1995, he was so awesome he only needed an 8.75 on his final event in the AA, the high bar, to win it all, but he had to count four breaks to crumble to 9th. Sabae worlds were even worse, where he had a catastrophic compulsory round, was 96TH, but then was 1st in optionals, but could not legitimately qualify into the AA. But he did win the vault, and in Puerto Rico this past April, he won vault again, along with silver on P-bars and bronze on pommels.