Georgia taps Simone Biles’ longtime coach to co-lead women’s gymnastics team
Simone Biles and coach Cecile Canqueteau-Landi interact during the Womens Balance Beam Final on day eleven of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre on August 03, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
ATHENS, Ga. - Georgia has hired Cecile Canqueteau-Landi, a longtime personal coach of Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles, to help lead the GymDogs, the school’s women’s gymnastics program.
Athletic director Josh Brooks made the announcement Thursday.
Canqueteau-Landi will serve as a co-head coach alongside Ryan Roberts, who spent the last two years as an assistant under Courtney Kupets Carter. Kupets Carter was fired last week after seven seasons at her alma mater.
Canqueteau-Landi, who competed for France at the 1996 Olympics, has served alongside her husband Laurent as the leader of the elite program at World Champions Centre, the Houston-area gym owned by the Biles family.
The Landis began coaching Biles in late 2017, helping her to three world all-around titles and a pair of medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Biles is preparing for a chance to make the five-woman U.S. Olympic team this summer in Paris.
"Throughout my life, gymnastics has provided me some extraordinary opportunities, from traveling the world and competing for my country at the Olympics to coaching amazing athletes at the highest level," Canqueteau-Landi said in a statement. "Those experiences have helped me become the coach that I am while putting athlete’s well-being first and helping them reach their full potential."
Laurent Landi will continue to serve as the head of the elite program at World Champions Centre.
Roberts spent four years as an assistant at Alabama before coming to Georgia in June 2022. He previously worked with Canqueteau-Landi at World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in suburban Dallas.
Canqueteau-Landi and Roberts will be tasked with reviving a program that has lost its status atop the Southeastern Conference. Georgia has won 10 NCAA team championships but none since last winning it all in 2009. The team did not qualify for this season’s NCAA championship.