Leaving the side of the greatest gymnast of all time is no small decision. When Cécile Canqueteau-Landi stepped away from coaching Simone Biles to become co‑head coach of the Georgia GymDogs, she was filled with uncertainty. Her entire career had been rooted in elite and Olympic gymnastics. She had never led a collegiate program before. It was Biles who encouraged her to go, telling her, “You need to go… I can’t think of a more deserving person.” Now, two years later, Canqueteau‑Landi has shared her verdict on that career‑defining move.

The 1996 Olympian-turned coach has already helped Georgia return to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2019, earning a place in Fort Worth among the country’s top eight teams. Ahead of the NCAA semifinals, she was asked on X by @sbregman87 whether she missed elite gymnastics, and her answer was immediate and clear:

“No,” she added, “I have no FOMO.”

It is an interesting statement from someone who once coached Biles and helped her to win 15 gold medals at major international competitions. But for Canqueteau-Landi, the shift was not easy.

Her move away from elite gymnastics came after the Paris 2024 Olympics, when she and her husband, Laurent Landi, stepped away from World Champions Centre, which is owned by Simone Biles’ grandparents in Texas. But the transition was not simple. While her elite background brought experience and high expectations, college gymnastics required a different kind of coaching.

Even though initially she thought the gymnastics was the easier part, the harder part was everything around it, “perfection,” from meetings and donors to the structure of college athletics and athletes adjusting to independence for the first time.

“When I came to Georgia, they’re all [adapting],” Canqueteau-Landi said. “They’re on their own for the first time; there’s no mom and dad, you’ve got to figure out everything by yourself. It’s overwhelming. Expectations are huge. The schedule is crazy. And sometimes the mental health is affected.”

It is here that her experience with Simone Biles became important. Watching Biles speak openly about mental health since Tokyo 2020 has changed her perspective as a coach.

“Simone opened my eyes, and I think everyone’s eyes,” she said. “Having gone through what Simone went through helped me realize that it is everywhere. I don’t think anyone felt ashamed of telling me on my team, ‘I don’t feel right, I need help’. So, I thank Simone for that.”

And that mindset shift changed her coaching style, which is visible in Georgia’s success.

Simone Biles’ influence on Cecile helped spark Georgia gymnastics’ revival

Before Cecile Canqueteau-Landi arrived, Georgia gymnastics was far from its historic peak. One of the most successful NCAA programs in the past, with multiple national titles in the 1990s and 2000s, had slowly fallen out of top contention. In the 2023 season, Georgia finished 8th in the SEC Championship with a score of 196.600, sitting in the lower half of the conference. They also failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships during that period.

That began to change when Cecile joined Georgia as co‑head coach in 2024. At first, the struggles continued that season, with Georgia ranked around 18th nationally. But the program was clearly in a rebuilding phase and relying on a younger roster.

With Cecile’s elite-level experience from coaching Simone Biles, she brought a new training culture focused on confidence, consistency, and belief. The improvement was gradual at first, but steady. Over time, the GymDogs began climbing back toward competitive scores and stronger performances. But in this, Simone Biles also played a supportive role in that transition.

Simone Biles, after winning the gold medals in the Paris Olympics, has not appeared in major gymnastics events, but she showed up in support of Cecile. In 2025, she visited Athens for Georgia’s season opener, standing by her former coach during her first major moments with the team. After the meet, Simone and Cecile shared a conversation featured by Georgia Gymnastics, where Simone spoke warmly about her former coach.

“Elite gymnastics can be so stressful, and Cecile is so kind-hearted, so to see her give that love to other gymnasts, especially in collegiate gymnastics, it’s super exciting.” She also added, “We kinda always thought she would be a great college gymnastics coach, but we just needed that opportunity, and Georgia gave it to us. So we were like, wohooo, let’s go support, Cecile!”

For Cecile, that support from Simone Biles and her own results now point to the same place.