Did you know Simone Biles’ former coach, Cecile Landi, was actually supporting two teams at the Paris Olympics: Team USA and Team France? Biles, Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, Jade Carey, and Hezly Rivera, aka the “Golden Girls,” made history as the fourth American team to win Olympic gold in gymnastics. Simone and Jordan, coached by Cecile and Laurent Landi, were a huge part of that success. Simone took home four medals: three gold and one silver, all due to their coaching, while Jordan was so close to snagging a bronze on the floor, though the IOC later reallocated the medal. Even with all that, Cecile was still fighting for Jordan’s recognition, and she shared some of her emotions and experiences from the Games.

Recently, Cecile Landi sat down for an interview on the YouTube channel Flipping Out with Bridget Sloan. In the interview, host Bridget Sloan asked Cecile about her exciting and busy summer, specifically what it was like to transition from being an Olympian to coaching at the Olympics. Cecile, an artistic gymnast who competed in the 1996 Olympics and later coached at the World Champions Center in Spring, Texas, shared her thoughts: “I mean, this summer was pretty incredible. Like, not only was it in Paris that’s where I was born, my family was there too, so it was kind of full circle going back there.”

Cecile Landi added, “I don’t know, I just feel more pride when my athletes do better than when I did it myself. So, it was really emotional to see them, especially after Tokyo. We all know how that went. To be able to go there and do what they worked so hard for and to get that gold was just amazing.“

Looking back at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. team had a challenging experience. The ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) claimed the women’s team all-around title, marking their first win since 1992, while the U.S. team took silver, losing to the ROC for the second consecutive time in a major international competition. Simone Biles withdrew from the competition after the first rotation due to mental health concerns. Thus, the Paris Olympics was a redemption year for them!

Cecile Landi also shared something really special in the interview, saying, “We had our daughter competing in diving in Paris, so it was pretty surreal to have all three of us in the village, meeting up for lunch or dinner at the cafeteria, and getting to see her compete. It was just unbelievable.” Cecile and Laurent’s daughter, Juliette, born in 2007, competes for the French national diving team and has even committed to Auburn University for NCAA diving.

Following the Paris Olympics, Cecile was appointed to the position of co-head coach of the University of Georgia. However, even with this new chapter, she is still fighting for the bronze medal controversy for Jordan Chiles.

Jordan Chiles fights back!

Chiles lost her bronze medal in the women’s gymnastics floor final after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) concluded that Cecile Landi, Chiles’s coach, filed her appeal to increase Chiles’s score just four seconds past the allowed 60 seconds. First, she got a score of 13.666 from her floor routine performed on August 5, and then after Landi filed an appeal for increasing her difficulty score and it was approved, Chiles got a score of 13.776, which enabled her to get third place.

However, later, USA Gymnastics uncovered evidence suggesting that Landi did submit her appeal on time. A video clip from the Netflix docuseries Simone Biles: Rising shows Landi telling the judges, “Inquiry for Jordan!” just 49 seconds after Jordan Chiles received her score, well within the 60-second limit. The day after CAS’s ruling, USA Gymnastics revealed the video evidence, but CAS rejected it, stating it couldn’t consider new evidence after making a decision.

However, Chiles has sought to challenge the CAS ruling before the Swiss Federal Tribunal, including a seven-minute video in which Landi inquired on time. Jordan and Cecile seem to continue to fight for this, but should Jordan get her bronze medal back, this will also influence Landi’s future.