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“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,” Cécile Landi once expressed her thoughts on her ever-lasting coaching career. Landi is widely recognized in top gymnastics circles, with her coaching career spanning across continents and decades. With a roster filled with notable accomplishments and exceptional athletes, the coach has a reputation for using constructive techniques and has shaped some of the most accomplished gymnasts in the past few years.

The 44-year-old, whose adventure started in France, changed courses when she relocated to the United States in 2004. Three years later, she joined WOGA Gymnastics, mentoring state, regional, and national champs and assisting athletes in obtaining NCAA Division I scholarships. With her coaching career continually churning out gymnastics superstars, Landi’s stellar record only kept getting better over the years. Her students are proof of that!

The plethora of seasoned athletes trained by Cécile Landi

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Landi had an instant impact on WOGA alumni, coaching Alyssa Baumann and Madison Kocian and helping them achieve success on a global scale. In turn, while Baumann locked up a spot on the national squad, Kocian won 2x golds at the World Championship and an Olympic silver. The coach then took over the women’s artistic program at the World Champions Centre (WCC) in 2017., opening up a fresh phase in her career. WCC won 3x world team crowns and 2x Olympic team silver medals with gymnasts like Joscelyn Roberson while she was in charge, an incredible accomplishment. But her story was just beginning to unravel at that point.

At WCC, Cécile Landi took an athlete-centric approach that prioritized optimizing the potential and well-being of her students. As a result, twelve individual Olympic and world medals came from this ideology, including Jordan Chiles’. As a cherry on top, Landi’s got to coach one of her most well-known proteges, 7x Olympic medalist Simone Biles. For the most part, Biles attributes her success to Landi’s coaching, especially during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and America sure will remember the Frenchwoman for that!

Landi’s effect on the American gymnasts’ squads left no room for doubt in her coaching abilities

The U.S. women’s World Championship squads from 2018 to 2019 alongside the 2020 Olympic team were coached by her husband, Laurent Landi. The success of the American squad on the international scene has been attributed greatly to their combined experience. The fact that Landi has mentored eleven members of the U.S. Women’s Senior National Team shows how committed she is to her athletes.

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Cécile Landi is known as one of the sport’s most successful instructors because of the outcomes her coaching has continuously achieved. At present, Landi has been chosen as the co-head coach of the University of Georgia women’s gymnastics team because of her accomplishments. But the trajectory of Simone Biles remains her most cherished achievement to date. If Biles’ words are any indication, she certainly has faith in her coach’s abilities!

Simone Biles’s thoughts on Landi’s new role

Cécile Canqueteau-Landi’s new position wasn’t a mere coaching shift. Some of the top stars in the sport, like Simone Biles, seem to agree. Biles, who received training from Landi, expressed her excitement upon hearing the news of Landi’s new role on one of her Instagram stories. “Congratulations, Cecile. I can’t think of a more deserving person,” shared the gymnast, cheering for the coach with whom she has formed a close bond since 2018. “Can’t wait to see what the future holds for UGA Gymnastics! Y’all are in GREAT hands!” Landi still looks back and cherishes these moments that she shared with her previous students.

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Recounting her professional life, the coach reflects, “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.” In addition to her successes, Landi’s dedication to her athletes professes her love for the game. Now, she can’t keep her excitement in bounds about the brand-new future that awaits her as the co-head coach for the GymDogs at the University of Georgia. “I am thrilled for the opportunity to be the new co-head coach of the GymDogs with Ryan,” she muses. Even after all these years, Cécile Landi’s priority is still creating an environment that is encouraging and helpful for her athletes so that they succeed on and off the mat as she starts her journey at UGA.