ATHENS, Ga. — The University of Georgia has hired Cecile Canqueteau-Landi, a longtime personal coach of Olympic 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 past two years as an assistant under Courtney Kupets Carter, a former GymDogs standout. 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 Georgia release announcing the moves. “Those experiences have helped me become the coach that I am while putting athletes’ 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 postseason, which wrapped up last weekend with LSU winning its first team national title but the 20th for an SEC program.
“Thank you to the amazing GymDogs who put the work in every day,” Roberts said in the release. “We have put our heart and soul into each other the past couple years and are on the cusp of some great things. I have known Cecile for years, and she is the exact person to help propel this team to greatness. She is a phenomenal person and coach. Articulating how phenomenal she is isn’t possible and I am very much looking forward to leading this team with her.”