Cecile and Laurent Landi helped Simone Biles reach new heights. The Olympics serve as a homecoming

SPRING, Texas (AP) — Cecile Canqueteau-Landi fit “in the box,” as she put it. She was skinny. She was blonde. She was pretty good at gymnastics.

 

And so at 9 years old, she was whisked away to become part of the French national team program, a path that ultimately led her to the 1996 Olympics.

 

There was reward in that journey. Yet looking back nearly three decades later, Landi wonders how many promising young athletes had their careers and their lives altered — and not for the better — because they didn’t fit someone’s preconceived notion of what a gymnast needed to look like by the time they reached their 10th birthday.

 

When Landi transitioned into coaching in the early 2000s, she vowed not to make the same mistake.

 

So maybe it’s not a coincidence that when Landi and her husband, Laurent — himself a former French national team member — walk onto the floor at Bercy Arena for women’s Olympics qualifying next Sunday, they will do it while leading the oldest U.S. women’s gymnastics team — headlined by 27-year-old Simone Biles — the Americans have ever sent to a modern Games.

 

A healthy partnership

In another country in another era, maybe Biles becomes something other than an icon.