Landi had known for a while that she wanted to try coaching at the college level, which features slightly easier routines but a much different team-oriented competition format. She just didn’t know when and where.
In April, Georgia fired its coach, 2004 Olympian Courtney Kupets Carter. Then-assistant Ryan Roberts applied for the top job. He had worked at WOGA — albeit at the club’s other location — when Landi coached there, and in his interview, unbeknownst to Landi, he said he wanted Landi to join him in Athens. The athletic director then pitched the idea of Landi and Roberts sharing the role as co-head coaches.
Georgia was once the standard-bearer in college gymnastics, winning five straight national championships from 2005 to 2009. The team’s next two coaches, neither lasting more than five years, mustered some top-10 finishes but nothing close to the previous heights. The school then brought in Kupets Carter, the star gymnast from that dominant era, but the program fell further, ending the season ranked 18th or lower the past four years.
Now Landi and Roberts will try to revive a dormant dynasty.
“I want to win championships,” Roberts said. “I want to win conference, and I want to win nationals. Who better to do it than somebody who’s done it on the biggest stage in the world?”
For Landi, it all happened fast. When Georgia fired Kupets Carter, Landi was in Italy, coaching two of her gymnasts at an international competition. Landi initially talked with Roberts as a concerned club coach: A gymnast from World Champions Centre who graduates next year is committed to Georgia. And as Roberts pursued the head coaching job, Landi said she could be a reference for him.
Soon after, Roberts called Landi with his plan: He wanted to work together. Roberts respected Landi’s technical acumen and her athlete-centric approach. Roberts, previously an assistant at Alabama, had reached out to Landi several years ago when the Crimson Tide needed a coach — “She was my first in mind at that point, too,” Roberts said — but the timing wasn’t right.
Even when Roberts called about the Georgia job, Landi said her first reaction was: “Ha, good one. You know I can’t go now.”
Landi initially believed next year would make sense for a potential career move because her daughter has one more year of high school.
But when Landi talked with Georgia officials as the Olympic season was just about to ramp up, her husband listened and said: “Just accept. Why would you say no?” As a family, the Landis agreed to go for it.
“I don’t think I’ll get that good of an opportunity anytime soon,” Landi said. “Simone was the first one to tell me: ‘I’m so happy for you. You need to go.’”
Laurent will stay in the Houston area with Juliette and remain at World Champions Centre a bit longer as his wife begins the new role. Then he will move to Athens, with his next job uncertain.
In an intense meeting, shortly after Landi revealed the news to her gymnasts, Georgia made the daring and eye-catching hire public. Landi still had four months left before her NCAA career started, but she will now start getting ready for the collegiate season, which gets underway in January.
The co-head coach arrangement, Roberts acknowledged, is a little “unorthodox,” but he thinks “this is going to be a better model than what maybe any of us could do alone.”
According to reports, Roberts will make $265,000 and Landi $340,000 year, respectively. Both salaries are greater than Kupets Carter’s and show Georgia’s desire to bring the program back to life.
Ashlyn Broussard, a gymnast who competed at Georgia from 2014 to 2017, stated that “what they need right now is a strong leader that will bring everybody together, understanding the objective, understanding the purpose and the cause.” Broussard had trained with Landis at the club level. “I genuinely believe Cecile will be able to accomplish that.”
The majority of head coaches in the NCAA come from the assistant ranks, and many of them were gymnasts in college. Landi will face a new challenge in recruiting and assume greater administrative responsibilities while in college. When putting together lineups for each apparatus, strategy is involved in addition to the necessity to maintain the satisfaction and commitment of the gymnasts who are not competing. Gymnastics at the NCAA level is comparable to level 10, which is the highest level of the development program. Landi has coached many of those athletes. The distinction is that college gymnastics places a greater emphasis on flawless execution of routines than does elite gymnastics.
According to McDonald, the coach at UCLA, Landi’s “beliefs and her objectives behind why she coaches” are aligned with NCAA gymnastics. McDonald mentioned that Landi wants players to have a voice and work in a constructive environment.
Olympic team substitute Joscelyn Roberson stated that the Landis fight for their gymnasts. And in Paris, Chiles, who finished third in the floor final, had his score successfully contested by Cecile Landi. However, authorities later declared that the investigation was deemed unlawful due to its somewhat late submission, and Chiles was required to surrender the bronze medal.USA Gymnastics has persisted in resisting that.
Roberson’s father, Jeff, stated in an interview from the previous year, “Those are her girls, and she’s going to bat for them all the time.”
A number of athletes referred to the Landis as father figures. Cecile is “the mom that you go to when you’re just having a terrible day, and she’ll listen to you, and she’ll try to help you work through things,” according to Briley Casanova, a former member of the U.S. national team who trained with them for years.
The 29-year-old Casanova stated: “She is not ego-driven.” She genuinely cares about her athletes’ success.
The NCAA may require Landi to make some adjustments. There is no assurance that Landi will have the same level of success in another area of the sport after coaching Biles to Olympic gold. It’s still gymnastics, though. Helping a collegiate athlete succeed in her biggest competition of the season is similar to preparing a gymnast to perform a beam routine under pressure in the Olympics. And Roberts feels confident because of that.
Roberts stated, “There’s one more thing; she’s accomplished everything else in the sport.” “Achieve a college national championship.”
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