The University of Georgia recently recruited Cécile Canqueteau-Landi, Simone Biles’s longtime personal coach. Canqueteau-Landi, a 1996 Olympian and veteran coach, started working with Biles in late 2017 with her husband Laurent at the Biles family-owned World Champions Centre in Texas. Together, the Landis helped Biles win two Olympic and 16 World Championships medals on international mats.
The Landis provided Biles with the physical challenge and motivation she required following the Tokyo ‘twisties’ incident to redefine herself as a trailblazer in the sport. Biles is currently preparing to make the five-woman American Olympic team heading to Paris for the Summer Olympics. In talks about her fresh position, Cecile shared some of Biles’s list of maneuvers for the next gymnastics meets.
Cecile Landi talked about the ever-expanding arsenal of signature moves that 27-year-old Simone Biles will have for the 2024 season. After performing the iconic Yurchenko double pike in 2023, Biles gained recognition for it as her fifth named move fresh off a long hiatus. Discussing Biles’ options in All Things Gymnastics Podcast dated May 13, Cecile Landi told the host, “Right now she’s doing more of the double pike. I think she just wants to do it without Lauren standing on her by the side. She’s ready for it.”
Landi also added, “The Amara is easy for her and it’s back and then the Chang and the, the bars one I can’t remember. She’s practiced that too. So you know she has a couple options.” The host then hilariously added, “Yeah, no one has more options than Simone.” To which Cecile confirmed possibly with great pride, “For sure!”
Raising the bar: How Biles revolutionized vaulting with daring feats
Notably, the most dangerous and adrenaline-rushing moves in artistic gymnastics are Cheng, The Biles, Amanar, Biles II, and Full Twisting Yurchenkois. These feats performed by female gymnasts include upside-down twisting from the vaulting table and hurling down the runway making vault routine scores so hard-earned.
Biles’s ground-breaking Yurchenko Double Pike Vault, which became her second vault named move, earned her a score of 16.100 at the US Classic of 2021. The score surpassed both of her vaults that won gold in the 2016 Rio Olympics. At the 2023 World Championship, she became the first female vaulter to land the technique at an event sanctioned by the International Gymnastics Federation. It’s now known as “Biles II” in the FIG Code of Points.
Possibly the most crucial vault in women’s gymnastics is the Amanar. When it comes to winning gymnastics twists, Team US has easily outperformed all other teams throughout history. At 4 feet 8 inches, Biles stunned the 2015 US nationals with her humanly perfect Amanar vault which earned her 16.000. Biles got 15.150 on her second vault and placed first in the event with an average of 15.575.
From the boundary-pushing to Simone Biles’s habit of producing “leap-forward” moments—the characteristic of once-in-a-generation talent—is what sets Biles apart. May 2024 US Classic is where Biles will make her Olympic season debut; tune in to witness the greatest maneuvers on shows!
