On Thursday, April 18, SEC Freshman of the Year Lily Smith capped off her stellar rookie season by earning an impressive four All-America honors while competing as an individual qualifier at the NCAA national championships in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a star-making performance from the Georgia freshman, the highlight of a 2024 season punctuated by flashes of brilliance that hinted at the team’s enormous potential that was unreflected by its No. 18 finish in the final rankings. This was the third year in a row (fourth, if you count the abbreviated 2020 season) that the winningest program in NCAA gymnastics history finished well outside the nationals bubble.
Less than 24 hours later, University of Georgia Director of Athletics Josh Brooks announced that the program would be parting ways with seventh-year head coach Courtney Kupets Carter, the most distinguished Georgia gymnast of all time and one of the best collegiate gymnasts to ever compete. It was the first move in a six-day period of unprecedented plot twists that may ultimately reshape the landscape of Georgia gymnastics—if not college gymnastics altogether.
As then-assistant coach Ryan Roberts can attest, a whole lot can change in six days.
Roberts describes the following Thursday as one of the more stressful days of his professional life, the culmination of “six days that felt like six years” worth of events set in motion the night he returned to Athens from Fort Worth to learn along with the team that Kupets Carter would not be returning.
“Nobody really knew that that was coming,” Roberts said. “We were just kind of in limbo for a few days. My main goal was to call all of our team members, parents, recruits, and their parents and stay positive.” He promised to give them information as soon as it was available.
Meanwhile, rumors, speculation, and commentary of varying validity proliferated across social media platforms following the announcement. A brief glimpse into the fray was enough to induce Roberts to log off for the remainder of the search. “I shut down that social media response fast and focused on keeping the team together,” Roberts said. “That was my main focus—encouraging them to talk to me and talk together and to be positive and be patient about it because these processes can take a long time. And it seemed like a long time, even though it only took six days.”
Ironically, it was Kupets Carter who encouraged Roberts to put his hat in the ring for head coach a couple of days after her departure. Upon getting the call to come in for an interview with Brooks a few days later, Roberts “threw on a suit” and made his case.
Though not part of his initial pitch, Roberts recalled that, “In the back of my mind, I thought doing a co-head coach position is a possibility. I just kind of knew that [Brooks] was going to say something about that.”
Roberts’ intuition was correct. In one of the conversations following their initial interview, Brooks and Roberts discussed the idea and agreed it would work. When Brooks asked who Roberts had in mind for his counterpart, he didn’t have to take long to answer: Cécile Canqueteau-Landi.
The former French Olympic team member is now best known as the personal coach (along with husband Laurent Landi) to Simone Biles. Prior to her time working with some of the world’s highest profile elite gymnasts at Biles’ gym, World Champions Centre, Canqueteau-Landi coached at several of the most prestigious clubs in the country, including WOGA, where she first worked with Roberts.
“We tried to get Cécile to come to Alabama [following then-head coach Dana Duckworth’s departure in 2022],” Roberts said. “I always thought that she’d be an amazing NCAA coach, and if I was going to hire somebody, my first choice would be her.”
Beyond Canqueteau-Landi’s sterling credentials, Roberts knew their shared vision, complementary styles, and collective experience could be the key to rejuvenating Georgia gymnastics. “Cécile and I have such respect for each other, and we’ve worked together in the past,” Roberts said. “We have a similar philosophy, and so we determined that this was going to be the best way to move this team forward in the direction it needs to go.”
It wasn’t hard to sell Brooks on the proposal. Upon bringing Canqueteau-Landi into the conversation, the three agreed this strategy, however unorthodox, had the best chance at restoring the GymDogs to their previous glory.
On the evening of April 25, exactly a week removed from the NCAA semifinals, gymnastics social media erupted with the news that Brooks and Georgia’s administration had made its final decision and a formal announcement from the university was imminent. Fans, insiders, and media outlets guessed that any number of rumored candidates would be named Georgia’s new head coach, though if anyone who wasn’t involved in the process clocked Roberts and Canqueteau-Landi as the presumptive hires, they didn’t post about it. For a sport with such a heavy online presence, it’s a testament to the trust and respect both Roberts and Canqueteau-Landi have earned that no one leaked the news prematurely.
The big reveal came off without a hitch.
As fans and the gymnastics community at large processed the announcement, the response from several of the gymnasts directly and indirectly impacted by the decision—including Simone Biles herself—was swift and enthusiastic.
“[Cécile] brings a long history of coaching high level athletes and supporting them in a way that helps each individual be the best they can be,” said former Georgia gymnast Rachel Baumann, who was coached by Canqueteau-Landi at WOGA. “She is dedicated, highly competitive, and knows how to get each athlete prepared to compete to the best of their ability. Cecile will definitely excel in this area and bring a winning culture to the program.”
So, what’s next for Georgia gymnastics? After some initial panic at the immediate challenges of “taking care of the team, taking care of the recruits, hiring staff, checking off this and that by myself,” Roberts got some hard-earned rest and clarity over the weekend following his appointment. He confirmed that Canqueteau-Landi will not officially step into her new role until after the Paris Olympics in August, and—as such—will not be involved in any decision-making or recruiting until that time. That said, both head coaches look forward to building on the momentum the GymDogs have generated this season and “doing right” by past, present, and future Georgia gymnasts and staff.
“The last two years I’ve had a really, really fun time with this team,” Roberts said. “I love Courtney and her family, and I have the utmost respect for them. She gave me the opportunity to come here, so I want to do right by her, too.”
That said, he’s very clear about what changes need to be made and where the program’s priorities now lie.
“Of course, we’re going to have to hash through daily responsibilities, decision-making, and stuff as a team, but Cécile and I are playing chess. [Getting Cécile on board] was my first move. My second move is getting the rest of the staff.”
As far as immediate priorities go, Roberts has already tackled the first three.
“Priority one: Take care of the team, make sure they’re good, and righting the ship. Priority two: Make sure the recruits and commits are taken care of, that they’re good with everything [that’s changing]. Priority three: Hire a staff. The key is that we hire experienced, balanced staff members who are good people. I think the experience level of this staff is going to be the one major change from before.”
Experienced indeed, as just over a week after hiring Roberts and Canqueteau-Landi, the team announced the appointment of Oleksii Koltakov and Marissa King as assistant coaches. Koltakov has spent time at Nebraska and Alabama while King competed for Great Britain at the 2008 Olympics, as well as for Florida in college. As a coach, she made stops, alongside husband Koltakov, as a volunteer coach and assistant coach at Nebraska.
Roberts and Canqueteau-Landi will primarily coach bars and beam, respectively, and have identified the leg events (vault and floor), performance quality, and choreography as the program’s current weak points. Roberts described his new assistants as “a strong technical tumbling coach and choreographer.” He also took the current team members’ priorities into account. “I want to know what [qualities and character] our team wants, I want them to advocate for themselves, and I wanted to hire the best for them.”
Those conversations have already proven fruitful, too. Ady Wahl, one of the unsung heroes of the 2024 roster, expressed her desire for “a pump-up person,” a valid need he or Canqueteau-Landi wouldn’t have necessarily identified themselves.
“That’s definitely who we need on our staff because I’m not especially the ‘rah-rah pump up person.’ I celebrate in my own stoic way,” Roberts said. “But we do need somebody to rally the troops and show some big celebrations and just be a hype person.”
With two seasons in Athens under his belt, he also recognizes the vital role alumni and fan engagement plays in NCAA gymnastics’ success compared to elite and club programs. Roberts again describes his intention to “do right by” Georgia alumni, season ticket holders, and fans by providing them with regular updates about the team’s progress and including them in events. His personal goal is to have that foundation set prior to Canqueteau-Landi’s August arrival so they can immediately focus on coaching and recruiting.
“I want the team to really take advantage of the GymDogs in the community. We need to fill the stadium—there’s no reason why we can’t do that. I’m getting all that solidified now so that when Cécile comes, we raise the sails and we move forward.”
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Article by Claire Billman
