“Simone has opened my eyes” – Olympian-turned-coach Cecile Landi lauds Simone Biles

Simone Biles is America's greatest female gymnast almost two years after her extended break.

Despite being away for a significant amount of time, she remains under the spotlight for a variety of reasons, the latest of which involves veteran coach and former French Olympian Cecile Landi.

The Olympian-turned-coach gave an exclusive interview to Olympics.com where she detailed the ups and downs of being a coach. The most intriguing part was when she recalled Biles' choice to sit out various finals at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritize her mental health.

Simone Biles' decision, coupled with the alarming rise of mental health crises in athletes, has brought new perspective:

"It has definitely been a big change, and Simone has opened my eyes on a lot of things."

Simone Biles of Team United States poses with the bronze medal alongside coaches Laurent Landi (L) and Cecile Landi (R)

Landi and her husband Laurent started coaching Simone Biles in 2017 and coached her all the way to her latest competition. Landi addressed the importance of mental health in her coaching philosophy, mentioning that during her time as a gymnast, there was no help available:

"I think we try to listen a little bit more to the athletes because mental health was not real in the nineties for me. It was, ‘You are lazy, you just don’t want to do it,’ or any kind of things like that they would say to us."

Landi competed for France as an artistics gymnast during the 90s. She represented her country at the 1996 Olympics and retired in 1999 to take up a career in coaching.

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Simone Biles' coach Cecile Landi on the focus on mental health in sports

Larry Nassar's case brought up some serious concerns regarding power dynamics and abuse within USA Gymnastics. Cecile Landi's athlete Simone Biles was at the center of all the events along with her teammates who spoke out against the physician.

The coach talked about how the case had a major impact on the advocacy of mental health within sports:

"Mental health became more and more [important] in the past five years, I would say, with the scandal in USA Gymnastics and all those athletes that were abused, that’s when we saw that it did affect them way more than we ever thought."

Simone Biles of Team United States and coach Cecile Landi

Academic research in the field of sports psychology shows that the coach-athlete relationship is one of the most important correlations that affects an athlete's performance.

Research suggests that a coach's role should include fostering an environment that accommodates and supports an athlete's mental health and those currently receiving healthcare. Landi mentioned how she is trying to build such an environment:

"Talking with Simone and with the girls… I just want them to know that they can tell me anything. I watch the body language a lot, I try to see. Then, I ask, 'What’s going on? Are you OK? Do you want to talk? Do we need to talk and take a day?"

"That’s fine ... I think it’s more on a daily basis, being mindful and careful on the girls’ body language. We see them every day, so we can tell when something is off."