As Biles became the best gymnast in the world, her parents founded one of the country's leading clubs. What started as a bit of an impulse, born out of a need for a place for their daughter to train, has since grown into one of the country's largest hubs for top gymnasts.
Five of the 16 women competing in this week's Olympic Trials train at the World Champions Center, more than any other club. None of them, except Biles, began their careers in the Houston area. They've upended their lives in the hope that the WCC, and especially coaches Cecil and Laurent Lundy, can help them reach their lofty goals.
For Biles, it means a place where she can escape the burden of fame and thrive among an elite team, with two Olympians from Jordan and Chile and French star Melanie de Jesus dos Santos accompanying her in training, as well as a group of aspiring teenagers still climbing to the top, including three who qualified for the U.S. national championships.
For Biles, who is 27 and on the brink of competing in her third Olympic Games, it's her teammates that make the sport so enjoyable.
Many gymnasts credit the Landis brothers with helping them improve so quickly. The gym's future is unclear: Cecil is leaving after the Olympics to become co-head coach at the University of Georgia, and Laurent plans to stay on for just one more year.
For now, the club is in great form, with Biles leading the charge and her teammates providing evidence of that rise.
The WCC began as a construction project
After Biles won her first world all-around title in 2013, her coach, Amy Bowman, suddenly decided she wanted to coach somewhere else. Biles could have followed Bowman to a new club, but her mother, Nelly, was skeptical. It was after meeting with Bowman that she first considered building a gym.
“It was the stupidest thing to do,” Nelly says, “but it was an option that was on the table at the time.”
The next day, Nellie drove around looking for signs advertising land for sale. A four-acre parcel near their home caught her eye. She called her husband, Ron, and told him, “We're building a gym.” A few days later, Nellie signed the papers to close the purchase.
The business started with six registered athletes. While the facility was being built, the athletes trained in a small warehouse they called “the shed.” According to Nelly, the building wasn't long enough for vaulting practice, so the athletes had to start their runs from the parking lot.
With Bowman as her coach, Simone trained in the new space, a state-of-the-art mega-facility, less than a year before the 2016 Olympics. After winning five medals in Rio, Simone took a break from competition and Bowman got a new job. In 2017, WCC had no athletes competing in the elite national tournament.
When Simone decided to return to training that fall, she needed a coach. Nelly interviewed several candidates, but her daughter was unimpressed. Then, USA Gymnastics staff recommended Laurent Landy, who had coached 2016 Olympian Madison Kocian.
Laurent flew to Spring, Texas, to speak with Nelly and Simone, and “the interview went in a totally different direction,” Nelly said. Simone hadn't been much of a participant in previous conversations with the coaches, but this time, Nelly found her daughter taking over the interview and speaking with Laurent “in a language that was totally not mine.” They discussed difficulty scores, routine structure, and how the world's best gymnast can get even better.
Nelly knew he should be the one chosen.
Laurent said his and Cecile's training regimen would be a change for Simone, who was primarily coached by Boerman. The Landises had trained large groups at their old gym and wanted to do the same at WCC. Level 10 athletes aiming for college scholarships would train with the elite athletes, including Simone.
WCC's top group has grown so much, thanks in large part to players who have transferred from other clubs, that the gym now has more than a dozen Level 10 athletes and is sending eight elite skaters to this year's U.S. Championships. (All of WCC's elite skaters, except for Biles and Chiles, joined the club within the past three years.) It's rare for skaters at this level to train with their peers; at U.S. Championships, only three clubs had more than three elite junior or senior skaters.
When North Carolina native Darcy Kaylor wanted to move from her Dallas-area club to the WCC, her mother's only hesitation was all He wondered if the gymnasts would get enough attention, but his concerns were erased when he saw the constant feedback the gymnasts received.
“Laurent can get to the other side of the gym and catch almost every turn, and he still has some instruction,” former college soccer player Amy Kaylor said. “He can't miss a bad turn.”
For Jordan Childs, “The best coaching staff I've ever been around”
When Biles returned to competition after the 2016 Olympics, there was no guarantee she would continue to improve — maintaining her past form would have been a feat — but in 2018 and 2019, she proved she was better than ever, winning major championships by huge margins and debuting moves that no other woman had attempted.
But Biles is such a unique talent that WCC general manager Zach Francis said an outsider would think, “Well, that's Simone, she can coach anyone.”
Childs moved from the Pacific Northwest to train with Biles in an attempt to rejuvenate her career, and she has transformed into a consistent competitor heading into the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, crediting her progress to the WCC and the Landis brothers, whom she called “the most amazing coaches I've ever had.”
Suddenly, the club's perception changed. Francis said, “Wow, if this guy can do that, what does it mean to me?”
Six WCC athletes will compete in the 2021 U.S. Championships, and four will advance to the Olympic Trials. Meanwhile, Keillor was a quiet, passionate 13-year-old who wanted a gym with high expectations. Keillor had noticed Chiles' development, and his mother thought the gym run by Chiles' parents would have a stable elite program for the time being.
Keylor tried out at the WCC just before Biles, Chiles and Landis left for Tokyo. (Keylor was so smitten with Biles that she was too nervous to even say hello.) After practice, Laurent asked Keylor, who had yet to compete as a junior elite skater, what her goals were. She replied that she wanted to compete in international competitions next season and ultimately go to the Olympics and win the all-around championship. During their stay in Tokyo, Cécile corresponded with Laurent by email, saying that she wanted Keylor to be at her gym when she returned home.
The group continues to grow, with Jocelyn Roberson and Tianna Sumanasekera joining after the 2022 season. Roberson earned a spot on the 2023 World Championship team after finishing 18th at the U.S. Championships. “It's really amazing to see the changes I've made,” she said, as she had felt stagnant before the move. Sumanasekera struggled on bars and joked that she and Roberson “had multiple heart attacks on Laurent watching us.” Both skaters recently placed in the top 10 in the all-around at the U.S. Championships and advanced to the selection meet.
Although the large number of competitors can make these competitions feel hectic and mentally demanding, Cecil says, “it's a lot better than the other way around.” Time doesn't pass with one competitor standing there while the coach soaks up the pressure. Instead, the WCC group is constantly on the move — giving corrections, moving mats, adjusting platforms. As competitors take turns on each apparatus, the high-stakes environment resembles a familiar practice.
Showing gymnasts what's possible
The world's most difficult moves are routine at the WCC, and as Biles pushes the boundaries of the sport, she expects her teammates to be able to attempt at least some of those elements as well.
“Sometimes in your mind you think, 'Oh my gosh, this is the biggest thing I've ever done,' but when the expectations are high it makes it seem more doable,” said Keylor, who is attending the trials but believes 2028 is her best chance to qualify for the Olympics.
When discussing gymnast improvement, Cecil deflects.
“I don't think it's us,” she said. “It's the girls.”
Most elite gymnasts benefit from the experience of three former Olympians in their training group, but Biles also benefits from her fellow teammates. She has achieved a level of fame that few athletes achieve, but at the World Championships, she is just another gymnast.
“She feels like nothing has changed,” Nelly said, “and that helps with her anxiety.”
Biles' parents assure their daughter that this is their gym, not hers, and the facility is not a shrine to Biles' accomplishments (“It is in my office, but not there,” Nelly said.) Some of Biles' sponsors have their logos on the walls, and the lobby is decorated with photos of past world championship and Olympic teams, but there are also more than 30 banners honoring athletes who have competed or will soon compete at the collegiate level.
The problem comes from outsiders. Nelly said tourists sometimes see WCC as the same as NASA, a must-see attraction in the Houston area. Front-desk employees keep track of everyone who enters. Nonmembers are not allowed to proceed to the parent viewing area; they must watch from near the desk, from which it's difficult to see most of the training areas.
In the gym, there's a deliberate effort to keep Biles calm: At competitions, kids in the crowd yell her name constantly, but at the World Championships she can train without being asked for autographs.
The opportunity to train Biles led the Landises to hatch plans to open their own gym, which ultimately led to the growth of WCC's elite group. But the club has a future even without Biles as a gymnast — whether that's after the Paris Olympics or a little later — and Nelly hopes the club will be more of the same. “Simone is just another person here training in the gym, and WCC is not Simone,” she says.
Despite Biles's celebrity, navigating the WCC after Landis' departure could be a bigger challenge because coaching has a big influence on players' club choices. Laurent will stay on after Cecil moves to Georgia, but only until her daughter graduates from high school next year. Keillor's mother said her daughter asks what Laurent's next, and he jokes that he's going to play golf.
Meanwhile, gyms remain open and there are more athletes preparing for the U.S. Olympic Trials than anywhere else. It's unclear what the club's future will be for the next Olympic cycle, but there's no denying what's happening at WCC now. Nellie Biles' spontaneous decision gave her daughter a platform and other athletes a path to reach their goals.
“The hope is that there is hope, there is opportunity,” Francis said.
