It’s easy to imagine an 8-year-old Tiana Sumanasekera huddled around a TV or cellphone intently watching as U.S. gymnast Simone Biles swept through the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, where she won four titles.
Nearly eight years later, the scene is different. Really different.
Sumanasekera, now 16, still has Biles squarely in focus but now the two are training mates at the gym owned by the four-time Olympic champion’s parents, World Champions Centre (WCC), in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston.
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“I mean, sometimes it doesn’t even hit me, but when it does, it’s just like, ‘Wow. I’ve really come this far,’” Sumanasekera told reporters during a U.S. training camp earlier this year. “It’s incredible because knowing my younger self, I was just in the sport because I absolutely loved it, and I had such a passion for it.
“So, just being able to do it every day made myself happy and my heart happy,” she continued, “Just knowing that I’ve come this far is something that makes me so incredibly proud and emotional.”
Born in Northern California near San Francisco, Sumanasekera started her elite gymnastics career at West Valley Gymnastics. While there, she finished ninth all-around as a junior at the 2022 U.S. championships.
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Following that competition, she made a major move – going from California to Texas and World Champions Centre.
“I knew I wanted to improve my bars if I wanted to be competitive in the senior elite field,” Sumanasekera says of the impetus for the move. “I’ve always been inspired by and always looked up to Cecile and Laurent [Landi’s] coaching style, knowing they brought Simone from one level to the next is something that I was really in awe about. I really loved their coaching style, so I wanted to be a part of that as well and be a part of an incredible team and have the teammates that I do today.”