![]() ![]() After years of considering surgery to fix the fraying ligaments in her left elbow, she fell badly at the 2017 European championships and the ligaments snapped. So, it was there, the routine was there – I had to process that and think: ‘You were good enough.’”ĭownie’s latest battle has been the toughest injury of her career. “For me, the most frustrating thing was that I beat the Olympic champion, Aliya Mustafina, eight weeks before at the European championships. When I had time to process it all and look back it wasn’t because I wasn’t good enough. “After Rio, I was heavily debating retiring. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA Wire/PA Images Instead, she left Brazil wondering if she had the strength to carry on.īecky Downie on her way to winning silver in the uneven bars during the 2019 European Games in Minsk. Without the deduction, she would have outscored the eventual bronze medalist. Her routine in the preliminary rounds was excellent except for one freak error – her toe brushed the top bar, incurring one huge deduction. Instead, another Olympics left her heartbroken. When Great Britain confirmed their rise to the upper echelons of the sport by winning team bronze at the 2015 world championships, Downie was the leader and the team’s rock.ĭownie arrived at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the form of her life and with a great chance of finally winning her first medal. After being known for much of her career as a supreme talent who struggled to maintain her composure with major medals on the line, her moment of reckoning came when she won the European championships on uneven bars in 2014, beating the Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina before retaining her title in 2016. But, for me, after that it was like: ‘OK how do I stop that from happening again? You have to be so good that they can’t not put you on a team.’”įor seven years, Downie has been that good. “That was heartbreaking because I had never not made a team in my career until that point,” she says. Downie was distraught, but in hindsight the snub lit a fire within. ![]() For a while, it seemed like it would be defined by her bitter 2012, where after being Britain’s second-in-command behind Tweddle for five years, the first major team she did not make was for her home Olympics. I think I’ll stick with the normal one.”ĭownie’s abnormal skill selection complements a career that has been far from regular. People say: ‘Will I try it?’ But I just don’t think it’s for me. When I ask Ellie Downie, Becky’s sister and the 2017 European all around champion, if she has ever tried the Tweddle, she laughs in my face: “We debated trying that but I can barely hang in that grip because I’m just too stiff.” Alice Kinsella, who won the European title on beam this year, simply closes her eyes and shakes her head: “I’ve never tried it. ![]() Downie believes it can drive her to secure the world or Olympic uneven bar medal she has been chasing for 12 years.įor many other gymnasts, just the first skill alone, the Tweddle, is impossible. The connection was invented by Beth Tweddle, Britain’s greatest female gymnast, and it is widely considered one of the most difficult in the world. ![]()
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