Ellie Downie

Elissa Rebecca "Ellie" Downie MBE (born 20 July 1999^[1]) is a retired artistic gymnast who has represented Great Britain. She is the all-around 2017 European gymnastics champion, the first gymnast to win a major all-around title for Great Britain.^[a]

The younger sister of triple European champion Becky Downie, Downie first came to prominence as an outstanding junior gymnast at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics,^[2] winning four medals. At the age of 15, she became the first British woman to win an individual all-around medal at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, with a bronze in 2015.^[3] Later that year, she was part of the team that won Britain's first global team medal, a bronze, at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. At the 2017 European Championships, she made history again by becoming the first British gymnast to win the all-around at a major international competition.^[4]

On 23 January 2023, Downie announced her retirement from the sport.^[5]

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Junior career

Downie competed at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, and won a gold medal on vault, a silver medal with the British team and a bronze medal in the all-around. Based on this performance, she was selected to compete at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China. There, she earned four medals: a silver on vault behind Wang Yan and bronzes in the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise.

Senior career

2015

Downie made her senior debut at the 2015 British Championships. She won silver on vault and uneven bars and bronze in the all-around competition, and was named to the British team for the 2015 European Championships along with her sister, Becky Downie.

She performed well in qualifications at the European Championships, qualifying for the individual all-around, vault and uneven bars finals.^[6] On 17 April, she competed in the all-around final and placed third, behind Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland and Maria Kharenkova of Russia, with a score of 56.623, winning the first ever individual all-around medal for a British female gymnast at the European Championships.^[3]

Downie was the Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Month for April 2015.^[7] On 20 December, she was named the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.^[8]^[9]

2016

In May 2016, Downie won all four individual event titles at the FIG World Cup event in Osijek, Croatia,^[10] becoming the first gymnast to accomplish this feat at a World Cup competition since Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1975.^[11] The following month, at the 2016 European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, she won silver medals with the team and on vault and floor exercise.^[12]^[13]

In July, she was named to the British team for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, along with Becky Downie, Claudia Fragapane, Ruby Harrold and Amy Tinkler.^[14]

Olympic Games

In qualifications at the Olympics, Downie landed on her head during a tumbling pass on floor and was unable to finish her routine.^[15]^[16] However, she returned in the next rotation, performing two vaults, and qualified to the all-around final in 20th place.^[17] She improved on that performance in the final, finishing 13th,^[18] and the British women finished fifth in the team competition.^[19]

2017

In April Downie represented Great Britain at the European Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she made history by qualifying for all five individual finals.^[20] The next day, she became the first British gymnast to win the all-around title at a major international competition, beating Hungary's Zsófia Kovács and France's Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos.^[4] She also won silver medals on vault and floor exercise, and won the bronze medal on the uneven bars.^[21] At the beginning of August she underwent surgery on her ankle due to an injury she had dealt with at both the British Championships and European Championships that year. Due to the surgery Downie was unable to compete at the 2017 World Championships.

2018

While Downie had intended to compete at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, her ankle was still causing her issues despite the surgery she had undergone previously and she did not compete for a majority of the year.^[22]

On 27 September Downie was named to the team to compete at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar alongside Becky Downie, Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, and Kelly Simm.^[23] The team finished ninth in qualifications and did not advance to the team final. Individually Downie qualified to the all-around final where she finished 11th.^[24]

2019

Downie was selected to compete at the 2019 European Championships alongside Amelie Morgan, Alice Kinsella, and Kelly Simm.^[25] She competed at the British Championships where she placed first in the all-around, on vault, and on floor exercise.^[26] She later competed at the Birmingham World Cup where she placed seventh after falling off the balance beam and uneven bars.^[27] At the European Championships Downie qualified to the all-around final in fourth place and to the vault final in first.^[28] In the all-around final Downie finished second behind Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos of France.^[29] She won bronze in the vault final behind 2015 vault champion Maria Paseka and 2017 vault champion Coline Devillard.^[30]

In September Downie was named to the team to compete at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart alongside Alice Kinsella, Becky Downie, Taeja James, and Georgia-Mae Fenton.^[31] During qualifications Downie helped Great Britain place seventh, earning a spot in the team final and qualifying a team for Great Britain to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Individually Downie qualified for the vault final.^[32] During the team final she contributed scores on vault and uneven bars towards Great Britain's sixth place finish.^[33] In the vault final Downie performed a Double-Twisting Yurchenko and a Cheng, earning an average score of 14.816 and winning the bronze medal behind Americans Simone Biles and Jade Carey. This was Downie's first individual World Championships medal. Later that day Downie's sister Becky won her first individual World Championships medal, a silver medal on the uneven bars.^[34]

2020

In early February it was announced that Downie was selected to represent Great Britain at the Birmingham World Cup taking place in late March.^[35] However the Birmingham World Cup was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom.^[36]

2021

In May, British Gymnastics announced that Downie would be taking some time away from gymnastics to be with her family following the sudden death of her 24-year-old brother Joshua^[37] on the eve of the final Olympic trial,^[38] thus ending her Tokyo 2020 Olympic bid.

Controversy

In 2021, both of the Downie sisters spoke out concerning the pressures placed on to competitiors, including over-training when injured and weight-shaming.^[39]^[40]^[41] In 2023 interviews, Ellie stated she had quit to focus on her "mental health and happiness", and also to coach junior athletes.^[42]

Personal life

Ellie is the sister of 2008 and 2016 Olympian Becky Downie.^[43] She attended the Rushcliffe School in Nottingham until the summer of 2015.^[44]

Honours

In April 2022, she and sister Becky received honorary degrees in sport from Nottingham Trent University.^[45]

Ellie and Becky Downie were both appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2024 New Year Honours for services to gymnasts and the sport of gymnastics,^[46] which they received together from Princess Anne at Windsor Castle in early March.^[47]

Competitive history

Year	Event	Team	AA	VT	UB	BB	FX
Junior
2012	British Team Championships		4	6	4	15	5
	British Espoir Championships					18
	UK School Games
2013	WOGA Classic
	Junior British Championships
	British Team Championships	4
	European Youth Olympic Festival		4		7
	Élite Gym Massilia		12		4
	Gymnasiade		6	4			6
2014	English Championships		4			7
	Munich Friendly		4
	European Championships				5
	Youth Olympic Games
Senior
2015	English Championships				9		6
	British Championships					6
	European Championships			5	4
	GBR-NED International Friendly
	World Championships			4			6
2016	British Championships					4	4
	Osijek Challenge Cup
	European Championships
	Olympic Games	5	13
2017	British Championships					WD	WD
2017	European Championships					4
2018
2018	World Championships	R1	11
2019	British Championships					7
	Birmingham World Cup		7
	European Championships
	World Championships	6