When Becky Downie competed in the Beijing Olympics, her sister Ellie was only nine and had no idea it was such a big deal. Now that she has competed in an all-around final on her Olympic debut at 17, Ellie has changed her tune. “It’s really amazing to be here,” she said after a strong debut in the all-around final. “And to know I have so much more to give.”
Halfway round, a seventh-placed Downie had hopes to contend for a medal as several of the leaders were struggling on the beam. But she mistimed a leap to the lower bar and was left spinning round it like a malfunctioning Catherine wheel. “I think that was just a little bit of a lack of concentration which is annoying,” she said.
She may also have regretted the decision to go for broke with her big new double Arabian dismount on beam. She performed a completely clean routine on the bar – despite being made to wait a long while before taking to the apparatus – but mistimed the dismount and fell forward on to her knees.
“I haven’t been able to train that dismount too much this week,” Ellie said, “because I hurt my back in podium training and had to have a day off, then in qualification I fell on my head and had to rest again the next day. So it’s all been a bit up and down. But looking at the scoreboard, if I added on my mistakes I’d actually be in the top three. So to know that is incredible.”
If she had scored 0.075 more, she would have edged out her sister Becky as the best-achieving all-around gymnast in British Olympic history. As it is, Becky’s 12th place in 2008 still stands. “I think she’ll be pretty happy about that,” she laughed.
It has been a difficult few days to negotiate for the sisters: Becky missed out on the bars final that she has worked towards for the past four years when she caught her toe during her routine. The pair are extremely close and will normally pick each other up when they are down but this time they have been unable to. “She hasn’t talked to me about it because she didn’t want to distract me too much,” Ellie said. “Our other team-mate Ruby Harrold had completely finished and so she mainly let it all out on her.
“Ellie’s really happy with her performance but we can’t make a massive fuss of Ellie because Becky’s really hurting at the moment,” revealed their mother, Helen, in the hour before the competition began.
Where Becky is serious, single-minded and something of an introvert – she’s happy to disappear alone to her room for hours on end – Ellie is the more sociable and chatty of the pair. Her mum Helen put her in pre-school gym classes as a way to kill time while waiting for her talented sister; but coaches at the Notts Gymnastics Club soon realised there was something special about her. “She was really brave,” said Helen. “She had a lot of stamina and wasn’t scared of doing all the high things.”
Ellie, taller than her sister, is also more powerful, as evidenced in her perfectly landed Yurchenko on vaulton Thursday night, which scored her a considerable 15.100. She has been working on another vault with an extra half-twist, and when it’s ready for competition she will be able to take on anyone in the world. On floor, she has been working hard to add the elegance which comes so naturally to Becky, who danced ballet and tap as a child.
Her sister was alongside her as she prepared for the bars, checking the chalk and tension on them, as gymnasts themselves are not allowed to touch the apparatus before their performance. It had shown considerable strength of character for Downie to even make this final, after landing badly on her neck during her floor routine in qualifications.
She has suffered concussion before and when she left the arena to be checked over even her parents thought her competition was over. Here in the final she nailed the two and half-twist into front somersault tumble that had caused that fall and scored nearly two extra points.
Her performance will be proudly celebrated at Notts Gymnastics Club, which suffered a fractious time when the Downies’ lead coach Claire Starkey departed from the club a little over a year ago. “Becky and Ellie always been Notts gymnasts, and they continue to be Notts gymnasts now,” their stepfather Mark said. “Let’s just leave it at that.”
