Ellie Downie

Ellie Downie
Downie at the 2015 European Championships in Montpellier, France.
Personal information
Full name	Elissa Rebecca Downie
Country represented	Great Britain
Born	(1999-07-20) 20 July 1999 Nottingham, United Kingdom
Hometown	Nottingham, United Kingdom
Height	157 cm (5 ft 2 in)
Weight	53 kg (117 lb)
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Level	Senior international elite
Club	Notts Gymnastics Club
Head coach(es)	Jo Miller
Music	2014: "Señorita" by Bond 2015: "Why Don't You" by Gramophonedzie 2016: "Skeletons" by Drehz 2017: "Boneless" by Steve Aoki
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd World Championships 0 0 1 European Championships 1 5 2 Total 1 5 3 Representing  Great Britain World Championships 2015 Glasgow Team European Championships 2017 Cluj-Napoca All-Around 2016 Bern Team 2016 Bern Vault 2016 Bern Floor Exercise 2017 Cluj-Napoca Vault 2017 Cluj-Napoca Floor Exercise 2015 Montpellier All-Around 2017 Cluj-Napoca Uneven Bars Youth Olympic Games 2014 Nanjing Vault 2014 Nanjing All-Around 2014 Nanjing Balance Beam 2014 Nanjing Floor Exercise

Elissa "Ellie" Downie (born 20 July 1999 in Nottingham)^[1] is an artistic gymnast who represented Great Britain at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics^[2] and the 2016 Summer Olympics. 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 woman to win the all-around at a major international competition.^[4] She also has an older fellow professional gymnastics sister Becky Downie and a younger brother Josh Downie who has entered the PE teaching industry at a local school in their home town Nottingham at Lowdham CofE primary school teaching students from 6-11 in all sorts of sporting activities including charitable events and fun competitive sports events also.

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.^[5] 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.^[6] On 20 December, she was named the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year.^[7][8]

2016

In May 2016, Downie won all four individual event titles at the FIG World Cup event in Osijek, Croatia,^[9] becoming the first gymnast to accomplish this feat at a World Cup competition since Ludmilla Tourischeva in 1975.^[10] The following month, at the 2016 European Championships in Bern, Switzerland, she won silver medals with the team and on vault and floor exercise.^[11][12]

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.^[13]

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.^[14][15] However, she returned in the next rotation, performing two vaults, and qualified to the all-around final in 20th place.^[16] She improved on that performance in the final, finishing 13th,^[17] and the British women finished fifth in the team competition.^[18]

2017

In April 2017, Downie represented Great Britain at the 2017 European Championships in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, where she made history by qualifying for all five individual finals.^[19] The next day, she became the first British woman 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, and a bronze medal on the uneven bars.^[20] At the beginning of August she underwent an ankle surgery due to an injury she had dealt with at both the British Championships and European Championships that year. The surgery means that she will not be able to attend the 2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, stating on her instagram account that she plans on her next major international competition to be the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Personal life

Ellie is the sister of 2008 and 2016 Olympian Becky Downie.^[21] She attended the Rushcliffe School in Nottingham until the summer of 2015.^[22]

Competitive history

References